Dalia Atlas, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Atlas Camerata Orchestra, Yuri Gandelsman - Bloch: Israel Symphony & Suite for Viola and Orchestra (2014)

Tracklist

01. Israel: I. Lent et solennel
02. Israel: II. Allegro agitato
03. Israel: III. Moderato (Andante grazioso)
04. Suite for Viola and Orchestra: I. Lento - Allegro - Moderato
05. Suite for Viola and Orchestra: II. Allegro ironico
06. Suite for Viola and Orchestra: III. Lento
07. Suite for Viola and Orchestra: IV. Molto vivo



Bloch’s so-called Jewish Cycle – the Israel Symphony, Schelomo, Trois Poèmes Juifs and the String Quartet – earned the composer the kind of esteem in America that had been lacking in Europe. The Israel Symphony, premièred in Carnegie Hall in 1917, is the cycle’s centrepiece and originally intended as a gigantic three-part work, but later reduced in size. Powerful and evocative, it also fuses pastoral and sensuous elements in a rich tapestry. The award-winning Suite for Viola and Orchestra (or piano) is a rhapsodic but cyclical tour de force, a ‘vision of the Far East’, in Bloch’s own words.

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