STEPAN ROSTOMYAN Symphony No. 3 

Stepan Rostomyan (born: 1956) is one of the most significant figures of Armenian contemporary composition, a person who already boasts major international status. In 1989, he was invited to the electroacoustic studio of Glasgow University. This is where he presented his third symphony – commissioned by Paragon Ensemble – for chamber ensemble and tapes at the New Beginnings Festival. It was a sensation. Audiences remain glued to their seats by the atmospheric power of his music. He evokes Armenian church song as the invocation of his work, and later on he weaves in similar themes to the symphony. This archaic musical vision is daringly combined with electronic strings and the pitches of the piano and other acoustic instruments. The quiet meditation is resonant, leading to ecstatic music suggestive of heavenly choirs before arriving at a dramatic highpoint and finally vanishing into infinity, in reconciled euphoria. On hearing the composition, it becomes clear why Rostomyan has become a successful film music writer. 

GYÖRGY LIGETI Bagatelles

GyörgyLigeti composed his piano cycleMusica ricercata between 1951-1953. It is seen (quite rightly) as marking the reboot of his compositional career. In the course of 11 movements, step by step he takes possession of all 12 pitches of the chromatic scale. Ligeti also arranged six movements of the piano series for wind quintet, at the request of Jeney Quintet. Interestingly, the remarkable robust character of the individual movements is even more apparent in this newly scored version: the sparkling humour of No. 1 that toys with jumps between major and minor, the No. 2 lament that predicts the later Ligeti laments, the gentleness of the Serb-Romanian folk melody unfolding above the No. 3 virtuoso ostinato accompaniment (this melody almost became a leitmotif of the Ligeti oeuvre, appearing in his late Violin Concerto,too), the wild Bulgarian-rhythmed dance of No. 4, the No. 5 Bartók lament and the acerbic burlesque of Vivace capriccioso. The final movement proved so audacious that it was not even performed at the world première in April 1956.

ERWIN SCHULHOFF Piano Concerto, Op. 43

Like Kafka and Mahler, Erwin Schulhoff was also born into a German Jewish family living in a Czech cultural environment. As a child, his extraordinary talent was spotted by Dvořák, he studied under Reger and Debussy, among others, and during his college years he was a massive fan of the music of Richard Strauss, as was Bartók. Similarly to Ravel, he also fought in the First World War as a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army. He was traumatized by his experiences and injured on the battlefield. This is when he became a committed left-winger. Given his fate and his origins, throughout his entire life he was characterized by a sense of being an outsider, a sarcastic (self) irony and an openness towards the most diverse stylistic influences. He was a Dadaist and Expressionist, for a time he mixed in Schönberg’s circle, and he corresponded with Berg. He was one of the European composers whose art was influenced earliest and to the greatest degree by jazz. He lived in Berlin and Vienna before returning to Prague. After the annexation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany, he wanted to emigrate to Britain or America, but in the end he received Soviet citizenship. However, as hostilities broke out he was unable to escape to the Soviet Union; tragically, he died of tuberculosis in a Bavarian concentration camp. 

Schulhoff develops huge Romantic tableaux and stupendous highpoints from the Impressionist vision of the first movement of his second piano concerto (‘Concerto for Piano and Small Orchestra’ or ‘alla Jazz’) dating from 1923. One can clearly sense in the virtuoso piano part that Schulhoff himself was an excellent pianist. The influence of jazz is most apparent in the second movement. The closing movement Alla zingaresca is a thrilling finale. The piano concerto is an effective (sometimes perhaps sensationalist) score rich in magnificent orchestral timbre and powerful, frequently astonishing musical concepts; it is the ‘extravagant’ work of a dazzlingly talented composer. Had Schulhoff managed to escape and make his way to Hollywood, he would almost certainly have died a millionaire in his 90s.