Schoenberg Verklarte Nacht, Korngold String Sextet : Raphael Ensemble

The two works on this disc disappeared from concert programs in Germany and Austria after Hitler came to power. Korngold and Schoenberg were both victimized for being 'non-Aryan' and their works were banned. Verklerte Nacht quickly reestablished itself, but the Korngold had to wait for it's reappraisal until it was discovered in 1987 by the Raphael Ensemble, who gave it's first public performance in the United Kingdom at the Purcell Room in London that year. On this mid-priced reissue in Hyperion's Helios series, two of the finest examples of the string sextet repertoire have been re-united. They can now be enjoyed for what they truly represent-the very summit of late Austrian romanticism from Imperial Vienna, just before it finally disappeared forever.