Chamber pieces from Hans Koessler and Emanuel Moór

Hungaroton Classic

The greatest virtue of the album is that it offers a more complex picture of the composer whose bigoted conservatism is usually mentioned in parallel to his outstanding professional skills.

On the disc there are two pieces composed by Hans Koessler –who was the teacher of Bartók and Kodály at the Academy – a trio from 1922 and a piano quintet from 1913. Although they are written in a musical language of 50 years earlier, still, the music is permanently in motion, it displays interesting harmonic shifts and hot musical colours. Moór’s Cello Sonata written on the turn of the century is a less showy piece, though the composer, who worked for Károly Flesch, Kreisler and Ysaye, was admired by Casals.
The two Austrian violinists (David Frühwirth and Christoph Ehrenfellner) and the French violist (Genevieve Strosser) are in perfect harmony with the Hungarian performers (Péter Szabó – cello and Zsuzsa Kollár – piano).

VT

Translation by Susan Kapás

Gramofon
January 2005