Song discoveries from a turbulent time

Vienna, around 1910: there is a fascinating atmosphere characterized by diversity, by tensions, also by an aesthetic "simultaneity of the non-simultaneous". Born in Neuhausen, Switzerland in 1865, Robert Gund was drawn to the great Austrian music metropolis as a young man. He became known there primarily as a composer of songs - songs that bass-baritone Christian Immler and piano accompanist Helmut Deutsch now present.

Gund did not join the "new tone" in Vienna. Songs like Three gypsies, Tanderadei or A dream can be classified as post-romantic in terms of style and content; there are echoes of Franz Schubert's lieder, to which Gund's songs are certainly equal in quality. There is not a hint of gimmickry to be heard. Everything is carefully worked out in its place. Gund creates enormously dense miniatures, sometimes lasting one minute, sometimes four. And with the help of the two interpreters, he succeeds in one thing above all: he creates beautiful, but sometimes also sad and melancholy atmospheres.

Immler and Deutsch combine Gund with the less well-known composer Wilhelm Grosz, who was around 30 years younger. Grosz is a colorful figure. He played an inglorious role as a troublemaker during a performance of Anton Webern's string quartets. Later, the "stylistic chameleon" - as he is described in the booklet - devoted himself extensively to jazz. His songs oscillate between impressionistic mood pictures and deliberately entertaining. It is easy to imagine that Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and even the Beatles adapted some of Grosz's melodies when you listen to the English-language piece Candles in the Sky listens to.

Immler could have enriched his academically "clean" tone in Grosz's pieces at one point or another with something more lively and jazzy. All in all, however, this production is far more than just a recent excavation of so-called "minor masters". It is high art combined with special insights into a very vital contemporary event.

Be Still My Heart - Songs by Robert Gund and Wilhelm Grosz. Christian Immler, bass-baritone; Helmut Deutsch, piano. Alpha Classics ALPHA1117