Rediscovered (Violin Concerto, Cello Concerto)
Joshua Bell , Matt Haimovitz , INSO-Lviv Symphony Orchestra , MDR Symphony Orchestra , Dalia Stasevska , Dennis Russell Davies
Pentatone/Naxos PTC5187076
(66 mins, 1/2024, 5/2022)
Looking back, Thomas de Hartmann’s musical life is truly impressive. The Ukrainian wrote symphonies and solo concertos that were played by greats such as Pablo Casals and Leopold Stokowski. Even during his time in Russia, his music was danced by ballet icons Nijinsky, Pavlova and Fokine. Later, from the 1920s onwards, de Hartmann became a close collaborator of the Armenian composer and spiritualist Gurdjieff. De Hartmann died in New York in 1956. Since then, his name and especially his work, which includes 90 “classical” works and over 50 film scores, has been almost forgotten. Accordingly, the recording of his violin concerto and cello concerto now rightly bears the subtitle “Rediscovered”.
Renowned soloists such as violinist Joshua Bell and cellist Matt Haimovitz were brought on board for the recordings. The orchestral duties are also shared by the Ukrainian INSO-Lviv Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Dalia Stasevska) and the MDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dennis Russel Davies. Although both concerts, with their spectacular use of timbres, are unmistakably reminiscent of the soundtrack composer, de Hartmann’s intense love of Jewish music is present in both of the vocal works. Although he was not Jewish himself, he used elements of Eastern European Jewish music with open arms. It is no wonder that he once described the violin concerto, composed in 1943, as a “klezmer concerto”. As melancholic and melodic as the cello concerto, first performed in 1935, is, it is primarily thanks to the soloists that the concertos do not sink into pathos and kitsch. Rather, Joshua Bell and Matt Haimovitz, with their sensitive, cultivated sound-sensitive playing, prove themselves to be ideal advocates for this moving music, which is therefore worth rediscovering.