NI 5730/1

Continental Britons - The Émigré Composers
Wellesz, Spinner, Goldschmidt, Gellhorn,
Tauský, Gál, Seiber, Reizenstein, Rankl

At the time of Hitler’s rise in 1933, Jewish musicians were perhaps Germany’s and Austria’s most important living cultural assets. Of the nearly 70 composers who came to the UK to escape Nazi persecution between 1933 and 1945, some remained permanently, while others stayed for only a short time before moving on to the Americas, South Africa and Australia. By 1938, the Foreign Office had decreed that ‘musicians and minor commercial artists’ were ‘unsuitable’ for entry. Yet composers and performers saw the UK as a haven of liberalism and tolerance...

NI 5724/7

Federico Mompou (1893-1987), Music for Piano

'I always try to make good music. My only desire is to write works in which nothing is missing and nothing is superfluous. I regard as most important in my compositional activity to limit myself to what is essential and avoid getting lost in secondary, unimportant ideas. Some colleagues cannot understand my positioning away from large forms and the traditional concept of music; to me, there is only my form and my concept.'

NI 5729

Hartmann, Eisler - String Quartets

Eisler and Hartmann both emerged out of the late-Romantic and classical traditions to write, in their early works, music that was both satirical and politically engaged. They both equally admired the polyphonic mastery of J.S. Bach and the profound expressive irony of Mahler ...

NI 5728

Hindemith, Ligeti, Nielsen - Wind Quintets

NI 5709/10

George Frideric Handel (1685 - 1759), Messiah

Of all the demonstrations that great art is contained in simplicity, Messiah must be top of the list. Haydn, on hearing it, is said to have wept and exclaimed: "Handel is the master of us all". Beethoven too was impressed: "Go and learn of Handel how to achieve great effects with simple means".