Elsner / Trio Margaux / Hoffmeister Quartet - Chamber Music - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

In the course of her long life, Johanna Senfter has enriched almost all genres of classical music, from chamber music to large-scale symphonic works. Her creations are all characterized by one unique feature - a harsh, almost austere beauty that runs the entire gamut from deep intimacy to whimsical humour which even repeatedly surprised the composer's teacher, Max Reger. Reger, the heavyweight workhorse from Upper Palatinate, was extremely impressed by the creative abilities of his pupil, whose career he was unfortunately unable to follow for too long. No doubt one or two turns of phrase would have sounded familiar to him had he experienced them; but he certainly would not have denied that this woman from a well-to-do family had asserted her own vision.

Elan Sicroff is one of the leading interpreters of the Gurdjieff/de Hartmann music, which was the result of a unique collaboration in the 1920s in which the sacred and folk music of the East was arranged for piano. From 1973-75 he attended the International Academy for Continuous Education at Sherborne in Gloucestershire, England, as a student and later as Director of Music. The Academy was run by J. G. Bennett, a leading exponent of the teachings of George Ivanovich Gurdjieff. In 1974 Mr. Bennett contacted Mme. Olga de Hartmann, widow of the composer, who introduced Elan to the music that Thomas de Hartmann composed in the classical idiom. Between 1975 and 1979 Elan studied with her and performed many of de Hartmann's works. In 1982 he made a tour of the U.S., which included performances in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Boston. Since then he has given numerous recitals in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Józef Antoni Franciszek Elsner was a composer, music teacher, and music theoretician, active mainly in Warsaw. He was one of the first composers in Poland to weave elements of folk music into his works. Elsner composed many symphonic, chamber, solo, and vocal-instrumental works, and works for the stage, including over 100 religious works (masses, offertorios, oratorios, cantatas), eight symphonies, three concertos, three ballets, and thirty-eight operas. He is perhaps best known as the principal piano teacher of the young composer Frédéric Chopin. This new showcases his chamber music, beautifully performed by a lineup of brilliant Polish musicians.