Schulhoff, Complete Music for Violin and Piano, Monteiro and Santos

Erwin Schulhoff was born a Czech in 1894 and lived much of his life there. His student years found him at Prague Conservatory when only 10; studies followed in Vienna, Leipzig and Cologne, where among others he studied with Max Reger and Debussy. His Jewish heritage led to his untimely death in the hands of the Nazis in 1942.

He went through in successive years of composition a post-romantic, avant garde, then a Czech folk and neoclassical phase. You can pretty much hear all periods to good effect in the new release Complete Music for Violin and Piano (Brilliant 95324). The works are played with lively spirit and idiomatic sensitivity by Bruno Monteiro on violin and Joao Paulo Santos on piano.

I've heard a bit of his music previously but this particular volume is a ear-opener. From the great character of his "Suite for Violin and Piano," the modernity of his "Sonata for Solo Violin," to the classical-folk inspiration and workmanship of his two "Sonatas for Violin and Piano" a complete picture emerges of an original voice of his times, a composer of thematic cogency and an excellent sense of flow.

He may be the greatest of the composers to be lost to us in the holocaust, or certainly among the most talented.

This volume spells out his brilliance. I do recommend it very strongly.

Marcel Tyberg, Symphony No. 2, Piano Sonata No. 2, Falletta, Bidini, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

Marcel Tyberg (1893-1944) was a talented but eclectic composer firmly in the Romantic School. He was a holocaust victim.

We do well to remember him. He is well served by a recent disk that features his Symphony No. 2 and his Piano Sonata No. 2 (Naxos 8.572822) in excellent performances by Fabio Bidini at the piano and JoAnn Falletta conducting the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.

Tyberg's Second Symphony is a full-length, ambitious work that manages to transform yet reflect Bruckner, the Beethoven of the Pastoral Symphony, the Schubert of the Great Symphony and more besides. Yet it does so in ways that put the work in Tyberg's own wheelhouse. Long flowing thematic material has much in the way of invention, seems to be constructed along the lines of long blocks of sonata form, and bears a masterful hand both in the overall trajectory and brilliant romantic orchestration. Falletta and the Buffalo outfit sound well-inspired by the music and the dedicated rendering is infectious.

The Second Piano Sonata is most certainly in the grand manner, with influences from Beethoven, Schumann and Liszt showing, yet again all that becoming most certainly Tyberg. Fabio Badini gives us his best, which is impressive indeed.

This volume is very worthwhile if you love later 19th-century stylistics. It's definitely a new twist on it all and the performances are inspired.