Orchestral Music 1

The German-born, Vienna-based Hermann Gradener (1844-1929) is yet another composer whose music, esteemed in it's own time, has since slipped between the floorboards of history. Yet this first recording of his two violin concertos - substantial works both, downstream from Brahms, and with a hint of Sibelius - prove him to have been one of the more important Romantics, with a strong sense of drama, a sure hand for musical architecture and a natural flair for extended melody. The conductor of this recording, Gottfried Rabl, discovered Gradener's scores in the second-hand section of a Viennese music-shop many years ago and now, joined by the American violinist Karen Bentley Pollick, they are releasing this first album in a series intended to put Gradener's music before the modern public for the first time.