Rontgen Julius

Julius Röntgen (1855-1932) stands apart from the legions of Brahms imitators and conservative late Romantics for one thing: melody. It seeps from every theme and cadence. Everything I've heard from his pen is overflowing with inventive tunefulness. It is no wonder he enjoyed a close friendship with another great melodist of his day, Edvard Grieg. Röntgen's enormous output includes 14 cello sonatas, many of which were dedicated to and performed by Pablo Casals.

Julius Röntgen was born on 9 May 1855 in Leipzig, the son of Dutch violinist Engelbert Röntgen, leader of the Gewandhausorchester there, and German pianist Pauline Klengel. He started composing at an early age and took the stage with his own works in Hamburg, Dusseldorf and Leipzig as a child prodigy. At the age of fifteen he was introduced to Franz Liszt, who invited him to one of his famous soirees after he played two of his own compositions to him.

The Matangi Quartet's 2005 release Scandinavia has one slight problem: while two of the composers, Edvard Grieg and David Monrad Johansen, were Norwegian, the third, Julius Röntgen, was Dutch! His presence is explained by his close friendship with Grieg, and the Matangi Quartet's decision to include his attractive two-movement Quartettino in A minor as filler is barely justifiable through that connection. Grieg's String Quartet in G minor, Op. 27, and Johansen's String Quartet, Op. 35, both deserve their place here, not only due to their creators' nationality but because they are solid examples of quartet writing outside the German tradition, and demonstrate the Norwegian proclivity to incorporate folk-inspired melodies in looser, more sectionalized developments than are found in Classical, motivically integrated models.

Despite his close associations with the likes of Brahms, Casals, and Grieg (and in some respects, because of them), the works of Julius Röntgen have had some difficulty gaining popularity outside of his adoptive homeland of the Netherlands. Like Brahms, Röntgen was a conservative composer and though his output was vast, he never truly succeeded in creating his own unique, identifiable musical sound. He was also often criticized for failing to polish or refine his completed compositions. Nevertheless, his compositions – and in particular his three cello concertos heard here – are replete with the best and most enjoyable qualities of German Romanticism.

In 1874, Heinrich von Herzogenberg (1843-1900) hosted a Brahms festival in Leipzig, where the two men became friends. Brahms (1833-1897) also met Julius Röntgen (1855-1932) there. Subsequently, the three men rubbed shoulders in what became known as the Brahms circle.