Ernest Bloch - Symphony in E flat major; Evocations (Andrey Boreyko)

Information

Composer: Ernest Bloch

• Symphony in E flat major
• Evocations, symphonic suite
• Trois poèmes juifs, for large orchestra

Malmö Symphony Orchestra

Andrey Boreyko, conductor

Date: 2002

Label: BIS

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Review

Three Bloch works from the beginning (1913), middle (1937) and end (1955) of Bloch's life.

'Steady as she goes' might be the watchword of Bis in planning and implementing their composer series - no hectic rush of releases - just a steady trickle: one every four or five years. This Bloch disc, the third from the von Bahr stable, uses the same band as the other two ringing the changes with the conductor.

Bloch, Genevan born, studied variously with Thuille, Ysaye and Knorr. His early works (including those on a Timpani CD I reviewed a couple of years ago) have greater communicative immediacy than his later ones. The Symphony, his last major orchestral work, is far too objective to be memorable. It redeems itself with an allegro deciso finale that reaches out in nobility: this is Bloch the philosopher and humanist (words taken from his memorial plaque). Even so this is not a work that I want to return to at all frequently. Contrast this with the symphonic suite Evocations. Here, Bloch, with creativity blessed and goaded by Chinese art, writes music bronzed by, and radiating, glowing light. The phantasmal lacy tapestry of this music places it alongside that of Ravel and Vaughan Williams (try the latter's Flos Campi) and, in its more luxurious moments, Charles Griffes. Evocations was a popular title used by Carl Ruggles and Charles Martin Loeffler, among others. The Trois poèmes juifs are Bloch back on semitic song. It was written for the Bostonians in 1913. This is a work of symphonic length if not cohesion. Its three movements (Danse, Rite, Cortège Funèbre) are along the same axis as the more monochromatic aspects of Respighi's Vetrate di Chiesa and the humanist spirituality of Vaughan Williams' symphonies 3 and 5. The missing element is the raging and deckle-edged violence of the Violin Concerto and of Schelomo. You do not need Bloch's programme notes for the Poèmes. Come to this music without suggested mindsets. I am sure that you will appreciate it better without such 'props'.

The other two Bloch orchestral items in the BIS/Malmö uniform series are: Symphony in C sharp minor and Schelomo (BIS-CD-576 conducted by Lev Markiz) and Violin Concerto, Poems of the Sea, Suite Symphonique (BIS-CD-639 conducted Sakari Oramo).

Good notes by Per F. Broman supporting one rather thin-lipped example of 1950s objectivity (the symphony) and two where the composer's well-stocked imagination reaches out with eloquence.

— Rob Barnett

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Ernest Bloch (July 24, 1880 – July 15, 1959) was a Swiss-born American composer known for blending post-Romantic and neoclassical styles with Jewish musical themes. He studied in Switzerland and Belgium, taught at the Geneva Conservatory, and moved to the U.S. in 1916. Bloch became the first director of the Cleveland Institute of Music and later led the San Francisco Conservatory. He taught at UC Berkeley until retiring in 1952. Bloch's compositions, influenced by Debussy, Mahler, and Ravel, include Schelomo, Baal Shem, Avodath Hakodesh, Concerto Grosso No. 1, and Israel Symphony, among others.

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Andrey Boreyko (born 22 July 1957) is a Polish-Russian conductor. Born in Saint Petersburg and trained at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, he gained early recognition at conducting competitions in Katowice (1987) and Amsterdam (1989). Boreyko served as Music and Artistic Director of the Warsaw Philharmonic (2018–2024) and held leadership roles with several orchestras including the Artis–Naples, Hamburger Symphonies, Berner Sinfonieorchester, Düsseldorf Symphoniker, Winnipeg Symphony, and Orchestre National de Belgique. His discography include works by Shostakovich, Pärt and Silvestrov, among others.

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