The Orchestra Now; Leon Botstein - The Lost Generation: Apostel, Kauder, Busch [CD]

Cat. no: AV2684
Format: CD
Barcode: 822252268423
Release Date: 24 May 2024
Genre: Classical

If you've seen the Leonard Bernstein biopic "Maestro", you've seen and heard The Orchestra Now, the exceptional ensemble that appears in the movie's Tanglewood Music Festival scene

The Orchestra Now (TON), a New York- based graduate- level training orchestra 
comprised of the most vibrant young musicians from around the globe, was 
founded by conductor, educator and music historian Leon Botstein, whose 
insatiable curiosity has resulted in rescuing countless musical works from 
oblivion. Their frst recording for AVIE, "The Lost Generation", brings together 
three German- speaking composers who were contemporaries of Arnold 
Schoenberg and Alban Berg, but whose music became supressed by historical 
events of the 20th century.

In November 2022, Botstein and TON gave the US premiere of Hugo Kauder's Symphony No. 1, a "splendid" work that "made a splash" (New York Classical Review). The largely self- taught Moravian- born composer had a distinguished career in Vienna until he was forced to fee the Nazis and arrived in New York in 1938. The frst of Kauder's fve symphonies was dedicated to Alma Mahler. Whilst his musical language is rooted in the tradition of Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler, he forged an individual voice with his ease and fexibility of harmonic and metrical shifts.

German- born, Austrian composer Hans Erich Apostel studied with Schoenberg and Berg. His works incorporated his mentors' expressionism and 12- tone methods in equal measure. The Nazis deemed Apostel's music "degenerate", but he lived out his life in Vienna until his death in 1972. His Variations on a theme by Haydn, performed frequently in the mid-20th century, is an homage to the second movement of Haydn's Symphony No. 103, the "Drum Roll, which itself comprises variations on a theme.

Adolf Busch, one of the most celebrated violinists and chamber musicians of the 20th century, was also a prolifc composer. A staunch opponent of Nazism, he left his native Germany, arriving frst in Switzerland and eventually the United States in 1939. A late Romantic compositional style imbues his Variations on an Original Theme, originally for piano four hands and presented to his wife as a Christmas present in 1944. Busch's longtime chamber music partner and son- in- law, the pianist Rudolf Serkin, frequently performed the work with his son Peter, who made this orchestration of his grandfather's composition, in a familial labor of love.

Critical Acclaim for The Lost Generation: Apostel, Kauder, Busch

"Maestro Botstein conducted The Orchestra Now with vivacity, accuracy, and commanding expression. Tonight, was a marvellous, adventurous delectation of works rarely heard, packaged with a special treat of the New York premiere of Hugo Kauder's Symphony No. 1. Finally, it was an honour to celebrate the brilliance of composers who kept their creative spirits alive despite the desperate political conditions in their homelands. " – Opening Night 

Tracks: Hugo Kauder: Symphony No. 1: I. Bewegt / II. Sehr mabig bewegt / III. Sehr breit und betragen / IV. Ruhig, streng gemessen / Hans Erich Apostel: Variations on a Theme by Haydn: Theme: Andante piu tosto Allegretto / Variation I: Allegretto / Variation II: Andante cantabile / Variation III: Tagstuck, Pastorale / Variation IV: Vivace / Variation V: Adagio / Variation VI: Vivace / Variation VII: Nachtstuck, in Kubins Manier / Variation VIII: Andante cantabile / Variation IX: Allegretto / Adolf Busch: Variations on an Original Theme

More From This Artist: Leon Botstein The Orchestra Now