Ernest Bloch: Visions & Prophecies

Track Listings

1. Visions And Prophecies: Moderato

2. Visions And Prophecies: Poco lento

3. Visions And Prophecies: Moderato-Poco piu animato-Poco piu calmo

4. Visions And Prophecies: Adagio, piacevole

5. Visions And Prophecies: Poco agitato-Piu lento-Calmo

6. Five Sketches In Sepia: Prelude. Moderato

7. Five Sketches In Sepia: Smoke over the City. Moderato-Piu lento

8. Five Sketches In Sepia: Fireflies. Scherzando

9. Five Sketches In Sepia: Uncertainty. Moderato-Poco piu lento

10. Five Sketches In Sepia: Epilogue. Andante sereno

11. Piano Sonata: Maestoso ed energico-Animato-Grave-Moderato-Tempo I

12. Piano Sonata: Pastorale. Andante-Calmo

13. Piano Sonata: Moderato all marcia

14. Enfantines: Lullaby

15. Enfantines: The Joyous Party

16. Enfantines: With Mother

17. Enfantines: Elves

18. Enfantines: Joyous March

19. Enfantines: Melody

20. Enfantines: Pastorale

See all 25 tracks on this disc

Tracks:

Dona, Dona - Ami Flammer
Az Der Rebe - Ami Flammer
Rebe Elimelekh - Ami Flammer
Zilberne Khasene - Ensemble Kasbek
Di Mezinke Oysgegebn - Ensemble Kasbek
Monotonously Rings The Little Bell - Moscow Male Voice Choir
The Fog Is Coming Down - Moscow Male Voice Choir
If Only I Had Known - Lina Mkrtchyan
Cradle Song - Lina Mkrtchyan
Waltz 1 - Dmitry Yablonsky
Little Polka - Dmitry Yablonsky
Waltz 2 - Dmitry Yablonsky
Kalinka - Mixed Choir Of Sofia

Tracks:

Prayer: Andante Moderato - Peter Bruns
Simchas Torah: Allegro Giocoso - Peter Bruns
Arie Ach, Ich Fuhl's (Pamina) - Sandrine Piau
Vivace - The Rare Fruits Council
Erbarme Dich - Alison Browner
Nocturne - Kenneth Jean
I. Kaddish - Bernard Kruysen
II. L'enigme Eternelle - Bernard Kruysen
Pezzo Elegiaco - Vovka Ashkenazy
Amen Du Jugement - Reinbert De Leeuw
Prelude - Pablo Casals
Allemande - Pablo Casals
Courante - Pablo Casals
Sarabande - Pablo Casals
Menuets I And II - Pablo Casals
Gigue - Pablo Casals

Average customer rating:

Visions

Manufacturer: Albany Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000006PCR
Release Date: 1998-05-26

Tracks:

Visions and Prophecies: Moderato
Visions and Prophecies: Poco Lento
Visions and Prophecies: Moderato
Visions and Prophecies: Adagio, piacevole
Visions and Prophecies: Poco agitato
Visions and Prohecies: Ex-Voto
Five Pieces for Piano: Pastorale
Five Pieces for Piano: Intermezzo
Five Pieces for Piano: Capriccio agitato
Five Pieces for Piano: Canzonetta
Five Pieces for Piano: Toccatta
Piano Sonata No. 2: Epitaph
Drei Klavierstucke: Massige
Drei Klavierstucke: Massige
Drei Klavierstucke: Bewegte
The Palestinian Notebook: Two Yemente Dances
The Palestinian Notebook: Yiddische Hochzeit
The Palestinian Notebook: Wiegenleid
The Palistinian Notebook: Horra

Visions and Prophecies: piano music of Ernest Bloch

Average customer rating:

A convenient selection of Bloch's piano works - though not all the best pieces are included and the reading is sometimes flawed

Visions and Prophecies: piano music of Ernest Bloch

Manufacturer: Chandos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000640BJ
Release Date: 2002-05-21

Tracks:

Visions And Prophecies: Moderato
Visions And Prophecies: Poco lento
Visions And Prophecies: Moderato-Poco piu animato-Poco piu calmo
Visions And Prophecies: Adagio, piacevole
Visions And Prophecies: Poco agitato-Piu lento-Calmo
Five Sketches In Sepia: Prelude. Moderato
Five Sketches In Sepia: Smoke over the City. Moderato-Piu lento
Five Sketches In Sepia: Fireflies. Scherzando
Five Sketches In Sepia: Uncertainty. Moderato-Poco piu lento
Five Sketches In Sepia: Epilogue. Andante sereno
Piano Sonata: Maestoso ed energico-Animato-Grave-Moderato-Tempo I
Piano Sonata: Pastorale. Andante-Calmo
Piano Sonata: Moderato all marcia
Enfantines: Lullaby
Enfantines: The Joyous Party
Enfantines: With Mother
Enfantines: Elves
Enfantines: Joyous March
Enfantines: Melody
Enfantines: Pastorale
Enfantines: Rainy Day
Enfantines: Teasing
Enfantines: Dream
In The Night
Nirvana

