Customer Reviews

Hessenberg: Symphony No. 2 (op. 29) & Concerto No. 1 for Orch. (op. 18)

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First congratulations Cassandra Records for taking up this music.

Pro: You can get the feel of hearing a newly discovered, long time neglected composer and hope for a revelation.
Con: It is'nt.
Pro: The great Wilhelm Furtwangler liked this music, so it has to be good.
Con: It's good but not outstanding; the reason why he liked it could have been that it resembles his own compositions which are not without their problems too.

These fine works, but surely they are not outstanding, are good examples at how composing was done in the 30s and 40s in Germany.
Hearing this disc for the first time I heard a good craftsman at work. The works are typical for those times, I mean you can hear some Hindemith in it (but without the spicy rhythms) and a longing for times long gone (Brucknerian developments in the finale of the symphony). But at the same time the Symphony can get boring especially in the finale.

The major problem in both works is the lack of well defined melodic material (which can be developed to great heights as in every good work) and which is not compensated with rhytmic vitality (as Hindemith could do) or daring, brutal instrumentation (like Prokofiev could) or some Weltschermz (like Shotakowitch did).

Like the performers all is well done without being exceptional, but I'm very well satisfied with this enterprise by Cassandra Records.