World premiere recordings of piano works by Jaromír Weinberger, including his Second and Third Piano Sonatas, Valses Nobles, Gravures and three arrangements from Schwanda, the...

World premiere recordings of piano works by Jaromír Weinberger, including his Second and Third Piano Sonatas, Valses Nobles, Gravures and three arrangements from Schwanda, the Bagpiper, performed by Gottlieb Wallisch.

REVIEW:

Most music lovers probably only know the opera Svanda Dudak (Schwanda, the Bagpiper) by Jaromir Weinberger (1896-1967), if at all. The Prague-born composer, who fled from the Nazis into American exile, suffered from this during his lifetime. I wonder if that’s why he committed suicide. What is certain is that after the war he was unable to regain a foothold either in his new homeland or in Europe, and that he became depressed as a result of constant failures and health problems. After various hospital stays, Jaromír Weinberger took his own life in 1967 in St. Petersburg (Florida) with sleeping pills.

The piano works that can be heard on this CD were written between 1915 and 1926. They have a French touch, are elegant and rhythmically original. They can be somber and thoughtful, but very often they are playful and even humorous. Above all, they are very imaginative and imaginatively composed. Gottlieb Wallisch plays these works with equal spirit and spontaneity.

This well-recorded collection is really worth owning.

-- Pizzicato (Remy Franck)