IDAGIO | Toch: Violin Sonata No. 1 - Cello Sonata

Featuring

Spectrum Concerts Berlin
Ernst Toch

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Historical Context

Ernst Toch's String Trio, Op. 63, written in 1936, is considered an 'exile work' because it helped him regain equilibrium after fleeing Nazi Germany, but also went unheeded for years, only being published in 1955.

Composer Biography

Ernst Toch, the composer, taught himself composition by transcribing Mozart string quartets and composing based on classical themes, then comparing his results to the masters.

Compositional Technique

The Adagio elegiaco by Ernst Toch is a commemorative piece based on a motif derived from the letters of the surname Fuchs (F, C, H, Es – F, C, B natural, E flat in German musical notation), which is quoted verbatim eleven times.

Compositional Technique

In his Divertimentos and Cello Sonata, Ernst Toch uses the term 'intermezzo' for central movements in the late Brahmsian sense, indicating a deliberate understatement and a limitation of musical material.

Performer Biography

Annette von Hehn, a violinist on this recording, plays the Yfrah Neaman Stradivarius, which is on loan from the Neaman family.

Composition History

Ernst Toch's First Violin Sonata, Op. 21, was affectionately called 'Brahms's Fourth' by his friends, both for its stylistic inspiration and because it completed Brahms's trio of sonatas with one in E major.

Historical Context

Many musicians to whom Ernst Toch dedicated his works, such as cellist Emanuel Feuerman and the Vienna String Quartet, emigrated from Germany or Austria to the United States or Palestine due to the Nazis, just as Toch did.