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Bruckner: Symphony in D no. 0 "The Nullified" / Ballot, Altomonte Orchestra St. Florian
Gramola Records · May 2024CD$24.99 -
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Mozart: 45 Symphonies / Adam Fischer, Danish National Chamber Orchestra
Dacapo Classical · Jan 2014CD$53.99 -
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Bruckner 11 - Complete Symphonies, nos. 00-9 / Thielemann, Wiener Philharmoniker
UNITEL Edition · Sep 2023Blu-Ray$102.99 -
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Schumann: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 4; Genoveva Overture / Gardiner, London Symphony
LSO LIVE · Sep 2019CD$11.99 -
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Rachmaninoff: Symphonies & Orchestral Music / Lan Shui, Singapore Symphony
BIS · Feb 2021SACD$44.99 -
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Schumann: Symphonies No 2 & 4 / Zacharias, Orchestre De Chambre De Lausanne
MDG · May 2012SACD$24.99 -
E . T. A. Hoffmann: Missa; Miserere / Rupert Huber, Wdr Symphony Orchestra Cologne
CPO · Feb 2014CD$18.99 -
Bruckner: Symphony in D minor "Nullte", WAB 100
Berlin Classics
CD
$19.99
Aug 23, 2024
Founded in 1841 under the participation of Constanze Mozart, the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg today enjoys the highest reputation worldwide for it's lively and style-conscious Mozart interpretations. In numerous ways it connects the Viennese Classical period to the music of the 19th/20th and 21st centuries. The orchestras constant preoccupation with his core repertoire also shapes it's approach to the music of later periods. Thus chamber-musical transparency, articulatory clarity and nuanced sonority are a trademark that makes the Mozarteum Orchestra special and recognizable, also when playing the music of other composers. The Mozarteumorchester Salzburg proves once again it's unrivaled position as interpreters of the Mozart stylistic and uses the organ sonatas as a departure into other stylistic periods. It Includes two world premiere recordings of Henze's "Konzertmusik" and "Three Mozart Organ Sonatas".
Franck: Symphony In D, Symphonic Variations / Lortie, Et Al
Chandos
CD
$21.99
Jan 01, 2001
Here's a Franck D-minor Symphony in the classic French tradition of Paray and Munch: fast and exciting. In fact, at less than nine minutes, Tortelier's finale may very well be the swiftest ever, and tempos in both of the other movements never look back. Still, there's no trace of stiffness or lack of rhythmic flexibility. Others may well call it the "slim fast" approach or "Franck-lite," and the lack of self-indulgence does rob the quieter moments of some of their inherent mystery. I'm thinking here particularly of the symphony's opening, or the calm interlude in the finale just before the coda, where the "motto theme" returns accompanied by rich harp arpeggios, but it's not a major issue. Tortelier also isn't afraid to let the enthusiastic brass swamp the strings now and again, as at the end of the first movement's second subject, but my word, how those trumpets do ride the climaxes! In short, I'm not tossing out my favorites (aside from those listed above, these include Monteux/Chicago and Bernstein's DG remake), but this is much more than just another run-of-the-mill version.
The couplings also go well. Les Eolides has just the right skittish charm, and the Symphonic Variations pack considerably more energy than usual, though Louis Lortie's capable pianism must yield to Artur Rubinstein (RCA) and Ivan Moravec (Supraphon). I am less the impressed with Chandos' sonics. As with their recent Glinka CD, the big, reverberant acoustic works against the thrust of the performances. Something drier and crisper, with a better focus on cellos, basses, and timpani would have complimented Tortelier's approach much more readily. Nevertheless, if you love Franck's symphony, you'll enjoy this.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
The couplings also go well. Les Eolides has just the right skittish charm, and the Symphonic Variations pack considerably more energy than usual, though Louis Lortie's capable pianism must yield to Artur Rubinstein (RCA) and Ivan Moravec (Supraphon). I am less the impressed with Chandos' sonics. As with their recent Glinka CD, the big, reverberant acoustic works against the thrust of the performances. Something drier and crisper, with a better focus on cellos, basses, and timpani would have complimented Tortelier's approach much more readily. Nevertheless, if you love Franck's symphony, you'll enjoy this.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
Bruckner: Symphony in D no. 0 "The Nullified" / Ballot, Altomonte Orchestra St. Florian
Gramola Records
CD
$24.99
May 17, 2024
The 2023 edition of Brucknertage Festival St. Florian was presenting a very rare specialty: Rémy Ballot and the Altomonte Orchestra St. Florian’s premiere performance of the critical new edition of Anton Bruckner's Symphony in D minor, WAB 100, "The Nullified" (formerly known as "Die Nullte" or "No. 0") by David Chapman. Contrary to what one might induce, it is by no means a symphonic debut by Bruckner but has been composed in 1869 after his first symphony, designated to be Symphony No. 2. Many parts of the composition are radically new and already herald the revolutionary compositional models of the later Bruckner. The so-called “First Theme” alone, as later in the introductions to the IIIrd and IXth Symphonies, does not form a developed theme, but only sound surfaces, prompting the understandable, but disastrous question by conductor Felix Otto Dessoff of the Vienna Philharmonic: “Well, where is the main theme there?” This single criticism was enough for the sensitive 45-year-old to “annul” the work, adding the number “0” to the autograph and disregarding it for the rest of his life… It was not until 1924 that this magnificent D minor symphony, which was certainly unjustly banned from his catalog of works, was finally premiered in Klosterneuburg.
