The "romantic" Switzerland

If you talk about musical romanticism, then the clarinet is not far away. Its soft, full-bodied tone has something exuberant, something lushly romantic about it. This is also revealed on the new CD by the versatile clarinettist Bernhard Röthlisberger, with which he has been released on the Naxos Musiques Suisses label. Swiss chamber music - Romantics from two centuries presented.

This is the second recording that Röthlisberger has tackled during the grueling lockdown in 2020. His research for the project Swiss Clarinet Music (Naxos Musiques Suisses NXMS 7002, SMZ 4/2021, S. 16) also brought to light other scores that hardly anyone knows. Five of these works, composed by Johann Carl Eschmann (1826-1882), Paul Juon (1872-1940), Richard Flury (1896-1967) and Paul Müller Zurich (1898-1993), can now be heard here.

Not only is the selection surprising in its musical substance, the four performers also find a committed and distinguished interpretation of these chamber music trouvailles. Violinist Fióna Kraege is second concertmaster of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, cellist Milena Umiglia was the only Swiss representative in the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in 2017 and pianist Benjamin Engeli once won the ARD Music Competition in Munich as a member of the Tecchler Trio.

The oldest piece on this recording was composed in 1850-51. Two fantasy pieces op. 9 for clarinet and piano by Johann Carl Eschmann, who was born in Winterthur. He had studied with Mendelssohn in Leipzig and was friends with Wagner and Brahms. He was also a well-known figure in Zurich's musical life, but was quickly forgotten after his death. Nowadays, we occasionally hear something from Eschmann again; the Amadeus publishing house has him in its program. And each time he surprises us with his technical sophistication and gripping gestures. You can feel the musical joy when Röthlisberger and Engeli play his original pieces.

The Trio in A minor op. 17 by Paul Juon, born in Moscow in the Grisons, is the most important piece on this CD and lasts almost 24 minutes. Juon knows how to interweave the timbres of the clarinet and cello in a charming way, and the three performers masterfully shape the expansive, wide-ranging phrasing. In contrast, the trio by Richard Flury, written 50 years later, tends to emphasize the folk-like, cheerful side of the clarinet, which has a dance-like verve. Röthlisberger has once again recovered interesting pieces with good instinct.