Ernest Bloch’s music is unabashedly pictorial and emblematic of late Romantic-era expressionism, with an impressive catalogue of works, many of which draw deeply on his Jewish faith. Alto Records returns these benchmark recordings of three of Ernest Bloch’s greatest works, composed during the twentieth century’s second decade, to international availability, including the Vanguard recording of Schelomo with cellist Zara Nelsova and the Israel Symphony under the direction of one of Bloch’s greatest artistic champions, Maurice Abravanel.
“Bloch’s Schelomo rates alongside his violin-and-piano suite Baal Shem as his most popular work. Zara Nelsova (born Sara Katznelson in Winnipeg) was among Schelomo’s most devoted and impassioned exponents (Bloch thought she was his music and called her ‘Madame Schelomo’), having recorded it at least three times, twice with the LPO (under the composer himself. then with Ernest Ansermet conducting) and latterly this impressive stereo recording from 1967 with the Utah Symphony under Maurice Abravanel, whose handling of the lavishly ornate orchestral score rivals Stokowski (with cellists Emanuel Feuermann and George Neikrug) in its impact. It’s a vivid reading on all counts and shares disc space on a recent Alto reissue with an impressive 1993 recording by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under James Sedares of the Trois Poèmes juifs (1913), dedicated to the memory of Bloch’s father, especially apposite in the closing ‘Funeral Procession’… If you fancy tipping a toe into Blochian waters, then this is the ideal place to start.”
—Rob Cowan, Gramophone (February 2024)
“Bloch’s Israel Symphony is a large-scale work anticipating the Hollywood film composers’ styles for biblical epics… the vigour and spontaneity of Abravanel’s Utah performances… transferred to CD with great success.”
-Penguin Guide
“Nelsova’s Schelomo, with Abravanel’s support, is a fitting setting for the cellist who was Bloch’s own choice for the work.”
-Gramophone
“The Three Jewish Poems hints towards Respighi’s Roman triptych (then yet to be composed)… Bloch’s subtly coloured canvasses seem custom-built for an age increasingly attracted to late-romantic musical tone-painting. We are therefore greatly indebted to Sedares for these clear-headed, sensitively turned performances, extremely well engineered. Anyone with a taste for atmospheric evocations cannot fail to enjoy”
-Gramophone
