Three generations ago, the Swiss composer Ernest Bloch was regarded by some as being as important as his contemporaries Bartok and Stravinsky, but today he has been relegated to the position of a minor master, albeit one whose music is at once recognizable with its strong Jewish flavour and characteristically burning intensity. It will be for his Violin Concerto (1938) and the earlier Baal Shem that most people will acquire this disc, and they should not disappoint when played as well as they are here. The Concerto is a big work, lasting well over 35 minutes that begins with an orchestral gesture that at once says 'Bloch' to us—or should do, for it is not the composer's fault if many Hollywood epics have rather similar music! Whether the invention is sustained through the whole work is debatable, but I find it convincing enough, particularly when the playing is as eloquent and committed as this; if there's a touch of roughness to Michael Guttman's attack in bigger passages, that is entirely appropriate and balanced by his strong sweetness elsewhere. While it would have been wonderful to have a recording of the first European performance given in London in March 1939 with Szigeti as the soloist and Beecham conducting (he recorded the work for Columbia that year, but with Munch instead of Beecham—now available on Pearl (CD) GEMMCD9938), one feels that this one has absolutely the right power and lyricism, and there are terrific climaxes, as at 12'09'' in the first movement. The recording does the music justice, too, though you should set your volume conservatively if you care for the welfare of your speakers.
The same may be said of Baal Shem, which is played with intensity: this is the 1939 orchestration of a piece originally written for violin and piano and comes over well in its orchestral guise. As for the two works by Jose Serebrier himself, they have considerable expressive force. The Poema elegiaco is the longer piece here, in which tensely contrapuntal lines frame a menacing march with percussion powerfully to the fore. In the second piece, anguished string writing centres around the sound of a sustained trumpet note. The alternative EMI account of the Bloch Concerto with Sir Yehudi Menuhin and the Philharmonia under Paul Kletzki (recorded in 1963) is also pleasing, adequately recorded and comes at medium price; you may choose to decide on the basis of the coupling, which in this case is Berg's Concerto with the same soloist and Boulez conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra.'