V2: COMPLETE SYMPHONIES
Challenge Classics
CD
$15.99
$20.99
Save 25%
Jul 05, 2019
While offering little suggestion of the symphonic mastery he would attain less than a decade later, the First Symphony, influenced by Mozart's last symphonies and completed in October 1813, is a remarkable achievement. Schubert composed his Third Symphony over a period of about two months, completing the work in July 1815. The Third Symphony is generally characterized by an increased rhythmic intensity, at times bordering on obsession. We may well think of Schubert primarily as a wonderful melodist, but driving, sometimes overpowering rhythm is just as strong a feature of many of his greatest works. The question of why Schubert left this B minor symphony unfinished has continued to exercise scholars. The most convincing explanation is that he simply found himself unable to continue on the same exalted level and resigned himself to leaving the symphony as it was- two movements of breathtaking quality and imagination. There is no evidence that he ever wished, in his remaining six years, to return to the work, or that he regarded it as "unfinished." Beethoven's influence on the historic development of the symphony was staggering. His own examples, widening the expressive range of the genre, opened up a new world. Against this background, Schubert conceived a work of much greater poetry, drama and profundity than he had attempted in his previous symphonies. Over-familiarity may well have blunted our appreciation of this symphony, which is strikingly original from almost every aspect. Apart from the concentrated, expressive quality, there is also an enhanced sense of tone color, with much richer sonorities, and a new spaciousness.
Vorisek: Symphony In D, Mass In Bb / Freeman, Jantzi, Et Al
Cedille
CD
$19.99
Jan 01, 2001
Czech composer Jan Vorišek (1791-1825) was a talented musician just beginning to make a name for himself, particularly as a composer of piano music, when he died prematurely of tuberculosis. The excessively enthusiastic notes to this release take full advantage of speculative historical hindsight and describe his orchestral style as an amalgam of Beethoven's (which he may have known) and Schubert's (which he certainly didn't), asserting in passing that "Beethoven was never a great melodist...(!)" This hardly corresponds to the reality of what you actually hear on the disc, but it represents the only questionable aspect of this otherwise splendid production.
Vorišek's style arises directly from the classical language of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Of incipient Romanticism or the Schubertian long melodic line there's nary a trace, and the music is none the worse for that. His single symphony might pass for early Beethoven: indeed, the end of the first movement exposition apparently lifts a famous passage directly from the finale of the older composer's Fourth Symphony, but this doesn't diminish Vorišek's modest originality. You can hear this at work, among other places, in the characterful use of timpani at the very beginning and in the wonderfully passionate minor-key opening of the slow movement. For some time now, the reference recording of this piece has been Charles Mackerras' reading on Hyperion with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Paul Freeman does him one better, having a superior orchestra, more tactile recorded sound, and slightly broader tempos that, combined with punchier accents (especially in the first movement), give the piece an appropriately grander stature. Let's just say that Freeman evidently views the work as closer to Beethoven while Mackerras places it closer to Haydn and Mozart.
Mackerras couples the Vorišek symphony with another singleton effort, by Arriaga. Cedille gives us more Vorišek, his marvelous Mass in B-flat, which (I believe) receives its CD debut recording here. This piece really is a find. Close in style to the language of Haydn's late masses, it contains numerous original touches, such as the thrilling augmentation of the fugue subject toward the end of the Gloria, an almost violent Crucifixus characterized by syncopated rhythms and jagged interjections from trumpets and drums, a sweetly lyrical second Hosanna following the Benedictus, and a startling ending scored for pianissimo timpani and brass. Its stylistic provenance may be clear, but there's no other mass setting quite like it, and fans of choral music really owe it to themselves to give it a listen.
