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07/13/2024
“Violin Music, Volume 1: Solo Works”
Friedrich Hermann: Miniaturen, opus 19 – Violin-Schule, n° 78 – Spezial-Etüden, opus 24
Abigail Karr (violin)
Recording: Oktaven Audio Studios, Mount Vernon, New York (February 4‑5, 2023) – 66’20
Toccata Classics TOCC0738
 
The name of Friedrich Hermann (1828-1907) was completely unknown to me, and one hesitates to assess a composer’s stature without hearing anything more substantial than miniatures and exercises, but Hermann shows enough inspiration and skill in these small forms to pique one’s interest. He is fortunate here in the committed advocacy of New York‑based violinist Abigail Karr, who never treats these little pieces as throwaways or sight‑reading practice, but fills them with lyrical delicacy and well‑judged dynamic contrasts. Her eloquent and knowledgeable booklet note further testifies to her commitment to this composer, whom, she notes, a nineteenth-century critic singled out for a harmonic imagination evident even in his solo violin miniatures. I think that’s fair: even in the simple, etude‑like piece “March” that opens Opus 19, with thematic material consisting largely of broken chords, there is some real and effective development in the middle section. But elsewhere, especially in pieces with more lyrically evocative titles (“Song”, “Idyll” from Opus 19), shows Hermann to have a strong melodic imagination as well. “On the Lake” packs a good deal of drama into not much more than four minutes, with a remarkably vivid storm sequence flanked by lovely and swaying placid episodes, with the help of some assured and even clever transitions. “Quarrel” and “Reconciliation” are colorfully depicted, and the “Duet” alternates effectively between counterpoint and a kind of call-and-response. The technical exercises that fill out the program have some real musical interest too, not least the clever scalar exercise from Hermann’s Violin School.
This is, in effect, a program of often very short encores, but many of them are excellent ones you’re hardly likely to hear anywhere else, played with sensitivity and commitment. (The violin is mic‑ed a bit…too close for my liking, especially when heard through headphones.) There is plenty to enjoy here for anyone who loves solo violin music that explores the instrument’s expressive capacity more than its capacity for virtuosic tricks.
Samuel Wigutow
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