Composer: Pál Hermann
Performer: Nicholas Horvath, Dimitri Malignan, Elizaveta Agrafenina, Sára Gutvill, Irina Scheelbeek-Bedicova, Paul van Gastel, Pierre Mak, Reine-Marie Verhagen, Inês d’Avena, Dante Jongerius, Punto Bawono, Olena Zhukova, Olena Matselyukh, Jean-Pierre Dassonville, Matthieu Walendzik, Sadie Fields, Mikko Pablo
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata Classics
Catalogue: TOCC0623
Release: 2024
Size: 605 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Allegro for Piano
02. Toccata for Piano
4 Épigrammes for Piano
03. No. 1, Allegro
04. No. 2, Andante in modo arabo
05. No. 3, Allegro assai
06. No. 4, Allegro ma non troppo
Pièces pour piano à 4 mains
07. No. 1, Andante
08. No. 2, Tempo giusto, ben ritmico
09. No. 3, Andantino
10. No. 4, Allegro risoluto
11. No. 5, Moderato assai
12. No. 6, Tempo di Jazz
13. No. 7, Allegro non troppo
14. 7 Kippen hebben wij
Suite für Blockflöten
15. I. Andante
16. II. Andantino
17. III. Allegro
18. Sarabande for Lute
Divertissement for Harpsichord
19. I. Toccata
20. II. Interludio
21. III. Gigue
22. Inventio for Organ
23. Allegretto for Horn & Piano
24. La ceinture
25. La dormeuse
26. Ophélie
27. Somebody’s Wrong
6 Moments musicaux, Op. 94, D. 780
28. No. 3, Allegro moderato
29. Grande valse brillante, Op. 18, B. 62
Even the various recorded collections devoted to the music of Jews murdered during World War II haven’t touched much on Pál Hermann, a Hungarian who fled to France, tried to teach in Vichy France on forged papers, and was caught with fatal results. The neglect may be due to the fact that Hermann was better known as a cellist than as a composer and was even called the Hungarian Casals. However, the music on this album, and the two earlier ones in the series, reflect a composer of rare gifts. Hermann did not, from the evidence here, have a distinctive style, but he put unusual spins on the Hungarian and French neoclassic sounds in the air at the time. Sample the Quatre épigrammes for piano solo of 1934, which carry influences from both Bartók and Kodály without sounding much like either. There is a set of straight neo-Renaissance pieces for recorders, a three-movement Divertissement for harpsichord that expands on Baroque models in a not-quite-Stravinskian way, and several marvelous songs, including a five-voice canon in Dutch. The “Tempo di Jazz” movement in the Pièces pour piano à quatre mains and the arrangement of the popular song Somebody’s Wrong for violin and cello bespeak a deeper acquaintance with American popular rhythms than most of Hermann’s contemporaries had. Those interested in Hermann as a cellist may wish to explore the first volume in this Toccata Classics series, which includes an unfinished but now completed cello concerto by the composer, but there is plenty to hear on this release as well, and the label has assembled competent interpreters across a wide variety of music. Well worth the money (for the detailed booklet notes alone) and time.
Pál Hermann, born in Budapest in 1902, was not only one of the leading cellists of his generation; he was also an important composer, one of the major figures in Hungarian music in the generation after his teachers Bartók and Kodály. But since only two of his works were published before his early death – in 1944, at the hands of the Nazis – and many more of them were lost, he has not had the esteem that he deserves. The works on this second volume of his surviving compositions – mostly chamber works for strings, several in their first recordings – have the wiry humour, sprung and spiky rhythms and Hungarian melos that mark him out as a worthy successor to Bartók – and hints at how much was lost with his murder.