Krommer, F.: Divertimento in F Major, Op. 96 / Piano Quarte

Classical Music

“In any event, a more convincing case for Krommer, who is also largely forgotten as a symphonist, than the case made with this performance culture could hardly be made.” This is what Pizzicato wrote about the release of Vol. 2 of Krommer’s symphonies. Vol. 3 of this recording series completes the picture of this composer’s quest for harmonic innovations. Compared with his fifth symphony, Krommer’s sixth such work, composed two years later, has a musical language reflecting a process of radicalization. In formal and cyclical respects, however, he continues to adhere to the conventions of symphonic music of the early nineteenth century; not a single one of the four movements creates a revolutionary stir. Be this as it may, Krommer’s musical language ventures onto more rugged terrain; form and function are subject to a gradual process of dissociation. Krommer concluded the score of his ninth symphony on 17 September 1830, two months before his seventy-first birthday and only about four months prior to his death, which means that we may presume that it was one of his last compositions. After his death, however, his works no longer received attention; it is doubtful that this work was ever performed at all prior to its recording for the present release. As in the sixth symphony before it, Krommer follows convention in his ninth symphony in formal matters while offering a whole arsenal of innovative ideas by fully exploiting tonal ambivalences, pursuing new compositional paths, and separating the architectonic and functional aspects of musical form. In addition, his use of a motif of fanfare character in the first and last movements heralds the development of a motivic-cyclical design transcending movement boundaries.

Classical Music

Franz Krommer (1759-1831) was a first rate composer. As you can see, he was three years younger than Mozart, and outlived both Beethoven and Schubert. During that time, he wrote hundreds of instrumental works: chamber music, concertos, nine symphonies (No. 8 is missing), and the wind ensemble music on which his reputation now largely rests. Interestingly, he composed almost no vocal music. The quality of his output is very high: he really sounds like the natural successor to Haydn in many respects. His symphonies are almost exactly contemporary with Beethoven’s, and rather than sounding conservative or reactionary, we can hear them as part of an evolving tradition–different but not necessarily inferior.

Krommer’s idiom evolved as he aged. These three symphonies date from the 1820s, and reveal a composer moving comfortably within the classical style (of which he was a charter member, let’s not forget), but extending its expressive range through vivid orchestration and an expanded harmonic vocabulary. In its rhythms and frequent alternation between major and minor modes, his music also sounds recognizably Czech. Consider the dance movements in each of these three symphonies. Although he calls them “Menuetto,” they are true scherzos (sound clip), full of harmonic and rhythmic audacities. You won’t find Beethoven’s bigness of vision here, but then you don’t find that anywhere else either. In all other respects, these are outstandingly fine works.

The symphonies have been recorded previously (most of them, anyway), but these versions from Howard Griffiths are exemplary in their stylishness and alertness to every nuance that Krommer asks for. The findings of the period instrument movement manifest in the generally swift tempos and incisive accents, but this never becomes a fetish. Excellent engineering makes this release utterly irresistible. We badly need a systematic critical edition of Krommer’s works, accompanied by a wide ranging series of recordings. In the meantime, grab this and marvel.

– ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)

Recorded in: St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead, London 11-12 November 1993 Producer(s) Ralph Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ben Connellan Richard Smoker (Assistant)

Classical Music

Czech composer Franz Krommer, a contemporary of Mozart and Haydn, did not gain the fame in Vienna that his fellow composers achieved. For this recording, Tudor has gathered three of Krommer’s flute quartets. These works contrast the string quartets of Haydn and Mozart in that the virtuosity required of the flute in Krommer’s works is far beyond that required of the violin in the string works. Renowned flutist Andreas Blau has taken on this challenge, joined by violinist Christoph Streuli, violist Ulrich Knorzer, and cellist David Riniker.

