IDAGIO | Dana Zemtsov - Essentia 723385410188

Featuring

Daniel Raiskin
Dana Zemtsov
Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
Béla Bartók
Michael Kugel
Johannes Brahms

Ernest Bloch

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Performer Biography

Daniel Raiskin, the conductor, grew up in St. Petersburg as the son of a prominent musicologist and studied violin, viola, and conducting.

Performer Biography

Dana Zemtsov, the viola soloist, was born in Mexico City in 1992 and received her first music lessons from her parents, both viola players.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Ernest Bloch, composer of Baal Shem, stated that his goal was not to reconstruct Jewish music but to write "good and sincere music" with a personal, Jewish voice.

Historical Context

During the Soviet regime in the 1950s, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra was the first in the Soviet Union to perform works by modernist composers like Stravinsky and Schoenberg, which had been suppressed by Stalin's regime.

Album & Artwork

The album title "Essentia" reflects the soloist Dana Zemtsov's exploration of identity and cultural influences, as well as the spiritual and carnal nature of human beings.

Composition History

Béla Bartók's Viola Concerto was unfinished at his death and was completed by his friend, composer Tibor Serly, who had to decipher Bartók's shorthand and corrections.

Composer Biography

Béla Bartók, the composer of the Viola Concerto, emigrated to the USA in 1940 due to his public aversion to Hitler and Nazism, and died in New York in 1945.