Albert Dietrich

Albert Dietrich’s music is only now being revived 100 years after his death. Dietrich was the music director at the Oldenburg Court, Germany, from 1861-1891. His friendship with Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms helped to raise his profile and throughout his lifetime his music was frequently performed. Both Schumann and Brahms valued him very highly as a composer and Brahms often visited Dietrich in Oldenburg to perform with him. To celebrate this forgotten composer’s 100th anniversary, the Oldenburg State Orchestra under their Music Director Alexander Rumpf join forces with two soloists to perform three of Albert Dietrich’s most important works.

Praised for his ‘passion and sensitivity’ by the BBC Music Magazine for his recording of the concertos by Dohnányi, Enescu & d’Albert, Alban now turns his attention to works by four of his compatriots: Robert Schumann, Friedrich Gernsheim, Robert Volkmann and Albert Dietrich. This collective, along with Johannes Brahms, were all friends and colleagues, each achieving considerable success in their lifetime, yet it is only Schumann and Brahms who have managed to hold onto that mantle through to the present day. Even Schumann’s Cello Concerto, written in 1850, remained unperformed until 1860 and it wasn’t until the early twentieth century that, thanks to Pablo Casals, it secured its rightful place in the repertoire.

Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, PhD, is Founder of the American Academy of Neural Therapy, now the Klinghardt Academy of Neurobiology, and lead clinician at the Comprehensive Medical Center located in Kirkland, Washington. He has been synthesizing traditional and alternative medicine for more than 32 years. In Stuttgart, Germany he has established in 1994 the “INK (Institut fuer Neurobiologie nach Klinghardt)” which oversees the training of European doctors and dentists in applied neurobiology, psychokinesiology and autonomic response testing. The institute offers CME credit for most its courses, offers competence exams and keeps records of treatment outcomes.

Albert Hermann Dietrich is best known through his association with the Schumanns and his friendship with Brahms, but as this recording shows, his contribution to this circle’s artistic activities went further than promoting their works as music director at the small grand-ducal court of Oldenburg. The Symphony in D minor has a strong kinship with Brahms and was one of the most frequently performed new symphonies of its day, while the originality and variety of orchestral colour in the Violin Concerto are impressive enough to have earned it a place in the concert repertory.