American Piano Music

Josef Tal was an Israeli composer- and a student of Paul Hindemith- who is considered one of the founding fathers of Israeli art music. His catalog, which consists of more than 100 works, is not very well known. The viola works especially are almost unrecorded, and are here released as a testimony of music written during World War II through the present day. Not only is Harmut Rohde an extraordinary viola player and conductor, he is also Professor at the Royal Academy in London as well as a worldwide traveling artist. He writes: "I met Josef Tal when he was 94 years old. Our encounter was like a journey into an unsettling past, marked by a great number of hardships and upheavals he had personally endured. It also offered a revealing glimpse into the outlook of composers in Israel, as well as previously in Germany- even into compositional approaches from many eras he did not live through himself. Throughout our collaboration, Josef Tal proved to be a great thinker: not just an analyst, but also an interpreter who consistently sought to bring out the emotional aspect in music. He ascribed a decisive role to that which lies "between the notes." I like to call such an approach Durchhoren, i.e. "hearing through the music." It can open many marvelous avenues for the performer, particularly in music which does not seem emotional or Romantic at first glance."