Hans Winterberg (1901 91) was interned in Terezín by the Nazis. Unlike so many of his Jewish compatriots there, Winterberg survived but had to emigrate in 1945 to, of all places, Germany to join his non-Jewish wife and daughter (both deported from post-war Czechoslovakia). Winterberg settled in Bavaria, working and composing until his death 13 days short of his 90th birthday. His music fell under embargo, the consequence of a contract between his estate and the Sudeten German Music Archive, which might have kept the music hidden until at least 2030 (possibly longer). Fortunately, the embargo was lifted in 2015.

There is an informative trailer for this album on YouTube covering some of this ground, from which one might assume that this is the first release of his music. Actually, it is the seventh: the first of two volumes of piano music came from Toccata Classics in 2018, followed by orchestral works (archival recordings from Bavarian Radio broadcasts pre-1980, on Pierian), chamber music (Toccata again, Melism) and songs (Arco Diva). His discography now probably exceeds that of Viktor Ullmann, and is closing up on Klein and Krása, yet he remains almost unknown.

What, then, is Winterberg’s music like? Of its time: the three works here date from 1936 (the First Symphony), 1948 (the first of three piano concertos) and 1966 (Rhythmophonie, a very up-to-the-mark title). Always tonally based at root, the works reflected Winterberg’s stylistic preoccupations and enthusiasms, whether Schoenbergian expressionism in the rather fine symphony, a beguiling mix of neoclassicism and romanticism in the concerto – which deserves to be a hit in this marvellous account by Jonathan Powell – or the slightly self-conscious modernism of Rhythmophonie. The last-named is longer than the symphony and concerto combined, an orchestrational tour de force, rather choreographic in effect. Its slightly abrupt conclusion is typical of the composer.

The performances by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Johannes Kalitzke are terrific. Comparisons with Jan Koetsier’s broadcast with the Munich Philharmonic on Pierian show how virtuoso the Berliners are. Winterberg’s music, like that of Josef Schelb (Toccata Classics) and Alexander Veprik (MDG) is well worth investigating.