On this 2014 BIS release, Terje Tønnesen and the Camerata Nordica present four works for string orchestra that represent the early modernist period, which is increasingly being explored by ensembles trying to break out of the limitations of programming Romantic repertoire. A comparatively new addition is Rudolf Barshai's 1945-1955 arrangement of selections from Sergey Prokofiev's brooding and mysterious Visions fugitives, a collection originally written for piano, though some of the pieces work surprisingly well in this ...
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On this 2014 BIS release, Terje Tønnesen and the Camerata Nordica present four works for string orchestra that represent the early modernist period, which is increasingly being explored by ensembles trying to break out of the limitations of programming Romantic repertoire. A comparatively new addition is Rudolf Barshai's 1945-1955 arrangement of selections from Sergey Prokofiev's brooding and mysterious Visions fugitives, a collection originally written for piano, though some of the pieces work surprisingly well in this medium. Paul Hindemith's utilitarian Five Pieces for string orchestra was a work intended for students, as part of his Schulwerk series for instrumentalists, and it is cast as five studies in the neo-Baroque style he favored in the 1920s. Anton Webern's highly concentrated and expressionistic Five Pieces were originally composed in 1909 for string quartet, though the composer expanded the ensemble for this 1929 arrangement. The Divertimento of Béla Bartók was composed in 1939 in...
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