Duos for violin & violoncello by Liza & Dmitry Ferschtman

Zoltán Kodály, Maurice Ravel, Erwin Schulhoff

Liza & Dmitry Ferschtman

Duos for violin & violoncello

Price: € 20.95
Format: SACD hybrid
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917254228
Catnr: CC 72542
Release date: 20 January 2012
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Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917254228

Catalogue number
CC 72542

Release date
20 January 2012

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

Ravel Sonata for violin and cello
After the death of Claude Debussy in 1918, Maurice Ravel was generally regarded as France leading composer. But in 1920 he flatly refused to accept the Légion;Honneur medal. Perhaps he agreed with Baudelaire that a man of merit did not need to be decorated? Or was he thinking about the fact that he had been passed over for the French government award, the Prix de Rome, five times? His public refusal was referred to as the ;Ravel;. To make matters worse, thanks to his newly acquired status, Ravel became estranged from some colleagues, in particular Satie and the younger generation. Ravel took his estrangement literally and moved to Montfort-l’Amaury, fifty kilometres west of Paris, where he took up residence, which was to be his last home. There he led a secluded life with his cats and polished his refined oeuvre until his death in 1937.

The name of Zoltán Kodály will always be irrevocably bound up with that of fellow countryman and friend Béla Bartók, with whom he collected and investigated the sources of original Hungarian folk music. After studying German and Hungarian, he even devoted a thesis to the Hungarian folksong in 1906. Despite political troubles and despite being thwarted by the Hungarian regime with its Nazi sympathies, as a member of the opposition Kodály metamorphosed into the fundament of Hungarian cultural life. And in contrast to Bartók, he even managed to get works performed abroad, works such as Psalmus Hungaricus and parts of Hary Janó. Kodály had made it his object to create a tradition of true Hungarian artistic music on the basis of Hungarian folklore and tradition, as can be heard in his own works. He remained in Hungary even when his good friend Bartók was given political asylum in the United States. He received many honours and after the war he was an internationally famed composer and instructor. Kodály died in Budapest in 1967. Schulhoff Duo for violin and cell; Music should bring primarily physical pleasure, even ecstasy, to the listener. It is not philosophy: its roots lie in ecstatic situations and its expression lies in rhythm.’ Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff wrote these words in 1919. With this statement, the twenty-five year old composer seemed to side against the Second Viennese School, against the philosophical ideas of Theodor Adorno, even though he had been strongly influenced by Schoumlnberg. And yet these words are perhaps understandable, coming as they do from a person who, at the age of ten, was being encouraged by Anton shortly before his death. On Dvoaacutes advice, Schulhoff first went to study at the Prague conservatory. Later he went to Vienna, and to Leipzig to study with Max Reger, where he won prizes for piano playing and composition. He even studied briefly with Debussy in Paris. Inside him there bubbled a mixture of Richard Strauss, Scriabin, Debussy, Schoumlnberg, Janek, and later even jazz. Although four years of military service during the First World War seemed to thwart Schulhoff’s artistic ambitions, he still continued to compose, even though he had to fight to protect his hands from the severe frost on the Russian front. After the war Schulhoff stayed in Germany. There he associated himself with the Dadaistic movement, was influenced by jazz and forged his style from Schoumlnberg expressionism and Stravinskyneo-classicism. After returning to Prague, Schulhoff was inspired by Czech folk music and the music of, whose opera he became acquainted with as repetiteur for a performance in Cologne in 1918.

Vader en dochter spelen samen: duo's voor viool en cello
Na de dood van Claude Debussy in 1918 werd Maurice Ravel gezien als de grootste componist in Frankrijk. In 1920, echter, weigerde hij de Légion d'honneur in ontvangst te nemen. Zijn publieke weigering leidde tot een vervreemding met de jonge generatie componisten waarop Ravel zich terugtrok in Montfort-l’Amaury waar hij afgezonderd leefde tot zijn dood in 1937. In deze jaren componeerde hij ook zijn bijzondere sonate voor viool en cello en droeg het werk op aan de overleden Debussy. Het stuk wordt gekenmerkt door een dissonant palet aan kleuren waarbij de twee instrumenten vrij bewegen, elk in een eigen toonsoort. Opvallend is dat bij de première van de sonate het stuk Duo voor viool en cello genoemd werd, naar het gelijknamige werk van Zoltán Kodály. Kodály schreef zijn duo aan het begin van de Eerste Wereldoorlog in 1914, maar had zijn première pas tien jaar later, waarschijnlijk dankzij de oorlog. In het stuk zijn veel melodieën te horen die afkomstig zijn van de Hongaarse volksmuziek en net zoals Ravel’s sonate speelt Kodály met dissonante tonen en een rijk palet aan verschillende timbres en technieken.
Een ander stuk voor viool en cello is afkomstig van Erwin Schulhoff, een Tsjechische componist die in dezelfde tijd als Ravel en Kodály leefde. Hij werd beïnvloed door allerlei stromingen, waaronder jazz, het expressionisme van Schönberg en het neoclassicisme van Stravinsky. Ook bij Schullhoff is volksmuziek terug te horen in zijn werk.

