Stohr / Agnieszka Kopacka / Sinfonia Varsovia - Orchestral Music [CD]

These two works for string orchestra were composed on either side of the flight of the Viennese composer Richard Stöhr (1874-1967) from occupied Austria to the USA, and from prominence and danger to liberty and obscurity, and they reflect the change in his circumstances: the Concerto in the Old Style is expansive, witty, energetic and endlessly good-natured, whereas the Second Suite is introspective, understated and deeply felt. These first recordings allow the discovery of two major additions to the repertoire for strings; the Second Suite is also one of the last grand statements of late Romanticism.