CCMusic.com

Hans Winterberg, born in Prague in 1901, studied with Alexander von Zemlinsky and Alois Haba. He worked as a conductor, pianist and composer until the annexation of the Czechoslovak Republic by Nazi Germany in 1939. As the scion of a Jewish family that had lived in Prague for centuries, he survived - after forced labor and deportation to Theresienstadt - through a series of miracles. After the Communists came to power in Czechoslovakia, he moved to Germany. His compositional legacy, locked away for years in a German music archive, has only been rediscovered in recent years. Winterberg combines various influences in his music to create an original and exciting personal style. He takes up stylistic elements of Janacek but is also influenced by the Second Viennese School and French Impressionism. He saw himself as a bridge-builder between the cultures of Eastern and Western Europe. Eda records dedicates a focus to this important Czech-Jewish composers of the generation of the so called "Terezin composers" alongside Ullmann, Krasa and Haas. Further chamber music recordings and the complete works for piano with pianist Jonathan Powell will follow.