Drangosch, a concert pianist, conductor and teacher as well as a composer, was born in Buenos Aires. His parents were from Germany. He studied under Alberto Williams (remember Williams who wrote nine symphonies one of which was recorded on Arte Nova - reviewed here in 1999). He went to Berlin to study with Barth, Joachim and Ansorge at the age of fifteen. He was a soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic variously conducted by Joachim, Busoni and d'Albert. He was a veritable dynamo of musical endeavour when at the age of 22 he returned to Argentina and was extremely active concertising and teaching. He evangelised classical music by playing Beethoven symphonies in picture palaces as accompaniments to silent films. He died of pneumonia shortly before he was to leave for Europe to perform as pianist and conductor and to record for RCA.

The Drangosch songs are four-square within the lied-troubadour tradition rather than the morose depressive strain (the latter beloved of Schoeck, up to a point by Marx and the Swiss late romantics). Drangosch's lieder lean slightly towards the delightful operetta strain of Lehár mixed with qualities typified by Marx's Marienlied. They are most lovingly shaped by Silvina Martino and Federico Oro Vojacek. Amemos is of a quite different order. This is a most striking setting which blends fine Hispanic allure with the Gallic subtlety of Bonnal, Ravel and d'Ollonne. The piano music is not at all impressionistic. There is lighter late romantic fare (tangos and a habanera) taking a small step forwards from people like Macdowell, Flury, Joplin, and Gottschalk. It must have found a ready market and still has the power to charm. The Three Pieces are rather grander jeux d'esprits which are rampant with Bachian energy, the vigour and sensibility of Chopin, sentimentality (as in the Minuett) and even the gambols of the Unhatched Chickens courtesy of Mussorgsky. The Fantasia is rife with the spirits of Chopin and Schumann. It develops a much more original manner towards its close - always agreeably sentimental.

I have heard Drangosch's Piano Concerto in E major courtesy of the one of the principal moving spirits behind this disc, Lucio Bruno-Videla. The Concerto was written between 1906 and 1912. That 1948 private recording had the concerto played by Delia Drangosch and the conductor was George Andreani. It is a rip-roaring late-romantic work which would fit like a glove within the Hyperion Romantic Piano Concerto series. The cross-references to Tchaikovsky's three concertos and Scriabin's delectable and early isolated essay are clear enough. Add a dash of Saint-Saëns' glitter and there you have it. This is an insultingly simplistic description by me but will give you some 'handle' on what to expect. I hope that it and other works from the Argentinian classical heritage will begin to find a place on CD and ultimately in concert. Going by tapes I have very kindly had by Sr Videla the following works are also well worth consideration: Gilardo Gilardi (1889-1963) Gaucho with new boots (1936), Celestino Piaggio (1886-1931) overture (1914), Pascual de Rogatis (1880-1980) Dance from the opera Huemac (1916), Carlos Lopez Buchardo (1881-1948) Argentine Scenes - a symphonic poem (1919-1920) and Luis Gianneo (1897-1967) El Tarco en Flor - another symphonic poem (1929). We already know something of Gianneo from the three volumes of solo piano music issued by Marco Polo.

This disc is well documented (Spanish and English), produced and very nicely recorded. It could, to our advantage, have had another twenty minutes of music added.

Thanks must go to the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany for their sponsorship of this disc. I hope it will be the first of many and will snare the attention of both Marco Polo and Hyperion.

Lieder in the lyric Germanic tradition, light dance solos and two works, Amemos and the Fantasia that give eloquent signs of a much more potent imagination at work.

Rob Barnett Miércoles 10 de julio de 2002   

El rescate de Drangosch

La figura del compositor y pianista virtuoso de tradición lisztiana tuvo su primera encarnación local en Ernesto Drangosch, nacido en Buenos Aires en 1882, en el seno de una familia alemana, y perfeccionado en Berlín. Drangosch, que además de todo se dedicó intensamente a la docencia, murió en Buenos Aires a los 43 años; su obra es reducida pero no insignificante. Aquí se ofrecen piezas pianísticas y canciones en primera grabación mundial. Nos encontramos en pleno siglo XIX; las piezas para piano guardan cierta atmósfera schumaniana y los tributos al tango criollo tienen el encanto de un género naciente. El oportuno rescate pertenece al Grupo Drangosch que dirigen Estela Telerman y  Lucio Bruno Videla.

