Composer: Hermann Grädener
Performer: Karen Bentley Pollick
Orchestra: National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine
Conductor: Gottfried Rabl
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0528
Release: 2019
Size: 1.34 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 22
01. I. Allegro moderato
02. II. Larghetto
03. III. Finale. Allegro non tanto
Violin Concerto No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 41
04. I. Allegro non troppo
05. II. Andante
06. III. Finale. Rondo capricioso
The German-born, Vienna-based Hermann Grädener (1844–1929) is yet another composer whose music, esteemed in its own time, has since slipped between the floorboards of history. Yet this first recording of his two violin concertos – substantial works both, downstream from Brahms, and with a hint of Sibelius – prove him to have been one of the more important Romantics, with a strong sense of drama, a sure hand for musical architecture and a natural flair for extended melody. The conductor of this recording, Gottfried Rabl, discovered Grädener’s scores in the secondhand section of a Viennese music-shop many years ago and now, joined by the American violinist Karen Bentley Pollick, they are releasing this first album in a series intended to put Grädener’s music before the modern public for the first time.