Erich Wolff
Violin Concerto in E-flat Major, Op. 20
I. Allegro moderato
II. Schwermütig, nicht zu langsam -- bewegt, leidenschaftlich drängend 22:25
III. Gemächlich, nicht zu schnell - Vivace 30:00
Sophia Jaffé, violin
Neue Philharmonie Westfalen
Heiko Mathias Förster, conductor
Born in Vienna on 3 December 1874, Erich Jacques Wolff was a composer and pianist. The search for sources concerning him is quite disappointing in light of the expansive oeuvre he left behind at his death on 19 March 1913 in New York City. A friend and colleague of Arnold Schönberg and Alexander Zemlinsky, Erich J. Wolff was active and successful as an accompanist as well. He composed more than 150 songs, three melodramas, piano pieces, a string quartet, a violin concerto (dedicated to Kathleen Parlow) and a ballet which received its premiere at the Bohemian National Theater in Prague on 23 April 1913. During his lifetime his songs were published in Austria, Germany, Russia and the USA. In Volume 8 of "Sang und Klang im XIX und XX Jahrhundert", Engelbert Humperdinck writes: "Erich Wolff was not able to enjoy very long the happiness of creativity and success: he, who was one of the most poetic accompanists of the great concert singers, who appeared to have been called to enrich the chain of the masters Schubert-Jensen-Franz-Brahms-Hugo Wolf".