[#254] June 3, 2024
1900 | Chamber Winds | Grade 5 | 20’- 25’ | Serenade
Serenade Op.7 by German composer, teacher and concert pianist Walther Lampe is our Composition of the Week.
Serenade is the unique work written for winds by Lampe. It was finished in 1900 and published by Simrock, Berlin, in 1904. Little is known about the background of this serenade. It is strikingly close in character as well as in instrumentation to Strauss Suite in B-flat Op.4, whose composition date is 1884. It is very much likely that Lampe has heard Strauss music before writing his serenade. The latter differs only from the instrumentation of Strauss by the addition of a Bass-clarinet and an English-horn.
The precise instrumentation calling for:
2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, English-horn,
2 B-flat Clarinets, Bass-Clarinet,
2 Bassoons, Contrabassoon, 4 Horns.
Serenade has a duration of about 22 minutes, and it is structured in four movements:
I. Allegro con grazia; II. Allegro scherzando; III. Adagio; IV. Molto Vivace
Prof. Walther Lampe studied the piano with Clara Schumann at the Hoch’schen Konservatorium in Frankfurt, as well as music theory and composition. He concluded his studies in Berlin, where he was a student of Herzogenberg and Humperdinck.
He first appeared as a concert pianist, but in 1920 was appointed as a professor and head of a class at the Münchener Akademie der Tonkunst. After Lampe was given emeritus status in 1937, he took on a piano class at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Günter Henle, who grew up in Munich, was a private pupil of Lampe’s, from the age of 15 (in 1914). In his autobiography he wrote of his piano teacher in the following glowing terms:
“The years in which Walther Lampe, the renowned pianist and Head of piano masterclasses in Munich and Salzburg, instructed me in the higher mysteries of piano playing, are amongst the most treasured memories of my youth. […] Lampe, himself an excellent concert pianist, had the reputation of being one of the leading teachers. Due to his practical experience of many decades, he was able to pass on his great knowledge and skill both in words and through his own playing in a highly inspiring and supportive manner. His interpretations of Mozart were positively divine. […] I remain indebted to him for his great artistic suggestions and his friendship, which he shared with me over decades.”
During the first few years of World War II, Günter Henle looked up his old teacher and friend in Munich several times to play music with him. It was self-evident for Günter Henle to inform Walther Lampe of his plans to set up his music publishing house shortly after the end of the war, asking him for his help and advice. Lampe was very actively involved in the first editions: almost all of the Urtext editions published in the early years were supervised intensively by Lampe, a fact which is attested by the comprehensive correspondence in the archives of G. Henle Publishers. And Lampe also contributed his own fingerings to almost all these editions. It is a very impressive list of titles, which even today still form part of G. Henle Publishers’ core repertoire.
Σχόλια