Customer Reviews:

A convenient selection of Bloch's piano works - though not all the best pieces are included and the reading is sometimes flawed .......2007-02-26

In 1990 Marco Polo published 2 CDs comprising the complete piano music of Ernest Bloch, played by the Hungarian pianist Istvan Kassai (see my reviews of Bloch: Complete Piano Works, Vol.1 and Ernest Bloch: Piano Works (Complete) Vol. 2). That collection came as a Godsend to the Bloch devotee, as until then Bloch's piano music had been difficult to find, seldom recorded (though the CDs didn't really claim credit for it, Kassai even boasted no less than five world premiere recordings - and one of those, the Four Circus Pieces, remains to this day the only one) and scattered on various LPs.

Disappointingly, this initial release did not really spawn a revival of interest in the piano music of Bloch and no flurry of recordings followed: other than two recordings of the magnificent Piano Sonata, which came in motley collections (see my reviews of John Jensen on Music & Arts Carl Ruggles, Ernest Bloch, Paul Reale, Larry Lipkis: Piano Sonatas and other works and Myron Silberstein on Connoisseur Silberstein plays Franck, Bloch and Giannini), and a few other pieces here and there, the "Blochite" had very little to feed on. This situation remains to me an enigma, as Bloch's piano music strikes me as one of the most original and hauntingly beautiful of the first fifty years of the 20th century. Some say that Bloch didn't write idiomatically for the piano and that his compositional thought and textures were too orchestral. But why should a composer avoid writing trills and tremolos and reduce the piano to a skeleton? Some influences can be heard - whiffs of Scriabin, Ravel and Debussy emerge here and there - but Bloch has integrated them in a highly personal style. He makes full use of all the coloristic possibilities of the instrument and puts them at the service of an intensely Blochian sound-world, in turn mysterious and sensuously "Jewish-Oriental", and starkly powerful, evoking (by Bloch's own admission) a fantasized world of the Old Testament.

Anyway, Fingerhut's selection, recorded at the end of 2001, is the only real competition to Kassai's two discs. Bloch's output for the piano was produced basically at two period of his life: in the early 1920s, as he was established in the US ("Nirvana", "In the Night" and the "Five Sketches in Sepia" date from that period), and then in 1935-6, with the Piano Sonata and the suite "Visions and Prophecies" (actually a reworking of his symphonic piece "Voice in the Wilderness"). Left out from Fingerhut's selection are the "Four Circus Pieces" (1922), the three "Poems of the Sea" (1922), the Sacred Dance (1923), and the early Ex-Voto (1914).

Interpretively, I feel that Fingerhut is at her best in the more atmospheric pieces. She excels in the short hushed and mysterious tone-poems "Nirvana" and "In the Night", where her finely controlled pianissimos (playing as if the music came from a distance) and resonance-producing pedalling convey a fascinating sense of mystery. Likewise in the "Five Sketches in Sepia" she is much more atmospheric and appositely moody than the here relatively leaden Kassai ("moods" was the title Bloch initially considered for the pieces). On the other hand, in "Visions & Prophecies" she gives an impression of agitation and misses the stark grandeur of the pieces, which in turn Kassai captures convincingly.

Whereas all these pieces are short or collections of short, evocative miniatures ("Nirvana", the longest, is 6:15), the Piano Sonata is the piece of substance, in turn sensuously evocative and angrily pounding. In the first movement Fingerhut's reading is similar to Kassai's to a fault (and to the second), with the same forward-moving and rather earthbound and perfunctory introductory "Maestoso ed energico" and the same moderately paced "animato" but with careful attention to the details of dynamics and articulation. But neither Fingerhut nor Kassai are a match here for the outstandingly poetic and passionate Myron Silberstein. In the central "Pastorale" Fingerhut displays more subtle nuances and more haunting atmosphere than the Hungarian pianist, but a comparison with Silberstein shows that she lacks a sense of dramatic animation in the passages where tension builds up. Like Kassai she takes the Finale at the metronome tempo indicated by Bloch, which imparts it the feeling of a grandiose solemn march rather than (as in Silberstein's more animated pace) a triumphant one. She doesn't quite have the muscle power of Kassai and blurs some coloristic details (like the grace notes at 0:08 into the movement). Later on she tends to press the tempo and saturate the textures. There is more stark grandeur at Kassai's steadier tempo.

