£<\/span>12.00<\/bdi><\/span><\/span>\n<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\nHans G\u00e1l was born in the small village of\u00a0Brunn am Gebirge, just\u00a0outside\u00a0Vienna. He studied with some of the foremost teachers in\u00a0Vienna, including Richard Robert for piano (teacher of Rudolf Serkin , Clara Haskil and George Szell) and Eusebius Mandyczewski for composition, who had been a close friend of Brahms. In 1915 he won the K. und K. (Royal and Imperial) State Prize for composition for a symphony (which he subsequently discarded). In 1928 His Sinfonietta (which was to become his \u2018First Symphony) won the Columbia\u00a0Schubert Centenary Prize. The next year, with the support of such important musicians as\u00a0Wilhelm Furtw\u00e4ngler,\u00a0Richard Strauss\u00a0and others, he obtained the directorship of the\u00a0Mainz\u00a0Conservatory. G\u00e1l composed in nearly every genre and his operas, which include\u00a0Der Artz der Sobeide,\u00a0Die Heilige Ente\u00a0and\u00a0Das Lied der Nacht, were particularly popular during the 1920s. When Hitler rose to power, G\u00e1l was forced to leave\u00a0Germany\u00a0and eventually emigrated to\u00a0Britain, teaching at the\u00a0Edinburgh\u00a0University for many years.<\/p>\n
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G\u00e1l\u2019s music enjoyed a brief resurgence in popularity in the years immediately after World War II, and was featured regularly in broadcasts on BBC radio. However, by the 1960s, BBC director William Glock\u2019s programming philosophy, sharply slanted in favour of strictly modernist music, meant that G\u00e1l and other tonal composers of the time found themselves unable to get their music on the airwaves of the \u201cThird Programme.\u201d Gradually, performances also became more and more scarce, and G\u00e1l was deeply affected by the death in 1964 of his friend and foremost champion, conductor Otto Schmitgen. There were personal tragedies as well- G\u00e1l\u2019s younger son Franz died by his own hand during this period. Circumstances for new work in a tonal idiom were similarly bleak on the continent, and commissions for new works in standard genres or for traditional instruments were almost non-existent. Indeed, the main champions and patrons of G\u00e1l\u2019s music at this time were recorder player Carl Dolmetsch and Vinzenz Hladky, Professor of Mandolin at the Vienna academy of Music and publisher of mandolin music, who had instigated G\u00e1ls\u2019s writing for mandolin in the period back in Vienna between 1933 and the Anschluss in 1938. Now in the 60s, Hladky published and regularly performed G\u00e1l\u2019s music with his mandolin ensembles, to which G\u00e1l responded with two Sinfoniettas for Mandolin Orchestra, amongst other works. The Concertino for Cello and Strings, the last of G\u00e1l\u2019s five concertinos, was written in 1965, inspired purely by G\u00e1l\u2019s inner impulse, rather than a commission. It was premiered in 1968 by the Sudwest Rundfunk Orchestra.<\/p>\n
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What exactly does G\u00e1l mean by a \u201cConcertino\u201d rather than a \u201cConcerto\u201d? For some composers, the word \u201cconcertino\u201d implies a certain frivolity or lightness of tone, while for others, it implies a work of very modest scale. Neither is true for G\u00e1l- the sole unifying factor of his five concertini is that they are all scored for solo instrument and strings, rather than full orchestra. Certainly, there is nothing frivolous about the Cello Concertino, and it is substantial work by any measure- at 27 minutes, it is roughly the same length as his Violin Concerto from 1933. There, however, is plenty of quirky humour in the Finale, which bears the curious tempo marking of \u201cAllegretto ritenuto assai\u201d or \u201cslightly fast, but very held back.\u201d The first movement, which is far more serious in tone, is built from the six note cell which opens the entire piece. Typical of G\u00e1l is the persistent ambiguity of major and minor which makes for an atmosphere both questioning and uncertain. At the work\u2019s heart is a touching and lyrical Adagio<\/i>, absolutely echt-G\u00e1l in its bittersweet tenderness. Had he so wished, G\u00e1l could certainly have made a killing in the lullaby-writing business.<\/p>\n
Kenneth Woods<\/p>\n
![\"Hans](\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/AV2380-300x300.jpg\")