Elzbieta Sternlicht concludes her foray
into the piano works of little-known
Polish composer Jozef Koffler in this
second volume. Exterminated with his
family in Auschwitz, his work hasn’t
been heard until now. With works the
public saw as unapproachable and sterile,
he was held in low esteem during his
lifetime; his work all but vanished
after his death.
These pieces, sensitively
and ably played, call to mind the atmosphere
of Hindemith, contrapuntal and occasionally
brittle, but never uninteresting. None
of the works here is very long — the
Musique de ballet Op. 7’s four
pieces clocks in at just under ten minutes.
Swaying between Hindemith’s sonic world
and the swagger of Prokofiev’s piano
miniatures, these movements doff a hat
on occasion to dance music of the time.
Two sets of variations
are on this disc, the first, dedicated
to Schoenberg, most strongly shows that
influence. Variations on a theme
of a twelve-tone series is sparse,
angular and introspective. As a sort
of palate cleanser, Four Pieces for
Children affords a change of tone.
Here, the harmonies are less sharp,
but in listening to them, they likely
wouldn’t appeal to the kiddies so much
as to the teacher. The Variations
on a waltz of Johann Strauss follow.
Making an appearance here in spirit
is Mompou, calling to mind especially
Mompou’s Chopin variations, though
here we skip the theme and proceed immediately
to the variations, which from the outset
move the Strauss theme into a far cooler
realm.
The disc time is rather
short at only forty minutes, but the
music is interesting, of quality, and
performed well. As I mentioned in my
review of volume one, it appears that
we will be seeing quite a bit of non-standard
repertoire from Poland in the coming
months. If they are of the quality of
this release, we have a great deal of
good listening to look forward to.
David Blomenberg
see also review
of Volume 1
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