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Viktor Ullmann – The Complete Works for Piano Solo

Composers
Genres
Performers
Instruments
Periods
Label
Catalogue numberBIS-2116 CD
Release date2014-06-01
Discs2
Orig. sample rate44100Hz
Total time125:01

Clef d'Or 2014, ResMusica.com
"Tipp”, Fono Forum
5 diapasons, Diapason

“In addition to the extraordinarily high quality of the performances, the sound quality of this set is simply spectacular.” Fanfare; “French pianist Christophe Sirodeau plays with considerable understanding and much probing depth." American Record Guide

Set up for propaganda purposes as a ‘model Jewish settlement’, the Theresienstadt concentration camp has become a symbol of the immense cynicism that the Nazi regime was capable of. At the same time, the composers and artists incarcerated there, and their endeavours to continue their creative work under such conditions, have come to be regarded as a shining example of how art can transcend life and its everyday realities. While acknowledging all of this, Christophe Sirodeau in his illuminating liner notes states his own aim in making this recording: ‘Viktor Ullmann should be studied and played not as a victim of the Nazis but on his own merits, which in my opinion earn him an illustrious place in twentieth-century music.’ Although the release of this two-cd set of Ullmann’s piano music coincides with the 70th anniversary of the composer’s death, it is thus rather intended as a celebration of his life and work as a composer – from the Schoenberg Variations, which in their very first incarnation saw the light of day in 1929, to Piano Sonata No. 7, completed a few weeks before Ullmann’s final deportation and death in Auschwitz. The seven piano sonatas sum up the composer’s highly individual style, on the edge of both the traditional tonal system and of Schoenberg’s method. The first four, composed in Prague before Ullmann’s deportation, pay tribute respectively to Mahler, Janácek, Mozart and, more obliquely, Bartók. But also in the three sonatas that he wrote in Theresienstadt, Ullmann includes references to other composers and compositions. Most impressively this occurs in the Finale of the Seventh, entitled Variations and Fugue on a Hebrew Folksong. The imposing closing fugue also makes conspicuous use of the BACH motif, a Hussite chorale and the Lutheran chorale Nun danket alle Gott, testifying, in Christophe Sirodeau’s opinion ‘to a desire to reaffirm – faced with the Nazi refusal to accept Jews who had been integrated into German culture for centuries – that he, Viktor Ullmann, was completely devoted to the long-lasting German cultural heritage’ – under the circumstances a true composer’s gesture of resistance.
 
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$ 25.51
 
Extra material for download
 
 
Disc 1
 
  Composer: Ullmann, Viktor
  Piano Sonata No.1, Op.10 (1936) 15:09
01 I. Molto agitato 05:23 $ 1.13 USD
02 II. In memoriam Gustav Mahler. Andante (quasi marcia
funebre)
05:47 $ 1.21 USD
03 III. Adagio – Presto 03:59 $ 0.84 USD
 
  Piano Sonata No.2, Op.19 (1938–39) 11:24
04 I. Allegro energico e agitato 03:40 $ 0.77 USD
05 II. Thema. Moderato (Mährisches Volkslied) – Variationen
1–9
03:32 $ 0.74 USD
06 III. Prestissimo 04:12 $ 0.88 USD
 
  Piano Sonata No.3, Op.26 (1940) 15:30
07 I. Allegro grazioso, ma agitato 04:19 $ 0.91 USD
08 II. Scherzo. Allegro violente (Prestissimo) 03:11 $ 0.67 USD
09 III. Variationen [1–7] über ein Thema von Mozart (KV3)
– Fuge. Allegro giocoso
08:00 $ 1.68 USD
 
  Piano Sonata No.4, Op.38 (1941) 16:51
10 I. Allegro vivace – Mäßige Achtel 07:17 $ 1.53 USD
11 II. Adagio 06:02 $ 1.27 USD
12 III. Finale. Vivace molto – Presto 03:32 $ 0.74 USD
 
 
Disc 2
 
  Composer: Ullmann, Viktor
  Piano Sonata No.5 ‘Von meiner Jugend’, Op.45 (1943) 16:42
01 I. Allegro con brio 04:59 $ 1.05 USD
02 II. Andante – Più adagio 05:01 $ 1.05 USD
03 III. Toccatina. Vivace 00:48 $ 0.17 USD
04 IV. Serenade. Comodo – Più allegro 02:57 $ 0.62 USD
05 V. Finale fugato. Allegro molto 02:57 $ 0.62 USD
 
  Piano Sonata No.6, Op.49 (1943) 11:00
06 I. Allegro molto – Andante poco adagio 03:32 $ 0.74 USD
07 II. Allegretto grazioso 02:46 $ 0.58 USD
08 III. Presto, ma non troppo 02:31 $ 0.53 USD
09 IV. Tempo I (Allegro molto) 02:11 $ 0.46 USD
 
  Piano Sonata No.7 (1944) 23:43
10 I. Allegro. Gemächliche Halbe – Meno. Allegro grazioso 03:36 $ 0.76 USD
11 II. Alla marcia, ben misurato 02:48 $ 0.59 USD
12 III. Adagio, ma con moto – Più andante (a passionata) 04:58 $ 1.04 USD
13 IV. Scherzo. Allegretto grazioso – Trio. Etwas schneller
– Scherzo
04:34 $ 0.96 USD
14 V. Thema, Variationen [1–8] und Fuge über ein
hebräisches Volkslied
07:47 $ 1.63 USD
 
  Variations and Double Fugue, Op.3a (1933–34) on a theme by
Arnold Schoenberg (Op.19/4)
11:09
15 Thema. Rasch, aber leicht – Variationen 1–9 08:02 $ 1.69 USD
16 Doppelfuge. Äußerst rhythmisch, schnell und kräftig –
Thema II (markig, brutal) – Äußerst schnell (Presto
stretto)
03:07 $ 0.65 USD
 
  Album total 125:01
PianoSirodeau, Christophe
ComposerUllmann, Viktor

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