The germanic intelligentsia told he was "too much Russian"; Glinka's "small gang", in fact the famous Fives Group, demanding the return to basics of true Russian music, thought he was too much westernized.... Against those quite conflicting opinions Anton RUBINSTEIN had a great triple professional career : pianist (Liszt's fame only was greater as his own), composer (his lyric works are now rediscovered, such as Der Dämon, adapted from Lermontov and recently directed by Valery Gergiev) and teacher (he was both the pathfinder in symphonic art for composers from Borodin to Tchaikovsky and the fonder of the famous piano Russian School with Rachmaninov and Scriabin)...This new record gathers for the first time the whole of the works originally composed for piano and cello, written in his early days (1851-57) with Hummel and Mendelssohn as models.

PRD/DSD 250 210/11

Two arrangements: one, undertaken by Gustav Mahler and revealed in 1984, of the most famous of Schubert’s 15 quartets, ‘Death and the Maiden’, of which he completed only the second movement Andante, which he in fact conducted in concert. Nowadays, such an expansion charms like the transfer of Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht or Berg’s Lyric Suite to orchestra; the other, attempted many times, finally achieves a soloist-orchestra balance that preserves the Arpeggione‘s divertissement nature. Gaspar Cassadó proposed a version for large symphony orchestra that is somewhat overwhelming in relation to the simplicity of the original text. The present version for cello and strings, of which this is the first recording, offers a viewpoint both concertante and da camera that shows the purity, fraternal élan and timeless character of the cello’s melody to best advantage.

PRD/DSD 250 246

Erwin SCHULHOFF : 8 June 1894 (Prague) - 18 August 1942 (KZ Weissenburg, Bavaria)

In 1926, Schulhoff was at the peak of his glory, his neo-Classical writing has succeeded in blending expressiveness, a playful nature, Bohemian poetics and innovative jazz influences: a clear picture of degenerate music according Goebbels, ten years later..

PRD/DSD 250 203

Little known in the West and victim of anti-Semitic ostracism in the former USSR, the name of WEINBERG, the third great ‘Russian’ composer of the 20th century, after Prokofiev and Shostakovich, seems to be slowly emerging from the shadow of the latter, his protector and friend. Far from being an epigone, he is rather, by his temperament as a symphonist and the importance of his chamber music, the spiritual heir. This part of his vast catalogue, not written to put food on the table, includes 17 quartets, the most experimental body of his work along with his sonatas, those for cello, written with Rostropovich in mind, being henceforth consecrated.

PRD/DSD 250 253

PRD 350 015

Juxtaposition of a youthful, tumultuous and virtuoso sonata (1934), still influenced by Tchaikovsky and Miaskovsky, and his very last score (5 July 1975), for viola, a Winterreise of the composer through his own memories, ending with an homage to Beethoven. This crepuscular work blends direct quotations with parodical, sometimes even derisory, associations. Here, for the first time, it is played on the cello in its original tessitura. Two genre pieces illustrate the fabulous melodic ease of a composer obliged to write a large number film scores and incidental music during his ‘pariah’ period.

PRD/DSD 250 264

Third volume devoted to the chamber music of the Hungarian pianist-composer-conductor, illustrating the late blossoming of a neo- Germanic Romanticism combined with Magyar nationalism in the style of Brahms. Concertante music in the heritage of Liszt, creating a dialogue between the strings treated like an ensemble of soloists. A new tribute paid to a master who made the Hungarian musical scene and his younger colleagues Bartók, Kodály and Weiner internationally famous between the wars.

PRD/DSD 250 268

Violinist, pianist, conductor and composer, Ernest Bloch, first influenced by Strauss then by Debussy, had to live between two worlds: his native Europe, torn by wars and anti-Semitism, and the American mirage offering successes as glorious as they were short-lived. Out of a considerable catalogue, only Schelomo still enjoys constant fervour, whereas its equivalent, Voice in the Wilderness, written 20 years later, still remains little known. This masterpiece exists in two versions: a dialogue both musical and philosophical between piano and cello, and a rhapsody in which the piano gives way to a large orchestra. In the first recording since 1952, Voice in the Wilderness is again heard in its original version along with its vibrant summary, Visions and Prophecies.

PRD/DSD 250 271

Scores from the dawn and inestimable maturity of a master of the orchestra and German opera, from Salome to Rosenkavalier. In his youth (1881-86), he left chamber music worthy of a young prodigy and, in 1940, bequeathed a final page of magic and deadly charm : the Sextet-overture to Capriccio. Their juxtaposition illustrates the art of a post-romantic composer initially listening to Beethovern, Schumann, Brahms before becoming the untiring bard of feminity, agressive with Salome, then of infinite subtlety in the ‘conversations in music’ of his last operas.

PRD/DSD 250 275

To musicologist Antony Beaumont we owe the resurrection of these youthful scores by Zemlinsky, pianist-composer beginning in the fascination or even disturbing influence of Brahms, just like Korngold and the young Schönberg. We discover a short (unfinished?) and stunning masterpiece of chamber music with voice on the first twenty lines of a morbid, mystical poem by Richard Dehmel. Probably written shortly before Transfigured Night, Schönberg's famous sextet, in less than eight minutes it reaches emotional incandescence...

PRD/DSD 250 284