A striking rediscovery and bold world premiere

Hartmann’s score pulses with moral drama and unrelenting energy, says Ashutosh Khandekar

Hart­mann Esther Corinne Win­ters et al; The Grange Fest­ival Chorus, Bournemouth Sym­phony Orches­tra/kir­ill Kar­abits Pentatone PTC5187424 115:47 mins

Thomas de Hart­mann has long been one of those fas­cin­at­ing musical almost-men: a Ukrain­i­an­born aris­to­crat, trained in the orbit of Rim­skykor­sakov and Taneyev, then drawn into the strange world of the mys­tic Gurdjieff before end­ing up, after years of upheaval and exile, in war­time France and later the United States. That tangled life gives Esther an added charge. Begun dur­ing the Nazi occu­pa­tion and com­pleted in 1946, it is hardly the work of a sheltered aes­thete; you hear a com­poser who exper­i­enced dis­lo­ca­tion and rein­ven­tion, and who still believed in the stage as a place of moral and emo­tional reck­on­ing.

Esther, based on Jean Racine’s play, sits some­where between opera and ora­torio, but the eclectic score never sounds ‘in between’: the

Hart­mann’s work has an over­whelm­ing per­son­al­ity, delivered with shat­ter­ing energy

drama keeps mov­ing, the chor­uses bite and the orches­tral writ­ing is full of col­our and pur­pose. Kir­ill Kar­abits proves a per­suas­ive guide, shap­ing his forces with con­vic­tion, keep­ing its long spans focused and alive. The Grange Fest­ival Chorus is a tour de force, sup­ply­ing plenty of devo­tional atmo­sphere and dra­matic urgency.

The strong cast catches the intens­ity and grandeur of the piece. Sop­rano Corinne Win­ters is ideal and utterly con­vin­cing in the weighty title role; tenor Paul Appleby excels as the Chantre (Can­tor), set­ting the work’s moral and cere­mo­nial tone.

Esther may be an eccent­ric redis­cov­ery, but it never feels like a musi­co­lo­gical exer­cise. Hart­mann’s work has an over­whelm­ing per­son­al­ity, delivered with shat­ter­ing energy in Pentatone’s world premiere record­ing. ★★★★★ You can access thou­sands of reviews from our extens­ive archive on the BBC Music Magazine web­site at www.clas­sical-music.com