Moritz Moszkowski - Orchestral Music Vol. 3 (Ian Hobson)

Information

Composer: Moritz Moszkowski

• (01) Overture in D Major
• (02) Suite d’orchestre No. 1, Op. 39
• (15) Prélude et Fugue for String Orchestra, Op. 85

Sinfonia Varsovia

Ian Hobson, conductor

Date: 2022

Label: Toccata

https://toccataclassics.com/product/moritz-moszkowski-orchestral-music-volume-three/

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Review

André Previn once said to me that ‘just because a composer likes to write a sound that ravishes the ear doesn’t automatically make him a second-class composer’. Yet when was the last time you saw an orchestral work by Moszkowski feature on a concert programme? The relatively early (c1872) Overture that opens Vol 3 of this enterprising and valuable series would make a splendid curtain-raiser.

The orchestral Suites Nos 2 and 3 on Vol 2, which I welcomed in December 2020, are followed here by Suite No 1, written in 1885. It lasts a shade over 42 minutes. This is its premiere recording. If the title page said ‘by Tchaikovsky’ – and, at times, it very well might – it would have wide currency by now. It consists of five movements: an opening Allegro molto e brioso, succeeded by a jaunty Allegretto giojoso which, heard out of context, you would swear was from the golden era of English light music half a century later. Then comes a theme and (eight very short) variations, admittedly varied in interest. You might wish, for instance, that Moszkowski had tried a little harder in Var 6, a thought quickly dismissed by the charming string pizzicato of Var 7. The fourth movement is an Intermezzo, after which comes a final Perpetuum mobile. Your reviewer became acquainted with this movement many years ago by way of an ancient 78 from 1930 conducted by Walter Damrosch with the National Symphony Orchestra (not the present NSO of Washington DC but the predecessor of the NBC Symphony Orchestra). It’s a six-minute tour de force for the orchestra. As Martin Eastick in his excellent booklet reminds us, it has much in common with the finale of Moszkowski’s Violin Concerto from four years earlier. What’s not to like?

This and the Prelude and Fugue for strings (1910) which concludes the album are the only pieces here to have been recorded previously, the latter by the Ulster Orchestra under Richard Howarth (nla) and the Wrocław Chamber Orchestra Leopoldinum under Ernst Kovacic (CD Accord). Hats off to Ian Hobson and his players, a team that is confidently and stylishly immersed in Moszkowski’s instantly recognisable idiom. No lost masterpieces, to be sure, but for those with a sweet tooth and a taste for music of sunny exuberance, high spirits and optimism, this third volume is unmissable.

-- Jeremy Nicholas, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2022/Jan/Moszkowski-orchestral-v3-TOCC0598.htm

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Moritz Moszkowski (23 August 1854 – 4 March 1925) was a German-Jewish composer, pianist, and teacher of Polish descent on his paternal side. Although less known today, Moszkowski was well respected and popular during the late nineteenth century. Among his teachers are Eduard Franck, Friedrich Kiel, and Theodor Kullak. Moszkowski was quite prolific, composing over two hundred small-scale piano pieces, which brought him much popularity. He also wrote larger scale works including two Piano Concertos, a Violin Concerto, three orchestral suites, and a symphonic poem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moritz_Moszkowski

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Ian Hobson (born 7 August 1952 in Wolverhampton) is an English pianist, conductor and teacher, and is a professor at Florida State University. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music, Magdalene College, Cambridge, and Yale University in the United States. His teachers included Claude Frank, Ralph Kirkpatrick and Menahem Pressler. Hobson won silver medals in the Arthur Rubinstein and Vienna-Beethoven competitions and first prize in the 1981 Leeds International Pianoforte Competition. He has performed in many countries with many orchestras, frequently conducting from the keyboard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Hobson
https://www.ianhobson.net/

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