Violin Sonatas No 1 and 2 - Ernest Bloch Miriam Kramer (violin) and Simon Over (piano)

SO much "Jewish" music is beautiful and haunting, and the works of Ernest Bloch are no exception.

Naxos brings together two of the Swiss-born composer's violin concertos and a series of other works including a Suite hebraique (Hebrew Suite) and a Yom Kippur Melody - no mistake about where their roots lie then.

The Suite, which opens the CD, was written in Bloch's later years and completed less than a decade before he died after the Second World War.

It is full of romance and grace and reminds me of the wonderful Russian Jewish music of the last two centuries.

I have to admit to preferring it in comparison with his Sonata No1 for violin and piano, which opens with one of the most violent outbursts I have heard in classical music. This is the agitato, and it is certainly that.

The second Sonata is more reserved, more reticent and more - modern, in the early 20th Century meaning of the term.

Bloch was born in Geneva in 1880, and studied violin and composition in Brussels and Frankfurt and, according to the programme notes, his early work echoed "Richard Strauss and the French Impressionists".

Since there is no example of any works before he reached his 40s, it is difficult to imagine that what we hear is Bloch taking on the mantle of his own cultural identity and intensity.

In 1916 Bloch was engaged to conduct a touring ballet in America and, apart from some time in Switzerland during the 1930s, spent the rest of his life in the States, becoming an American citizen in 1924. With retrospect it was a good move.

If you, like me, enjoy minor chords and Jewish melodies, or if you are a violin afficionado, parts of this CD are certainly worth a listen.

If not, to be honest I would save your money for something you know you will enjoy.

Naxos

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