The ARC Ensemble’s Music in Exile series continues with this exploration of chamber works by Ernest Kanitz.
Born into a wealthy Viennese family in 1894, he was encouraged in music by his mother, started piano lessons aged seven, and was composing within a year. Persuaded by his parents to study for a degree in Law, Kanitz also studied piano, music theory, and composition (with Franz Schreker, who also served as a mentor). His reputation grew steadily, his works promoted by conductors such as George Szell and Clemens Krauss. In 1922 he gained a position as a teacher at the New Vienna Conservatory, and in 1930 established the Vienna Women’s Chamber Choir, which quickly gained a reputation across Europe for its performances of Kodály, Honegger, and Stravinsky (as well as Kanitz!). Although he had converted to Christianity in 1914, his Jewish ancestry necessitated emigration from Austria in 1938, following the annexation of Austria by National Socialist Germany. After a short spell in New York, Kanitz and his wife, Gertrude, moved to Rock Hill, South Carolina, where he had secured a teaching position. Following Gertrude’s early death from cancer, Kanitz moved to California, where he established a successful teaching career at the University of Southern California.
Retirement from USC in 1960 gave him much more time for composition (although he was still teaching and lecturing), with successful premières given by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and San Francisco Symphony, among many others. Following his death in 1978, his music, like that of so many émigré composers, has been forgotten.
Reviews
'Superbly performed and recorded, this is a fine production with an intriguing and enjoyable programme of première recordings. I for one am delighted to have been given the opportunity to discover the music of Ernest Kanitz.'
Dominy Clements - MusicWeb International - 15 March 2026
4 étoiles
'Violinist Anna Štube deals in ravishing melodies and dreamy asides; Kanitz balances the finely carved material with expressive, seemingly off-the-cuff diversions.'
Claire Jackson - BBC Music Magzine - Christmas 2025
'Throughout, the ARC Ensemble perform with their customary polish and rhythmic perspicacity, making a persuasive case for this unjustly neglected figure.'
Andrew Palmer - Yorkshire Times - 1 November 2025
'This is another attractive entrant in the series not least for the fact that, as so often in the series, these are all premiere recordings. All the performers prove adept, sensitive and stylish exponents.'
Jonathan Woolf - MusicWeb International - 28 October 2025
'...piano that delights in Kanitz's arrival in the New World. All get convincing performances from the ARC Ensemble.'
Richard Fairman - Financial Times - 1 November 2025
'As before, stellar performances from the ARC Ensemble offer the best possible case for reappraising this neglected composer.'
Joanne Talbot - The Strad - 24 October 2025
'Here again, the players of the ARC Ensemble really find the music's sardonic, tender and deeply melancholy soul: an affecting centrepiece to this rewarding and important release.'
5 etoiles
Richard Bratby - Gramophone - November 2025
'In its latest instalment, the ensemble has revived the strikingly varied and enigmatic chamber works of Ernest Kanitz...These are bold, adventurous compositions which carry the listener through many worlds'
Heather Weinreb - myscena.org - 13 November 2025