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Viktor Ullmann: Piano Concerto op.25

Viktor Ullmann's Piano Concerto, op.25. Performed by Chloe Clayton and Alison Watson on the 14th May 2024 at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. From the Programme Note: Austrian composer, pianist, conductor and music critic Viktor Ullmann received much of his musical education in Vienna, where he was a student of Arnold Schöenberg. This influence can be heard throughout Ullmann’s repertoire, most explicitly within his 1929 ‘Variations and Double Fugue on a theme by Arnold Schöenberg’. This homage to his teacher won Ullmann the prestigious Hertzka Prize for composition in 1936, and he later transcribed this work for orchestra and string quartet. Ullmann later studied in Prague with Alexander von Zemlinsky. During this time, he served as head of an opera company, but his ambitious repertoire choices were deemed too modern for local tastes and his appointment was terminated. Although Ullmann had no interest in a career as a soloist, he was an excellent pianist and a passionate musician, exploring and expanding upon many varied areas of musicianship throughout his short life of forty-four years. His pianistic abilities are demonstrated in his piano concerto, which explores the use of dramatic changes in texture, frequent hammered ‘martellato’ figures, rich harmonic movement and striking quartal intervals. Written a year after World War II began, the first half of the concerto depicts the anxiety of the time; within its’ dark and brooding first movement, and then its’ more reflective second movement, full of harmony that is dense, whole, and questioning. Movement three is more satirical, sarcastic and playful. The fourth, final movement is built upon dialogue between pianist and orchestra. Ullmann himself referred to his concerto as ‘a Dionysian composition’; reflecting upon the sensual, spontaneous, and emotional aspects of human nature. Viktor Ullmann’s piano concerto is dedicated to Juliette Arányi. It was intended she would give its premier performance, with Ullmann playing the orchestral reduction on a second piano, as part of the ‘Leisure Programme’ at Theresienstadt concentration camp. A few short weeks before the duo were expecting to rehearse and perform, the concerto was banned from the concentration camp for sounding ‘too Jewish’, and Arányi was instructed to perform a programme of Mozart instead. This meant that Ullmann was never able to hear his only concerto performed within his lifetime. Despite this, during his time at Theresienstadt, Ullmann continued to compose works both for himself and other musicians in the concentration camp, with at least twenty of these works surviving today. In his essay, ‘Goethe and the Ghetto’, Ullmann says that ‘in no way whatsoever we sat down to weep on the banks of water of Babylon, and our effort to serve the Arts respectfully was proportionate to out will to live, in spite of everything’. Although much of Ullmann’s repertoire is not often played, it is beginning to receive some recognition, eighty years after his life was tragically ended at Auschwitz. To his core, Ullmann was determined, optimistic, and deeply passionate about the arts; this is reflected in his piano concerto. With special thanks to my wonderful teacher, Alison Watson, for not only accompanying me in today’s recital, but for her consistent support over the past four years. I am deeply grateful for her advice and friendship.