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Friedrich Goldmann (1941-2009) was, in my view, one of the best composers of the late 20th century. Working in East Berlin until the Wall came down and Germany was reunified, he stayed where he was and kept doing what he was doing, but his profile was lower in that wider world.
This is the second collection of recordings brought to us thanks to Goldmann's son Stefan, an electronica musician, and his Macro label. This time Macro is teamed with SWR 2, part of the Southwest German Radio. The excellent 48-page booklet in English and German includes two long essays by Bruno Santos and Bjorn Gottstein.
1-4) Trio (four pieces) for viola, violoncello and double bass (1986 -- 13:33)
5) Trio No. 2 for oboe, violoncello and piano (1998 -- 23:52)
6) Quartet for oboe, violin, viola and violoncello (2000 -- 15:05)
7) Trio for violin, horn and piano (2004 -- 13:55)
8) calmo, esitando un po' (2004 -- 11:56)
Tracks 5, 7 and 8 are recordings of Goldmann's students at the University of Art in Berlin from 2007. Track 6 is a live recording from 2000 of a performance that was part of a Friedrich Goldmann portrait concert organized by the City of Rottweil. Tracks 1-4 are studio recordings from 2015.
This chamber music by Friedrich Goldmann is intricate, fascinating, lively, and engaging. While complex and challenging, it is surprisingly full of melodic phrases and impish turns that might draw in listeners otherwise not interested in music that is not fully tonal and melodic.
My favorite pieces here are the trio and quartet featuring the oboe. I love the oboe, and Goldmann's writing for the instrument utilizes its piquant tone to maximum effect. The trio for low strings is more lugubrious, but compelling. The last two pieces, featuring horn and accordion respectively, add less traditional timbres to the overall program.
Goldmann studied with Stockhausen and was a leader of the avant-garde in the DDR (East Germany). He never proposed a new form of composing and so never became the leader of a school such as serialism or spectralism. Nonetheless his music has a distinctive sound and style. The liner notes by Santos include this provocative analysis: "...liquidising supposedly discrete and rigid phenomena into multidimensional continua and then imposing new scales and grids on top of those -- are fundamental conceptions that recur time and again in Goldmann's works."
I highly recommend this new set of Friedrich Goldmann's chamber music to all listeners keen on the best contemporary music!
