Sacks,Jonathan - 5th (S)Eason - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Mitch Hampton - Hard Listening [COMPACT DISCS] Enhanced date 10/14/2014

Hans Winterberg, born in Prague in 1901, studied with Alexander Zemlinsky and Alois Haba. He worked as a conductor, pianist and composer until the annexation of the Czechoslovak Republic by Nazi Germany in 1939. As the scion of a Jewish family that had lived in Prague for centuries, he survived - after forced labor and deportation to Theresienstadt - through a series of miracles. Winterberg, whose compositional legacy has been rediscovered only recently, combines various influences in his music to create an original and exciting personal style. He takes up stylistic elements of Janacek but is also influenced by the Second Viennese School and French Impressionism. Eda records dedicates a focus to this important Czech-Jewish composer, who saw himself as a bridge-builder between the cultures of Eastern and Western Europe.

Another album presenting the output of Pawel Lukaszewski (DUX Lukaszewski Collection). The characteristic stylistic language of Lukaszewski is close to artists such as Arvo Pärt, John Tavener and Mikolaj Górecki, and at the same time it strongly refers to the pre-modern traditions of the Renaissance vocal music and Gregorian chant. InchAmong Polish composers younger than Penderecki and Lutoslawski, Lukaszewski has become by far the best known. Although he has composed orchestral and chamber music, his reputation is based on his sacred music. He is an ardent Roman Catholic and sets texts mostly in Latin, which, whatever it's difficulties, is for English-speaking listeners more accessible than Polish. He has accumulated an extensive discography and this latest album is listed as the fifth in a series called Musica sacra - though the earlier albums are not in fact all of sacred music.Inch (Stephen Barber, MusicWeb)