One of the least explored and potentially most rewarding musical niches of the Classical period is the extensive repertoire of wind ensemble music composed by innumerable fine composers, most of them Czech. Franz Krommer is certainly one of the most successful of this great school. His wind Partitas are genuine symphonies scored for pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns, with a double bass or contrabassoon added to firm up the bass line. Actually, Op. 45 No. 2 tosses a trumpet into the mix as well, while the early Partita in E-flat (which may or may not be by Krommer) is a true double horn concerto with wind accompaniment. Krommer's music, like Haydn's, artfully mixes formal ingenuity with folk-influenced melodies (particularly in the minuets and finales), and demonstrates the exceptionally high standard of performance typical of contemporary players, horns in particular. The Michael Thompson Wind Ensemble has been working its way through this repertoire in a series of excellent Naxos recordings, of which this is certainly one. The players attack each piece with enthusiasm and the superb technique necessary to sustain such lengthy and complex music as the First Partita's second movement Romance. Charm, wit, sophistication--Krommer has all of these qualities, and these performances will delight you.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

He is perhaps best known now for his clarinet concertos, to which his quartets including the instrument form a not insubstantial pendant: they, too, are full of virtuosic writing for the instrument, who placed forward in a soloistic position, with the string parts mostly moving together to accompany it. In the late Clarinet Quintet, however, the instruments enjoy a more equal balance of the kind familiar from Brahms's chamber music for the instrument: indeed, in the opening movement's fugue, the clarinet is the last voice to enter. Here the harmonies are cloudier, more Romantically inclined, and a more reflective spirit presides even in the quick outer movements: there is a rapt and melancholic Andante which deserves far greater popularity. These new recordings come from Dutch instrumentalists who have specialized in this repertoire. As principal clarinettist of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra for many years, Henk de Graaf has recorded Mozart's Clarinet Concerto (as soloist) and much chamber music from the late-Classical/Early Romantic period by Crusell, Weber, Spohr and others.

Franz Krommer was once a highly regarded composer, but he then ceased to be remembered more quickly and disappeared more completely than any other creative musician of his generation. It was not until 1997 that the Czech musicologist Karel Padrta compiled a thorough catalogue of his works including a biographical introduction. Krommer all too long was overshadowed by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, and it is only recently that his oeuvre has begun to attract increased attention. Krommer’s oeuvre focuses almost exclusively on instrumental music. In his first symphony he succeeds in forming a thoroughly individual synthesis of stylistic elements recalling Haydn and Mozart, while in his second such work he largely distances himself from these models and develops a symphonic style all of his own. The slow introduction of the first movement, which begins in forte with a gloomy D minor triadic chord, immediately presents a tone quite different from that of his early works and develops an individual sound character with a fitting continuation in the following Allegro vivace’s main movement complex distinguished by strong dynamic contrasts and constantly oscillating between major and minor. Krommer’s third symphony is comparatively conventional, which may have to do with the fact that it is based on an older source and was merely reworked for its publication.

Classical Music

Includes partita(s) for winds by Franz Krommer. Ensemble: La Gran Partita.

When Franz Krommer wrote the three wind partitas presented on this recording (between 1808 and 1810) the Harmonie-Musik tradition was waning, making these some of the last examples of this once widely-practiced genre. Scored for pairs of oboes, clarinets, horns, and bassoons, they gain added ceremonial nobility with the addition of contra-bassoon. Listeners new to this music also will note the high, penetrating clarinet parts in C for the Op. 76 Partita and the many flamboyant arpeggio passages for second horn throughout Op. 69. Both techniques recall outdoor styles of the late 1700s.


These new performances by the Michael Thompson Wind Ensemble are of very high order and have been pleasingly recorded in a bright-sounding church acoustic that suits this extrovert music particularly well. This account of Op. 79 supplants an older analog version by the Nash Ensemble, with well-focused if quite closely miked sound and playing that's more technically refined and better blended. Op. 76 has been recorded previously by the Meyer Wind Ensemble for EMI, but that performance is outclassed here by superior playing and a brilliant sense of comedy. For an enticing sample, try the final Rondo! Highly recommended.
--Michael Jameson, ClassicsToday.com

Includes work(s) by Franz Krommer. Soloists: Nancy Ambrose-King, Solomia Soroka, Natalia Khoma, Eva Stern, Joseph Kam.