Joshua Bell adds a Ukrainian concerto
OrchestrasThe American violinist plans to perform a benefit concert on January 10 in Warsaw, conducted by Dalia Stasevska.
The rare attraction will be the Thomas de Hartmann violin concerto, which will be recorded for the first time. De Hartmann (1884-1956) was a Ukrainian musician who became an acolyte of the mystic Gudjieff. Exiled by the Russian revolution and abandoned by his wife when he broke with their guru, he made his living mostly by writing film music and orchestral arrangements. Some of his music has been revived on record by the jazz master Keith Jarrett.
The De Hartmann project has been underway for a while, and it was my privilege to record the Fantaisie-Concerto for double bass: https://toccataclassics.com/product/thomas-de-hartmann-orchestral-music-volume-two/
Here is Dave Hurwitz about a Thomas de Hartmann CD:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evt6pkDy_g8
Mr Hurwitz thinks De Hartmann is ‘a big guy’. He likes simple folky music, and does not hear the mechanistic manner of what he praises.
Here is an old recording of the violin concerto (so, the mentioned ‘first recording’ will be the second, really):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MauZ9WntcY&list=RD9MauZ9WntcY&start_radio=1
Difficult to get a good impression of the music.
There is also a Hartmann piano concerto:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3SetYL3zFA
No time to listen to all of this, I will ask my PA to do that.
I actually came across that recording of the De Hartmann violin concerto earlier…. it confused me a lot because from memory the solo part goes below the range of a violin – all the way down to a concert D3.
The resemblance of the main motif from the piano concerto to a well known Star Wars tune raises a question or two. And it seems you don’t get de Hartmann.
Great. And nice to see Joshua Bell take on something outside the very standard cannon once in a while.
He was never abandoned by his fiercely loyal wife. Gurdjieff pushed them both away. Read “Our life with Mr Gurdjieff” by Thomas and Olga de Hartmann.