Martinu, Krasa & Kalabis - Harpsichord Concertos
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Label: Hyperion
Cat No: CDA68397
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Release Date: 3rd February 2023
Contents
Works
Concerto for harpsichord and strings, op.42Kammermusik for harpsichord and 7 instruments
Harpsichord Concerto, H246
Artists
Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord)Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor
Alexander LiebreichWorks
Concerto for harpsichord and strings, op.42Kammermusik for harpsichord and 7 instruments
Harpsichord Concerto, H246
Artists
Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord)Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor
Alexander LiebreichAbout
Mahan Esfahani’s first concerto album for Hyperion is everything the listener could wish for: definitive performances of three marvellous – and unexpected – works by three of the last century’s Czech masters.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Martinů: Concerto for harpsichord and small orchestra, H246 (1935): 1. Poco allegro
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2Martinů: Concerto for harpsichord and small orchestra, H246 (1935): 2. Adagio
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3Martinů: Concerto for harpsichord and small orchestra, H246 (1935): 3. Allegretto
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4Krása: Kammermusik for harpsichord and 7 Instruments (1936): 1. Bewegt
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5Krása: Kammermusik for harpsichord and 7 Instruments (1936): 2. Sehr ruhig (gehend)
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6Kalabis: Concerto for harpsichord and string orchestra, op.42 (1975): 1. Allegro leggiero
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7Kalabis: Concerto for harpsichord and string orchestra, op.42 (1975): 2. Andante
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8Kalabis: Concerto for harpsichord and string orchestra, op.42 (1975): 3. Allegro vivo
Europadisc Review
Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani has made quite a name for himself with an ongoing series of outstanding Bach recordings, together with other discs championing more neglected repertoire. His latest disc for Hyperion is clearly a labour of love. Previously based in Milan and then London, Esfahani now lives in Prague, and this release contains three harpsichord concertos by 20th-century Czech composers: Bohuslav Martinů, Hans Krása and Viktor Kalabis. It’s also a tribute to Esfahani’s final teacher, the great Czech harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková (1927-2017), who was married to Kalabis for more than half a century, and for whom he wrote his Concerto for harpsichord and strings (1975).
The programme unfolds chronologically, opening with Martinů’s Concerto for harpsichord and small orchestra (three violins, single lower strings, flute, bassoon and piano). Composed in 1935, a couple of years before the composer’s opera Julietta, it reflects Martinů’s fascination in the 1930s with the Baroque concerto grosso. The combination of harpsichord and piano is one used by C.P.E. Bach, but here it’s the contrast between harpsichord and the other instruments that seems to provide the driving force, with the piano taking a ‘mediating’ role.
The Concerto opens with a glorious short tutti before the soloist makes a spirited entrance. The combination of lightly sprung rhythms and chunky harmony is a Martinů hallmark, and the players (including pianist Ivo Kahánek) relish the nutty textures, while allowing space for the more lyrical pages to open out. Esfahani deploys finely-judged rubato to bring out the expressive qualities of the solo writing, while tackling the more virtuosic passages head on. The lovely central Adagio is very special, with an extended dreamy circle-of-fifths sequence, and a harpsichord cadenza containing deliciously spicy crushed dissonances. The concluding Allegretto is a happy affair, with the piano having its spot in the limelight before the eventual entry of the harpsichord soloist, alternating between virtuoso passagework and more relaxed, popular idioms. Despite the modest forces, this is a work with underlying symphonic qualities, and Esfahani and his colleagues from the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Alexander Liebreich give us a performance which, with excellent and well-focused modern sound, is surely the finest it has enjoyed on disc.
Krása (1899-1944), a German-speaking native of Prague who perished in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, is best known today for his children’s opera Brundibár, which, following Krása’s 1942 incarceration in the Theresienstadt ghetto, received over 50 performances there making use of the available forces. Following Brundibár’s rediscovery in the 1980s, Krása’s other surviving works came to light, among the last of which (in the mid-1990s) was the Kammermusik for harpsichord and 7 instruments (compsoed a year after Martinů’s concerto). A two-movement work, it is superficially part of the mid-century neoclassical movement, but with the added influence of jazz (the score features an alto saxophone alongside clarinets, as well as a trumpet, cello and double bass).
Cast in two movements, it features a spiky first movement marked Bewegt (lively), with involved fugal passages for the three clarinets. The demeanour is often restless, with textures dominated by wind solos (the trumpet in particular, excellently played by Marek Vajo), while the harpsichord frequently provides a rhythmically driven, broken-chord underlay. If the first movement is indebted to the concerto grosso genre with a modern twist and pungent harmonies, in the more relaxed second movement (based on a popular song that Krása had written some years earlier) there is an undertow of sadness, longing and nostalgia, alternating most effectively with livelier jazzy passages. This is a work that needs a collegial approach, and under Liebreich’s steady direction, that’s exactly what Esfahani and his Prague colleagues provide. The result is a uniquely haunting work which deserves far wider appreciation.
Outwardly, Kalabis’s 1975 three-movement Concerto for harpsichord and string orchestra might seem more conventional in terms of its forces and formal design, but that is to underestimate the powerful command of sonority and motivic development that is evident throughout this marvellous work. From the icy clockwork of the Concerto’s opening, the music moves to an evocation of cimbalom-style folk idioms in the extended first movement cadenza, and a searingly intense central Andante (here taken at a generously spacious tempo, thus maximising the extraordinary dissonances of the final bars). The contrasts between jagged, driven fast sections with a ghostly central episode, reinforce the impression of a powerfully expressive musical language. It combines a mordant wit with an underlying refusal to compromise and a reflective close that is enormously compelling.
Esfahani and his colleagues deserve huge congratulations in bringing these three works together, and the Kalabis performance in particular should earn many new admirers for one of the most distinctive Czech musical voices of the later 20th century. For any fans of Czech music, and for those ready to explore the world of harpsichord concertos beyond Bach and Poulenc, this is a tremendously attractive disc.
Reviews
Crisply recorded, this is a most attractive disc – thoughtful, trim, tensile and brilliantly communicative. […] this disc is a winner.MusicWeb International
this new album from Mahan Esfahani is an unalloyed joy from first chord to last. Martinů, Krása and Kalabis all on one programme: what’s not to like? ... the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra’s accompaniment is sensitive and ideal, and Esfahani plays like an angel. Guy RickardsGramophone February 2023
You would hear some robust words from Mahan Esfahani if you dared suggest the harpsichord wasn’t an attractive solo instrument for a concerto – but even he will admit that in the 20th century it took a special kind of composer to write one for it. The latest addition to Esfahani’s eclectic discography highlights three of them, all Czech, all grappling in their time with how to make something modern using an instrument so strongly associated with the past. It’s an ear-opening recording. ... In all three works, Esfahani’s unfussy yet attention-grabbing playing strikes sparks off the musicians of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and their conductor, Alexander Liebreich. Erica JealThe Guardian 2 February 2023
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