Romancing the Strings (2015) 12鈥�
Man in the Sky - Overture (1994) 4鈥�
Piano Concerto (1972-3) 29鈥�
Gaudiana ("Symphonic Studies") (2000-2001) 25'
Gerard Schurmann is perhaps best known for his work on film soundtracks, but he wrote music for a wide variety of media and in different forms, including concert pieces, an opera-cantata, and concertos for violin and piano. Today we hear a selection of his work from a career spanning seven decades, with pianist Xiayin Wang who performs as soloist in his Piano Concerto.
Schurmann was well acquainted with the 麻豆社 Philharmonic 鈥� he conducted the orchestra in April 2001, in a recording of his own work on the Chandos label. The 麻豆社 Philharmonic also later recorded a selection of his film music for Chandos, with Rumon Gamba conducting.
It was Gamba who conducted the premiere of Schurmann鈥檚 symphonic studies for orchestra, a piece called Gaudiana, which we hear today. Gaudiana was commissioned 2004-5 by the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, to be performed at their recently completed new concert hall, l鈥橝uditori. The piece draws its inspiration from the work of the Catalan architect Antoni Gaud铆 - Rumon Gamba commented that the piece 鈥渄oesn鈥檛 transmit images, but rather emotions. It is a music that comes from the heart and that has truth and beauty.鈥�
Schurmann was working almost right up until his death at 96 in 2020. He completed Romancing the Strings in 2015, a piece he based on his own music for the 1963 Disney film, The Sword in the Stone. Schurmann said of Romancing the Strings that he aimed to convey 'feelings of ardent and wistfully nostalgic romance.鈥� Perhaps it鈥檚 no coincidence that he felt compelled to return to this most poignant example of his earliest work in his later years 鈥� truly a great musical mind reflecting on his inspirational career.