Rathaus, Tiessen & Arma: Sonatas for Violin & Piano

Featuring

Judith Ingolfsson
Vladimir Stoupel
Karol Rathaus
Heinz Tiessen
Paul Arma

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Performer Biography

The Duo Ingolfsson-Stoupel's performance of Paul Arma's Sonata for violin and piano was hailed as the 'sensation of the evening' by Deutschlandfunk.

Recording & Production

Paul Arma's Sonata for violin and piano, written in 1949, appears on CD for the first time with this recording, using notes made available by Arma's family.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Heinz Tiessen, one of the first to apply the term 'expressionism' to music, opposed atonality, believing that even the most remote harmonies could be grouped around a tonic.

Composer Biography

Heinz Tiessen, born in Königsberg in 1887, studied law and philosophy alongside music, and was a founding member of the Society for Contemporary Music in 1922.

Composer Biography

Karol Rathaus, born in Tarnopol (then Austria-Hungary) into a Polish-Jewish family, had his studies interrupted by World War I, serving four years in the Austrian army.

Composer Biography

Paul Arma, born Imre Weisshaus in Budapest, studied with Béla Bartók and gave up a successful career as a pianist in the US to work as a conductor in Germany, where he was subjected to a mock execution by the Gestapo.

Composition History

Karol Rathaus's Sonata for violin and piano No. 1, Op. 14, composed in 1925, was dedicated to the renowned German music critic Walter Schrenk, who called Rathaus 'the greatest hope of modern music.'