Robert Kahn: Leaves from the tree of life

Meyn, N. and Pearson, I. E. and Sun, E. and Driver, D. (2021) Robert Kahn: Leaves from the tree of life. [Audio]

Abstract

Music by Robert Kahn recorded by Ensemble Émigré on Rubicon Classics (RCD1040): Romanze (Gemma Rosefield, cello and Danny Driver, piano); selections from 'Leaves from the Tree of Life' (Danny Driver, piano); Lieder (Norbert Meyn, tenor and Christopher Gould, piano); Quintet in C minor (Emily Sun, violin; Flora Bain, horn; Ingrid Pearson, clarinet; Gemma Rosefield, cello; Danny Driver, piano). 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. Please see the video tab below for an introduction to the recording by Norbert Meyn, and a discussion of the Quintet by Ingrid Pearson. This album received a 5-star review from BBC Music Magazine (see the downloads tab below). A review by Gramophone Magazine is also available (to registered Gramophone website users only) at: https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/kahn-leaves-from-the-tree-of-life.

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