Simon Wallfisch - Songs of Max Kowalski - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Although they number approximately eighty out of a total ofover four hundred works, Martinu's compositions for solo piano have longbeen overshadowed by his orchestral and chamber music. This is the second in the Naxos complete Martinu piano works.

Apart from the operas, Berlioz wrote a large number of vocal works. Between 1827 and 1830, he attempted the coveted Prix de Rome on four occasions, winning at his final attempt.

Max Kowalski, who lived and practiced law in Frankfurt am Main, was from 1913 till 1933 a well-known, much esteemed, and frequently performed composer. Kowalski was born in Poland (then Russia) on August 10th, 1882 and grew up in Germany, to which his parents emigrated when he was a year old. Kowalski's reputation rests on his production of more than two hundred art songs, which have been in the repertoire of many leading artists, including Heinrich Schlusnus, Maria Ivogün, Paul Bender, Joseph Schwarz, Alexander Kipnis, Karen Branzell, and Hans Hotter. The present CD is drawn from a recital sung in 2011 in Munich by the great Austrian baritone, Wolfgang Holzmair. It offers two song cycles and songs composed to texts by some of Germany's leading poets. The CD includes Kowalski's best-known cycle, his Pierrot Lunaire, which appeared the same year (1913) as Arnold Schoenberg's settings.