Józef Koffler: En hommage

Polish-Ukrainian composer Józef Koffler is considered one of the most important representatives of the Second Viennese School before the outbreak of World War II. After studies in Vienna with Guido Adler and Egon Wellesz, among others, he quickly established himself in the European avant-garde and was regularly played at the festivals of the International Society of Contemporary Music, of which he was a member. He was friends with Alban Berg and corresponded intensively with Arnold Schoenberg. As the first professor of atonal and dodecaphonic compositional techniques in Lwów/Lemberg, he contributed earlier than others to the dissemination of Schoenberg’s teaching and aesthetics. Five works by Koffler are presented here as world premiere recordings. For the first time ever some of his brilliant symphonic music can be heard on modern recording equipment: his Piano Concerto and his 2nd Symphony, in which he produced an original synthesis of neoclassicism and dodecaphony. In conjunction with the series Poland Abroad, eda records pays its respects with this third production in its en hommage series to a great Polish composer who became a victim of the Nazi terror, and whose outstanding works await rediscovery to the present day.