Die helle Nacht (‘The Bright Night’), the second opera by the Swiss composer Richard Flury (1896–1967), enjoyed only a single radio broadcast in 1935, the year of its completion, and then remained unheard until this recording. It is revealed as a passionate mixture of sexual jealousy, obsession and murderous revenge, until love and reason ultimately prevail. Flury responded with some of his most ardent music, poised between the late Romanticism of Richard Strauss and occasional more modernist touches that reveal an admiration for Alban Berg – with a further link to Vienna in Flury’s fondness for waltz rhythms.

“Paul Mann, a conductor adept at dealing with little known music, is completely on top of these scores. Never for a moment do they drag or sound dull, and the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra does a terrific job. This is certainly a release of interest, and I hope it leads to recordings of Flury’s concertos and symphonies.” – Fanfare, July–August 2020 (TOCC0552, Der magische Spiegel & Kleine Ballettmusik)

“Flury’s version [of A Florentine Tragedy] has an almost verismo feel to it: brassy declarations seem to echo the fanfares in Turandot; vocal lines have Italianate fluidity to them. Paul Mann conducts the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra in a pulsating account…Toccata’s rich recording allows both works to bloom and this disc is well worth exploring.” – Gramophone, September 2019 (TOCC0427, A Florentine Tragedy)