Bloch is of course best known for his �Jewish � works�you can hear this in the finale of the Viola Suite, and perhaps most potently as the finale of the Four Episodes. Scored for piano, wind quintet, and strings, the performance here is wonderfully colorful and alive. Hiver-Printemps is one of Bloch�s earliest pieces, a pair of short tone poems that does exactly what the titles say: offer musical portraits of winter, and then spring. The style is impressionist, the scoring pellucidly lovely.
This is one of those discs that, by virtue of its unfamiliar repertoire, might easily be overlooked, but don�t make that mistake. You�d be missing excellent performances of very high-quality, enjoyable music� --ClassicsToday.com, July 2007
A fascinating and highly rewarding collection, involving two soloists, two orchestras and, in the case of the Four Episodes, scored (in 1926) for a combination of string quintet, wind quintet and piano. The most striking Episode is the well-named Humoresque macabre, while in the second, Obsession, Bloch spiritedly anticipates minimalism with the same five-bar motive repeated two dozen times, in continuous variation. The pastoral Calm, with its shepherd�s pipe, suggests nature, and the closing Chinese evocation is piquantly exotic. The Two Poems are earlier (1905) and are appropriately titled in French, for there is an atmospheric warmth and transparency to the scoring which has influences from both Debussy and Ravel. But perhaps the highlights are the two late concertante works; the charming three-movement Concertino for violin and viola (1948) ends with a fugue which then gives birth to a lively polka. The Suite Modale, with a serene ancient-and-modern flavour, was written in 1956, three years before the composer�s death�an engagingly nostalgic reverie, interrupted by a bright central Gigue. The performances here are excellent, all very persuasively directed by Dalia Atlas; they are splendidly played and given top-quality Naxos sound. A disc not to be missed. --Penguin Guide, January 2009 ***
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