PIANO WORKS

This new CPO recording presents a selection of piano works by the German pianist and composer Fritz von Bose. Having spent the majority of his life living and working in Leipzig, he became known as the ‘Leipzig Brahms’ and his music displayed a certain lightness reminiscent of Mendelssohn.

Fritz von Bose, a native of Königstein in Saxony, numbered among the outstanding teacher personalities of the famous Leipzig Conservatory, whose faculty members included Julius Rietz, Robert Teichmüller, Hermann Kretzschmar, Max Reger, and Karl Straube. He had even studied there himself under teachers such as Carl Reinecke. Von Bose also enjoyed a career as a concert pianist and was at the same time very active and successful as a chamber music accompanist. Von Bose assumed an instructorship in piano playing in Karlsruhe in 1893 and then the same position in Leipzig in 1898; he was appointed to a professorship in Leipzig in 1912 and retired as an emeritus in 1932. The composer’s work catalogue compiled by his granddaughter Erika von Bose (who is still alive today) comprises forty works. The selection of piano pieces brought together on this cc recording displays all the typical features of Fritz von Bose’s high compositional artistry. We hear Mendelssohnian lightness and also understand why it was that he was known as »the Leipzig Brahms« during his lifetime.

Bose, F:
 Elegie, Op. 21, No. 1
 3 Klavierstücke, Op. 10
 Suite No. 1, Op. 9
 Suite No. 2, Op. 20
 Thema und Variationen, Op. 17

"This celebration of Fritz von Bose’s work show his voice to have been that of a gifted composer for his instrument...Alexandra Oehler’s performances of these works are very fine, and the MDR recording is highly serviceable if not particularly exciting."
MusicWeb International - January 2012