- Julius Bürger
Symphonic Scherzo for String Orchestra (1939)
(Scherzo for Strings/Scherzo für Streichorchester)- Exilarte (World)
Exilarte Edition
Programme Note
Bürger's Symphonic Scherzo for string orchestra dates from the following year, 1939, though whether before or after his emigration to the USA is unknown. Whether he intended it from the first as a stand-alone conception, or whether he planned a full symphony for strings of which this is the only completed movement, there is no means of knowing, but though the Scherzo works perfectly well as a chose en soi, it also sounds as if it could plausibly be a part of a larger whole — one thinks of a work like Korngold's Symphonic Serenade for strings. Moreover, Bürger's piece is not a conventional ‘scherzo with trio’ — it is a ‘scherzo with development’, which in itself justifies the epithet ‘symphonic’. It presupposes quite a large body of strings, and is written for them with complete understanding. The key is F minor, and the music begins in violas, cellos and basses with an abrupt three-note motif (rising second, falling fifth) that is the source of most of the thematic material. It immediately extends into a five-note shape and then into a vigorously dancing theme in its own right which also evolves as accompaniment to longer tunes, the whole carried out over a loping 9/8 metre.
Bürger plays various cross-rhythmic games against this basic pulse, and a smoother ‘second subject’ is cast 3/4 time. A plunge to D minor initiates the development section, where after discussion of the opening subject-group the second subject fulfils its romantic potential on sonorous divided low strings against high trilling violins. It then becomes the subject of an E minor fugato, suavely led off by violas, alternating the 3/4 and 9/8 metres. In the final part of the work the two subjects are grandly combined, but the minor mode never really relaxes its grip and the music works up to a frenetic climax, from which it collapses to a swift, obsessive coda based on the initial three-note motif. Within its brief compass this work is a virtuosic display of Bürger’s technical powers.
— Malcolm MacDonald in the booklet of Toccata Classics TOCC 0001
reprinted with permission
About the Exilarte Edition
G. Schirmer/Wise Music’s Exilarte Edition exclusively publishes works by composers who were persecuted, forced into exile, or murdered by the Nazi regime. All original manuscripts of these works are archived in the Exilarte Center at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in Austria.
Scores
Reviews
…a thoroughly enjoyable and exciting short work, which fully to perfection exploits all the colours an orchestra can show…
…a tightly organised yet expansive rhythmic treat…
Discography
Julius Bürger

- LabelToccata Classics
- Catalogue NumberTOCC0001
- ConductorSimone Young
- EnsembleBerlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
- SoloistMichael Kraus, baritone; Maya Beiser, cello
- Released26th June 2007