Toch: Miniature Overture, Peter Pan Op. 76, Notturno Op. 77, Jephta Rhapsodic Poem Op. 89

One of the preeminent musical modernists of the Weimar Republic, Viennese composer Ernst Toch settled in Hollywood in the wake of the rise of fascism in Europe and composed scores to some 70-odd features. However, Toch's serious concert music is the real meat of his output, and much of it remains practically unknown even to listeners who, under normal circumstances, might embrace it most ardently. First Edition Music comes to the rescue with a fine sampling of Toch's orchestral music, drawn from his middle and late periods.
The opening Miniature Overture and Peter Pan are short, pithy pieces that abound in ebullience and colorful orchestration; one might liken the Miniature Overture to a tonally more bitter incarnation of the clever music written by Frank Comstock for the animated series Bullwinkle. The very thinly scored Notturno, Op. 77, belongs to a more somber soundworld that seems to hearken back to Toch's wistful sentiments about the Europe he knew before Hitler's Germany forced him to abandon it. Much the same forces are driving the rhapsodic poem Jeptha, Op. 89, which also doubles as Toch's Symphony No. 5. However, this time the gloves are off; whereas Notturno demonstrates a sense of restraint and nostalgia, Jeptha is angrier and more explosive.
The sound quality of these Louisville Orchestra recordings, dating from the 1950s and 1960s, is nothing short of amazing. Although Louisville utilized the same staff and technical people as did CBS Masterworks, for some reason they achieved better results in Louisville than in New York. The performances are strong, particularly the Miniature Overture under Jorge Mester, which is sharply delineated and taken at a heart-stopping pace. The only hair that seems out of place is that some of the winds have a hard time with the high passages in the Notturno, but this was a Louisville commission and was less than six months old when recorded in January 1954, in addition to generally being a tough piece. Nonetheless, Ernst Toch: First Edition is an entirely serviceable introduction to the work of Toch, whose music is easier to take than that of Berthold Goldschmidt and may appeal to listeners who fancy the late, more challenging music of Gustav Mahler.