After fleeing Nazism, composer and ethnomusicologist Walter Kaufmann fled to India, where he became a music director at All-India Radio. His multi-ethnic training and career shows up in the chamber music here, and although he was certainly on the conservative side of the 20th century spectrum, the result was a distinctive mix. Kaufmann sounds by turns like Dvorák, like Bartók (listen to the "Allegro barbarico" finale of the String Quartet No. 11), and, in the concluding Septet, like Shostakovich, although the music veers ...
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After fleeing Nazism, composer and ethnomusicologist Walter Kaufmann fled to India, where he became a music director at All-India Radio. His multi-ethnic training and career shows up in the chamber music here, and although he was certainly on the conservative side of the 20th century spectrum, the result was a distinctive mix. Kaufmann sounds by turns like Dvorák, like Bartók (listen to the "Allegro barbarico" finale of the String Quartet No. 11), and, in the concluding Septet, like Shostakovich, although the music veers off into an entirely different kind of lyricism. All of the music here was written while Kaufmann was working in India, and influences from those traditions are present as well, although mostly in terms of the melodic modes rather than the intricate rhythms and improvisatory structure. The ARC Ensemble adjusts well to the shifts in Kaufmann's musical references, and there are melodic episodes that will stick with the listener long after they are heard. Part of Chandos' "Music in Exile"...
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