All things weighted, the interpretive pluses and minuses are equally shared then between the Chandos selection and the Marco Polo complete traversal. For the Bloch completist like me the choice is easy: I have both. But the less committed and more discriminating music lover may be faced with a conundrum as to which one to go for. The inclusion in Fingerhut's selection of the 15-minute Enfantines - as its title implies, a collection of 10 pedagogical pieces for children, and hardly the most significantly Blochian work of its composer, instead of more typical and substantial stuff like the Poems of the Sea or Danse Sacrée, or even the mischievous and dazzling Four Circus Pieces, works against the Chandos release and in favor of Kassai, as do the invaluable notes from Suzanne Bloch, the composer's daughter and Bloch authority, which grace the Marco Polo survey. But the availability of these two discs seems to have become episodic. In their absence Fingerhut's offering is welcome as a serviceable introduction to the magnificent piano music of Ernest Bloch.

Ernest Bloch: Piano Works (Complete) Vol. 2 - Ex-Voto (1914) / Sonata (1935) / Dance Sacrée (1923) / Visions & Prophecies (1936) - Istvan Kassai

Average customer rating:

despite some flaws in the interpretation, an indispensable acquisition for the Bloch devotee
Ex Voto - A brilliant work of bloch
Short Timing, Clattery Piano, Undistinguished Playing

Ernest Bloch: Piano Works (Complete) Vol. 2 - Ex-Voto (1914) / Sonata (1935) / Dance Sacrée (1923) / Visions & Prophecies (1936) - Istvan Kassai

Manufacturer: Marco Polo
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Dances | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000024OOH
Release Date: 1992-12-17

Tracks:

Assez Lent
Maestoso Ed Energico
Pastorale
Moderato Alla Marcia
Andante Con Moto
Moderato
Poco Lento
Moderato-Poco Piu Animato
Adagio, Piacevole
Poco Agitato

Customer Reviews:

despite some flaws in the interpretation, an indispensable acquisition for the Bloch devotee.......2007-02-24

The two CDs comprising this collection of Ernest Bloch's complete piano music came as a Godsend to the Bloch devotee back in the early 90s. Bloch's piano music was difficult to find, seldom recorded (there are even two world premiere recordings on this volume 2, though the disc nowhere claims credit for it: Ex Voto and Danse sacrée; the companion disc, Bloch: Complete Piano Works, Vol.1, has four), and scattered on numerous different LPs. Given the quality and originality of Bloch's piano music, that situation comes to me as an enigma. Some say that Bloch didn't write idiomatically for the piano and that his compositional thought and textures were too orchestral. But why should a composer avoid writing trills and tremolos and reduce the piano to a skeleton? Some influences can be heard - whiffs of Scriabin and Debussy emerge here and there - but Bloch has integrated them in a highly personal style. He makes full use of all the coloristic possibilities of the instrument and puts them at the service of an intensely Blochian sound-world, in turn mysterious and sensuously "Jewish-Oriental" and starkly powerful, evoking (by Bloch's own admission) a fantasized world of the Old Testament.

That said, if the Sonata (for which I have done a score-in-hand, detailed discographic comparison) may serve as a yardstick, Kassai appears to be serviceable but lacking poetry. While the "animato" section of the first movement is suitably muscular (though not very animated in tempo and sometimes giving the impression of plodding) and shows good attention to all of Bloch's details of articulation, Kassai's reading lacks sensuousness and atmosphere in the passages that call for them. He is perfunctory and earthbound as well as metronomic in the "Maestoso ed energico" opening of the first movement and also, given his forward-moving tempo, curiously jaunty (the 1:41 it takes him to get through the section, compared to Myron Silberstein's 2:07 on a Connoisseur CD, are quite telling). In the middle Pastorale he lacks nuance and tempo flexibility and hence, sensuousness and atmosphere. In the finale Kassai follows exactly the metronome marks of Bloch and carefully observes the composer's "pesante" and "marcato" indications, playing with impressive power and muscle - but Silberstein shows that adopting a slightly more animated tempo than the composer prescribes and playing the music as a triumphant rather then a grandiose and solemn march can pay dividends, at least superficially, by producing more hair-raising tension, but at the cost of some clarity of detail. Contrary to what the CD back cover claims, the Sonata's movements are not indexed, and the timing given for the first and second movement are wrong, attributing to the first 20 seconds that belong to the second (the two movements are linked without interruption).

Visions and Prophecies inhabit the same stylistic world as the Sonata - no wonder, as they was written a year after, a reworking in fact of the Orchestral suite with solo cello "Voice in the Wilderness". From a more superficial listening than with the Sonata, I find Kassai quite convincing in his rendition of their stark grandeur.

