Viktor Ullmann was one of the most promising composers of his generation, and he would have achieved greater renown had he not been gassed by the Nazis at Auschwitz in 1944. Comparatively little of his music has been recorded, though his seven piano sonatas have received the most exposure, chiefly because of their appeal to pianists seeking new, exciting repertoire. Christophe Sirodeau's two-CD set on BIS joins María Garzón's album of four of the sonatas on Heritage, and Jeanne Golan's complete cycle on Steinway & Sons, ...
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Viktor Ullmann was one of the most promising composers of his generation, and he would have achieved greater renown had he not been gassed by the Nazis at Auschwitz in 1944. Comparatively little of his music has been recorded, though his seven piano sonatas have received the most exposure, chiefly because of their appeal to pianists seeking new, exciting repertoire. Christophe Sirodeau's two-CD set on BIS joins María Garzón's album of four of the sonatas on Heritage, and Jeanne Golan's complete cycle on Steinway & Sons, increasing the works' availability to an audience that previously might have only heard of Ullmann through collections of Jewish music composed in the concentration camps. Ullmann wrote his first four sonatas while he lived in Prague, and the final three were written in Theresienstadt (Terezin), where he was allowed some freedom to compose and play music with other prisoners. The music reflects his deepest influences, which included Arnold Schoenberg (acknowledged in the Variations and...
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