The music of Czech composer Petr Eben was neglected during his lifetime, at least outside of the Slavic countries, but it has received new attention since his death in 2007. The organ was central to his work, which was motivated by a strong religious faith that emerged in the wake of his incarceration in the Buchenwald concentration camp as a teenager in the last stages of World War II. Of Jewish background, Eben uses the organ to evoke what might be called religious-secular imagery; the three works here have sometimes ...
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The music of Czech composer Petr Eben was neglected during his lifetime, at least outside of the Slavic countries, but it has received new attention since his death in 2007. The organ was central to his work, which was motivated by a strong religious faith that emerged in the wake of his incarceration in the Buchenwald concentration camp as a teenager in the last stages of World War II. Of Jewish background, Eben uses the organ to evoke what might be called religious-secular imagery; the three works here have sometimes Christian sources (such as chant) and make religious references -- including, most spectacularly, the biblical "Apocalypse in the Landscape with Horses" movement of Landscapes of Patmos (track 9) -- but they do not seem to express one specific religious faith.The organ tends to inhabit a separate sphere from the instruments accompanying it: percussion in Landscapes of Patmos; trumpet in Okna (Windows), inspired by paintings of Marc Chagall; and orchestra in the more abstract Concerto No....
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