Austria 1945

The album "Hans Gál works for viola and piano" (RecArt 0045) performed by Magdalena Tchórzewska (viola) and Katarzyna Wasiak (piano) contains the only surviving compositions for viola and piano by H. Gál - an Austrian composer at the turn of the 19th / 20th century, a distinguished Viennese and J. Brahms, a lover of F. Schubert's melodies, as well as J.S. Bach, referring in its style to the complex harmonies of modernism of the beginning of the 20th century. Music on the CD, composed during the composer's stay in England in the 1940s, appear for this instrumental viola-like instrument, with the accompaniment of a voice in the equatorial unified dialogue. The work of the composer, which from 1933 to create the "degenerated" category only for years, was reborn anew. This album is the result of many years of cooperation and the artistic activity of discovering and expanding the music of forgotten composers.

A study of Viennese-born composer Ernst Krenek's prodigious output is rather like a study of twentieth century music in microcosm. Krenek moved with ease through the various aesthetic and stylistic changes that marked that turbulent century, taking what he considered the best features of each and fusing them into a new language all his own. Born in August of 1900, Krenek began musical training at the age of 6, and later studied privately with Franz Schreker in Vienna before enrolling for formal training with the same at the Berlin Conservatory in 1920……

Lorin Varencove Maazel was born of American parents in Neuilly, France on March 6, 1930 and the family returned to Los Angeles when Lorin was still an infant. He exhibited a remarkable ear and musical memory when very young; he had perfect pitch and sang back what he heard. He was taken at age five to study violin with Karl Moldrem. At age seven he started studying piano with Fanchon Armitage. When he became fascinated with conducting, his parents took him to symphony concerts, then arranged for him to have lessons with Vladimir Bakaleinikov, then assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.