Bernhard Sekles: Chamber Music

Catalogue No: TOCC0147
EAN/UPC: 5060113441478
Release Date: 2013-01-28
Composer: Bernhard Sekles
Artists: Noreen Silver, Phillip Silver, Solomia Soroka

Bernhard Sekles (1872-1933) was one of the leading figures in German music in the first decades of the twentieth century, prominent as composer, educator and administrator. In 1928, as director of the Hoch Conservatorium in Frankfurt, he established the first academic programme in jazz studies, an act of courage and conviction that unleashed furious attacks from the Nazi press. His own music, banned during the Third Reich, has been virtually forgotten, although he composed in all major genres, including opera, symphony, lieder and chamber music. As the works on this recording illustrate, Sekles' music finds room for diverse elements — including Neoclassicism, Brahmsian Romanticism and jazz — and can be refreshingly quirky.

Solomia Soroka, viola, violin
Noreen Silver, cello
Phillip Silver, piano

Listen To This Recording:

  1. Chaconne on an Eight-Bar March-Theme, Op. 38, for viola and piano (publ. 1931)
  2. Cello Sonata, Op. 28 (1919)

  3. I Sostenuto assai (Schwerlastend) – Allegro marcato ma moderato
  4. II Intermezzo: Lento – Presto – Prestissimo
  5. III Tema con Variazioni
  6. Capriccio in Four Movements for piano trio (publ. 1932)

  7. I Praeludio: Moderato ma energico
  8. II Scherzino: Vivace
  9. III Intermezzo: Larghetto
  10. IV Finale: Yankee-Doodle con Variazioni – Allegretto comodo (Nicht schnell)
  11. Violin Sonata, Op. 44

  12. I Allegro ma non troppo
  13. II Andantino
  14. III Vivace
  15. IV Allegro maestoso

2 reviews for Bernhard Sekles: Chamber Music

  1. :

    ‘I am so pleased to have had the opportunity to have been introduced to this composer who I really hope will emerge from obscurity with the help of this disc. He thoroughly deserves to be heard by every chamber music lover. These three musicians have done the composer great service in projecting their obvious admiration for Sekles into their playing which is flawless and makes the disc a really valuable discovery.’

    —Steve Arloff, MusicWeb International

  2. :

    ‘the finale [Capriccio in Four Movements] offers some genuine fun, a delightful set of variations on Yankee Doodle. It shows what a great composer can do with the simplest of tunes and, by itself, it would make a fine encore. […]

    Soroka is a wonderful technician’

    —Maria Nockin, Fanfare Magazine, July/August 2013

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