Steve Schwartz:

>*  Tanz-Suite for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, double bass, and
>percussion, op. 30
>*  Concerto for Cello and Chamber Orchestra, op. 35
>
>Christian Poltera (cello); Spectrum Concerts Berlin/Thomas Carroll.
>Naxos 8.559282  Total time: 57:35
>
>There are two other CD recordings of the concerto that I know of.  The
>first by cellist Steven Honigberg on Albany isn't bad, but it's not as
>good as this.  The second, on CPO, I haven't heard.  It would surprise
>me very much if it bettered the Naxos, although I'm always open to
>surprise.

The Honigberg disc also includes Toch's Cello Sonata, Op. 50 (1929) and
his Impromptu for Cello in Three movements, Op. 90c (1963).  I am not
in a position to compare the concerto performances, but I shall get this
Naxos for the dance suite and on account of Steve's recommendation of
the performances.

>Note: For some reason, these scores, written by the Viennese Toch in
>Mannheim, Germany, are part of Naxos's American Classics series.  Why,
>I have no idea.

Ah!  This reminds me of a mock examination question in philosophy many
years ago: "What nationality was Ludwig Wittgenstein?: (Born in Vienna,
lived in Scandinavia, settled in England.) Same problem with Stravinsky,
Schoenberg, Weill, Hindemith, Bloch, et al, all of whom ended up in the
U.S. In Toch's case, he spent about thirty years in the U.S. and wrote
all of his seven symphonies in this country, one of which won a Pulitzer
Prize; also an opera and chamber works.  Albany specializes in American
composers but recorded two of Toch's works from the twenties.  I shelve
recordings by the nationality of the composer, and then by time-period,
which requires some meat-axe decisions: Toch, Schoenberg and Hindemith
with the Germans, Stravinsky with the Russians, Weill and Bloch with the
Americans.  Absurd, right?  Faced with this kind of problem, and wondering
how to file slides of works by Klee, an art-historian friend decided on
a strictly alphabetical ordering.  I guess Naxos just wanted to do Toch
and shuffled him into this handy series!

Jim Tobin

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