Vader en dochter Ferschtman spelen op dit album samen deze drie stukken, die speciaal voor viool (Liza Ferschtman) en cello (Dmitry Ferschtman) geschreven zijn. Liza Ferschtman is een bekende Nederlandse musicus die steeds meer internationale bekendheid begint te verwerven. Zij heeft in alle grote concertzalen in Nederland gespeeld en gaat geregeld op een internationale tournee. De uitvoeringen van de twee zijn uitdagend, emotioneel en kwetsbaar maar tegelijkertijd erg krachtig en van zeer hoge kwaliteit.

Spannungsreiche Duos für Violine und Violoncello
Vater und Tochter spielen endlich zusammen und halten dies auf einer wunderbaren CD fest mit Stücken von Schulhoff, Kodály und Ravel, die eigens für Violine und Violoncello komponiert wurden. Eine spannende, klug zusammen gestellte Werk-Auswahl in einer sehr leidenschaftlichen Interpretation der jungen aufstrebenden Geigerin Liza Ferschtman und ihrem erfahrenden Vater Dimitry.

Artist(s)

Liza Ferschtman

Dutch violinist Liza Ferschtman is known for her passionate performances, interesting programs and communicative qualities on stage. She is equally at home on the concert stage with concertos, chamber music, recitals and solo works. In 2006 she received the highest accolade awarded to a musician in the Netherlands, the Dutch Music Prize.
Born into a family of Russian musicians, Liza Ferschtman was constantly surrounded by music.
One of her earliest major influences was the violinist Philipp Hirschhorn, a close family friend. She received her formal training from Herman Krebbers at the Amsterdam Conservatory, Ida Kavafian at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and David Takeno in London.
In recent years Liza Ferschtman has performed with all significant Dutch Orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw and the Rotterdam Philhamonic. She has been soloist of the Orchestre National de Belgique, European Union Youth Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic, Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, Bremen Philharmonic, Radio Symphony Orchestra of Prague, Malmö Symphony, and Bergen Philharmonic. Conductors she has worked with include Stephan Blunier, Frans Bruggen, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Claus Peter Flor, Neeme Järvi, Yakov Kreizberg, Zdenek Macal, Jun Maerkl, Gianandrea Noseda, Marc Soustrot, Leonard Slatkin, Thomas Sondergard, Karl-Heinz Steffens, Mario Venzago and Jaap van Zweden.
An avid chamber musician, Ms. Ferschtman has collaborated regularly with artists such as Inon Barnatan, Jonathan Biss, Nobuko Imai, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Enrico Pace, Christian Poltera, Lars Anders Tomter and Alisa Weilerstein. In addition to appearances at numerous international Chamber Music festivals, she has performed at venues such as the Alice Tully Hall in New York, the Library of Congress in Washington, Wigmore Hall in London, the Brahms Saal at the Vienna Musikverein, as well the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
Liza Ferschtman has been the artistic director of the Delft Chamber Music Festival since 2007, one of the reputable festivals in Europe. During her tenure the festival has become widely known for adventurous programming with dynamic performances by artists from around the globe.
Highlights in the past season were the performance of the complete solo works by Bach in Amsterdam and a concert tour to Budapest, Amsterdam, New York and Montréal with the Budapest Festival Orchestra. Playing under the baton of Iván Fischer, Ms. Ferschtman received outstanding reviews for her rendition of Bernstein's "Serenade" with this orchestra.
During the current season Liza Ferschtman is scheduled to make her debuts with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Essen, the Staatskapelle Weimar and the Flanders Symphony Orchestra. She will perform chamber music at the Liederhalle in Stuttgart and the Beethoven Haus in Bonn and will be present in the Netherlands with several recitals.
Ms. Ferschtman's recording of the Beethoven Concerto and Romances was received with great critical acclaim, as well as her other recordings with concertos by Dvorak, Röntgen, solo works by Bach and Ysaye, (STRAD CD choice of the month), and duo works by Beethoven and Schubert. Her next CD will be solo works by Bach, Biber, Bartok and Berio (Challenge Classics).

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Dmitry Ferschtman

The Russian-born cellist Dmitry Ferschtman received his musical education in the tradition of the Russian cello-school. Studying at the Central Music School with Melnikov and continuing his studies at the Moscow Conservatory were Galina Kozolupova and Natalia Gutman. During his studies Dmitry Ferschtman co-founded the Glinka String Quartet which toured the Soviet-Union, Europe and the United-States for twenty-three years extensively. All through his career Ferschtman has been an active chamber-music player, performing at many international festivals with artists such as Charles Neidich, Elizabeth Leonskaya, Philipp Hirshhorn, Gidon Kremer, Mark Kaplan, Leonidas Kavakos, Boris Berman and Nobuko Imai. Among the conductors with whom he worked are Frans Brüggen, Hans Vonk, Bernhard Klee, Kent Nagano, Lev Markiz, Oko Kamu and Edo de Waart. Dmitry Ferschtman...

