Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling(1904-1985)

[Dundonnell]

I doubt if many members have heard of Schwarz-Schilling let alone heard any of his music.

On impulse I bought the new Naxos release-

Schwarz-Schilling was a pupil of Walter Braunfels and the eminent teacher Heinrich Kaminski in the 1920s. Kaminski was part Jewish and Schwarz-Schilling himself married a Polish pianist of Jewish ancestry. Although suspicion fell on the family proof of this was successfully concealed from the authorities during the war. Schwarz-Schilling was a distinguished organist and educator who served as Professor of Theory and Composition and finally Head of the Composition Department at the Berlin Musikhochschule. His son, Christian, was a Christian Democrat government minister in the Federal Republic and UN High Commissioner in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

I have to say that I am considerably impressed by the works on this new disc. They made much more of a favourable impression on me than the symphonies of Karl Holler, for example. I cannot imagine that Schwarz-Schilling would have had much exposure in a post-war Germany in which his essentially conservative voice would have appeared very out of place! However, the music is definitely not a throwback to German romanticism of the early twentieth century, nor is it dryly academic. Beautifully scored and airy, there is a purity of line which obviously stems from Schwarz-Schilling's admiration for Bach. The composer lost interest in the Sinfonia Diatonica(1957) soon after its first performance but I cannot for the life of me understand why. It is a delightful work!

At Naxos prices definitely worth a punt