Zemlinsky Cello Sonata

An apt title for this compilation might be ‘Dinner For Two’: vol-au-vents viennois and pasticcio napoletano, followed by the main courses, spit-roast boeuf circassien and Kalbsgoulasch Gmundener Art, offering a choice of spicy or bland, red meat or white; finally mousse au chocolat de Bruges and a helping of zuppa inglese, rounded off with a glass of California tawny port. Frivolous? Maybe. Yet taken together, the compositions on this disc not only present a wide range of recipes for effective and enjoyable chamber music, they also serve as a study in ethics. Is music for culinary delight or spiritual elevation, food for the body or the soul, stuff for the playhouse or the temple? Over the six decades covered by these six compositions, our three composers vary their stance on this question according to changes of taste, socio-political climate, geographical location – or of sheer necessity.