Ernst Toch did not have an easy time of it; forced to leave Germany due to Herr Hitler’s ascension, he eventually ended up in the Hollywood scene where his quasi-modernist sounding music was felt to be the perfect accompaniment for some rather strange movies. After a while he began to get depressed, resulting in a heart attack in 1948 that nearly killed him. But wonder of wonders, this episode inspired him to an unparalleled period of creativity for his remaining years that brought many prizes and acclaim, including the completion of seven symphonies.
Here we have an excellent sampling of his chamber work, all important, and all pretty much misunderstood. Toch has been accused of being a modernist, but he really isn’t—his music is very much classically defined, always gravitating to a tonal center, but is also music that enjoys playing with chromaticism in order to get to those tonal centers. There is a Brahmsian nature to his work, such as found in his first Violin Sonata, but that is erased by the time we get to the second one, composed in 1928, and already exhibiting the symptoms of tonal wandering. But one comes away impressed with the technical acumen of the writing, and begins to understand why the work was so popular in its time; it should be again, especially with the rich performance that Annette von Hehn provides.
Another popular work in ages past is the Burlesken for piano. This piece was often cut up for encores (especially the last movement, “The Juggler”), and is a thoroughly satisfying piece of music, not a moment of letdown or insubstantial craft. Perhaps the greatest work here is from the previously-mentioned last period of Toch: the Three Impromptus for Cello, a powerful, captivating piece of great moment and substance, played to the hilt by Frank Dodge.
But the biggie here in terms of gravitas and length is the Piano Quintet of 1938. When I first heard Toch’s chamber music I was not impressed, but I am beginning to think that part of the problem was the unnaturally close-up sound of the recordings, intrusive and harsh. This recording, played to perfection by the folks of Spectrum Concerts Berlin, has been captured by Naxos in unusually soft sound that tempers what I initially felt was an uncontrolled predilection to chromatic abandonment. It is amazing the connection we can actually find between the substance and structure of a musical piece with the sonic properties that it is presented in, and how they interrelate (hence the need for this website!). This is an excellent disc, and one that just might show the composer in a new light.
— Steven Ritter
