Various - Epicycle II - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Rien Voskuilen - Musica Sacra [COMPACT DISCS] date 10/23/2007

Pál Hermann, born in Budapest in 1902, was not only one of the leading cellists of his generation he was also an important composer, one of the major figures in Hungarian music in the generation after his teachers Bartók and Kodály. But since only two of his works were published before his early death, in 1944, at the hands of the Nazis, and many more of them were lost, he has not had the esteem that he deserves. This series will present all his surviving compositions, most of them in first recordings. The major work on this first album, Hermann's Cello Concerto of 1925 in a reconstruction by the Italian composer Fabio Conti (b. 1967), sits somewhere between Bartók and Korngold and bids fair to become a staple of the cello repertoire.

On the new GENUIN album Idylle, we accompany the young clarinetist Joë Christophe and his piano partner Vincent Mussat on an emotional journey that passes through familiar and unfamiliar terrain and encounters sophistication, simplicity, passion, and tenderness. The prize-winning of the ARD Music Competition is also the duo's debut which, in the selected works of the 20th and 21st centuries, proves to be highly versatile and rich in colors. In addition to music by Claude Debussy and Rebecca Clarke, the track list includes Mark Simpson's Three Pieces A world premiere recording of the music written by the British composer as a commission for the ARD Music Competition.