Once again Freeman turns in an excellent performance (though he should have had a soloist intone the opening lines of the Gloria and Credo, as Vorišek, designing the work for a genuine liturgical setting, leaves these to the officiating priest). His soloists manage their assignments capably, the Prague Chamber Chorus sings with appropriate fervor, and the recording copes with the vast reverberation of the Rudolfinum in Prague very well. At the loudest moments the textures tend to thicken a bit, but this seems primarily a result of Vorišek's tendency to keep all of the parts close to their middle register, creating a certain density of sound (and I suspect making the work easier to perform by early 19th century church choirs). This is, in any case, a major release and a very pleasant surprise. Good work, Cedille.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 & Extracts from the rehearsals
BR Klassik
CD
$29.99
Sep 04, 2026
The distinguished Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt, long associated with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra as a regular guest, conducted Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 in d Minor, in concerts on May 7 and 7, 2009 in the in the Philharmonie i'm Gasteig in Munich. This new BR-KLASSIK CD presents not only the live recording of this compelling interpretation but also a live orchestral rehearsal recording from May 2009. The latter forms part of BR Klassik's acclaimed series Conductors at Rehearsal, offering a glimpse into their artistic work with the orchestra. "It seems that the Ninth is a limit. He who wants to go beyond it must pass away. [...] Those who have written a Ninth stood too close to the hereafter." Arnold Schoenberg wrote those words in reference to Gustav Mahler, who had just died without ever having heard his own Ninth Symphony performed. Bruckner was apparently afraid of the fatal number as well: "I don't want to start on my Ninth at all, I don't dare'. However, very soon after the completion of his Eighth Symphony in September 1887, Bruckner started on his first drafts. Overall, work on the Ninth then dragged on over the long period from 1887 to 1896, having to be constantly interrupted because of the composer's deteriorating health. Bruckner finally died while working on the fourth movement - and his masterpiece dedicated to "the beloved God' remained unfinished. Even without a finale, the three-movement torso that survives is, of course, extremely impressive. The completed movements were first performed in Vienna on February 11, 1903, in an unusual personal version by the conductor Ferdinand Lowe. The actual first performance of the original score with it's three movements only took place on April 2, 1932 in Munich. Ever since, Bruckner's Ninth has been an essential part of the Late Romantic symphonic repertoire - above all in it's original version. The detailed rehearsal recordings on the CD provide a deeper insight into this magnificent work. Listeners can experience first-hand how the conductor's wishes, ideas and instructions are implemented, how his explanations and his temperament change the resulting sound, and what thoughts lie behind the interpretation of the work. Thanks to this series, which is now also available on CD, the unique artistic partnership between Herbert Blomstedt and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra can be documented. Blomstedt's seemingly inexhaustible source of energy - music itself - is palpable in every word and every bar. ? Herbert Blomstedt conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in concerts on May 7 and 8, 2009 ? Live recording of Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 ? Includes "Conductors at Rehearsal": live recording of the orchestra rehearsal May 7 and 8, 2009 for the Munich concerts
Mozart: 45 Symphonies / Adam Fischer, Danish National Chamber Orchestra
Dacapo Classical
CD
$53.99
Jan 28, 2014
MOZART Symphonies Nos. 1, 4–31, 33–36, 39–41. Symphonies, K 19a, 42a, 45a–b, 73l–n, 73q, 111b • Ádám Fischer, cond; Danish Natl CO • DACAPO 8.201201 (12 CDs: 716:42)
I mentioned in my review of a single disc from this series, which included symphonies Nos. 28–30 (Fanfare 34:4), that I didn’t think that Ádám Fischer’s performances captured “Mozart’s drama as well as they capture his elegance,” but added the caveat that it’s difficult to gauge an entire series of symphonies by one CD. Alas, in later reviewing the disc including symphonies Nos. 31, 33, and 34, I had the opposite feeling, that Fischer was making a “race to the finish line” and playing the symphonies too quickly. Now, as it so happened, I reviewed those two discs about two years apart, and so did not have the first still on hand to compare to the second, or to think about the differences in approach. But now I have the full set of 45 symphonies to review, and my feelings have changed. Now I am inclined to agree with Patrick Rucker, who gave a rave review to the single disc of symphonies Nos. 15–18 in Fanfare 31:1 (a disc reviewed, I believe, before I joined the magazine staff), stating that he was “grasping for superlatives.”
The difference? Listening to the entire series in chronological sequence. By doing so, I noted that, despite an overall theatrical approach to these symphonies (in the liner notes, Fischer admits that he tends to think of orchestral music “operatically,” i.e., finding a dramatic theme or thread in the music that he then tries to bring out), he does make distinctions between the earlier and the later symphonies. Reducing his approach to a few basics, he plays the earlier symphonies with equal drama and electricity but with far fewer changes in dynamics and fewer rubato touches. In addition, I was able to download the scores of four of the symphonies—two of the most famous late works (40 and 41) and two early symphonies (Nos. 5 and 15, chosen pretty much at random)—and although these are not up-to-date, verified, Urtext scores like the ones Fischer worked from, they do include dynamics markings. And, as any number of conductors of the past have mentioned, they do not tell you what to do between the forte here and the piano four or six bars later (or vice versa). You are expected to follow your own good taste in approaching them.
Perhaps another deciding factor for me was in hearing Philippe Herreweghe’s more dynamic performances of symphonies Nos. 39 and 41 and, believe it or not, Bruno Walter’s historic performances of symphonies Nos. 39–41. Despite Walter’s slower tempos (and richer string sound), he actually elicited much more nuance and detail from those symphonies than did Jaap ter Linden, whose set I gave a good review to and suggested at the time that it was a fine historically-informed set of the Mozart symphonies. But, to be honest, what really sold me on Fischer’s approach were his performances of the early, lesser-known, oft-neglected, and unnumbered symphonies. Each and every one of them sounded as if it was just bursting with excitement, yet not too much that it overpowered the music on the printed page.
