Voices in the Wilderness: Cello Concertos by Exiled Jewish Composers

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Through a series of new recordings with CPO, cellist Raphael Wallfisch goes on a personal journey to rediscover the forgotten cello music of exiled Jewish composers who escaped Fascism and the Third Reich. The series will include premiere recordings of cello concerti by Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Weigl and Reizenstein, and Bloch’s Symphony for Cello and Orchestra. With conductor Nicholas Milton, Wallfisch has joined forces with the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra and Deutschland Radio. This is the first release in the series, featuring the works of Hans Gal and Castelnuovo Tedesco. Gal had a productive career as director of Mainz Conservatory. With the rise of Nazism, his career came to an abrupt end when he was dismissed from his post due to his Jewish ancestry. He eventually fled to England, and wrote his cello concerto in 1944. Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco migrated to the USA in 1939 following the Italian Racial Laws, which banned his music from radio and live performances. Castelnuovo-Tedesco thrived in the US, becoming a prominent film composer an dusing his Jewish heritage for inspiration. Piatigorsky premiered Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s concerto in New York in 1935, conducted by Toscanini.