String quintet op.106 ; String quartet op.99 ; Five intermezzi op.10 (2025)

"German composer Hans Gál was born in a village in the environs of Vienna. Having studied music history at the University of Vienna he took a course of private lessons with Eusebius Mandyczewski. Around the time of the Great War, he made a name for himself as a composer of operas. For a few years he presided over the music department at Mainz University but his Jewish forebears were soon used as the basis for his ejection. Return to Vienna turned out to be a temporary expedient and he ended up taking uncomfortable refuge in the UK. Interned as an “enemy alien”, he was offered a post in Edinburgh University by his friend Donald Tovey and Scotland became his home for the rest of his life. His music is driven by melody; not for him the contortions of the Second Viennese School." (Music Web International)