CD ECM Records Heinrich Schiff, Peter Eotvos - Friedriech Cerha / Franz Schreker

2003

Heinrich Schiff - violoncel
Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, dirijor Peter Eotvos

Friedrich Cerha - Konzert Fur Violoncello Und Orchester
Franz Schreker - Kammersymphonie In Einem Satz

Cellist Heinrich Schiff delivers a transcendent performance of a cello concerto dedicated to him “in friendship” by Austria’s great composer Friedrich Cerha (born 1926). Cerha’s special combination of stylistic conviction and expressive diversity, much in evidence here, has been attributed to his intense involvement with the Second Vienna School (he is still best known for completing Act 3 of Berg’s ‘Lulu’) . Under Peter Eötvös’s direction the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra explore the variegated textures of Cerha’s concerto and also the rich colours of the Chamber Symphony in One Movement by Franz Schreker (1878-1934).

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Gramophone - Editor’s Choice

A work that both reflects the Straussian opulence of his previous operas and anticipates the impressionistic subtlety of those that followed. Peter Eötvös emphasises the latter and throws the ingenious four-movements-in-one format into constructive relief. With its luminous textures alluringly caught by the superb recording, this is now the version to have and the whole disc offers an unfailingly absorbing listen.
Richard Whitehouse, Gramophone

The Austrian composer and conductor Friedrich Cerha … is best known for completing Act III of Berg’s Lulu, but his own music has travelled little beyond the Austro-German heartland. Which is a shame, because his Cello Concerto, completed in 1996 for Heinrich Schiff, is a work of both substance and originality. Schiff himself is the eloquent soloist here, casting off reams of golden tone in the work’s lyrical central movement and never resorting to coarseness in the more energetic music. … Peter Eötvös conducts the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra in a full-blooded, luxuriant account of Schreker’s masterly late-Romantic score, and both works benefit from a generous but immediate recorded sound.
Matthew Rye, BBC Music Magazine