Moses Pergament, Volume One: A Musical Miscellany

Published by Toccata Classics on October 4, 2024

Nominated for the Swedish Grammis Award in the category Best Classical CD of the Year (2025)

The neglect of Moses Pergament (1893–1977) can be ascribed in part to the complexities of his life: he was born in Finland of Lithuanian-Jewish stock, a student in Russia and a Swedish citizen by 1919. As a result, no national culture stepped forward to claim him, with his outsider status initially worsened by blatant anti-Semitism – and the gradual realisation that he was one of the most interesting Swedish composers of the mid-twentieth century then fell away again after his death. This series of recordings aim to return his music to the public ear, beginning with an album tracing the growth of his style, from early Romanticism to a spicy Bartókian vivacity, occasionally animated by Jewish melos and dance-rhythms.

Reviews

"[The piano concerto] is a most attractive work, strongly characterised and with a real sense of personality, and it’s played with authority by Martin Malmgren. (…) This is a splendidly realised project (…) Malmgren is an especially valuable presence here, both for his stirring performance in the concerto and in the solo piano works and transcriptions."

Jonathan Woolf, Music Web Interntional

“If the quality of what is heard on this disc is representative of Pergament’s output, we are in for some wonderful discoveries. […]

The dramatic declamatory opening of the first movement [of the piano concerto], marked Maestoso, is contrasted with a lyrical second subject. The two elements are woven together skillfully. The slow movement, marked Molto adagio, is particularly beautiful, demonstrating the composer’s gift for melody. […] Listeners who respond to Shostakovich or Prokofiev will almost certainly find this concerto appealing. For me, it was a major discovery. […]

All of the performances here are at a high level, interpretively and technically. The performer who appears in every piece but one is pianist Martin Malmgren. (He is absent in the three-minute Meditation for solo cello.) Malmgren’s knowledge of Pergament is displayed in his playing and his biographical sketch, one of two sets of superb notes. Cellist Tomas Nuñez has a warm, rich sound; he displays dramatic intensity in the four works he plays. I can’t wait for Volume Two (…).”

Henry Fogel, Fanfare Magazine

“Pergament has a truly distinct voice in his 28-minute Piano Concerto. […] It opens with motifs and melodies that verge on Gershwinesque jazz. The relationship between piano and orchestra is like in the Concerto in F. But Pergament is a far more serious composer. I’s integral form grows organically; the drama becomes more serious and gripping than in Gershwin. […] . I remained fixated as the quiet, steady development in the orchestra grew and held me through its quasi-tonal journey. […]”

Gil French, American Record Guide

This new release from Toccata Classics, curated by pianist and lead performer Martin Malmgren, is wholly to be welcomed in bringing a wide range of Pergament's music from right across his career into public view. The bulk of the programme is a succession of shorter items for piano—performed by Malmgren—and/or strings (mainly Tomas Nuñez's cello), bookended by two larger concertante works: his sole completed piano concerto and the intriguing Fantasia differente (1969; subtitled "Ciélo e térra"—'Heaven and Earth') which may have composed as a memorial to the great Catalan cellist, Gaspar Cassadó (1897-1966), who had premiered Pergament's Cello Concerto in 1955. 

The Piano Concerto (...) is a brighter, more virtuosic work—for the orchestra as much as the soloist—in the conventional three movements: sonata-form, a haunting and emotionally charged adagio, and a rondo finale based in part on a song from the Simchat Torah festivities. Fleeting reminiscences of Prokofievan or Bartókian pianism aside, the music always sounds like Pergament in Martin Malmgren's committed revival (...).

            The remaining pieces—some gentle, some grave, all immediately engaging—range from early salon-like inspirations, such as the wistful Sorrow from 1908-9, the three Lyrical Dances and Chanson triste for 2 violins, cello & piano, both completed in 1915, to a variety of extracts, arranged by the composer for piano, from incidental music for the stage (1915; 1936) and the stately Festive Fanfare (1961), as well as Malmgren's transcription of some film music (1939). The closing quarter of the album changes focus to the cello for a series of late pieces (1969-74), lovingly played by Nuñez.

Guy Rickards, Klassiskmusikk.com

“There's a haunting strangeness and a sadness to much of this music, and Moses Pergament's compositional voice is definitely one to experience. All the performances here are excellent. Martin Malmgren's extensive liner notes […] are fascinating and detailed."

Keith Bramich, Classical Music Daily

“Bearing in mind that Pergament began composing before the First World War, his style can be described as eclectically modern. In the piano concerto, this means Bartók-like themes in the first movement, Scriabin-like vision in the slow movement and Jewish themes in the finale (…). Martin Malmgren is a steely-fingered soloist in the demanding piano part, but the orchestral part is also symphonically weighty. (…) In all of these works, one hears the voice of an original composer, and they also cast important light on the multicultural heritage of Finland.”

Antti Häyrynen, Rondo Classic

“I was immediately captivated by the piano concerto, and that interest remained throughout the work during subsequent listenings – I have returned to listen specifically to the piano concerto and will continue to do so. (…) There’s a lot of personal commitment in this.”

David Saulesco, Sveriges Radio

“I feel like I can hardly breathe because I don’t know where [the piano concerto] is going to go next, that these ideas are jostling for space and…it’s so personal, it’s so idiosyncratic, and I will definitely come back to this music many times. (…) It’s an incredibly comprehensive booklet, and it’s needed – everything that is written there is interesting.”

Boel Adler, Sveriges Radio

“Swedish-Finnish composer of Lithuanian descent, the Jewish Pergament—one of the pioneers of modernism in Sweden—has not been particularly well served by the recording industry. Hence the interest in this miscellany, which includes a major work, the Piano Concerto (1952), five chamber pieces—four of them featuring the cello—and seven miniatures for piano. Notable versions.”

Juan Manuel Viana, Scherzo

“The result is an altogether enjoyable and challenging album (…). All in all, Martin Malmgren has struck upon a remarkable composer whose output is well worth exploring more widely.”

Veijo Murtomäki

”(…) an impressive example of a happy union of passionate artistic commitment and free-field production skills, complimented by high-quality booklet texts.”

Jari Hoffrén, Keskisuomalainen