Hans Gál:
Concertino for violin and string orchestra

Joseph Kaminski:
Concerto for violin and symphony orchestra

Leonard Bernstein:
Serenade for solo violin, string orchestra, harp and percussion

This programme offers music for violin and orchestra by three composers of the 20th century whose common is Jewish origin. Two of them suffered from the consequences of the National Socialist oppression in pre-war Germany.

The composer, musicologist and music theorist Hans Gál (1890-1987), who was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, had to resign as director of the Mainz Conservatory. He went to England and spent the rest of his life there.

Joseph Kaminski (1903-1972) was born in Odessa. The musically gifted boy began playing the violin at the age of six and played as a soloist with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 12. He moved to Berlin in 1922 and studied there at the Musikhochschule (highly praised by the Berlin music critics), then to Vienna (1924), where he continued his studies with Hans Gál and others. He emigrated to Israel in 1937, where he joined the Palestine Orchestra (renamed the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in 1948) as principal violinist.

The third composer on this album, Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), had a very different start in life. The son of Jewish immigrants to the United States was born in Massachusetts in 1918. "Lenny" - as the world knew him - rose in the USA and then around the world to become a musical superstar.

Erez Ofer, who is thrilling with his brilliant virtuosity in this album, fascinates with his repertoire for violin!

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Recordings: Haus des Rundfunks Berlin, Saal 1, Gál: February 15 – 17, 2016; Kaminski: February 15 – 17, 2016; Bernstein: June 30 & July 1, 2017.