Carl Seemann (1910-1983) belonged to a generation of artists that straddled a period of radical change. The previous generation of eminent pianists, including Ignaz Paderewski and Alfred Cortot, had been showy performers in the Lisztian tradition, fully conscious of the impact that they made on their audiences by dint of their ability to impose their own personality on the works in their repertory. For such German-speaking giants of the keyboard as Wilhelm Kempff, Wilhelm Backhaus and, to a lesser extent, Walter Gieseking and Elly Ney, what mattered, by contrast, was the essence of the work, however personally nuanced their playing may have been. Scintillating virtuosity was of only secondary importance, a standpoint that not infrequently led to the reproach that their playing was cool and unemotional. This was the aesthetic background against which Carl Seemann, too, grew up. Yet his earliest musical experiences, which ultimately influenced the carefully structured and rhythmically meticulous playing of his later years, set him apart from his colleagues. He was born in Bremen, but it was Leipzig — a city closely associated with Bach — that he regarded as his true musical home. In keeping with the town’s fine old tradition, he studied the organ there between 1928 and 1933, his mentors including two of the town’s most distinguished Thomaskantors, Karl Straube and Gunther Ramin. But even during this period he had already begun to find this instrument insufficient on its own and so he decided to take piano lessons with the well-known teacher Gustav-Adolf Martienssen, who had acquired his own pianistic skills from a pupil of Liszt. Seemann’s lessons quickly proved so successful that in spite of his gifts as an organist he decided to embark on a career as a pianist at the age of twenty-five. Nor did he have to wait long for his earliest triumphs in this field. He was particularly interested in unusual concert programmes and in composers who were virtually unknown at that period. He would perform Scarlatti sonatas in the concert hall, juxtapose works by Bach and Chopin and introduce his audiences to pieces by contemporary composers such as Hugo Putter, Leo Justinus Kauffmann and Harald Genzmer. Seemann’s career had barely begun before it was interrupted by the Second World War. This was a fate that he shared with many other artists of his generation. But with the end of the war he was soon able to pick up where he had left off and repeat his early successes, a situation in which he was helped by the fact that he had already made a name for himself in Germany...
Carsten Dürer (from the booklet)
Carl Seemann
Plays
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756-1791)
Tracks
Complete Solo Piano Recordings
Cd. 1
Piano Sonata n° 1 in C major, K. 279
1 I. Allegro 5:19
2 II. Andante 4:04
3 III. Allegro 3:29
Piano Sonata n° 2 in F major, K. 280
4 I. Allegro assai 4:33
5 II. Adagio 4:16
6 III. Presto 3:16
Piano Sonata n° 3 in B-Flat major, K. 281
7 I. Allegro 4:30
8 II. Andante amoroso 3:52
9 III. Rondeau (Allegro) 4:27
Piano Sonata n° 4 in E-Flat major K. 282
10 I. Adagio 3:15
11 II. Menuetto I-II 4:25
12 III. Allegro 2:22
Piano Sonata n° 5 in G major, K. 283
13 I. Allegro 4:21
14 II. Andante 3:36
15 III. Presto 4:16
Piano Sonata n° 6 in D major, K. 284 “Dürnitz”
16 I. Allegro 5:40
17 II. Rondeau en Polonaise (Andante) 4:59
18 III. Tema con variazione 8:38
*
Cd. 2
Piano Sonata n° 7 in C major, K. 309
1 I. Allegro con spirito 5:52
2 II. Andante, un poco adagio 6:37
3 III. Rondeau (Allegretto grazioso) 6:13
Piano Sonata n° 8 in A minor, K. 310
4 I. Allegro maestoso 6:17
5 II. Andante cantabile con espressione 7:35
6 III. Presto 3:16
Piano Sonata n° 9 in D major, K. 311
7 I. Allegro con spirito 4:35
8 II. Andantino con espressione 4:28
9 III. Rondeau (Allegro) 6:20
Piano Sonata n° 10 in C major, K. 330
10 I. Allegro moderato 6:04
11 II. Andante cantabile 5:02
12 III. Allegretto 3:48
*
Cd. 3
Piano Sonata n° 11 in A major, K331 ‘Alla Turca’
1 I. Tema (Andante grazioso) con variazioni 9:47
2 II. Menuetto 6:18
3 III. Alla Turca (Allegretto) 3:52
Piano Sonata n° 12 in F major, K332
4 I. Allegro 6:52
5 II. Adagio 4:07
6 III. Allegro assai 5:25
Piano Sonata n° 13 in B-Flat major, K333
7 I. Allegro 7:09
8 II. Andante cantabile 5:57
9 III. Allegretto grazioso 6:19
*
Cd. 4
1 Fantasia in C minor, K. 475 11:54
Piano Sonata n° 14 in C minor, K. 457
2 I. Molto allegro 6:10
3 II. Adagio 8:22
4 III. Allegro assai 4:40
Piano Sonata n° 16 in C major, K. 545 ‘Facile’
5 I. Allegro 3:17
6 II. Andante 4:04
7 III. Rondo. Allegro 1:37
Piano Sonata n° 17 in B-Flat major, K. 570
8 I. Allegro 6:06
9 II. Adagio 8:34
10 III. Allegretto 3:29
Piano Sonata n° 18 in D major, K. 576 ‘Hunt’
11 I. Allegro 5:02
12 II. Adagio 5:00
13 III. Allegretto 4:12
*
Cd. 5
Piano Sonata n° 15 in F major, K. 533/494
1 I. Allegro 8:01
2 II. Andante 6:35
3 III. Rondo (Allegretto) [K. 494] 6:17
Piano Sonata in F, K. Anh. 135/K. 54
4 I. Allegro 6:24
5 II. Allegretto 1:43
6 III. Tema con variazioni 4:01
7 Menuetto KV.1e 2:13
8 Nine Variations in C major, K. 264 on “Lison dormait” by N. Dezède 9:46
9 12 Variations in C major, K. 265 on “Ah, vous dirai-je Maman” 8:40
10 Allegro einer Sonate K. 312 5:04
11 Minuet in D major, K. 355 2:46
12 Fantasie in C Minor, K. 396 8:21
13 Nine Variations in C major , K. 264 on “Lison dormait” by N. Dezède 8:45
*
Cd. 6
1 Fantasia in D Minor, K. 97 6:25
2 10 Variations in G major, K. 455 on “Unser dummer Pöbel meint” by C.W. Gluck 12:21
3 Rondo in D major, K485 4:38
4 Rondo in A minor, K511 11:21
5 Adagio in B minor, K540 6:01
6 Nine Variations in D major, K. 573 on a minuet by J.P. Duport 9:03
7 Kleine Gigue in G major, K. 574 1:40
8 Variations on an own Theme, K. Anh. 137 10:37
*
Carl Seemann - p
Recorded at Musikhalle Studio A, Hamburg [cd. 5, # 13] & Beethovensaal, Hanover ; between February 3, 1949 & June 15, 1955