ERNEST BLOCH (1880-1959): Concerto symphonique for Piano and Orchestra, Concerto grosso No. 1 for String Orchestra with Piano Obbligato, Scherzo fantasque for Piano and Orchestra.

Catalogue Number: 02J012
Label: Hännsler Classic
Reference: CD 93.192
Format: CD
Price: $18.98
Description: Bloch's large-scale concerto of 1947-48 receives its fourth recording and first since late 2003. In three movements, all basically fast (a relentless pesante opening with a baleful six-note motif; a percussive scherzo which Bloch himself called a danse macabre whose trio provides the only slower, but hardly serene, music of the concerto; and the tumultuous, martial finale), the piano functions both as soloist and, in quasi-obbligato fashion, as a member of the orchestra. As if Bloch had more of this piece in him than he had room for in the concerto, he produced the Scherzo in 1949 in much the same wild, forceful and rhythmically insistent spirit. Jenny Lin (piano), Kaiserslautern Radio Orchestra; Jirí Stárek.