Classical Music: Frederick Block Chamber Works

Frederick Block Chamber Works

Piano Quintet, Op. 19*; String Quartet, Op. 23;
Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 26; Suite for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 73.
première recordings

ARC Ensemble
Erika Raum violin; Marie Bérard violin*; Steven Dann viola; Thomas Wiebe cell.
Joaquin Valdepeñas clarinet
Kevin Ahfat piano

Chandos CHAN 20358
chandos.net

The latest disc in Chandos's 'Music in Exile' series is captivating in numerous aspects, including the composition and the insights gleaned from Simon Wynberg's insightful accompanying notes:

'Friedrich Bloch (Frederick Block once he arrived in America) was born in Vienna in 1899. His father, Sigmund, supported music as a pastime but opposed it as a career. His heart was changed when his son returned home unscathed at the end of World War I, and his financial support enabled the young composer to study, first with the Czech composer Josef Bohuslav Foerster and then with Hans Gál at the University of Vienna.'

Through the 1920s and 1930s, his success grew, and performances and broadcasts of his chamber works led to orchestral premières with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and eventually to opera: his third, Samum, was extremely successful. The Anschluss brought an end to Jewish involvement in Austrian institutions, professional life, and education, and imposed a crippling exit tax on those who could afford to leave. Frederick shipped his piano and personal effects to New York and moved to London before emigrating in 1940.

The Canadian group ARC Ensemble sympathetically and expressively draws out so much of Block’s harmonic writing, which is charming at times; there is much to savour. The ARC’s manage to show off different aspects of Block’s character. There are lots of influences in his writing, as Wynberg points out: Korngold, Mahler, and Strauss, especially in the 1930 Piano Trio No. 2 that begins the recital. There is a lovely adagio and a fine, lively finale with tango.

The pleasant string quartet is charming and has a lot of content within the score, which the ARCs deliver in a style that draws the listener into the sound world.

Joaquin Valdepeñas performs the 1944 Suite for Clarinet and Piano, joined by Kevin Ahfat, in a very agreeable performance, with lots of different moods that both players capture so well.

Bloch’s Piano Quintet begins with an energy-driven first movement where the players skip through the rhythms with fine precision before a captivating second and scintillating third.

All involved deliver outstanding performances, combining dynamics and rhythmic vitality with wonderful tonal qualities, making this an album worth exploring; you might be pleasantly surprised.

Bloch also composed and arranged music for radio, principally for CBS. Sadly, cancer took his life at the age of forty-six.