Gerard Schurmann: Chamber Music, Volume Two

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Excellent performances of lithe music. The string quartets impress: they and the Clarinet Trio are first recordings of works from Schurmann's eighth decade and after. — BBC Music Magazine, October 2014, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 31st Mar 2014
Catalogue No: TOCC0220
Label: Toccata Classics
Length: 65 minutes

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Schurmann, G: String Quartet No. 1

Work length24:56

$6.00

$7.80

Lyris String Quartet

I. Adagio molto cantabile - Allegro

Track length8:23

$2.00

$2.60

II. Allegretto

Track length3:00

$1.00

$1.30

III. Adagio ed espressivo

Track length7:18

$2.00

$2.60

IV. Allegro vivace

Track length6:15

$1.00

$1.30

Schurmann, G: Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano

Work length14:27

$3.00

$3.90

Hakan Rosengren, Clive Greensmith, Mikhail Korzhev

I. Largo - Allegro

Track length5:19

$1.00

$1.30

II. Andante cantabile

Track length4:47

$1.00

$1.30

III. Allegro scorrevole

Track length4:21

$1.00

$1.30

Schurmann, G: Fantasia for Cello and Piano

Work length7:43

$2.00

$2.60

Clive Greensmith, Mikhail Korzhev

Schurmann, G: String Quartet No. 2

Work length18:06

$4.00

$5.20

Lyris String Quartet

I. Moderato

Track length5:37

$1.00

$1.30

II. Presto

Track length2:59

$1.00

$1.30

III. Adagio elegiaco

Track length4:39

$1.00

$1.30

IV. Allegro

Track length4:51

$1.00

$1.30

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About

The Anglo-Dutch composer Gerard Schurmann, born in the East Indies in 1924 and based in the USA since 1981, marked his 90th birthday on 19 January, an event celebrated by this release. Schurmann first made his mark in Britain in the 1940s and ’50s, as a pianist and composer, particularly of chamber music and, later, of film scores, among them Ealing comedies and Hammer horrors.

His concert output is intense, passionate, tightly argued and charged with energy, but also infused with lyricism, as these four pieces demonstrate. Schurmann has taken the idea of ‘late quartets’ rather further than Beethoven: these first two numbered quartets date from his ninth decade.

The Lyris Quartet described as ‘radiant’, ‘excellent’ and ‘powerfully engaged’ by Mark Swed in The Los Angeles Times, was founded in 2008, the culmination of years of collaboration between its members in many different Los Angeles ensembles. Clive Greensmith, cello, joined the Tokyo String Quartet in 1999 and has performed with the group in the most prestigious venues and concert series across the United States, Europe, Australia and the Far East. Grammy-nominated Swedish clarinetist Håkan Rosengren has performed as concerto soloist throughout Europe and the USA and in Brazil, China, Israel and South Korea. Mikhail Korzhev, piano, is equally active as a solo recitalist, chamber musician and orchestral soloist. In 2006, as a winner of the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition he gave a recital in the Konzerthaus in Vienna.

Reviews

October 2014

Excellent performances of lithe music. The string quartets impress: they and the Clarinet Trio are first recordings of works from Schurmann's eighth decade and after.

9th October 2014

Their most striking characteristic is a warm lyricism with the music displaying some wonderful singing lines as well as some well-judged more energetic episodes that include some well-needed and nicely judged contrasts. Both string quartets are wonderfully written for the medium and one might again wonder why Schurmann did not tackle the genre earlier in his career.

Gerard Schurmann: Chamber Music, Volume Two

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