Moreover, what struck me in the single disc of symphonies 31, 33 and 34 as too fast now, suddenly, made sense in context. And, for the several Toscanini-bashers out there, I found it almost comical to note that Fischer takes the Finale of the “Jupiter” Symphony at virtually the same tempo that they consider “too fast.” The difference, of course, is that musicians of the 1940s and 50s weren’t used to playing Mozart this swiftly, and so they tended to sound pressed, whereas Fischer’s Danish National Chamber Orchestra skips through the music deftly and nimbly, like snow rabbits dashing across the landscape. It’s the comfort level of the executants that makes the difference, then, not the “wrong” tempo.
A good example of Fischer’s approach is CD 3, where he presents no less that four symphonies in a row that are all in the key of D Major (K 73l, m, n, and q). It would have been very easy for him, and the orchestra, to simply slip into an all-purpose style for these works, which of course would make them sound pretty much the same, yet he continually varies his approach from work to work. I do, however, caution the listener to approach this set one CD at a time. That is what I did, listening on consecutive nights to only one CD per evening, and it worked out pretty well. You get a better feel for the magnitude of Fischer’s achievement that way, and you are being fairer to both him and the Danish orchestra, whose players helped prod him on to take chances with the music and do things differently from the norm. After all, this was a seven-year project for them. These symphonies did not just get all rehearsed and recorded within a year or two.
I should also point out the work that went into Symphony No. 15, one of the four I obtained scores of. In the notes, Fischer asserts that if this work had not been by Mozart, who wrote so many symphonies and so many of good quality, it would probably be a much better known work, possibly a repertoire staple. Just reading the score, the music does look promising but certainly not brilliant. The first movement, for instance, is in a quick 3/4 time, featuring a jagged melody with the usual wide-ranging melodic leaps. From the first bar, the dynamics marking is forte, which changes to piano at bar 13, then back to forte at bar 22, piano again at bar 25, forte on the first beat of bar 30 with a sudden fp on the second beat (a half note played by the oboes, trumpets, and first violins, while the second violins play 16ths and the violas, cellos, and basses play eighth notes). It’s all pretty cut-and-dry, you might say, and this is how most conductors play it. Fischer adds a little burst of extra volume at the top of bar 5, when the agitated strings play against long-held notes by oboes and trumpets, and there are all sorts of little gradations of sound in various places, including slight crescendos to emphasize the musical drama. More interestingly, none of this sounds particularly fussy; if you didn’t have the score in front of you, or if you hadn’t heard any number of flat-response historically-informed performances, you’d think that this is simply the way the music goes. Toscanini once said it isn’t the f here or the p there that’s difficult to gauge, but what to do in between. Sadly, Toscanini paid little attention to most of Mozart’s symphonies because, except for the last three, he found most of them boring: “Is always beautiful, but always the same!” In Fischer’s performances, nothing is “always the same.” In the Andante of this Symphony, for instance, there are no dynamics markings at all, yet Fischer plays it at a moderate mp with further gradations down to p or pp and back again. By such means does he create and sustain interest.
The notes also explain the reason why the music sounds so vibrant and alive: His string players all use steel strings, which gives the music a consistently “edgy” quality that reveals, as Fischer put it, Mozart’s “earthily honest side.” The more you think about it, the more this makes sense, since Mozart was strongly influenced by both Haydn and C. P. E. Bach, both of whom exploited an earthy, dramatic quality in their symphonies.
Probably the most difficult aspect of the earlier symphonies to overcome was the monotony of orchestration. Clarinets, horns, and other instruments only begin to appear in Mozart’s symphonies later on; earlier, the composer had to rely on his ingenuity of counter-rhythms and occasional harmonic changes to sustain interest, and unlike Haydn, Mozart almost invariably sought the widest possible popularity for his music (perhaps one of the reasons why Toscanini found it “always the same”). Yet, as the notes also point out, in Mozart’s day no one bothered to listen to music more than three years old as a rule. It was all about what was new, not what had come before. No one gave a hoot back then about “historical performance practice” because they didn’t want it and wouldn’t have listened if you gave it to them.
I still feel that occasional movements, such as the Andantes of the “Paris” Symphony and No. 39, are a shade too fast for my taste, but in the context of Fischer’s overall musical conception what he plays works very well. I can now accept what I hear in those later symphonies because my tolerance was built up through what he did with the numerous early works. In short, I have taken this symphonic journey with Fischer, the only difference being that I did it in 12 nights rather than in seven years.
I have now replaced the Jaap ter Linden set of Mozart symphonies on my shelf with this one. I strongly urge you to give them a listen and see if you don’t agree.
FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley
Haydn: Symphonies Nos 26, 35 & 49 / Ward, Northern Co
Naxos
CD
$19.99
Apr 23, 1993
Symphony No. 26 in D minor seems to have been written in 1768 or thereabouts and is scored for the usual Esterháza forces of pairs of oboes and French horns, bassoon, strings and cembalo. Haydn completed his Symphony No. 35 in B flat major on 1st December 1767, scoring the work for pairs of oboes and high B flat horns, bassoon, strings and cembalo. What starts light-heartedly enough assumes a graver air in the central development, where contrapuntal use of earlier thematic material introduces an element of stronger feeling, with the recapitulation marked by the ascent of the first horn to unusual heights. The E flat major slow movement is scored for strings only with music of considerable charm. The wind instruments return for the Minuet, but are excluded from the E flat Trio, with it's triplet rhythm handed from second to first violin. The symphony ends with a cheerful Finale and the tone of the whole work has led Robbins Landon to suggest that it might have been written to celebrate the return from Paris of Prince Esterházy, who had visited France in the autumn of 1767 with the presumed object of learning more about the Palace of Versailles that his own new palace at Esterháza was to imitate and rival. Symphony No.49, La Passione, was written in 1768 and is scored for pairs of oboes, French horns in F, bassoon, strings and originally cembalo. This work, in the key of F minor, belongs clearly to the dramatic mood of Sturm und Drang, although not so called until the publication in 1777 of Klinger's play of that name. Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress), a self-explanatory title, describes well enough the current literary mode of extravagant expression of emotions, partly reflected in some of the music of the period. Haydn's symphony follows the old pattern of the church sonata, opening with a slow movement. A degree of tension is generated in the following Allegro di molto, not least by the wide leaps and syncopation of the first violin in the opening of the movement, leading to a calmer shift to the relative major key. The Minuet, in which first and second violins double one another for much of the time, frames an F major Trio that makes use of the high range of the first horn. The final monothematic Presto brings to an end a symphony that enjoyed very considerable popularity in Haydn's life-time, the culmination of a particular development of the symphony and the expression of a depth of feeling that ensured serious consideration for the genre. A symphony of this kind was no mere diversion. Northern Chamber Orchestra, Manchester Formed in 1967, the orchestra has established itself as one of England's finest chamber ensembles. Though often augmented to meet the requirements of the concert program, the orchestra normally contains 24 musicians and performs both in concert and on disc without a conductor. Their repertoire ranges from the baroque era to music of our time, and they have gained a reputation for imaginative program planning.
Bruckner 11 - Complete Symphonies, nos. 00-9 / Thielemann, Wiener Philharmoniker
UNITEL Edition
Blu-Ray
$102.99
Sep 22, 2023
On the occasion of the Bruckner bicentenary; the Vienna Philharmonic recorded its first ever complete Bruckner cycle with a single conductor; Christian Thielemann. In addition to the well-known canon of nine symphonies; the two earliest Bruckner symphonies in F minor and D minor were also recorded for the first time in the orchestra’s history. This uniquely complete edition from the Musikverein and Salzburg Festival; featuring 11 symphonies also includes extensive conversations with Christian Thielemann about each symphony and insights into his rehearsal work.
“In this audiovisual edition Bruckner 11; the Vienna Philharmonic pays tribute to the symphonic works of the great Austrian composer Anton Bruckner; whose 200th birthday anniversary will be celebrated in 2024. The Vienna Philharmonic; perhaps more than any other ensemble; can look back on a shared history with Bruckner that was shaped by the composer’s great esteem for the orchestra and which was to have a decisive influence on Austrian musical culture. The premiere of the Symphony No. 2; for example; which Bruckner himself conducted in 1873; was a great success and; despite considerable opposition at the time; led to numerous performances and premieres. The close artistic and personal relationship between Anton Bruckner and the Vienna Philharmonic also contributed to the development of an unmistakable “Brucknerian” sound and style of playing which has had an enduring influence on the composer’s legacy up to the present day.This anniversary provides a welcome occasion to celebrate the music of Anton Bruckner.
For the first time in our orchestral history we have made a complete recording of all nine symphonies and two of his brilliant yet rarely performed early works with a single conductor. We enjoy a very close artistic partnership and friendship with Christian Thielemann; who is an acknowledged expert on the music of Anton Bruckner and one of the most influential contemporary conductors in this repertoire. In this recording; our long tradition comes alive in both sound and images. We hope it will encourage people to rediscover the treasures of Bruckner’s music; a legacy that the composer bestowed upon present and future generations of music lovers.” Prof. Daniel Froschauer; Chairman of the Wiener Philharmoniker
Loewe: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 / Gaudenz, Janaer Philharmonie
CPO
CD
$18.99
Oct 21, 2022
Of Carl Loewe's oeuvre, his comprehensive Lied edition is best known. In contrast, his two symphonies are rarities that we do not want to withhold from you. Unfortunately, nothing is really known about the exact circumstances of the composition and premiere of the two symphonies. With regard to the E minor symphony, Loewe himself at least left the note that the composition was completed on December 15, 1834. With regard to the D minor symphony, it is assumed that it was composed in 1835. Especially the D minor symphony, which was composed later, comes up with surprises in its formal layout. The instrumentation is very similar to his first symphony in E minor, but the frequent use of four horns is striking, with which Loewe takes a step further towards the typical Romantic instrumentation. When looking at the sequence of movements, the interchange of slow movement and scherzo is striking, and in the harmonic structure Loewe allows himself an extravagant excursion into F-sharp major in the introduction of the fourth movement. The album is completed with Loewe's Themisto Overture, a compressed drama whose atmosphere comes to a head with tremolo surfaces, falling lines and syncopated counter-motives.
