Ernst Rudorff (1840-1916)
Symphonie n° 3 en si mineur, op. 50
Variations sur un thème propre, op. 24

Bochumer Symphoniker
Frank Beermann, direction

Aujourd’hui bien oublié, Ernst Rudorff fut une figure majeure de la vie musicale berlinoise du 19° siècle. Elève de Reinecke qui le plaçait plus haut que ses condisciples Grieg ou Sullivan, il est l’exemple de ces musiciens ancrés toute leur vie dans le langage de leur jeunesse. Ses variations sur un thème original de 1875 créées par la philharmonie de Berlin sous la baguette de Joachim en 1887 seulement s’inspirent des célèbres variations sur un thème de Haydn de Brahms, mais restent assez conventionnelles. Quant à sa dernière symphonie de 1911 elle évoque plus Tchaikovsky ou les danses slaves de Dvorak dans son finale que Brahms, et reste imperméable aux évolutions du langage musical en ce début de 20° siècle. Sans apporter de révélation majeure, la découverte de ces deux pages enrichit notre connaissance du terreau musical dans lequel grandissaient de leur côté Mahler ou Strauss. Une fois encore on tire son chapeau au travail de CPO et de Frank Beermann, infatigable défricheur du répertoire inconnu. Des œuvres plaisantes dans une interprétation irréprochable ; de la belle ouvrage donc qui rappelle que l’histoire de la musique n’est pas constituée que de grands génies mais aussi d’une estimable cohorte d’artisans consciencieux. (Richard Wander)

A photograph from around 1896 depicts the musical senate of the Royal Academy of the Arts in Berlin. Ten professors in distinguished academic attire are posing for the camera. It is a who’s who of the contemporary German compositional scene including Max Bruch, Joseph Joachim, Heinrich von Herzogenberg, Friedrich Gernsheim, and … Ernst Rudorff. Today, we regret to say, the last-mentioned composer is the most forgotten among them. Born in Berlin in 1840, Rudorff grew up in a well-to-do, culturally connected household. His mother was Ludwig Tieck’s grandniece and a close friend of the Mendelssohn siblings, and the Brothers Grimm and Karl Friedrich Schinkel were friends of the family. Rudorff’s later friend Philipp Spitta (also Heinrich von Herzogenberg’s close friend) wrote as follows: "The artistic views of these minds were marked by the tendencies of the romantic school. These were the ideas with which Rudorff completely filled himself from his childhood on". As a composer Rudorff remained a romanticist through and through – also in his love of nature. He believed that industrialization posed an increasing threat to nature and decided to take action. He became an important precursor of conservation practices by groups organized in societies. His former teacher Carl Reinecke wrote of his pupils Sullivan, Grieg, and Rudorff, "I regard Rudorff as the most important musician of the then triumvirate, even though his name is less famous than that of his two fellow students".