Ernst Krenek: Complete Symphonies
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If you’re up for the challenge, this admirable collection, well played and directed by two intrepid conductors and a game ensemble of Hannoverians, delivers the...
If you’re up for the challenge, this admirable collection, well played and directed by two intrepid conductors and a game ensemble of Hannoverians, delivers the goods.
Let’s not kid ourselves: Krenek is not exactly an ingratiating composer, and these are works for hard-core collectors only. His style is for the most part harsh and acerbic, moving from the angular chromaticism with light popular music influences of his First Symphony, through serialism, to a kind of free atonality in the Fifth. Significantly, he composed no further symphonies after 1949, although he lived until 1991. This makes him a kind of avatar of the 20th century musical crisis, and an important figure historically, but is the music enjoyable? That of course is a purely subjective question, but without doubt one that will require a measure of concentration and endurance that I suspect may be too much for many listeners. That said, if you’re up for the challenge, this admirable collection, well played and directed by two intrepid conductors and a game ensemble of Hannoverians, delivers the goods.
-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
Let’s not kid ourselves: Krenek is not exactly an ingratiating composer, and these are works for hard-core collectors only. His style is for the most part harsh and acerbic, moving from the angular chromaticism with light popular music influences of his First Symphony, through serialism, to a kind of free atonality in the Fifth. Significantly, he composed no further symphonies after 1949, although he lived until 1991. This makes him a kind of avatar of the 20th century musical crisis, and an important figure historically, but is the music enjoyable? That of course is a purely subjective question, but without doubt one that will require a measure of concentration and endurance that I suspect may be too much for many listeners. That said, if you’re up for the challenge, this admirable collection, well played and directed by two intrepid conductors and a game ensemble of Hannoverians, delivers the goods.
-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
Product Description:
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Release Date: May 29, 2012
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UPC: 761203769520
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Catalog Number: 777695-2
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Label: CPO
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Number of Discs: 4
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Period: 777695-2
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Composer: Ernst Krenek
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Conductor: Alun Francis, Takao Ukigaya
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Orchestra/Ensemble: North German Radio Symphony Orchestra Hannover
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Performer: Dimitar Penkov, Nikolai Schneider, Volker Worlitzsch