Wonderful works by forgotten musicians

Musicians often feel an inner duty to play. That makes it complicated to fathom economy measures in the Dutch ensemble scene. If subsidies stop, temporary measures are often taken in an attempt to continue (Nieuw Ensemble, Ives Ensemble). You never know whether the wind of 2016 might blow in a more friendly direction.
The Ebony Band, founded in 1990 by the Concertgebouw Orchestra's oboist Werner Herbers, stopped giving concerts in 2007. But it was not the definitive end. The band now focuses on making the music available in which it was always specialised: forgotten European composers between the world wars.
The latest CD, Around Prague, is indeed a collection of wonderful, forgotten works by now more or less unknown composers with exotic names like Alois Hába, Miroslav Ponc, Emil František[#spelling] Burian and Hanns Aldo Schimmerling. All worked in the turbulent 1920s in Prague - in the words of Joseph Roth (Heimweh nach Prag, 1932) "an enchanting city with an impetuous and rapid will to be modern and cosmopolitan.”
Just how colourful the art metropolis Prague was, can be heard in the music on this CD. Take Schimmerling (1900-1967), a pupil of Zemlinsky. His Six Miniatures for chamber orchestra offer a sampler of moods and colours, all equally effectively instrumented. Was this the inspiration for Geert van Keulen's fine orchestration of the Sechs Lieder by Viktor Ullmann? Sensitively sung by Barbara Kozelj, these too [#klopt het NL? en dus de vertaling?]are treasures of originality and contrast. However different the idioms may be, there is a common denominator everywhere. An undertone of melancholy, of sultry and sometimes erupting lust for life, of autumnal colours. Festive and revue-like is the Small Overture by Burian, whose song triptych O Detěch (About Children) sounds like Czech nostalgia. In comparison, Ponc's Five Polydynamic Pieces are strict in form and content, although he too is no stranger to the jazzy avant-garde (The Wedding Party on the Eiffel Tower). Indeed, nearly all these pieces are astonishing to one degree or another. If it's about fame versus oblivion, time is not always the best judge. The Ebony Band proves this time and time again.

Mischa Spel