Thomas de Hartmann (1884-1956): Violin Concerto, Op. 66 (1943) - INSO-LVIV Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dalia Stasevska
Thomas de Hartmann (1884-1956): Cello Concerto, Op. 57 (1935) - MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dennis Russell Davies

This is the first music by Thomas de Hartmann I have ever heard. And there is a great deal to like about it. The Violin Concerto is, as the soloist says in his booklet note, a piece full of emotion. The long first movement has a wonderfully engaging melancholy, with a hint of enigma across the whole, with some wonderful orchestration. The beginning starts out with simple but intriguing chord progressions until the soloist emotionally sings out a tune with intense pain and hurt.

This is a good moment to outline a little about the composer's biography since it is integral to both these pieces. He was born in the Ukraine but travelled widely throughout Europe. Initially trained within Russia, prior to the Revolution, he met the key influences in his life and music in Europe (notably the painter Wassily Kandinsky) and the spiritual teacher Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff in St. Petersburg. These meetings spawned an inspired series of works, including 53 film scores, and while his direct association with Gurdjieff ended in the 1930's, he entered his most prolific period as a composer, living in several different countries before ending his life in the United States in the early 1950's.

Both works on this disc speak to the pain he felt about the harm done to his native Ukraine both by the famines in the early 1930's and its enslavement by the Nazis during their invasion of the Soviet Union in the early 1940's. Though not Jewish himself he felt a strong kinship for the suffering of Jewish communities he knew from his youth, and both works reflect this influence with several melodies strongly reminiscent of Jewish klezmer style.

The Violin Concerto is really a strong work with many wonderful sections. The first movement is expansive and engaging and builds well into a central climax, with an effective, if subdued ending. It is the longest movement of the work and is followed by three varied but always interesting shorter movements, reflecting virtuosic solo passages, and varied orchestration (third movement just solo violin and strings) with a fizzy, exciting final movement incorporating Russian folk melodies into its energetic textures. Joshua Bell provides very strong advocacy for the work, and orchestra and conductor add enthusiastic and precise support.

The Cello Concerto, recorded here in a live performance from 2022, is an earlier work and displays some similar traits to the later concerto. For example, the first movement (the longest again) displays some beautiful melodic sections, with Matt Haimovitz and the orchestral forces making the most of the emotionally moving passages subtly infused with Jewish melodic influences. If I were forced to choose between the two concertos, I would likely plump for the violin concerto, but both make very fulfilling listening with an early 20th century richness of orchestration and relatively straightforward tonal language. 'Lush harmonies' is an accurate description from the booklet, with a middle slower movement full of longing no little sadness, and that is again primarily soloist and strings, and an enjoyable final rondo that ends a very satisfactory listening experience overall.

I have no hesitation in saying both works deserve to be better-known, and they are presented here with excellent performances by all concerned and good modern recording quality. The accompanying booklet contains a good deal of background about the composer, and the works themselves that I found very useful. The two soloists also present short notes about their connection and interest in the pieces.