Fuchs: Piano Sonata Op. 108 / Jugendklange / 12 Waltzes

Featuring

Daniel Blumenthal
Robert Fuchs

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Composer Biography

Robert Fuchs, a composer and teacher, was born in 1847 in Frauenthal, southern Styria, and learned to play the flute, violin, piano, and organ at an early age.

Performer Biography

Daniel Blumenthal, the American pianist on this recording, has won prizes at several international competitions, including the Queen Elizabeth of the Belgians, Geneva, Busoni, Leeds, and Sydney competitions.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Robert Fuchs's piano compositions summarize his musical development, showing the influence of Franz Schubert in their melodic freshness and simplicity, and a tendency towards triple rhythms.

Compositional Technique

Robert Fuchs's music combines Schubertian lyricism with an impeccable mastery of counterpoint and form, leading to an increasingly complex use of harmony with frequent modulation.

Composer Biography

Johannes Brahms, a renowned composer known for his severe critical judgment, encouraged Robert Fuchs and particularly liked Fuchs's First Symphony in C major.

Compositional Technique

The influence of Johannes Brahms is evident throughout Robert Fuchs's music, characterized by parallel thirds and sixths, tonic and dominant pedal points, cross-rhythms, syncopation, and contrapuntal techniques.

Composer Biography

Robert Fuchs taught composition at the Vienna Conservatory, and his notable pupils included Hugo Wolf, Mahler, Sibelius, Franz Schmidt, Schreker, and Zemlinsky.