Schumann: Complete Symphonic Works, Vol. 1
Audite Musikproduktion
CD
$20.99
Oct 29, 2013
This CD launches a complete series of recordings of Robert Schumann's orchestral works, performed by the WDR Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Heinz Holliger. Holliger's performances draw on a lifetime study of Schumann's music, thought, personality and fate. His approach imparts lightness and lucidity to these opulent scores through a hierarchical balance of parts, delicately gradated dynamics, and invigorating tempos. The widespread image of this romantic composer as a weak orchestrator receives a refreshing and well-grounded correction. Volume 1 of the series presents the First Symphony in B-flat major (Op. 38), Overture, Scherzo and Finale (Op. 52) and the original 1841 version of the Fourth Symphony in D minor (Op. 120).
Schumann: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 4; Genoveva Overture / Gardiner, London Symphony
LSO LIVE
CD
$11.99
Sep 20, 2019
Following their award-winning Mendelssohn cycle, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the London Symphony Orchestra embark on a new journey through the symphonies of Robert Schumann.
Gardiner feels the Schumann symphonies are criticised unfairly and with these recordings he is on a mission to dispel the cobweb of myths around these symphonic masterpieces.
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REVIEW:
The LSO respond with elan to the bracing textures, confounding the cliché that Schumann “couldn’t orchestrate”. Gardiner chooses the 1841 version of the D minor work, No 4, which the LSO play as if discovering it anew.
– Sunday Times (UK)
Gardiner feels the Schumann symphonies are criticised unfairly and with these recordings he is on a mission to dispel the cobweb of myths around these symphonic masterpieces.
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REVIEW:
The LSO respond with elan to the bracing textures, confounding the cliché that Schumann “couldn’t orchestrate”. Gardiner chooses the 1841 version of the D minor work, No 4, which the LSO play as if discovering it anew.
– Sunday Times (UK)
Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 & Mass No. 3
Capriccio
CD
$22.99
Mar 11, 2016
For this outstanding two-disc set, the RSO Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Cornelius Meister, brings us two works by Anton Bruckner (1824-1896): his Symphony No. 9 in D minor WAB 109, and his Mass No. 3 in F minor WAB 28. One of the more popular choral works of late Romanticism, the Mass in F minor is said to have been a work of gratitude for the composer’s recovery from a persistent nervous illness. Soloists featured here are soprano Ruth Ziesak, alto Janina Baechle, tenor Benjamin Bruns, and bass Gunther Groissbock.
Rachmaninoff: Symphonies & Orchestral Music / Lan Shui, Singapore Symphony
BIS
SACD
$44.99
Feb 05, 2021
Sergei Rachmaninov was one of the twentieth century’s outstanding pianists, but the large body of purely orchestral music he composed is no less an expression of his musical character. His great strength was that he managed to preserve intact a vision he had discovered very early in life. This contemporary of Schoenberg, Scriabin, Ravel and Ives was unconcerned with musical fashions and had no wish to be a pioneer. Instead, and over a period of half a century he refined and deepened a language which derived naturally from his late-nineteenth-century Russian background.
With this four-disc box set, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Lan Shui present a comprehensive collection of Rachmaninov’s music for orchestra – from the Scherzo in D minor, his first surviving piece for orchestra, completed just before his fifteenth birthday to the canonical works: the Symphonies and the Symphonic Dances. The recordings were made between 2008 and 2015, with the three symphonies (previously released on separate albums) described as ‘eine formidable Gesamteinspielung’ on the website Pizzicato. But there is much more to Rachmaninov’s orchestral music besides the symphonies, and this box offers the listener opportunity to explore the young composer’s fascination with Gypsy themes (in the excerpts from the opera Aleko and Capriccio bohemien) as well as his lifelong preoccupation with death, in the form of the four notes of the Dies irae plainchant motif. This is heard again and again in Rachmaninov’s music, up until his very last work, the Symphonic Dances, where, at the very end of the third and final dance, this symbol of death is finally laid to rest.
REVIEWS:
It would be difficult to imagine a more compelling or indeed idiomatic account of the First Symphony than Shui’s...this is a first-rate set, with sound to match.
-- HiFi (UK)
Mendelssohn: String Symphonies Nos. 7, 9 & 12
Haenssler Classic
CD
$20.99
Aug 17, 2018
Felix Mendelssohn's string symphonies can be broadly split into two groups: the first six all have a three-movement structure; the movements of the first three are ordered fast-slow-fast and are thus based on the pre-Classical models. The second group of string symphonies comprises more substantial compositions. This release features no. 7 in D minor, no. 9 in C major, and no. 12 in G minor. There are several ways through these three symphonies when we hear Mendelssohn's ingenuity break fresh ground. The Bolzano String Academy was established in 1987 by the South Tyrolean Music Association under the artistic direction of Georg Egger. The string orchestra consists mainly of South Tyrolean musicians who have gained a wealth of experience in prominent chamber ensembles and orchestras at national and international level and pass on their experience in joint projects with budding young artists. The String Academy usually performs without a conductor. Some of the String Academy's members also play in the Klassische Philharmonie Stuttgart, and this connection has led to collaboration with the conductor Frieder Bernius.
