Emánuel Moór: Symphony No. 2 in C Major, 'In memoriam Kossuth Lajos', WoO 153

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Emámuel Moór (1863-1931)

Symphony No. 2 in C Major, 'In memoriam Kossuth Lajos', WoO 153

I. Andante maestoso - Allegro con brio 0:00
II. Andante sostenuto 13:39
III. Scherzo: Molto vivace e con brio 26:17
IV. Allegro poco maestoso 34:16

Budapest Philharmonic Society Orchestra
János Kovács, conductor

Emánuel Moór (1863 – 1931) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and inventor of musical instruments. Moór was born in Kecskemét, Hungary, and studied in Prague, Vienna and Budapest. Between 1885 and 1897 he toured Europe as a soloist and ventured as far afield as the United States. Besides five operas and eight symphonies his output also included: concertos for piano (4), violin (4), cello (2), viola, and harp; a triple concerto for violin, cello, and piano; chamber music; a requiem; and numerous lieder. Moór's opuses total to 151 to his credit including eight symphonies. He died, aged 68, in Chardonne, Switzerland. His best-known invention was the Emánuel Moór Pianoforte, which consisted of two keyboards lying one above each other and allowed, by means of a tracking device, one hand to play a spread of two octaves. The double keyboard pianoforte was promoted extensively in concerts throughout Europe and the United States by Moór's second wife, the British pianist Winifred Christie. Maurice Ravel said that the Emánuel Moór Pianoforte produced the sounds he had really intended in some of his works, if only it had been possible to write them for two hands playing on a standard piano. Anatoly Brandukov, dedicatee of Moór's Cello Sonata, No. 2 in G Major, Op. 55, introduced the composer to Pablo Casals.[5] Casal's first meeting is recorded in nearly every biography about Casals. In his own words Casals said, “His music was overwhelming….and the more he played, the more convinced I became that he was a composer of the highest order. When he stopped, I said simply, ‘You are a genius.’” This meeting was the beginning of a long friendship between the two with Casals performing and premiering Moór's compositions, several of which were dedicated to Casals. For example, Casals gave four performances of the Cello Sonata No. 2 in G Major in December of 1905 alone following his initial meeting with the composer earlier in the year. Casals’s first noted performance of this sonata came during a Russian tour (pianist not noted) followed by two performances with Marie Panthès in Geneva and Lausanne and one performance in Paris with Alfred Cortot at the piano.Casals also championed other of Moór’s works, performing multiple sonatas, a concerto that Moór dedicated to him, a double cello concerto, and a triple concerto for piano trio with orchestra.