Jerzy Fitelberg - Chamber Works (ARC Ensemble)

Information

Composer: Jerzy Fitelberg

• String Quartet No. 1
• Serenade for Viola and Piano
• Sonatine for Two Violins
• String Quartet No. 2
• Nachtmusik, Op. 9 "Fisches Nachtgesang"

ARC Ensemble

    Joaquin Valdepeñas, clarinet

    Erika Raum, violin

    Marie Bérard, violin

    Benjamin Bowman, violin

    Steven Dann, viola

    Bryan Epperson, cello

&

Kara Huber, piano

Date: 2015

Label: Chandos

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Review

The Fitelberg you may have heard of is Grzegorz, also a composer but better-known as conductor and transcriber of Szymanowski, and orchestrator of Karowicz. Jerzy was his son, who predeceased his father in 1951, having studied in Berlin, fled from the Nazis to Paris and finally settled in New York from 1940.

The chamber works recorded here reveal a composer of broadly neo-classical orientation, who places no obstacles before the listener, but without descending into triviality. The First String Quartet (1926) is pungently Stravinskian, with some clear lifts from The Soldier’s Tale. Seven years on the Second Quartet – later scored for string orchestra – was awarded a prize by the Association des Jeunes Musiciens Polonaise, and it’s not hard to see why its more lyrical, Gallic poise, with a touch of Bartók-lite, should have appealed to a jury comprising Ravel, Schmitt, Roussel and Honegger.

The Sonatine for two violins of 1939 is less technically demanding and has no pretentions to the kind of substance of, say, Prokofiev and Weinberg’s works in this medium. Equally unpretentious is the wartime Serenade for viola and piano. Finally, the five-minute Nachtmusik, hauntingly scored for high cello, clarinet and celesta, shows the more mystical side of Fitelberg as a teenager – could he have heard Schoenberg’s Herzgewächse?

Together these pieces, all claimed as first recordings, make for an appealing introduction to a modest but gifted composer, especially in these refined performances by the Royal Conservatoire of Toronto’s adventurous in-house ensemble, all beautifully recorded.

— David Fanning

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Jerzy Fitelberg (20 May 1903 – 25 April 1951) was a Polish-American composer and the son of conductor Grzegorz Fitelberg. Born in Warsaw, he began studying music with his father and later studied in Moscow and at the Berlin University of the Arts under Walter Gmeindl and Franz Schreker. His Violin Concerto gained international recognition at the 1929 International Society for Contemporary Music concert. After fleeing the Nazis, Fitelberg lived in Paris before emigrating to New York in 1940. His works received prestigious awards, including the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Award and an American Academy of Arts and Letters prize.

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Founded in 2003 by Canada's Royal Conservatory of Music, the ARC (Artists of the Royal Conservatory) Ensemble has become one of the country's leading cultural ambassadors, earning Grammy, Juno, and OPUS Klassik nominations. Dedicated to reviving music suppressed by 20th-century repressive regimes, ARC aims to correct historical neglect and reshape our understanding of musical heritage. Its acclaimed "Music in Exile" series and international performances have reintroduced many forgotten works to the repertoire. The ensemble has appeared at prestigious festivals and venues worldwide.

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