Schumann: Symphonies No 2 & 4 / Zacharias, Orchestre De Chambre De Lausanne
MDG
SACD
$24.99
May 01, 2012
SCHUMANN Symphonies: No. 2; No. 4 • Christian Zacharias, cond; Lausanne CO • MDG MGD 940 1745-6 (SACD: 64:51)
This is the first time I have ever heard these symphonies played gracefully by a chamber orchestra. What makes them so beautiful is that Christian Zacharias does not employ his orchestra’s limitation of size as an excuse for delivering spiky phrasing and rude noises. (Roger Norrington! Beware of Dog!) What I encounter instead in these performances is the delicacy of Schumann’s piano suites and the fine ear of a pianist who knows this music must dance. In fairness, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra is not that small—perhaps 50-strong here—but usually the temptation would be to overcompensate with smaller-dog tensile energy.
Happily we find instead kinder, gentler versions of big-orchestra Schumann. This approach works best in the inner movements of both symphonies, but also especially well in the danceable opening allegro of the Fourth. Taken a bit faster than usual, the Adagio of the Second Symphony could actually propel a couple gracefully around the room. In the outer movements we get similar tea-dance spirit, but at the slight expense of something larger and more exciting. This is such smooth, euphonious cozy Schumann; it is almost Dvo?ák.
Schumann, of course, was obsessed by the sound of disembodied trumpets during the composition of his Second Symphony. And there is more metaphysical fear and Wagnerian mystery to be captured in its introduction than heard here. Christoph Eschenbach evoked this hauntingly in his Bamberg cycle for Virgin in the early ’90s. And Ernest Ansermet, just up the road in Geneva, didn’t do badly with it, either. Small forces have difficulty with the stasis of mood and mystery. In particular, tremoli with a large complement of strings can evoke the infinite nature of things. But in reduced numbers, they demystify and can pester like flies at a picnic.
So I shall not argue that Zacharias has exhausted the possibilities found in these symphonies, just that the beauty of his approach will surprise you, in delicious but unobtrusive surround sound. If there is perhaps more grit, force, and sheer amorous passion to be found in the Second Symphony, well, Clara Schumann would certainly have thought so. As a small symbol in her diaries reveals, she and Schumann had sex virtually every day for 10 years! I always suspected girls loved Schumann!
FANFARE: Steven Kruger
E . T. A. Hoffmann: Missa; Miserere / Rupert Huber, Wdr Symphony Orchestra Cologne
CPO
CD
$18.99
Feb 25, 2014
E. T. A. HOFFMANN Mass in d, AV 18. Miserere in b?, AV 42 • Rupert Huber, cond; Sibylla Rubens, Jutta Böhnert (sop); Rebecca Martin (mez); Thomas Cooley (ten); York Felix Speer (bs); WDR Radio Ch; WDR SO • CPO 777832 (62:01 Text and Translation)
Butcher, baker, candlestick maker? Well, not exactly, but it wouldn’t be off the mark to call E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776–1822) a polymath, for he was one of Germany’s greatest early Romantic writers of fantasy fiction and horror tales, a lawyer and a jurist, a draftsman and a caricaturist, and a music critic and serious writer on the art of music and its aesthetics. And, oh yes, by the way, did I mention that in his spare time he was a composer? His output includes a symphony, several stage works, a handful of piano sonatas, a piano trio, a harp quintet, and of course, the concerted choral-orchestral Mass and Miserere on this disc.
Hoffmann’s literary works are commonly cited as the inspiration for Schumann’s Kreisleriana and Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann, but less often noted is that Hoffmann’s novella The Nutcracker and the Mouse King was the basis for Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, and that Léo Delibes’s ballet Coppélia is also based on stories by Hoffmann.
Hoffmann’s literary works had more of an influence on 19th-century composers and the Romantic movement than his musical compositions did, for his abilities as a composer were judged to be more modest than his talent for the written word. Add to that his relatively small output, and it’s hardly surprising that there’s not a lot of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s music on disc. In light of this, what’s perhaps surprising is that this is at least the third recording of the Miserere I’m aware of. A performance on Koch-Schwann/Music Sacra with a different conductor and cast of vocal soloists, but the same chorus and, I believe, the same orchestra was reviewed by David Johnson in 12:4. And yet another recording, also on Koch Schwann, but this time with an entirely different cast of singers, players, and conductor—Rolf Beck, leading the Southwest German Vocal Ensemble and the Concerto Bamberg—was released in 1997, 10 years later.
