4 reviews for Hugo Kauder: Chamber Music, Volume One: Sonatas I

1. Fanfare :

   ‘Kauder’s absence from the recorded catalog is no reflection on the quality of his music, if the current recording (comprising barely one percent of his catalog) is any indication. […]

   But even in these early works, I find Kauder to have an original voice. […] but there is an earthiness to Kauder’s Romanticism that I find highly attractive. […]

   But what might be most attractive about these sonatas is Kauder’s willingness to experiment with his motifs. It’s always in the pursuit of emotional expression, but it is also in the interest of making the most of his material. […]

   Kauder’s music could ask for no better advocates than Karen Bentley Pollick and Daniel Glover. Pollick varies her tone with her expression, from a meaty, earthy fullness to a clarion brilliance to a fragile vulnerability. This is not simply a matter of dynamics but of an approach to the violin that invests it with an extensive palette of timbres and personalities. Daniel Glover brings a solid, assertive touch to the piano, full of warm resonance and pearly brilliance. Even when Kauder’s writing assigns a wholly supportive role to the piano, Glover brings a wealth of color to his part. And as an ensemble, Pollick and Glover are thoroughly attuned to the drama and depth of Kauder’s music, as well as to its many moments of subtle introspection. […]

   This is the first volume in what promises to be an important survey of a grossly neglected composer. I am glad to have been introduced to Kauder’s work through this album, which deserves the strongest recommendation.’

   —Myron Silberstein, Fanfare, April 2026

2. Fanfare :

   ‘I cannot fault the depth of the introductory essays in this release, by Karin Wagner (“Hugo Kauder, Moravian-Viennese Master in the Making”), Barbara von Bechtolsheim (“Hugo Kauder, Composer in Exile”), and (on the music itself) Paul Conway. Most of all, though, Kauder’s music itself is not to be missed. […]

   The close recording [in the first violin sonata] is maximally unforgiving: every aspect of Bentley Pollick’s playing is laid bare, and she comes through well, particularly in the occasional passage of stopping. Daniel Glover, a name new to me, is fabulous here. […] [the violin sonata no.1] is very clever, and very much invites repeated listening. […]

   The [second violin sonata] is expertly written, with interest equally split between violin and piano. Glover’s playing is excellent, particularly his chordal placement, so together. Bentley Pollick’s lower register is strong and expressive. But most impressive is the way Kauder can shift from one mode of expression to the next almost instantaneously; worth noting the close is so approachable, warm and satisfying, too. Six minutes it might be, but this is a piece entirely worthy of attention. And for all its lightness, Brahms’s serious side does occasionally surface in the piano. Bentley Pollick and Glover negotiate the rhythmically tricky passages with seeming ease. […]

   Bentley Pollick is a fine viola player, rich-toned in the lower registers and expressive higher up. […]

   The importance of this disc lies in the renaissance of Hugo Kauder, though, and there’s plenty more: five symphonies, 19 string quartets, and much vocal music including an opera Merlin, on a libretto by philosopher Rudolf Pannwitz. There’s not too much opera on Toccata Classics (although the operas by Richard Flury there are so worthy of investigation); perhaps we could have Merlin? A big ask, I know. In the meantime, seek out this disc of Kauder sonatas. This disc is part of Toccata’s “May Bundle” 2026, and the fact that this is “Chamber Music, Volume One: Sonatas I” bodes very well indeed.’

   —Colin Clarke, Fanfare, April 2026

3. Fanfare :

   ‘This is unusually well-crafted music, interpreted to the nines by Karen Bentley Pollick and Daniel Glover. Recommended.’

   —Mark Gabrish Conlan, Fanfare, April 2026

4. Fanfare :

   ‘Karen Bentley Pollick has a real feel for this idiom [in violin sonata no.1], bringing a resonant tone to the lyrical first movement and navigating the finale’s unexpected turns—a fugue yielding not to a grand peroration but to a dance-like episode and a very quiet close—with admirable poise. […]

   What impressed me most [in the second violin sonata] is the way Bentley Pollick balances control and expressiveness, playing with a lyrical poise that lets Kauder’s careful proportioning speak for itself. There is no superfluous material in this compact piece, and nothing showy in the performance either. […]

   Bentley Pollick and Daniel Glover sustain an enriching dialog across its nearly half-hour span [of sonata no.3], moving beautifully from the urgency of the Appassionato first movement to the devotional Largo—where Glover’s extended piano soliloquy is rendered with real sensitivity—and on to the Passacaglia finale with its increasingly elaborate variations and cyclic recall of the opening theme. […]

   It is not a given, even at this level, for players to sound equally at home on violin and viola, but Bentley Pollick’s playing of the latter is revelatory. She produces a warm, dark-hued tone ideally suited to the autumnal lyricism of the opening Con moto tranquillo, with its wistful major–minor shifts recalling Schubert and Mahler. More than any other work here, this piece evokes a lost Vienna, and the viola proves its perfect voice. Glover is again an ideal partner, responsive to every turn in the second movement’s unpredictable double variations—spiky chromaticism, a Mahler-flavored Ländler, a sinuous fugal passage—before the triumphant return of the first movement’s theme brings the disc to a deeply satisfying close. Another invaluable Toccata rediscovery, then, with world-class advocacy throughout.’

   —Dominic Hartley, Fanfare, April 2026

The American Prize ERNST BACON MEMORIAL AWARD for the PERFORMANCE of AMERICAN MUSIC, PROFESSIONAL soloists or composers, 2024