“Elan Sicroff’s piano play is of a bold beauty, broad in scope. With an energetic and accurate touch he vibrates in the ‘improvised’ passages. A special feature is the dizzying variety in the composition, which is performed by Sicroff with an inspired ease. Virtuoso how he follows this diversity so organically and performs it in a natural way.

Mattie Poels, Music Frames, August 16, 2022 (translated from the Dutch version)

• Elan Sicroff — piano

• PROGRAM
• Beethoven — Sonata, Op. 110 in A flat
• Schubert — Four Impromptus, Op. 90
• Thomas de Hartmann — Second Piano Sonata, Op. 82 “dedicated to P. D. Ouspensky and the poetical idea of the 4th dimension”
•  
• All are mature works, written towards the end of the composers’ lives, and they represent their attempt to embody the results of their life experience through music.

Elan Sicroff is known as an interpreter of the music written by Thomas de Hartmann, both the classical works as well as the music from the East composed in collaboration with Gurdjieff. In the 1960s he studied with Jeaneane Dowis, protégée and assistant to Rosina Lhevinne at the Juilliard School. From 1973-75 he attended the International Academy for Continuous Education at Sherborne, in Gloucestershire, England, as a student and later Director of Music. The Academy was directed by J. G. Bennett, a leading exponent of Gurdjieff’s teachings. It was here that Elan was introduced to the music of Thomas de Hartmann. Between 1975 and 1979 he studied with Mme. Olga de Hartmann, widow of the composer, focusing on the music which de Hartmann composed in the classical idiom. He performed many recitals under her auspices, and in 1982 toured the United States.

In 1985 guitarist Robert Fripp offered to produce a recording of the Gurdjieff/de Hartmann music with Elan, and Journey to Inaccessible Places was released by EG records in 1987. In 2002 and 2009 Elan recorded two more CDs, Sicroff Plays Gurdjieff and Laudamus…

Since 2006 Elan Sicroff has spearheaded the Thomas de Hartmann Project. The aim is to bring the composer’s music back to public awareness. Between 2011 and 2015 nearly 7 hours of de Hartmann’s classical music was recorded at the Muziekcentrum van de Omroep in Hilversum, the Netherlands, with Producer Gert-Jan Blom, recording engineer Guido Tichelman, and 16 outstanding instrumentalists and singers. A 7 CD Box Set, The Thomas de Hartmann Project – Music for Piano, Voice and Chamber Ensemble was released in September 2016.

“This concerto is no mean feat, but Sicroff seems to succeed in making even the most difficult passages sound effortless, without overdoing the more overtly romantic passages. It is also largely thanks to the tireless efforts of the pianist that the recordings exist at all, so we do owe a debt of gratitude to him for all his work.

The Light Music Society, July 6, 2022

• Elan Sicroff’s website