Ernest Bloch
A highly individual composer, Ernest Bloch did not pioneer any new style in music but spoke with a distinctive voice into which he could assimilate folk influences, 12-tone technique, and even coloristic quarter tones. In a stylistically atomized century, his interests were universal, and his music was both beloved by the public and inspirational for a younger and more academically oriented generation. He established his reputation in music on Hebraic themes in works such as the cello concerto Schelomo (1916). Bloch was also an important teacher. His output comprised numerous operas, symphonies, concertos, and chamber music, though his works exploring Hebrew concepts, such as Baal Shem (1923) and Suite hébraïque (1951), remain the most popular.
His father was the quintessential Swiss, a well-off manufacturer of watches and clocks, including cuckoo clocks. Bloch had a diverse musical training that included advanced violin training, including the study of eurhythmics with Émile Jacques-Dalcroze. Later, he studied the violin with Eugène Ysaÿe in Belgium and composition with Iwan Knorr in Frankfurt and Ludwig Thuille in Munich. Bloch wrote prolifically in his student years but did not publish any of his works. He married Margarethe Schneider in 1904; one of their children, Suzanne, became a well-known lute player. His music began to attract interest, and in 1910 his opera Macbeth was staged in Paris to a mostly uncomprehending audience. About this time, he began writing music with specifically Jewish aspects in subject matter, reflected by figurations in the melodies derived from Jewish worship chants and folk music. Some of the best-known compositions of this series are the violin work Baal Shem, an Israel Symphony, and Schelomo, a tone poem that is also considered one of the great cello concertos.
Bloch lived for a time in Paris, but he returned to Switzerland in 1915, where he was a professor at the Geneva Conservatory. He traveled to the U.S. in 1916 as conductor for the Maud Allan dance company. The outfit went broke, stranding him in Ohio. The composer was thus forced to remain in America, but he soon found success as a composer, conductor, and music school administrator and teacher, first at Mannes School of Music in New York and then as the first director of the Cleveland Institute of Music. In 1924 he took American citizenship. Bloch became director of the San Francisco Conservatory in 1925 and in 1927 won first prize in a contest sponsored by Musical America with his composition America, an Epic Rhapsody. He returned to Switzerland in 1930, and was based there while he composed and traveled widely in Europe to conduct his works.
The rise of Nazism in Germany and a desire to retain his U.S. citizenship prompted a return to America in 1938. He settled at scenic Agate Beach, Oregon, and was appointed a professor at the University of California in Berkeley, teaching summer courses until he retired in 1952. Bloch shaped the early careers of an enviable list of successful students, including Antheil, Kirchner, and Sessions during both periods of his American teaching career. His later works, like the Sinfonia Breve (1952), written when he was 72, developed a bold, energetic dissonance. Bloch died of cancer in 1959.
© TiVo Staff /TiVo
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Discography
13 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Bloch: Schelomo, B. 39 - Dutilleux: Tout un monde lointain - Hommage à Armin Jordan
François Guye, Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Armin Jordan
Classical - Released by Cascavelle on 9 Aug 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bloch: Schelomo (Mono Version)
Zara Nelsova, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Ernest Bloch
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1952
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bloch, Janacek, Shostakovich: Violin Sonatas
Chamber Music - Released by Onyx Classics on 21 Oct 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ernest Bloch "Sacred Service" (Produced)
National Symphony Orchestra South Africa
Classical - Released by Phoenix USA on 15 Apr 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bloch: Complete Music For Violin And Piano, Volume 1
Classical - Released by Arabesque Recordings on 1 Jan 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Poème
Giulia Buccarella, Giuseppe Campagnola
Classical - Released by Farelive on 1 Dec 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Wondrous Love: Works for Solo Cello
Classical - Released by Albany Records on 1 Dec 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Ernest Bloch: Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano & Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano (Poème Mystique)
Classical - Released by Soundmark Records on 11 Oct 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ernest Bloch : Sacred Service (Sung in English / 1949)
Marko Rothmüller, Dorothy Bond, Doris Cowan, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Ernest Bloch
Choral Music (Choirs) - Released by Naxos Classical Archives on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Symphonies from Händel, Bloch & Martinu
Georg Friedrich Händel, Ernest Bloch, Bohuslav Martinů
Classical - Released by Ermitage Rc on 21 Apr 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Milestones of a Legend: The Cello Queen, Vol. 10
Zara Nelsova, Ernest Bloch, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Ernest Ansermet
Classical - Released by Intense Media GmbH on 7 Sep 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo