Description

Julius KLENGEL – Chaconne, in G minor (Op.63) – for Solo Unaccompanied Cello

(first published 1931)

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PDF 1 – Cello Music and Notes

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Notes on the composer

Julius Klengel, one of the most important German cellists and famous teachers of the Romantic age and beyond, was born in the musically active city of Leipzig. At the turn of the twentieth century Germany had consolidated itself as the foremost cello school of the world. This was especially due to the historic line of the ‘Dresden’ cello school – founded by Dotzauer, then taken over by Kummer, and through to Grutzmacher – all in Dresden. Grutzmacher died in 1905, leaving the mantle, as it were, to two younger eminent German cellists: Julius Klengel (born 1859 in Leipzig) and Hugo Becker (born 1864 in Alsace).  They were both linked by their school’s certain common features – both were known representatives of the school and thus “children” of Grutzmacher. As such, they shared similar artistic tastes such as the austerity of interpretation, a rather academic style of playing, and a fully developed interest in teaching and compilation of teaching aids and editions. Apart from being recognized as fine solo and chamber performers, they were to become the most prominent German cello teachers during the first thirty years of the twentieth century, albeit with very different teaching methods and opinions on music. One could say that they formed two summits of the German art of the cello.

Julius Klengel, born in 1859, was the son of a lawyer, who also happened to be a fine amateur musician. There were already several generations of musicians in his family, and his father had even been a close friend of Mendelssohn.

Klengel undertook his studies very seriously, and at only 15 he became a member of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. At 17 he made his solo concerto debut playing the first concerto of Davidov. Then aged only 22 (in 1881) he became principal cellist there (which would have corresponded to one of the two solo cellists). This gave him the impulse to shortly afterwards begin his solo concert career, first in Germany and from 1878 on, in other countries including Russia. In 1880 he premiered his own first Cello Concerto successfully. From that point he had opportunities to perform as soloist with the Gewandhaus orchestra once or twice every season, until about 1906 when his solo appearances became a little less frequent. Klengel often performed in Russia, and indeed was the first cellist to perform the Haydn D Major Concerto there. He remained with ‘his’ orchestra until 1924, playing under the prestigious successors of Mendelssohn – Reinecke, Nikisch and Furtwängler. He had an open mind, but was rather reserved about the new music appearing in his last years with the orchestra – one has to appreciate that for a conservative romantic as was Klengel, Stravinsky must have come as a shock!

He wrote many compositions for the cello, though few of them are in the standard performing repertoire anymore; at least speaking of the general programming of orchestral and chamber concerts. However, pieces for cello solo, cello and piano, and multi-cello pieces fare much better.  Never-the-less, Klengel is mostly remembered as a teacher today, and in this field his etudes and technical studies are widely used today in conservatoires and music schools.

In 1881 he was appointed a professor at the Leipzig Conservatory. In later years his teaching work became more and more important to him, remaining in the conservatoire until the year of his death. Klengel’s cello playing is generally considered a continuation of the Dresden School from Grützmacher.  However, Klengel was not only a cellist, but a fine pianist. It was well known that Klengel could accompany his pupils on the piano, playing everything from memory. His knowledge of chamber music was vast, and he knew every part of each instrument in most of the standard repertoire.

His students included:

Emanuel Feuermann

Paul Grümmer

Guilhermina Suggia

Henri Honneger

Edmund Kurtz

William Pleeth

Gregor Piatigorsky

Joachim Stutschewsky

Ludwig Hoelscher

Rudolf Metzmacher

Christian Schlemüller

Grigorij Pecker

Konon Bloch

Jascha Bernstein

Mischa Schneider

Benar Heifetz

He was much loved by his students, although often it is difficult to lay a finger on exactly what produces the ‘magic’ of a class which in turn feeds to produce a series of great cellists.

As a composer, and competing against the giant romantics of the day, one has to be fair and say that his creative invention was limited, but he was astute and clever in never going beyond what he felt his compositional abilities could comfortably do. Therefore, his work displays a polished craftsmanship, and are scholarly but yet melodically warm to the listener. His cello compositions are often, but not always, difficult.

ENGLISH

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The following have taken his work onboard, sometimes with special collaborations as composer-arranger-performer: the Philadelphia Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi, Orquesta Sinfónica de Venezuela, Orchestre Nouvelle Generation de Montreal, the Gulbenkian Orchestra (Lisbon), Orchestra da Camera del Locarnese (Suiza), The Zagreb Soloists, the Saint Petersburg Musical Theatre “Zazerkalye” Chamber Orchestra, the Wroclaw Chamber Orchestra Leopoldinum (Poland), Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra (New Zealand), Camerata Cambrensis (Basque country), Ensemble Metamorphosis of Belgrade (Serbia), with Ara Malikian (Non Profit Music Chamber Orchestra – Madrid), and a long etc.. Currently, many courses, conservatoires and music schools, university String departments etc. use his repertoire; there are dozens of his arrangements on ‘You Tube’ …

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