Robert Kahn: Leaves from the Tree of Life: Quintet/Romanze/Lieder - Robert Kahn [CD]

Robert Kahn was born in Mannheim in 1865 and died in Biddenden, Kent in 1951. Kahn became an influential professor of music at the Berlin Hochschule and before that had his works performed by the Joachim Quartet and the Berlin Philharmonic under Hans von Bülow. He avoided large scale romantic forms and became famed for his songs, choral works, chamber music and the huge Tagebuch in Tönen, (Music from the Tree of Life) a collection of solo piano works, suites for piano and lieder that run to over 1100 pieces. Branded `degenerate' by the National Socialists, he was thrown out of his teaching positions and, in 1937, he left for the UK, settling in Kent and composing right up to his death. This album is a fascinating introduction to a composer that political extremism and hatred tried and failed to erase.

Disc 1
1. No. 1. Romanze (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
2. ..s Ist Ein So Stiller Heil'ger Tag (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
3. Novemberfeier (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
4. Idyll (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
5. Liebestrost (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
6. No. 500 in A-flat Major 'Variations On No. 1' (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
7. No. 3 in C-sharp Minor (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
8. No. 4 in C-sharp Minor (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
9. No. 5 in F Minor (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
10. No. 53 in E Major (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
11. No. 473-475. Jeanne Suite, 473a (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
12. No. 473-475. Jeanne Suite, 473b (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
13. No. 473-475. Jeanne Suite, 473c (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
14. No. 473-475. Jeanne Suite, 474 (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
15. No. 473-475. Jeanne Suite, 475 (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
16. Liebesbrief (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
17. Die Unke (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
18. Feuerbestattung (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
19. Gebet (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
20. I. Allegro Non Troppo (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
21. II. Presto Assai (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
22. III. Andante Sostenuto (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚
23. IV. Allegro Agitato (Robert Kahn) - Ensemble Emigr‚