Johann Wilhelm Hertel was a German composer, violinist, and harpsichordist of some renown in the late 18th Century. Today, not so much. So it’s not surprising that every work in this new release is receiving its world recording premiere. What might be surprising is why they weren’t better-known before. Hertel, like many of his contemporaries, […]
Chamber music
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Canadian Landscapes – A program for saxophone and organ that delivers
“And the award for the most tightly-focused program for a classical recording goes to — ‘Canadian Landscapes.” If the Grammys ever offered such an award, this disc would win it. The release features not just music by Canadian composers but works by them for saxophone and organ. It’s a very unusual instrumental combination with a […]
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Trio of Mikolaj Gorecki works present balanced portrait
The three works in this release each present a different facet of Mikolaj Gorecki’s style. There are similarities: two are for orchestra; two feature a clarinet, horn, and piano trio. But each has its own character. Gorecki’s orchestral work Zan Tontemiquico was inspired by the pre-Columbian poem of Tochihuitzin. It begins “We only come to […]
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Mieczyslaw Weinberg Sonatas for Cello and Piano
The more of Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s music I hear, the more complex he becomes. This release features his two sonatas for cello and piano. Each provides a snapshot of his evolving style. Sonata No. 1, Op. 21 was completed in 1945. The war was ending, and Stalin’s regime was just warming up. The sonata’s a jaunty, […]
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Hans Gal – Music for Viola, Vol. 1 full of lyrical gems
Toccata Classics has released several volumes of Hans Gal’s music. And in the process, I think, helped audiences rediscover his remarkable music. Gal’s career in his native Austria was cut short with the arrival of the Nazis. Because of his Jewish ancestry, he was forced to flee and settled in England in 1940. Although well-respected […]
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Plawner Quintet perform important chamber music from Poland
Stanislaw Moniuszko is considered the father of Polish national opera, and one of the country’s most important composers of the mid-19th Century. This release features his two string quartets. It also has a piano quintet by Juliusz Zarebski, one of Poland’s leading composers of the late 19th Century. The members of the Plawner Quintet have […]
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Mieczyslaw Weinberg late string quartets strong stuff
The Silesian Quartet tackles two difficult works in this installment of their Mieczyslaw Weinberg quartet cycle. Wienberg was alone and isolated in the late 1970s. His mentor and friend Shostakovich was dead, and increasingly his scores were rejected for performance. The two quartets in this release seem almost distillations of his anger, sadness, and frustration. […]
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Quattro Mani excel with Stefan Wolpe two-piano music
The personal nature of this music makes this volume of Stefan Wolpe one of the most important, I think. Stefan Wolpe met pianist Irma Schoenberg in 1927. Through 1942, when they separated, they had a professional and personal relationship. Schoenberg enabled Wolpe to flee Nazi Germany and rescue his music besides. She inspired the March […]
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Sweetly nostalgic chamber music from Robert Fürstenthal
The story behind these works is fascinating, and critical to appreciate them properly. Robert Fürstenthal was a young Viennese composer whose career was just taking off. Germany annexed Austria in 1938, and the Jewish Fürstenthal fled to the United States. He became an accountant and abandoned composition. Only after reconnecting with his first love in […]