If it were not a historical fact that German composer Ernst Pepping lived from 1901 to 1981 and wrote his three symphonies and his sole piano concerto between 1939 and 1950, it would strain credulity to believe this brightly cheerful and smilingly optimistic music could have been composed during the grimmest years of German history. It's not that there aren't shadows -- the slow outer movements of the Second Symphony and the brooding introduction and pensive slow movement of the piano concerto are shot-through with shadows -- and it's not that Pepping is a lightweight -- he's a skillful composer and a deft orchestrator -- it's that his music doesn't have much substance to it. Germany had just begun the war when Pepping wrote his first, was starting to lose when he wrote his second, and was close to defeated when he wrote his third, but there are no traces of these things in his music -- merely sweet melodies set to conventional harmonies in standard forms. And except for a certain austerity in the counterpoint, the piano concerto bears no mark of Germany's postwar devastation and depravation. Compared with contemporary symphonies of
Shostakovich,
Copland,
Vaughan Williams, or his fellow-countryman Hartmann, Pepping's seem disengaged, and while their music has transcended its time by expressing its time, Pepping's music is nearly irrelevant except as a yardstick by which to measure their greater achievement. Conductor
Werner Andreas Albert leads the
Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in more than adequate but less than dedicated performances. Pianist
Volker Banfield, however, plays with impressive virtuosity and utmost tenacity and his performance of the piano concerto is the most persuasive item here.
Hindemith, Fortner, and Toch aficionados may find this disc interesting. Many others may not. CPO's sound from the Westdeutschesradio is too gray, too small, and too distant to do Pepping's music any good.