Jiao Chen & Valerio Losito - Robert Lach: Sonatas & Lyrische Stücke for Viola d'Amore and Piano (2016) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Sonata No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36: I. Moderato, assai cantabile ed espressivo
02. Sonata No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36: II. Adagio molto espressivo
03. Sonata No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36: III. Allegro assai sempre scherzando. Trio, molto cantabile ed espressivo
04. Sonata No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36: IV. Allegro con brio
05. Sonata No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 25: I. Moderato assai, molto espressivo
06. Sonata No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 25: II. Andante sostenuto e molto espressivo
07. Sonata No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 25: III. Scherzino, allegretto scherzando. Trio, moderato assai
08. Sonata No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 25: IV. Allegro ma non troppo
09. Sonata No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 66: I. Moderato
10. Sonata No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 66: II. Andante molto sostenuto
11. Sonata No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 66: III. Allegro assai quasi presto
12. Sonata No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 66: IV. Allegro assai molto energico
13. 9 Lyrische Stücke, Op. 23: I. Idylle
14. 9 Lyrische Stücke, Op. 23: II. Humoreske
15. 9 Lyrische Stücke, Op. 23: III. Romanze
16. 9 Lyrische Stücke, Op. 23: IV. Barcarole
17. 9 Lyrische Stücke, Op. 23: V. Elegie
18. 9 Lyrische Stücke, Op. 23: VI. Cavatine
19. 9 Lyrische Stücke, Op. 23: VII. Legende
20. 9 Lyrische Stücke, Op. 23: VIII. Ballade
21. 9 Lyrische Stücke, Op. 23: IX. Gavotte



Robert Lach (1874-1958) is another name almost lost to history and now partially rehabilitated by Brilliant Classics. At least it will now be possible to hear the creative voice of this law-student turned ethnomusicologist whose more-than-cultural interest in German Nationalism produced many collections of vernacular material such as folksongs as well as a strong association with Hitler’s National Socialist Party. In fact he was a stern critic of his colleagues’ slavish attempts to link racial theory to musicology with panegyrics to Wagner and Bruckner, and his interests remained primarily academic, as attested by his painstaking work in catalogueing the collection of musical manuscripts in the National Library of Vienna.

Lach’s own compositions include eight masses, ten symphonies, twenty-five string quartets and a great deal of other instrumental music, but little of his music has been published beyond his songs, a genre in which he was no less prolific. His historiographical enthusiasms may now be freshly appreciated with this new recording of the sonatas he wrote for an instrument which was long obsolete even by the late 19th-century, the viola d’amore. The instrument’s noon came in the Baroque era: Biber, Scarlatti and Vivaldi all wrote sonatas, though as late as 1756, Leopold Mozart could remark that it sounds ‘especially charming in the stillness of the evening.’

Valerio Losito has demonstrated the particular qualities of the viola d’amore on two previous Brilliant Classics releases, of solo music from the Baroque period (94367) and sonatas by Scarlatti (94242). Lach, however, was composing in a richly Romantic idiom comparable with the late music of Brahms, and his three sonatas date from 1913-22, being thus doubly archaic in style. The album is completed with nine Lyric Pieces (1920-23) which explore Romantic moods and characters, as their titles reveal (Idylle, Humoreske, Romanze, Barcarole, Elegie, Cavatine, Legende, Ballade, Gavotte).

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