Welcome to this CD release concert, arranged by the Agora Music Collective! We celebrate the start of a series of recordings that sheds new light on the fascinating, Finnish-born composer Moses Pergament. The CD that is now being released, "Volume one: A musical miscellany", includes Moses Pergament's piano concerto, chamber and ensemble works, and music for solo piano. All works are now published on CD for the first time, and other performers than Musiikkikollektiivi Agora include Helsinki Metropolitan Orchestra, Helsingin kamariorkesteri, cellist Tomas Nunez, pianist Martin Malmgren and conductors Sasha Mäkilä and Aku Sorensen.

Moses Pergament Volume One: A Musical Miscellany | Toccata Music Group | Toccata Classics | Toccata Press | Toccata Next

The concert will include works from the period of Moses Pergament's highly acclaimed debut concert in Helsinki, held at the Helsingin yliopiston juhlasali in 1914 and sold out to the last seat. We also hear incidental music that he wrote for the play "King Salomo" by Gertrud Paloheimo. Paloheimo was a neighbour of Jean and Aino Sibelius, and later also became the mother-in-law of their daughter Eva, with whom Moses Pergament played chamber music in Kallio-Kuninkala in their youth. The music has likely not been heard in Finland for over a hundred years.

Performers:

Sebastian Silén, violin
Lea Tuuri, violin
Max Savikangas, viola
Antto Tunkkari, cello
Aida Salakka, double bass
Martin Malmgren, piano

Free entrance! CDs are sold before and after the concert, and donations to the cause of Agora Music Collective are warmly welcome.

The concert is arranged with support from Birgit Nygréns stiftelse.

The CD has been generously supported by Svenska Kulturfonden, Fredrik Pacius minnesfond vid Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland, Konstsamfundet, Stiftelsen Tre Smeder, William Thurings stiftelse, Emilie och Rudolf Gesellius Stiftelse, the Sibelius Academy Foundation and the Docmus Doctoral School of Classical Music at the Sibelius Academy.

This series of recordings will also include a CD consisting of songs performed by soprano Tuuli Lindeberg and pianist Martin Malmgren, as well as a CD with the complete works for violin and piano, performed by violinist Sebastian Silén and Martin Malmgren, to be released in 2025. All CDs are released by the renowned British record label Toccata Classics.

"The neglect of Moses Pergament (1893–1977) can be ascribed in part to the complexities of his life: he was born in Finland of Lithuanian-Jewish stock, a student in St Petersburg and a Swedish citizen by 1919. As a result, no national culture stepped forward to claim him, with his outsider status initially worsened by blatant anti-Semitism – and the gradual realisation that he was one of the most interesting Swedish composers of the mid-twentieth century then fell away again after his death. This series of recordings aim to return his music to the public ear, beginning with an album tracing the growth of his style, from early Romanticism to a spicy Bartókian vivacity, occasionally animated by Jewish melos and dance-rhythms."