Julius Bittner: Str Quartets 1 & 2 [CD]

A good year younger than Max Reger and five months older than Arnold Schonberg, Vienna's Julius Bittner (1874-1939) earned his livelihood as a lawyer for many years. Even before he gave up this profession in 1922, he was already one of the most frequently performed opera composers in Austria. In particular, his one-act opera Das hollisch Gold (Hellish Gold), which premiered in 1916, was highly acclaimed, and several of his instrumental works were also well received - even though (or perhaps because) he was anything but a "pioneer composer". His music was rooted in melody. He had broken free from Wagner's influence and became interested in folk music as exemplified by his two string quartets (1913 and 1917) with their "pastoral" flair. The former especially seems like the "Mahler of chamber music" in several passages, possibly a posthumous homage to his one-time supporter who guided Bittner's talent in the right direction.