Concertino for treble recorder and piano, Op. 82
Recorder Sonatina for treble recorder solo, Op. 110B
Three Small Pieces for Piano, Op. 64
Four Bagatelles for treble recorder solo, Op. 110A
Three Intermezzi for treble recorder or ?ute and harpsichord or piano, Op. 103
Moment Musical for treble recorder solo

My warmest thanks go to Sabrina Frey and Bernhard Parz for this first recording of all of Hans Gal's works for solo recorder, both with piano and for unaccompanied recorder. lt is particularly moving for me to hear his very last compositions: Four Bagatelles and Sonatina, composed in 1983, and finally Moment Musical from December '86, when he was 96 years old, less than a year before his death.

For many years before the composition of these works Gal had repeatedly declared that his "workshop was closed''. He regarded the two quintets from 1977, his Clarinet Quintet and his String Quintet, as the conclusion of his life's work. And then in 1983 the composer succumbed to persuasion yet again, this time with a solo instrument that has no possibility for harmony or counterpoint, and must therefore rely solely on melody and rhythm, quite apart from its inherently smaller range than string instruments or Piano. Gal's biographer, Wilhelm Waldstein, quotes him as joking: "I was 40 before 1 had learnt to write for 3 voices, 60 before I learnt to write for two. He might have added: "and 1 was 90 before I had learnt to write for a single voice.''

All three of the works with keyboard on this recording exemplify his mastery in part-writing, which was for him the essence of chamber music. This is most obviously the case with the Concertino, which was composed for treble recorder and string quartet, though from the outset also offered just with piano. Here the piano fully embodies the four string parts, maintaining their transparency, but also the expressive potential of the instrument. This is equally evident in the clarity and multi-voice texture of the keyboard writing in the Three Intermezzi and even in the Three Small Pieces for solo piano. (Eva Fox-Gal)

---

Recording: 12/2018 – Studio Pianoforte Zurich/Switzerland. Instruments: Two alto recorders in f’, after Jacob Denner, made of boxwood by Ernst Meyer; Steinway D, Pitch: A = 443 Hz, equal temperament.