Hans Gál: Chamber Music, Volume Three
These five works, from three different stages of Hans Gál’s long life (1890–1987), all show his consummate craftsmanship but are otherwise quite different in character. The passionate Piano Quartet (1914), downstream from Brahms and Dvořák, brings the grand gestures of Romanticism into the early twentieth century. The 1935 Sonatina in F major for violin and piano, recently rediscovered, and the three Sonatinas from 1956 put a premium on textural clarity and lyrical approachability; here the contrapuntal ingenuity, ceaseless thematic development, harmonic freedom and rhythmic unpredictability of Gál’s language animate the music from within.
Katalin Kertész, violin
Nichola Blakey, (viola 1 – 4)
Cressida Nash, (cello 1 – 4)
Sarah Beth Briggs, piano
Listen To This Recording:
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Piano Quartet in B flat major, Op. 13 (1914)
- Piano Quartet in B flat major, Op. 13: I Allegro energico un poco sostenuto
- Piano Quartet in B flat major, Op. 13: II Andante con moto
- Piano Quartet in B flat major, Op. 13: III Agitato
- Piano Quartet in B flat major, Op. 13: IV Allegro vivace
- Sonatina in G major, Op. 71, No. 1: I Allegretto
- Sonatina in G major, Op. 71, No. 1: II Tema con variazioni
- Sonatina in B flat major, Op. 71, No. 2: I Allegro
- Sonatina in B flat major, Op. 71, No. 2: II Cavatina
- Sonatina in B flat major, Op. 71, No. 2: III Alla Marcia
- Sonatina in F major, Op. 71, No. 3: I Andantino
- Sonatina in F major, Op. 71, No. 3:II Alla serenata
- Sonatina in F major, Op. 71, No. 3:III Rondo
- Sonatina in F major: I Allegro moderato
- Sonatina in F major: II Lento cantabile
- Sonatina in F major: III Allegretto giocoso
Three Sonatinas for violin and piano, Op. 71 (1956)
Sonatina in F major (1934)
FIRST RECORDINGS
MusicWeb International :
‘In fact, all four players contour the ebb and flow of the music [Piano Quartet] with consummate skill and authority, never once losing sight of the rhetoric. […]
Katalin Kertész’s warm, burnished tone and affectionate phrasing, matched with Sarah Beth Briggs’s sensitive pianism, is a winning element in these captivating performances. They’re aided by a sympathetic acoustic and ideal balance.’
—Stephen Greenbank, MusicWeb International
WTJU :
‘Although there are stylistic differences between [the works], there’s a consistency of quality and craftsmanship throughout. […]
The sonatina — written with his son’s abilities in mind — is simple and charming. […]
Violinist Katalin Kertész plays in a clean, understated manner. Her performances give the late sonatinas a somewhat elegiac and wistful quality. Pianist Sarah Beth Briggs matches her restraint, bringing just the right emotional weight to these violin and piano works.
Not so the Piano Quartet. Here the full ensemble embraces the late-Romantic aesthetic. This is the music of big emotion and big gestures, and the musicians dig into it with gusto.’
—Ralph Graves, WTJU
Classical Ear :
‘Pianist Sarah Beth Briggs and her string-playing colleagues lend this delightful score memorably persuasive advocacy, relishing its superb craftsmanship, tenderness of expression and fecund lyricism, nowhere more potently displayed than in the hauntingly lovely Andante con moto slow movement [of the Piano quartet].
Katalin Kertész and Sarah Beth Briggs forge an outstandingly eloquent partnership.’
—Classical Ear