With a thrifty 40', the disc's timing appears very short, but then, totalling an hour and forty minutes, Bloch's complete piano works simply require these two CDs. The two Marco Polo discs also come with authoritative notes by Suzanne Bloch, the composer's daughter, with invaluable personal anecdotes and perceptive analyses of the compositions. The competition is represented by a better-filled Chandos disc by Margaret Fingerhut (Visions and Prophecies: piano music of Ernest Bloch), with a marginally better interpretation of the Sonata, but without the 1914 Ex Voto, a wistfully simple prayer-like melody that was rediscovered in Bloch's papers after his death, and (more regrettably) of the 1923 Danse sacrée, an etude in Scriabin-like trills. Fingerhut is also short of the three 1922 Poems of the Sea and the Four Circus pieces, which are on volume 1 of Kassai's collection.

So, despite the interpretive shortcomings, this is an indispensable acquisition for the serious Bloch devotee, but it needs to be completed with the outstanding recording of the Sonata by Myron Silberstein (Silberstein plays Franck, Bloch and Giannini).

Ex Voto - A brilliant work of bloch.......2005-04-05

Some of the works on this disc are indeed usual, not exciting enough (esp. in view of my expectations of the composer of "Schelomo" and "Voice in the Wilderness"), but none of them is really bad, and some are nice. However, don't miss "Ex Voto". That is a real beautiful piece. Being so rare, I would recommend the whole disc only for this work.
And Kassai is a good pianist.

Short Timing, Clattery Piano, Undistinguished Playing.......2004-12-18

Marco Polo is to be praised for bringing Ernest Bloch's piano music into the recording studio. But this, the second and last CD of the series comprising all of his piano music and containing his most important pieces, the Piano Sonata and the suite, 'Visions and Prophecies,' is marred by too-often clueless playing, mediocre sound, and a poorly tuned piano. Adding insult to injury, the tracks on the jewel box back-card do not match those on the CD itself.

The Sonata, written in 1935 and typical of Bloch's tendency to use small motifs that are sewn together in what may at first appear to be haphazard fashion but which really add up to a coherent and organic form, is a protest against what was going on in Europe at the time. As one writer puts it, it has 'the tang of wormwood, hardness and malice.' As such it is not a 'pretty' piece as it makes great use of hard open fourths, minor seconds, sforzando chords, savage rhythms. In three movements, but played without pause, the second section, 'Pastorale' is softer and tries for serenity but its cynical detachment makes it less than lovable and it leads into a brutal finale that is mauled in this performance by István Kassai. I wouldn't feel so strongly about this performance if there weren't the altogether better reading by Myron Silberstein on a Connoisseur Society disc with which to compare it.

The six-movement suite 'Visions and Prophecies,' arranged for piano from a marvelous piece for cello and orchestra, 'Voice in the Wilderness'--and in my book a better work that the popular 'Schelomo'--lasts only about nine minutes and receives a much more acceptable performance.

There are two other short pieces, neither of them terribly important, that fill out this disc that contains only 40 minutes of music.

Pass this one by.

Scott Morrison

Track Listings:

Track Listings

track listings

Track Listings

The Get Together/Elephant Mountain

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.5, Piano Sonata Nos.8 & 23

At the Caravan [Import]

Six Compositions [Box set]

Live Lunch [Live]

Baby Come to Me: The Best of Regina Belle

Andy Williams Live-Christmas Treasures [Live]

Alfredo Catalani: Complete Piano Music/"Impressioni" (10)

A Restful Sense of Urgency

Catwalk

A-Sides

Alberto Vasquez Con Banda la Costeña

16 Exitos con Mariachi

Live From the Inn Club Chicago, Illinois Jan 11, 1957

Invitation to Openness

1. Visions And Prophecies: Moderato
2. Visions And Prophecies: Poco lento
3. Visions And Prophecies: Moderato-Poco piu animato-Poco piu calmo
4. Visions And Prophecies: Adagio, piacevole
5. Visions And Prophecies: Poco agitato-Piu lento-Calmo
6. Five Sketches In Sepia: Prelude. Moderato
7. Five Sketches In Sepia: Smoke over the City. Moderato-Piu lento
8. Five Sketches In Sepia: Fireflies. Scherzando
9. Five Sketches In Sepia: Uncertainty. Moderato-Poco piu lento
10. Five Sketches In Sepia: Epilogue. Andante sereno
11. Piano Sonata: Maestoso ed energico-Animato-Grave-Moderato-Tempo I
12. Piano Sonata: Pastorale. Andante-Calmo
13. Piano Sonata: Moderato all marcia
14. Enfantines: Lullaby
15. Enfantines: The Joyous Party
16. Enfantines: With Mother
17. Enfantines: Elves
18. Enfantines: Joyous March
19. Enfantines: Melody
20. Enfantines: Pastorale