Johnson was mightily impressed by the Miserere, calling it “a work of genuine, even astonishing power and beauty,” an assessment with which I wholly concur. The piece wasn’t published in Hoffmann’s lifetime, and the exact date of composition isn’t given. It can be deduced, however, that Hoffmann had to have completed it towards the end of 1806 or the beginning of 1807, for the work was to have been performed at the ceremonies earlier in 1806 when Archduke Ferdinand of Austria became the Grand Duke of Würzburg, but the score wasn’t ready in time. It didn’t receive its first performance until Good Friday, 1809.
It’s important to keep in mind when listening to this masterful piece of choral/orchestral writing that its date of composition coincides with that of Beethoven’s C-Major Mass, op. 86. Yet if I had to make a comparison to Hoffmann’s Miserere, it wouldn’t be to Beethoven’s chronologically contemporary Mass, but to a work of 17 or so years earlier, Mozart’s Requiem. Whether Hoffmann was consciously imitating the musical style of that work or not, it’s impossible to say, but the similarities are striking.
Listen to the sighs in the strings just seconds into the opening movement, and tell me you don’t expect to hear the mournful entry of the basset horns. Or tell me there isn’t a resemblance between the Miserere’s “Ecce enim in veritatem” and the Offertorium of the Requiem in the Süssmayer completion.
Understand that in no way am I diminishing Hoffmann’s effort. His Miserere is a gorgeous work, and there’s much in it that postdates Mozart stylistically, specifically the vocal solos, which tend to be more ornate and less liturgical sounding than what Mozart would have considered proper for a sacred setting of such a solemn text, and also in the more symphonic scoring and treatment of the orchestral parts. But as noted by Johnson, Hoffmann additionally takes great pains to fully demonstrate his contrapuntal skills, composing “grand choral double fugues that Bach, himself, could have found no fault with.”
However you hear Hoffmann’s Miserere—whether as an echo of Mozart, a sympathetic vibration with Beethoven, or a precursor to Verdi—it doesn’t matter, as long as you hear it, because it’s a stunning work, which really ought to spark a reassessment of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s output in general.
The Mass in D Minor is a little earlier than the Miserere, dating from between 1803 and 1805, but it’s composed on an equally grand scale. The solemn introductory measures followed by a running fugue is reminiscent of the type of Baroque overture one hears at the beginning of Handel’s Messiah, and simultaneously anticipatory of the overture to Mendelssohn’s Elijah.
As in the Miserere, Mozart looms large over major portions of the Mass. Listen, for example, to the Kyrie, which once again reverberates with recollections of Mozart’s Requiem. But now Haydn takes a bow in the joyful Gloria. Yet through it all, a new Romantic spirit infuses Hoffmann’s work. It’s not as daring as Beethoven’s adventures of the same timeframe, but then whose were?
One thing that deserves some criticism, in my opinion, is Hoffmann’s over-reliance on fugue. At first, one marvels at his aptitude for counterpoint, but when a fugue appears in practically every movement, not only does one begin to wonder if Hoffmann isn’t short on arrows in his quiver, but the recurring fugal textures begin to become a bit tiresome. Remember Saint-Saëns’s dictum: “A fugue is a piece where the voices come in and the audience goes out one at a time.”
Koch-Schwann seems to have taken more than a passing interest in E. T. A. Hoffmann back in the 1990s, for in addition to the above-cited recordings of the Miserere, the label also released a recording of this Mass in 1999, featuring the chorus and orchestra of the Capella Cracoviensis, led by Roland Bader. Unfortunately, I haven’t heard that one either, so I have no basis for comparing different versions of the works on this disc. CPO, however, rarely disappoints in its releases, and the soloists, chorus, and orchestra heard in these performances sound secure in execution and thoroughly engaged in the moment of the music. The recording, too, is excellent—open, spacious, bright, and detailed, without any reverb to muddy the singers’ diction. Very strongly recommended.
FANFARE: Jerry Dubins
Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2
BIS
SACD
$29.74
$34.99
Save 15%
Sep 11, 2026
Recipient of the prestigious Brahms Prize of the Schleswig-Holstein Brahms Society in 2024, Kent Nagano and the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, of which he was principal conductor from 2015 until 2025, perform the first two symphonies by the Hamburg-born composer, recorded in concert. Completed in 1876 after more than twenty years of hesitation, Brahms's First Symphony in C minor, Op. 68, bears the full weight of it's long gestation. Rooted in late Beethoven - Hans von Bulow famously called it the 'Tenth' - it traces a compelling per aspera ad astra journey: from the chromatic, drum-led opening's Faustian struggle, through a luminous slow movement and buoyant third, to a finale that breaks triumphantly into radiant C major. Critically admired but not widely loved, it remained music for connoisseurs. Composed swiftly during the summer of 1877 at the Worthersee, Brahms's Second Symphony in D major, Op. 73, stands in luminous contrast to it's brooding predecessor. Freed from the pressure of a symphonic debut, Brahms produced a work of natural ease and lyrical abundance: from the horn-launched opening movement to the enchanting third-movement minuet and the exuberant finale, it extends it's warmth - in Hanslick's words - to 'connoisseurs and laymen alike.'
