Ernst Toch and extra, 2023

This Week in Classical Music: December 4, 2023.  Ernst Toch and extra.  Erns Toch, the Jewish-Austrian composer, was born on December 7^th of 1887 in Leopoldstadt, a poor, largely Jewish space in Vienna.  Toch was one in every of a gaggle of Austrian and German composers whose lives had been upended by the rise of Nazism (Arnold Schoenberg, Franz Schreker, Karl Weigl, Egon Wellesz, Hans Gál, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Berthold Goldschmidt, all Jewish, largely forgotten besides after all for Schoenberg, all proficient if to a distinct diploma, had their lives damaged in 1933).  One factor we discover attention-grabbing is the convenience with which they moved from Austria to Germany.  These had been two very completely different empires, one, declining, dominated by the peace-seeking Emperor Franz Joseph from Vienna, one other – very a lot on the ascent, economically, politically and militarily, dominated by the boastful and insecure Keiser Wilhelm II.  However musicians thought nothing of shifting from one nation to a different, from Vienna to Berlin and again, conducting in Hamburg or Leipzig one 12 months after which returning to Austria, educating at Berlin’s Hochschule für Musik after which at Universität für Musik in Vienna.  They usually didn’t want permission to work so long as positions had been obtainable.  Musically, the pre-WWI Austria and Germany had been one house, much more so than they’re now.

Toch was at his most efficient within the Nineteen Twenties, when he wrote the Concerto for Cello and Chamber Orchestra, Bunte Suite, two quick operas, many chamber items and piano music.  Right here’s Bunte Suite, whose refined humor reminds us of the music of one other Austrian composer, Ernst Krenek.  The Suite is carried out by the Karajan Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Cornelius Meister conducting.  You’ll be able to examine Toch’s life after Hitler assumed energy in final 12 months’s submit.

Jean Sibelius was additionally born this week, on December 8^th of 1865.  We have now to confess that we’re not huge followers of the Finnish composer, however his one-movement Symphony no. 7, is a masterpiece.  Although it’s his shortest, about 23 minutes lengthy relying on efficiency, it took Sibelius 10 years (from 1914 to 1924) to finish.   Throughout that point, he managed to finish two extra symphonies, nos. 5 and 6.  Right here’s the Seventh, carried out by the Berlin Philharmonic underneath the course of Herbert von Karajan.

Whereas Sibelius will not be one in every of our favorites, Olivier Messiaen, born on December 10^th of 1908, clearly is.  We’ve written about him on a number of events and can get again to the good French grasp quickly.  Additionally this week: Henryk Górecki, a Polish composer whose minimalist symphonies grew to become very talked-about with audiences worldwide, born on December 6^th of 1933, and César Franck, the composer of the most effective violin sonatas, on December 10^th of 1822.