New release
New from Pentatone: Thomas de Hartmann: Esther — Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/Karabits
28 April 2026
The first complete recording of de Hartmann's 1946 opera-oratorio, a wartime work of real weight, finally given its due by Karabits and the Bournemouth Symphony on Pentatone.
The first complete recording of a work that deserved one decades ago. Pentatone continues its de Hartmann series with the premiere recording of his 1946 opera-oratorio Esther, performed by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Kirill Karabits.
De Hartmann wrote it during the Nazi occupation of France, drawn to Racine's play about a Jewish queen who saves her people from annihilation. The subject matter was painfully immediate, and the work was never performed complete in his lifetime. That it has taken until now to receive a full professional recording in the original French feels like a genuine injustice being corrected.
The music rewards the wait. The soundworld is distinctively French, there are moments that anticipate Poulenc's Dialogues des carmélites and others that look back to Debussy's Pelléas, with the occasional sharp reminder of Stravinsky and a whiff of Walton's Belshazzar's Feast to keep things interesting. Karabits, who has clearly done the scholarly groundwork, draws committed playing and singing throughout.
