Search Results for "Hermann"
Pál Hermann: Complete Surviving Music, Volume One
Pál Hermann, born in Budapest in 1902, was not only one of the leading cellists of his generation: he was also an important composer, one of the major figures in Hungarian music in the generation after his teachers Bartók and Kodály. But since only two of his works were published before his early death, in 1944, at the hands of the Nazis, and many more of them were lost, he has not had the esteem that he deserves. This series will present all his surviving compositions, most of them in first recordings. The major work on this first album, Hermann’s Cello Concerto of 1925 in a reconstruction by the Italian composer Fabio Conti (b. 1967), sits somewhere between Bartók and Korngold and bids fair to become a staple of the cello repertoire.
Clive Greensmith, cello (Tracks 1-5)
Kateryna Poteriaieva, violin (Tracks 6-9)
Alina Shevchenko, piano (Tracks 10-13)
Roman Marchenko, piano (Track 10)
Sofia Soloviy, soprano (Track 14)
Lviv International Symphony Orchestra (Tracks 1-9, 14)
Theodore Kuchar, conductor (Tracks 1-9, 14)
Pál Hermann: Complete Surviving Music, Volume Two
Pál Hermann, born in Budapest in 1902, was not only one of the leading cellists of his generation; he was also an important composer, one of the major figures in Hungarian music in the generation after his teachers Bartók and Kodály. But since only two of his works were published before his early death – in 1944, at the hands of the Nazis – and many more of them were lost, he has not had the esteem that he deserves. The works on this second volume of his surviving compositions – here mostly chamber works for strings, several in their first recordings – have the wiry humour, sprung and spiky rhythms and Hungarian melos that mark him out as a worthy successor to Bartók – and hints at how much was lost with his murder.
Marko Komonko, violin
Theodore Kuchar, viola (Tracks 9, 10, 15)
Denys Lytvynenko, cello (Tracks 1–3)
Myroslav Drahan, piano (Track 16)
Karl August Hermann: Complete Piano Music
Linguist, journalist, composer, choir-leader, songwriter, historian, literary philologist and encyclopaedist, Karl August Hermann (1851–1909) has long been recognised as one of the founder-figures of Estonian national awakening in the second half of the nineteenth century. But in spite of his cultural and historical significance, his output of piano pieces has been overlooked until now. This first recording reveals them to be charming miniatures, blending echoes of Chopin and Grieg with the essence of Estonian folksong.
Nicolas Horvath, piano
Beethoven by Arrangement, Volume One
Although a violist himself, Beethoven left nothing for the viola — except for the fragment of a sonata recorded here for the first time. So his contemporaries and successors have 'helped' him fill the gaps: it was Karl Xaver Kleinheinz (1765-1832) who arranged the String Trio, Op. 8, gaining Beethoven's reluctant approval; and a later musician, Friedrich Hermann (1828-1907), transformed the Septet, Op. 20, into an ambitious viola sonata. And now Paul Silverthorne, Principal Viola of the London Symphony Orchestra, expands the repertoire with his own transcription of the Horn Sonata, Op. 17.
Paul Silverthorne, viola
David Owen Norris, piano
Hermann GRÄDENER: Orchestral Music, Volume One
The German-born, Vienna-based Hermann Grädener (1844–1929) is yet another composer whose music, esteemed in its own time, has since slipped between the floorboards of history. Yet this first recording of his two violin concertos – substantial works both, downstream from Brahms, and with a hint of Sibelius – prove him to have been one of the more important Romantics, with a strong sense of drama, a sure hand for musical architecture and a natural flair for extended melody.
Karen Bentley Pollick, violin
National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine
Gottfried Rabl, conductor
Richard Flury: Four Song-Cycles
The output of Richard Flury (1896-1967), one of Switzerland’s most prolific composers, ranges from operas and ballets to symphonies, instrumental concertos, sacred and secular vocal works, chamber music and no fewer than 181 songs with piano accompaniment. These four song-cycles, written between 1920 and 1946, contain 45 of them, their concision nonetheless embracing an expansive, Romantic style of which Schumann himself might have approved. The prevailing mood is one of an open-hearted sincerity, occasionally enlivened by a dash of humour.
Stephanie Bühlmann, soprano
Margaret Singer, piano
Richard Flury: The Life and Music of a Swiss Romantic
Author: Chris Walton
Extent: 328 pages
Size: 16 x 24 cm
Published: March 2017
Illustrations: 22 colour illustrations; 51 b/w illustrations
Pál Hermann Recording Sessions
My friend and colleague Clive Greensmith and I were sitting in the audience of a concert, during which our violinist and pianist colleagues were performing…
An Estonian Excursion for the Heino Eller Award
Toccata Classics has now released five albums of the piano music of the Estonian composer Heino Eller – enough for Toccata founder Martin Anderson to…
Reflections on the Life and Work of Friedrich Gernsheim – With Some Help from the Young People of Worms
Ever since, some years ago, I heard the State Philharmonic Orchestra of Rhineland-Palatinate performing a symphony by Friedrich Gernsheim (1839–1916), I have been seeking to…
Tadeusz Majerski Remembered: An Interview With Andrzej Nikodemowicz
A December release from Toccata Classics (TOCC0344) presents the first-ever recording of works by the Polish composer Tadeusz Majerski (1888–1963), whose music incorporates elements of…
John Mauceri, New Patron of Toccata Classics
We are delighted to announce that Toccata Classics has a new patron, the distinguished American conductor John Mauceri. He joins a panel of esteemed names:…