Thomas de Hartmann: Rediscovered Review by James Manheim

The music of Ukrainian composer Thomas de Hartmann reflected some of the 20th century’s major trends. A student of Anton Arensky and Sergei Taneyev, he began with late Russian Romanticism, went through a modernist phase due to a friendship with Wassily Kandinsky (they devised some music-and-art pieces that seem as though they would be well worth reviving), and later came under the influence of the mystic Georgi Ivanovich Gurdjieff and became interested in Asian musical traditions. The two works here, both from the last part of his career, reflect the latter influence but in a specific way. This album lives up to its promise of rediscovery for de Hartmann, who was championed by Serge Koussevitzky and the Budapest String Quartet but is now almost forgotten; the album both marks the first recordings of de Hartmann‘s Violin Concerto and Cello Concerto, and it offers top-notch performances that propelled it onto classical best-seller charts in the summer of 2024. Getting violinist Joshua Bell, still looking boyish in his late fifties, must have been a major coup for the producers, and the soloist in the Cello Concerto is Matt Haimovitz. The Violin Concerto, Op. 66, is a remarkable work. Originating in occupied Paris in 1943, it inflects de Hartmann‘s Eastern style toward klezmer music, unmistakably referring to the ongoing Holocaust in Germany. Unsurprisingly, it was not premiered until after the war. Sample the “Menuet fantasque” third movement for an idea of what de Hartmann was up to. The Cello Concerto, Op. 57, of 1935, also uses Jewish materials with its reference to cantorial singing in its “Solenne” slow movement. Providing support for the world-class soloists are the INSO-Lviv Symphony Orchestra under conductor Dalia Stasevska in the Violin Concerto and the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra in the Cello Concerto. The two performances were recorded two years apart and were perhaps not conceived as a single release, but what matters is that someone realized their relevance to each other; this music is indeed a major rediscovery of great power.