Album Notes

Alexandre Tansman, a virtuoso pianist and composer of Jewish origin, was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1897. He died in Paris, in 1986. Tansman studied at the Music Conservatory of Lodz and later in Warsaw where he received the first prize for composition in 1919. At the same time he studied Law at the University of Warsaw and received his doctoral degree there. Between 1920 and 1930 his compositions were very popular. Tansman became the personal friend of Dufy, Stravinsky and Chaplin. The rise of Hitler in Germany and the occupation of France in 1941 made him flee to the United States together with his wife, the pianist Collete Cras, and their two daughters. Assisted by his friend Charlie Chaplin, Tansman settled down in Los Angeles where he became the best friend of Arnold Schoenberg and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. In 1927, Tansman composed his second piano concerto which was then played under the conductor Serge Koussevitzky. Cosmopolitan by nature and highly gifted for languages, Tansman toured the world as a pianist in 1932, showing interest in the culture of the Orient as well as in jazz. During his concert tour he met Gandhi who became his friend.Tansman´s career was disrupted by the Second World War. Later on, back in France after years of exile in the USA, he became a member of the composers L’Ecole de Paris, in fact, the most popular of them.Tansman met new composers, including the Hungarian Tibor Harsanyi, the Rumanian Marcel Milhalovici and the Tcheque Bohuslav Martinu. Around 1974 his music was no longer performed. The Philosopher Vladimir Jankelevitch was his admirer and a loyal friend. Tansman is buried at the Saint-Mandé cemetery in Paris. Recently his music has been rediscovered. His native town Lodz organizes every year an international competition bearing his name. Tansman´s musical modernism is accessible to the audience. His compositions, varied and imaginative, are mostly influenced by his friends Ravel and Stravinsky. His attachement to the Polish folklore is represented here by the Polacca. And his place in the French music is represented on this cd by the Sanata Da Camera, Trio D’Anches and the Three Pieces for Harp, Clarinette and string Quartett. They are written in a neo- classical style, melodious and yet vivacious.
Leo Smit was a Dutch composer of Portuguese-Jewish descent. Born in 1900, he first studiedd piano at the Amsterdam Conservatory, and later composition with Bernard Zweers and Sem Dresden. Some years later the Concertgebouw Orchestra performed his work Silhouetten. Critics noted ‘the use of peculiar African jazz band sound combinations’. In 1927, Smit moved to Paris, at that time the bustling musical centre of the world. Here, he allowed compositions by colleagues like Ravel and Stravinsky to influence his own music - with audible results. Halfway through the 1930s he discovered his own unique style: a harmonic mixture of lyricism, impulsiveness, spirituality and intellect. Leo Smit returned to Amsterdam in 1937 and continued his work as a composer during the War. On 27th April 1943, Leo Smit was transported to Sobibor, where he was muredered three days later.
The Trio for flute, viola and harp was dedicated to the Dutch Jewish harpist Rosa Spier .During the war she was captured and her house was ravished by the Nazis. A neighbour who noticed the harp being taken away, interfered with the soldiers. He gave them money so as to keep the harp. The harp remained with him all throughout the War. Rosa Spier survived the Holocaust. When she came home, she found her harp which the neighbour had kept for her. Though influence by contemporary French composers such as Claude Debussy and Albetr Roussel, the Trio as well as the Quintet are typical of Smit´s style, combining dissonant harmonies and melodies. The Trio for flute, viola and harp was edited in 1928 in Paris by Editions Maurice Senart. That same year the Quintet was playd by the famous Quintette Instrumentale de Pariswith – the flute player René le Roy and the harpist Pierre Jamet – at a concert of the Société Musicale Indépendante. Leo Smit was a friend of Ravel, Milhaud and Honegger.
According to Tansman “the music is realized by the melody and its aim is the emotion”.