August 2024

Always stoutly individual, Roberto Gerhard (1896 – 1970) was the only Spanish composer to study with Arnold Schoenberg and then the only Schoenberg pupil to take a long pause – over twenty years – before fully committing himself to a twelve-note language. During the interim he concentrated on bringing a new brio and precision, drawn much more from Stravinsky and Bartók than from Schoenberg, to the Spanish style which he had inherited from composers both Spanish (Albéniz, Granados, Falla) and French (Chabrier, Debussy, Ravel). This is where we find him in the works collected on this disc, all composed after he left Spain on the fall of the Republic, in 1939, and settled in England.

Roberto Gerhard: Alegrías (1942-43)
Roberto Gerhard: Pedrelliana (1941, revised 1954)
Roberto Gerhard: Don Quixote (1940-41, second version 1947-49)

You can see full track listings and download the audio here.