Buried treasure

Pianist Boris Giltburg introduces three rare works from his own record collection

Warlock Songs

John Mark Ainsley (tenor), Roger Vignoles (piano) Helios CDH55442 Listening to Peter Warlock’s songs is like walking through an English landscape suffused with warm afternoon light.

Tender and ardent, often heartachingly beautiful, they combine a wonderful melodic gift – many of the melodies sound folksong-like in their seeming simplicity – with a singular harmonic language. The unexpected and hard-to-analyse chords and modulations are a huge delight, illuminating the text in surprising, memorable ways.

Medtner Sonata in G minor, Op. 22

Emil Gilels (piano) Naxos 8.112051 Nikolai Medtner’s fiery, impassioned G minor sonata is a single-movement work, its complex architecture concealed behind the utterly organic way all melodic material is spun from the first two pages of the work. The dark, restless mood is immediate and palpable, the heartfelt second theme heart-breaking in its simplicity, and the piece draws as if in a single breath to an unforgettable climax in the coda – the part which made me fall in love with the piece in the first place. Schulhoff Violin Sonata No. 2

Gidon Kremer (violin),

Oleg Maisenberg (piano)

Warner Classics 9029542420

Eric Schulhoff belongs to the group of composers whose careers and lives were cut short by the rise of the Nazi regime. Dark, edgy, muscular and not infrequently brutal, his music often reminds me of Egon Schiele’s paintings, in which ugliness can be elevated to poetic beauty. The Second Violin Sonata exhibits all of these qualities, its compact four movements bristling with spiky energy.

Boris Giltburg has just launched his Beethoven ‘32 Variations’ project.

Find out more at beethoven32.com