Egon Wellesz (1885-1974): Werke für Kammerorchester
Christine Whittlesey, Adrian Eröd, Josef Hell, Ensemble Kontrapunkte, Peter Keuschnig
Persian and Promising: Wellesz
Egon Wellesz was a very important early twentieth-century composer who pursued his own path from his beginnings in the Schönberg circle – a fact no longer a secret at the very latest since the complete edition of his symphonies on cpo. Since Wellesz composed all of his symphonies after 1945 in English exile, double excitement is in store on our new release featuring the early Wellesz of the interwar period – and consisting almost entirely of world recording premieres. With the musical language of Bruckner and Mahler as his point of departure, the young composer gradually left tonality under the influence of his teacher Schönberg and turned to a free, expressive-gestural tonal idiom. But he never really took the step to the strict regularity of twelve- tone technique; he instead remaining true to a widely ranging but always melodically oriented tonality. For Wellesz music was first and foremost the »presentation of the emotive element,« even of »the instinctive nature of emotion« – and this in the most universal sense. His one-act Persian Ballet from the 1920s is an absolute listening must!
Works:
1. Sommernacht für Kammerorchester und Gesang
2. Satz für Kammerorchester
3. Persisches Ballett op. 30
4. Suite für Violine und Kammerorchester op. 38
5. Songs of Return für Sopran und Kammerorchester Nr. 1-4
5. 1. Nr. 1: Where suddenly the wanderer comes
5. 2. Nr. 2: Separate the shirvell'd moon and sightless rides
5. 3. Nr. 3: The stubble was pale
5. 4. Nr. 4: Befriend us fortune
6. Ode an die Musik für Bariton (oder Alt) und Kammerorchester op. 92
Recorded 2009.

Reviews:
"Wie die vorliegende vorzügliche Zusammenstellung fast aller kammerorchestraler Werke Wellesz' demonstriert, schrieb er stets auf höchstem Niveau." (klassik-heute. com)
Released 2010.