Thomas de Hartmann - Orchestral Music

Thomas de HARTMANN (1884-1956)

Orchestral Music

Concerto for piano and orchestra, Op. 61 (1939)   

Symphonie-Poème No. 3, Op. 85 (1953)   

Scherzo-fantastique, Op. 25 (1929=

Elan Sicroff (piano)

Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine

Tian Hui Ng

A new edition of the music of the Ukrainian composer Thomas de Hartmann (1884-1956) on the album Orchestral music of Thomas de Hartmann. Music performed by Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine and pianist Elan Sicroff conducted by Tian Hui Ng.

Thomas de Hartmann grew up in a noble family. From the age of 5 he improvises on classical repertoire. In this way he developed his composing talent. As an 11-year-old boy he went to study at the St. Petersburg Conservatory (where Rimsky-Korsakoff was director!), is taught by Sergei Taneieff and graduates in 1904, barely 20 years old. Two years later he composed his 4-part ballet piece La Fleurette Rouge, which became a great success. In 1908 he visited Munich and got acquainted with the paintings of van Gogh, Paul Gaugain and Wassily Kandinsky. With Kandinsky the idea arose to develop a Gesamtkunstwerk. A theatrical work where visual art, music and dance (by ballet dancer Alexander Sacharoff, among others) come together. When the Russian revolution comes to an end in 1917, de Hartmann and his wife Olga left St. Petersburg to meet Gurdjieff in Essentuki (South Russia). With him de Hartmann composes Sacred Music for piano solo, based on melodies played by Gurdieff (with one finger) on the piano, arranged by de Hartmann into captivating pieces of music. During the Second World War de Hartmann stays in Paris, composes his opera Esther, a symphony and a cello sonata, works that were performed in the French capital after the war. In 1950 de Hartmann moved with his wife to New York, where he became acquainted with the architect Frank Lloyd Wright and taught his students in Arizona. De Hartmann died suddenly of a heart attack in March 1956, a month before his planned debut concert in New York Town Hall. He composed operas, concertos, sonatas and songs to texts by Marcel Proust and James Joyce, among others.

The Thomas de Hartmann Projekt started in 2006 when pianist Elan Sicroff came together with guitarist Robert Fripp to study the composer’s scores, performances, lectures and videos. This resulted in the 2016 box set The Hartmann Project, together with the Dutch musician and producer Gert-Jan Blom. This CD-box is now followed by the album Orchestral Music of Thomas de Hartmann on which we again hear the pianist Sicoff, but now in the Concerto for piano and orchestra Op. 61, which de Hartmann composed in 1939. The work is a musically colorful tableau, full of striking variations in timbres. The music is full of striking variations and has a great cinematic character (by the way: de Hartmann composed more than 50 film scores under the pseudonym Thomas Kross). The 4-part piano concerto opens with orchestral salvos, followed by 4 movements full of jazz influences (with a bit of ragtime/Gershwin feel in the 2nd movement), bi-tonality, blues, impressionism (with extensive use of the whole-tone scale) and music from Russian romanticism, as can be heard clearly in the 4th part. All these styles fly by and are played superbly by the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine conducted by Tian Hui Ng. Elan Sicriff’s piano play is of a bold beauty, broad in scope. With an energetic and accurate touch he vibrates in the ‘improvised’ passages. A special feature is the dizzying variety in the composition, which is performed by Sicoff with an inspired ease. Virtuoso how he follows this diversity so organically and performs it in a natural way.

Also in the Symphony-Poème No 3 Op. 85 we hear a kind of visual music. This 3-part composition opens with a somewhat gloomy, but exciting first movement full of double layers and counter melodies. A part full of colors, inspired by the novel In the Forest written by the Russian writer Melnikov-Pechersky in 1874. The 2nd part goes one step further where ostinato rhythms and tremolo strings are interspersed with wonderful piano arpeggios. Where the piano is beautifully supported by the orchestra. This requires a close collaboration between orchestra and soloist that fantastically melts together into coherent music. A work full of wonderful Russian influences. Music which would have enjoyed the Russian greats like Modest Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov.

The album closes with Scherzo-fantastique (Paris 1929). A composition with a broad theme in an equally lovely musical approach full of dynamic shades.

Orchestral music of Thomas de Hartmann is an album recorded by inspired musicians for enthusiastic and adventurous listeners. Listeners who are looking for depth in music. Where styles and genres follow up each other so quickly and organically.  And if the music is also beautifully performed, you really have a jewel of a CD in your hands!