MUSICS
Since 2021 I am a member of the International Ernest Bloch Society (IEBS)
which has the aim to promote the music of the Swiss composer Ernest Bloch (1880-1959)
who lived the largest part of his life in the USA and has also become an American citizen.
In a series of world-wide zoom seminars of the "Bloch Study Group" of the IEBS in 2021-2023,
I presented a talk on Bloch's second Violin Sonata, the "Poème Mystique" (1924), covering
the circumstances of its composition and comparing different versions of certain passages.
In particular, I discussed the central episode in the score, where Bloch made use of Gregorin chant
and explicitly quoted the beginning of the common Jewish-Christian creed, and interpreted it
as Bloch's expression of his religious identity.
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On the 50th anniversary of Bloch's day of death, the 15.07.2009, I performed the "Poème Mystique"
at the piano, accompanying David Peterhoff, 1st. violinist of the Regensburg University Orchestra,
in a public concert at the Library of the Regensburg University.
(last update: 14.08.2024, MB)