F. M.

Hace décadas que las grandes compañías discográficas multinacionales perdieron interés por incluir en su catálogo la producción de los compositores clásicos argentinos. La opción, entonces, pasa por algún solitario sello independiente. Este es el caso de IRCO, responsable del lanzamiento de dos discos compactos dedicados a la obra de la compositora Irma Urteaga. El volumen uno lleva por título "Cánticos para soñar" y el dos, "Sueños de Yerma". En los dos casos el protagonista principal es el piano, a cargo de varios instrumentistas comprometidos con la música nacional, como Valentín Surif y Haydée Schwartz. El aparece solo, junto a las voces de Eliana Bayón y Marta Blanco, el saxo de María Noel Luzardo y también como parte del trio Sine  Nomine.

En cambio es  una producción independiente la realizada por el Grupo  Drangosch, que coordinan Estela Telerman y Lucio Bruno Videla y cuyo primer disco está dedicado precisamente a Ernesto Drangosch (1882-1925), compositor formado en Berlín. El disco contiene la obra para piano, en la que se aprecian su fuerte influencia romántica alemana y se disfrutan de los tangos que escribió, en tiempos en que el género era tabú, con el seudónimo de Ernesto Ricardo.

Ernesto Drangosch fue concertista de piano, compositor, pedagogo y director nacido en Buenos Aires en el seno de una familia alemana . Vivió 43 años entre 1882 y 1925 y su producción permanecería casi desconocida a no ser por la creación del grupo Drangosch en 1999, que tiene en la pianista Estela telerman y el investigador Lucio Bruno-Videla como coordinadores y directores del proyecto. el reciente disco compacto editado por el CAMU contiene un puñado de obras de indudable valor musical compuestas por Drangosch en distintas etapas de su vida  y de disímil género. Piezas para piano, tangos y canciones de cámara conectan al compositor argentino con la gran tradición romántica, sobre todo Brahms y Tchaikowski. Las interpretaciones pianísticas de estela Telerman, Blas González, Guillermo Cárdenas, Luis Semeniuk, Federico Oro Vojacek y la soprano Silvina Martino sirven con su excelencia para el conocimiento del admirable artista. No deje de acercarse a ellas. Se verá gratamente sorprendido.

Eduardo Giorello

Mention 'tango' and you usually think of Piazzolla. Well here are discs where the focus is on some other interesting contributors to the genre. Many of you will recall Estela Telerman's wonderful St James's recital in January, in which she played a selection from her CD Argentine Classical Composers and the Tango 1867-2002 (Argentmusica). Since then the disc has deservedly received an award from TRIMARG (Members of the 2004 Argentine Music Tribune). The works she has chosen are not dances but concert pieces written in the form of this popular dance. Estela's fresh and vital performances perfectly capture the natural spontaneity of the music, presenting the pieces in the form of musical journey , as the tango gradually achieves the air of respectability accorded to older dance forms. With fascinating and informative booklet notes from the pianist,this is an absorbing and captivating disc. It is pressed in Argentina but you can obtain copies through ILAMS . Don't delay!

The celebrated Argentine pianist Arminda Canteros died in 2002, and whilst her recorded legacy is slim, she had a considerable reputationin her time. In 1989 she recorded her most famous disc Old Guard and Vanguard Tangos, which I heard by chance ! Knowing very little about the artisty I contacted Estela Telerman, who (to quote) told me 'she was a virtuoso pianist who had a great number of goof music students, but she loved to play tango , real tango I mean.

Somebod hired to play tangos over the radio but that was not supposed to be a nice thing to do for a young classical pianist in Argentina in the thirties. So she broadcast using a male pseudonym Juancho, and the audiences would rave about the performances. Tragically Arminda Canteros received a near fatal injury in a motor accident in the fifties but two decades later, after a remarkable recovery, Eduard Delgado, a former pupil and now music professorm persuaded her to move to New York. It was another step from there, by another pupil, Alcides Lanza, to the recording studio at McGill University, Montreal. There she recorded this remarkable album, playing her own arrangements of tangos she'd performed over the years, including a quartet of them by Piazzolla. To quote Estela again, 'You listen to her left hand and her fierce rhythm and you would never guess it was a 78 year-old lady playing'. If you know this recording then I'm sure you will agree with Estela´s endorsement , and if you 've not heard it, you can buy the dis very reasonably over the web from www.music.mcgill.ca Follow the link by clicking on Mc Gill Records.

Ray Picot