Paul Hermann

Paul (Pál) Hermann
In the 1920s and 1930s, Paul (Pál) Hermann performed as a cellist all over Europe. Adolf Weißmann wrote in the Berliner Zeitung am Mittag: ‘Paul Hermann is one of the best cellists of our times.’ A Dutch newspaper called him ‘the Hungarian Casals’. ‘A cellist of first magnitude’, according to Evening Standard in London. He not only played the music of Bach and Beethoven to great critical acclaim, but also championed both Hungarian and Dutch contemporary composers. The fact that Hermann – student of Leo Weiner and Zoltán Kodály – was also a gifted composer himself, was far less known. His first compositions date from his student time at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, the last compositions that we know of were written late 1939 in Paris, two months after the Second World War broke out. In 1944, Paul Hermann was arrested in Toulouse and deported via Drancy to Lithuania. He never returned.

CD1
Tracks 1-3 Burkhard Maiss-violin, Bogdan Jianu-cello
recorded at Berlin NaturTonStudio; November 21, 2016
Track 4 Burkhard Maiss-violin, Hannah Strijbos-viola, Bogdan Jianu-cello
live recording at Splendor Amsterdam; December 12, 2016
Track 5 Burkhard Maiss-violin, Bogdan Jianu-cello, Andrei Banciu-piano
live recording at Splendor Amsterdam; April 11, 2016
Track 6 Clive Greensmith-cello, Beth Nam-piano
The Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices at the Colburn School, Los Angeles
Live recording by Sergey Parvenov; May 13, 2016, Thayer Hall. All rights reserved.

CD2
Tracks 1-3 Irene Maessen-soprano, Andrei Banciu-piano
Recorded at Splendor Amsterdam; March 27, 2017
Tracks 4-12 Andrei Banciu-piano
Recorded at Splendor Amsterdam; March 27, 2017