Disc Details

Contents

Work Title	Composer
Schelomo: Hebrew Rhapsody	Ernest Bloch	Listen
Voice in the Wilderness: Symphonic Poem (Voix dans le desert)	Ernest Bloch

Reviews

• Strongly emotive musical aura of Bloch's 1916 Hebraic rhapsody...
  'Voice in the Wilderness' [...] pursues a similarly exotic style, though this six-movement symphonic poem ostensibly covers a wider range of moods, from the solemnity and despair of the opening, to the calm contemplation of the close.
  Erik Levi, BBC Music Magazine, 01 September 2012
• Schelomo ('Solomon') grew from a project to set verses from the book of Ecclesiastes but Bloch later opted for a purely instrumental realisation. The cello takes on the king's personality, meditating that 'All is vanity', the orchestra sometimes appearing to reflect these melancholy thoughts, at others portraying the barbaric splendour of Solomon's court.
  Natalie Clein's performance concentrates, most affectingly, on the atmosphere of deep introspection.
  Clein is highly sensitive to the emotional import of Bloch's modal inflections; this enables her to find exactly the right character for each of the scenes 'From Jewish Life'.
  'Voice in the Wilderness' has a most original form. Each of its six sections is introduced by the orchestra, after which the cello enters to meditate on the ideas we've just heard. Natalie Clein encompasses all the work's varied character and demands while retaining an air of polish in her playing.
  Duncan Druce, gramophone.co.uk, 01 September 2012