Goodbye prejudice!

The radical break with the past was certainly less important to Othmar Schoeck than the solid craft he learned from Max Reger. Born in Brunnen on beautiful Lake Lucerne in 1886, Schoeck remained in the romantic realm and stuck to the melodious - precisely because of his preference for lieder. With the CD Summer Night, the chamber string orchestra I Tempi from Basel now presents an under-appreciated strand of his work: there are three works for string orchestra, all written in the mid-1940s shortly after the end of the Second World War.

The program opens with a suite for string orchestra in A-flat major, Op. 59. Schoeck often cultivates a contemplative, skeptical tone, which fits well with a movement entitled «Pastorale tranquillo.» The instrumentation is outstanding. Schoeck creates a latent inner tension that is released in two faster movements. The third movement, «Tempo di marcia allegro,» in particular, introduces a completely new tone which—as Chris Walton, the author of the excellent booklet, rightly points out—bears similarities to Sergei Prokofiev's music. Parallels can be drawn, for example, to «Montague and Capulet» from Romeo and Juliet are almost too obvious.

Even more powerful than the suite is the Concerto for Cello and String Orchestra, Op. 61, which was completed two years later. Soloist Christoph Croisé finds a suitable and, above all, consistently flexible tone for these soundscapes, in which he must constantly shift between unobtrusive prominence and integration into the orchestra. The chamber orchestra I Tempi, which delves deep into this delicate music, and sound engineer Karsten Zimmermann also deserve special praise. In the Zurich radio studio, they all managed to achieve a balancing act. Giving the music the necessary sonic opulence without detracting from its analytical transparency is a technical and aesthetic challenge that was mastered in an almost artistic manner.

The CD, which begins with the eponymous Pastorale Summer night op. 58, can be recommended to the domestic sound fetishist as well as to those who simply enjoy good and well-played music. Any prejudices in the direction of "Schoeck the conservative" should quickly disappear in view of all these qualities.