The Russian-born cellist Dmitry Ferschtman received his musical education in the tradition of the Russian cello-school. Studying at the Central Music School with Melnikov and continuing his studies at the Moscow Conservatory were Galina Kozolupova and Natalia Gutman.
During his studies Dmitry Ferschtman co-founded the Glinka String Quartet which toured the Soviet-Union, Europe and the United-States for twenty-three years extensively. All through his career Ferschtman has been an active chamber-music player, performing at many international festivals with artists such as Charles Neidich, Elizabeth Leonskaya, Philipp Hirshhorn, Gidon Kremer, Mark Kaplan, Leonidas Kavakos, Boris Berman and Nobuko Imai.
Among the conductors with whom he worked are Frans Brüggen, Hans Vonk, Bernhard Klee, Kent Nagano, Lev Markiz, Oko Kamu and Edo de Waart.
Dmitry Ferschtman has performed in all important halls in the Netherlands and abroad, with most of the leading Dutch orchestra’s, including the Radio Philharmonic, The Radio Chamber orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Amsterdam Sinfonietta and The Residency Orchestra of The Hague and the Hallé Orchestra and the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland Pfalz among others. He also gave recitals in all of Europe and Asia. Recordings of Dmitry Ferschtman can be found at the Etcetera, Globe and Cobra labels.
For years he has been teaching at prominent conservatories of the Netherlands, including The Royal Conservatory of The Hague and the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. Many of his pupils have won prizes at Dutch and International competitions. And he has taught Master classes in Holland, Germany, Scandinavia, France, Greece, Japan and the United States (Boston NEC and Chicago).

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Composer(s)

Maurice Ravel

Joseph Maurice Ravel was a French composer who is often associated with impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer.
Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended France's premier music college, the Paris Conservatoire; he was not well regarded by its conservative establishment, whose biased treatment of him caused a scandal. After leaving the Conservatoire Ravel found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity, incorporating elements of baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. He liked to experiment with musical form, as in his best-known work, Boléro (1928), in which repetition takes the place of development. He made some orchestral arrangements of other composers' music, of which his 1922 version of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is the best known.
As a slow and painstaking worker, Ravel composed fewer pieces than many of his contemporaries. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas, and eight song cycles; he wrote no symphonies and only one religious work. Many of his works exist in two versions: a first, piano score and a later orchestration. Some of his piano music, such as Gaspard de la nuit (1908), is exceptionally difficult to play, and his complex orchestral works such as Daphnis et Chloé (1912) require skilful balance in performance.

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Zoltán Kodály

Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, born in 1905. If you would read Kodály's biography, you could only do so with increasing astonishment. Not only did he reach the honarable age of 84, throughout his whole life he remained astoundingly prolific - and with great success. Moreover, besides his work as a composer, Kodály was active as a conductor, (ethno-)musicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. And in each of these areas, he had a pioneering role, always with exceptional passion and dedication. To name but one example: together with his friend Belá Bartók he worked on a ten volume reference guide to Hungarian music, which appeared from 1951 with each volume spanning more than a thousand pages.
Yet, Kodály gained acclaim for his compositions as well, with his Psalmus hungaricus (1923) en his opera Háry János (1926) as the pinnacles of his musical career. The core of his body of work consists of vocal music, in particular works for choir, but his instrumental music is just as impressive. His master piece Laudes Organi, written one year before his death, truly proves that Kodály's creative energy stayed with him to the bitter end.

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Erwin Schulhoff

Erwin Schulhoff is amongst the composers who have fallen into oblivion, and yet played an important role in the history of music. Dvorak already noticed him when he was a young boy, because of his musical talent and interest in everything new.
Schulhoff was one of the first European composers to find inspiration in jazz. He mainly made use of harmonic and rhythmic elements and dances like the foxtrot, charleston and shimmy. After the First World War, he also embraced the influence of Dadaism and composed a few pieces with absurd elements, such as In futurum, which consists entirely of rests.
In the 1930s, Schulhoff became a sympathizer of communism under influence of his friends, as a result of which he was not permitted to perform in Germany. Due to his Jewish descent and radical politic interests his music became labeled as ‘Entartete Musik’. His communist sympathies also brought him trouble in Czechoslovakia, were he had to work under a pseudonym after the invasion of the Nazis. In 1941, the Soviet Union approved his petition for citizenship, but he was arrested and deported to a concentration camp before he could leave Czechoslovakia.
Schulhoff was admired by his acquaintances, and recognized as a promising, gifted talent. As a pianist he was known as a virtuoso with brilliant technique and a strong touch.

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