Donald George - Komm Mit Mir: Come with Me - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

David Oistrakh - David Oistrakh Vol. 12 [COMPACT DISCS] date 07/12/2005

This programme brings together composers who, for the most part, were compelled to flee their homeland. In 1920, Ivan Wyschnegradsky took refuge in Paris, where he wrote for a quarter-tone piano at a time when, in Russia, the slightest dissonance was considered a political provocation. Andrzej Panufnik left his native Poland in 1954. Alfred Schnittke settled in Hamburg in 1990, eight years before his death, having spent most of his life in the Soviet Union. Although Schubert never moved away from Vienna, the pain and solitude of his inner exile are palpable in his music. Finally, the Belgian violin virtuoso Eugene Ysaye emigrated on account of the First World War and it was in the United States, in 1917, that he wrote the melancholy musical poem recorded here, which he called Exil! Is exile nothing but pain and isolation, or also a source of inspiration which, with music, expresses what words cannot say, acting as the ultimate refuge? 'Let's listen to what they have to say', suggests Patricia Kopatchinskaja, herself 'uprooted for ever'. She is joined by cellist Thomas Kaufmann and her friends from Camerata Bern.

Few are aware that Josef Weigl (1766-1846) was both an acclaimed conductor and a highly successful composer whose fame - in his day - rivaled that of Cherubini, Rossini, Haydn, and even Beethoven. Tenor Donald George and forte pianist Lucy Mauro merge their talents in support of music by this neglected, yet deserving composer in historically informed performance.