Search - Christoph Poppen, Isabelle Faust, Paul Meyer :: Karl Amadeus Hartmann: Concerto Funèbre, for Solo Violin & String Orchestra / Symphony No. 4, for String Orchestra / Chamber Concerto, for Clarinet, String Quartet & String Orchestra - Isabelle Faust / Paul Meyer / Munich Chamber Orchestra / Christoph Pop

Karl Amadeus Hartmann is emerging from the obscurity imposed first by his "inner exile" in Nazi Germany and again when postwar fashion ignored his emotionally powerful music. This disc is an excellent introduction to one of the century's major composers. Concerto funèbre, written in reaction to Hitler's occupation of Czechoslovakia, is appropriately bleak, deeply moving in its passionate protest against barbarism, with a solo line that depicts courageous struggle and faltering hope. Isabelle Faust is an impressive interpreter, technically impeccable and digging deep into the moving core of the work. The symphony, also for string orchestra, is as impressive; passionately brooding in the outer movements and alternately playful and stark in the central Allegro. The Chamber Concerto features dazzling clarinet solos (Paul Meyer is stunning, especially in the Kodály-influenced dance sections). It's a big, warmly rhapsodic piece covering a wide range of emotions and sonorities. This is a disc to treasure. --Dan Davis