Chamber Works by Ernest Kanitz ARC Ensemble

• Ernest Kanitz (1894 - 1978): Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 10:
• 1 Kanitz: Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 10: I. Lento non troppo 07:44
• 2 Kanitz: Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 10: II. Adagio 08:58
• 3 Kanitz: Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 10: III. Epilogo 05:11
• String Quartet:
• 4 Kanitz: String Quartet: I. Elegy 04:06
• 5 Kanitz: String Quartet: II. Rondino 02:34
• 6 Kanitz: String Quartet: III. Old Viennese Tune and Variations 04:35
• 7 Kanitz: String Quartet: IV. Finale 07:01
• Sonata for Solo Cello:
• 8 Kanitz: Sonata for Solo Cello: I. Allegro deciso 03:37
• 9 Kanitz: Sonata for Solo Cello: II. Poco adagio 03:41
• 10 Kanitz: Sonata for Solo Cello: III. Quasi presto e molto leggiero 02:53
• Concertino:
• 11 Kanitz: Concertino: I. Ouverture 04:47
• 12 Kanitz: Concertino: II. Air 04:12
• 13 Kanitz: Concertino: III. Fugue 03:12
• Sonata Californiana:
• 14 Kanitz: Sonata Californiana: I. Sky and Water 02:57
• 15 Kanitz: Sonata Californiana: II. Lament 03:49
• 16 Kanitz: Sonata Californiana: III. Hollywood 04:25
• Total Runtime 01:13:42

Info for Chamber Works by Ernest Kanitz

The ARC Ensemble's Music in Exile series continues with this exploration of chamber works by Ernest Kanitz. Born into a wealthy Viennese family in 1894, he was encouraged in music by his mother, started piano lessons aged seven, and was composing within a year. Persuaded by his parents to study for a degree in Law, Kanitz also studied piano, music theory, and composition (with Franz Schreker, who also served as a mentor). His reputation grew steadily, his works promoted by conductors such as George Szell and Clemens Krauss. In 1922 he gained a position as a teacher at the New Vienna Conservatory, and in 1930 established the Vienna Women's Chamber Choir, which quickly gained a reputation across Europe for it's performances of Kodaly, Honegger, and Stravinsky (as well as Kanitz!). Although he had converted to Christianity in 1914, his Jewish ancestry necessitated emigration from Austria in 1938, following the annexation of Austria by National Socialist Germany. After a short spell in New York, Kanitz and his wife, Gertrude, moved to Rock Hill, South Carolina, where he had secured a teaching position. Following Gertrude's early death from cancer, Kanitz moved to California, where he established a successful teaching career at the University of Southern California. Retirement from USC in 1960 gave him much more time for composition (although he was still teaching and lecturing), with successful premieres given by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and San Francisco Symphony, among many others. Following his death in 1978, his music, like that of so many emigre composers, has been forgotten.

ARC Ensemble

ARC Ensemble
Nominated for its third Grammy Award in 2016, the ARC Ensemble is among Canada's most distinguished cultural ambassadors. Although the ensemble performs a wide range of music, its preoccupation continues to be the research and recovery of music that was suppressed and marginalized under the 20th century's repressive regimes. A growing number of hitherto unknown masterworks are rejoining the repertoire as a result of the ARC Ensemble's work.

The ARC Ensemble has appeared at major festivals and series, including the Budapest Spring Festival, the Enescu Festival (Bucharest), New York's Lincoln Center Festival, Canada's Stratford Festival, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, London's Wigmore and Cadogan Halls and Washington's Kennedy Center. The ARC Ensemble's “Music in Exile” series has been presented in Tel Aviv, Warsaw, Toronto, New York and London, and its performances and recordings (on Sony's RCA Red Seal label and Chandos) continue to earn unanimous critical acclaim and regularly broadcasts on stations around the world.

Comprised of the senior faculty of the Royal Conservatory's Glenn Gould School, with special guests drawn from the organization's most accomplished students and alumni, the ARC Ensemble's core group consists of piano, string quartet and clarinet with additional forces as repertoire demands. The ARC Ensemble collaborates with a range of artists, they include the pianist Leon Fleisher, the novelist Yann Martel, actors Saul Rubinek and R.H. Thompson, and composers R. Murray Schafer, Omar Daniel and Vincent Ho.

EXIT: MUSIC, a documentary describing the ensemble's work premiered in November 2016 and has been screened at a number of international festivals. It is distributed internationally by First Run Features in the US and Euroarts, Berlin in other territories. The ARC Ensemble's most recent release, its sixth, is devoted to the music of the Auschwitz survivor and onetime conductor of the camp's orchestra, Szymon Laks. The recording was nominated for a 2018 Juno Award. Highlights of ARC's 2019 season includes concerts at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, the Parco della Musica, Rome, and UCLA's Schoenberg Hall.

James Conlon, Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera and a pioneer in the recovery of lost twentieth century repertoire, is the ARC Ensemble's Honorary Chairman, its Artistic Director is Simon Wynberg.

Booklet for Chamber Works by Ernest Kanitz