The works of Emanuel Moór (1863–1931) ought to be celebrated as among the major achievements of Romantic music, but because of Moór’s peripatetic life – he was born in Hungary, studied in Vienna (with Bruckner), performed in the US and across Europe, became a UK citizen and settled and died in Switzerland – no country has claimed and promoted him to the degree he deserves. Moór’s musical language offers a deeply satisfying blend of contrapuntal mastery and ardent lyricism, as the works on this album – written for or involving the viola – demonstrate. In time he will be recognized as one of the masters of his age.

REVIEW

As so often Toccata has opened a window on a previously unexplored area of a composer’s oeuvre and in this case it’s Emanuel Moór’s music for viola.

He seems to be known these days rather more as the inventor of the Duplex-Coupler piano than as the man [Donald] Tovey described as being ‘eminently noble in style’. The viola music, which includes music for string quartet, shows that nobility strongly. The Prelude and Fugue for string quartet was written for the Flonzaley Quartet and its clear expressive qualities, which include an intriguing consort evocation as the opening Prelude ends, are strongly audible. The fluid Fugue is exceptionally attractive, avoiding the trap of academism at every turn. The Pièces lyriques, also for string quartet, consists of five compact movements, of which the jovial Viennese waltz is immediately pleasing though the slow movement goes deeper in terms of expressive density. The freshness and rugged songfulness of the finale ends this mini-quartet.

The only one of these works to have been published is the Prelude in E major, Op 123 originally composed for cello – for [Pablo] Casals, in fact – but heard here in Dirk Hegemann’s viola arrangement of 2021. Its dignity would well have suited Casals and it receives a suitably assured and refined reading from Hegemann. The Romanze sounds a touch Fauréan and is certainly a viable song-without-words. Moór’s lyricism is a given, but it is heard to strong advantage when contextualised with other works for viola. The Concertstück are medium-sized at twelve minutes and share common themes that are developed differently. The version for viola and piano encodes some ripe Hungarian elements then slows for more reflective material and includes a cadenza missing from the version for orchestral accompaniment.

Hegemann is the disc’s leading light, but Dávid Báll proves a worthy accompanist, the Rosenstein String Quartet plays with tonal richness and, in the final work, the Anima Musicae Chamber Orchestra is finely directed by Mátyás Antal. As always from this source, the booklet notes are a source of nutritious biographical and musicological information; they deserve a thorough read.

--MusicWeb International (Jonathan Woolf)