Search - Boris Blacher, Herbert Kegel, Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra :: Boris Blacher: Concertante Musik; Piano Concerto

Good Value

Andrew G. Lang | Cleveland, OH USA | 12/28/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Berlin Classics continues to bring out a diverse selection of music originally released on LP by the East German state recording company--Deutsche Schallplatten. Boris Blacher was a brilliant young composer of mixed Russian and Asian descent who, somehow, was able to work in Nazi Germany until he was placed on a list of proscribed "non-Aryan" composers in 1942. But in 1937 his brilliant "Concertante Music for Orchestra" was premiered by the Berlin Philharmonic--and made such an impression on the audience the conducter decided to repeat the work later in the concert. Listening to this spirited debut by a 25-year-old student at the Berlin Academy of Music, one can imagine the reaction in Nazi-era Berlin: in contrast to the officially-approved style of heavy sentimentality, the work is light, worldly, slightly dissonant and influenced by jazz. After the war, Blacher returned to Berlin where for nearly two decades he led the reorganized (West) Berlin Academy of Music. His style remained tonal but he pioneered a technique of rhythmic serialism represented in the piano concerto on this album. As usual, the late Herbert Kegel does a workmanlike job with the Dresden Philharmonie--an orchestra inferior to the famous Staatskapelle Dresden, but nevertheless well-suited for the 20th-century repertory."