ERNEST BLOCH (1880-1959): Symphony in E Flat, 3 Jewish Poems, Two Symphonic Interludes from the Opera Macbeth.

Catalogue Number: 07Q007
Label: Naxos
Reference: 8.573290
Format: CD
Price: $11.98
Description: Bloch's final symphony was composed at his Agate Beach compound in Oregon in the last decade of his life. Originally intended to be a third Concerto Grosso, this four-movement, 25-minute work inhabits the same world of economy, relative reserve and rigorous neo-classicism of those pieces. In Memoriam (1952), is a brief elegy for the pianist Ada Clement which manages to say much sparingly in its five minutes. From the other end of Bloch's long career are two Technicolored, film-score like compilations of music written for his opera Macbeth (1903-1910), whose opulent orchestration, extreme dynamic levels and passionate climaxes will delight lovers of Decaying Romanticism. Likewise the Jewish Poems of 1913, whose exotic modalities typical of the Eastern Mediterranean are artfully combined with western forms and tonality to give us an erotic "Danse", a "Rite" which wraps a hieratic procession around a central sacrificial act and a closing "Cortège funèbre", an intense expression of grief at the death of the composer's father. Royal Philharmonic Orcestra; Dalia Atlas. Original 1997 ASV release (01-011).