Ernest Bloch

[greek]

Ernest Bloch was born in Geneva in 1880.

After a year in Paris (1903-4), during which time he absorbed the French Impressionistic style, he returned to Geneva and entered his father’s business as a bookkeeper and salesman of Swiss tourist goods. Meanwhile, he kept his hand in music by composing in piecemeal fashion, conducting orchestral concerts in Neuchâtel and Lausanne and lecturing on æsthetics at the Geneva Conservatory (1911-15). A high point of this period was the première of his lyric drama, Macbeth.

He gave us two piano quintets:

- First Piano Quintet (1923)

There are three movements:

I. Adagio
II. Andante mistico
III. Allegro energico

and the players were Alfredo Casella, piano, with the Pro Arte String Quartet.



- Second Piano Quintet (1957):

Again there are three movements:

1. Animato
2. Andante
3. Allegro

and the players were Daniel Hoexter, piano, with the Orlando Quartet:

John Harding, violin
Heinz Oberdorfer, violin
Ferdinand Erblich, viola
Stefan Metz, cello