Volbach, Fritz

Fritz Volbach – Symphony in B Minor Op. 33 (1907-08)

(b. Wipperfürth, 17 December 1861 – d. Wiesbaden, 30 November 1940)

I Lebhaft und trotzig (p. 3)
II Scherzo. Presto (p. 51)
III Adagio molto (p. 70)
IV Finale. Mächtig, feierlich (p. 95) – Lebhaft und bestimmt (Tempo primo, p. 102) –
Langsam und sehr ruhig (nicht schleppen) (p. 127) – Tempo primo (p. 137) – Maestoso (p. 140)

Preface
Fritz Volbach, a contemporary of Mahler and Strauss, is the unusual case of a respected musicologist who also captivated as both composer and conductor with extraordinary quality. Growing up in Wipperfürth near Cologne, he was first trained as an organist before, at the age of 17, taking up his studies for a year at the Cologne Conservatory under the direction of Ferdinand Hiller. His subsequent studies in Heidelberg and Bonn were devoted to law and philology under pressure from his parents. But from 1886 he was a student for four years at the Königliches Institut für Kirchenmusik (Royal Institute for Sacred Music) in Berlin, where he also taught from 1887 and was one of the last composition students of Eduard Grell (1800-86), the long-time music director of the Berlin Singakademie. In 1891 Fritz Volbach became music director in Mainz, where he devoted himself intensively to the tradition of oratorios. He also performed Edward Elgar‘s ‚Dream of Gerontius‘ there and in 1899 presented his dissertation ‚Praxis der Händel-Aufführung‘ (Practice of Handel Performance) in Bonn, which was groundbreaking in terms of historical performance practice. In 1907 he was appointed Academic Music Director and professor of musicology at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen. In 1916, in the middle of the war, he was called to Brussels to form a German symphony orchestra together with Fritz Brandt (1880-1949), with which he gave 165 concerts throughout Belgium until 1918. After the end of the war, he rebuilt musical life in Münster in Westphalia from the ground up. From 1919 he was responsible for the founding and direction of the Municipal Symphony Orchestra, the direction of the Musikvereins-Choir, musicological lectures at the university, and the founding and direction of the Westphalian School of Musik associated with the university. After the inauguration of the new concert hall, Fritz Volbach was appointed Music Director of Münster in 1921. As a composer he was appreciated and successful until after the First World War. Colleagues such as Hans Pfitzner, Franz Schreker and Richard Strauss conducted his works. In 1924 he temporarily retired from office for health reasons, in 1929 he became emeritus, and in 1933 he moved to Wiesbaden where he died during the Second World War.

Fritz Volbach left behind important compositions, especially in choral, chamber and orchestral music. After the symphonic poem for orchestra and organ ‚Easter‘ op. 16, the symphonic poem ‚Es waren zwei Königskinder‘ op. 21, published in 1900, and the three mood pictures for choir, orchestra and organ ‚Raffael‘ op. 26 (1902), his only Symphony in B minor op. 33 was to be the climax of his orchestral œuvre. As a musicologist, he has written many important works, including a practical handbook for choral conductors and ‚The Instruments of the Orchestra. Their nature and development‘.

Fritz Volbach began his symphony in Mainz and completed it in Tübingen in 1908. He dedicated it to Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hessen-Darmstadt. The composer himself conducted the premiere in Mainz in 1908. The work was widely acclaimed on 5 June 1909 during the Tonkünstlerversammlung of the ADMV (Allgemeiner Deutscher Musik-Verein) in Stuttgart. In the same year the full score and parts were published by the Zurich music publisher Hug & Co., and the symphony was also frequently performed internationally (St. Petersburg, Rotterdam, The Hague, etc.) in the following years. Edward Elgar was very taken with the work of his friend and wrote to him on 15 August 1909: „I was delighted to receive your letter, and to hear of your doings. I am so glad that the symphony was such a great success, and I have had great pleasure in reading the score which Hug has sent me to see. It is indeed wholesome good music that makes one feel happy to see and hear.“

Volbach‘s Symphony, which puts the Scherzo in second place and the Adagio in third, shows the composer as a master of impressive contrapuntal dexterity, completely ripened in his craftsmanship. The Adagio is certainly one of the most beautiful slow movements in the orchestral music of the early 20th century. The most ambitious movement is the finale with its Hallelujah intonation, which as a whole requires particularly careful rehearsing in order to be presented in a somewhat coherent manner. The first recording of Fritz Volbach‘s Symphony Op. 33 was played in concert by the Sinfonieorchester Münster under its principal conductor Golo Berg on 29 January 2019 and released by cpo.

Christoph Schlüren, September 2019

For performance materials please contact the publisher Hug & Co., Zurich (www.hug-musikverlage.ch).