This exciting series of 2-CD sets from EMI Classics

features music written in the 20th century, a period of enormous upheaval, both political and artistic. During these 100

years music went through an unprecedented period of

revolution and transformation and the music in these sets illustrates

how these changes manifested themselves in the musical landscape. This seventh installment in the 20th-Century Classics

series showcases the depth and range of music offered of the

EMI catalogue: Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály from Hungary;

Frederick Delius and Sir William Walton from England; Karl

Hartmann from Germany; Arthur Honegger from Switzerland; Jacques

Ibert and Darius Milhaud from France; Erich Korngold from Czech

Republic; and Heitor Villa-Lobos from Brazil, all go to make up a

fascinating release of ten 2-CD sets. With striking covers and budget prices, these sets

provide a perfect introduction to the exciting music of these modern

composers.

Karl Amadeus Hartmann is emerging from the obscurity imposed first by his "inner exile" in Nazi Germany and again when postwar fashion ignored his emotionally powerful music. This disc is an excellent introduction to one of the century's major composers. Concerto funèbre, written in reaction to Hitler's occupation of Czechoslovakia, is appropriately bleak, deeply moving in its passionate protest against barbarism, with a solo line that depicts courageous struggle and faltering hope. Isabelle Faust is an impressive interpreter, technically impeccable and digging deep into the moving core of the work. The symphony, also for string orchestra, is as impressive; passionately brooding in the outer movements and alternately playful and stark in the central Allegro. The Chamber Concerto features dazzling clarinet solos (Paul Meyer is stunning, especially in the Kodály-influenced dance sections). It's a big, warmly rhapsodic piece covering a wide range of emotions and sonorities. This is a disc to treasure. --Dan Davis

This exciting series of 2-CD sets from EMI Classics features music written in the 20th century, a period of enormous upheaval, both political and artistic. During these 100 years music went through an unprecedented period of revolution and transformation and the music in these sets illustrates how these changes manifested themselves in the musical landscape. With striking covers and budget prices, these sets provide a perfect introduction to the exciting music of these modern composers.

Hartmann was the great German symphonist of the post-war period, but his music has been slow to penetrate the musical consciousness of other countries. One of the reasons was that he was morally opposed to the Third Reich, and withdrew all of his music from performance as a form of protest until after the war, when he had to completely rebuild his career from scratch. His symphonies are also very intense, moody works--though not long or all that difficult to listen to-- and they are quite difficult to play. Although his music isn't conventionally tonal, it is highly melodic and very well put together structurally. This means that you never get lost in it, as these performances eloquently demonstrate. If you enjoy, say, late Stravinsky, Bartók, or Berg, you'll like this too. --David Hurwitz