Customer Reviews

Joseph Martin Kraus: Symphonies

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Between Haydn and Mozart, the music of Kraus is the best of the classical period of the second part of the 18th century. His music is full of emotions and passions!! Very well written, the music is full of surprises. Concerto Koln has done the best interpretation of these magnificent symphonies. Highly recommanded!

Joseph Martin Kraus was one of a handful of talented immigrant composers who came to King Gustavus III's court and made a great contribution to Swedish musical life in the late 18th century. Kraus was a true polymath who, in addition to being a top-notch composer, wrote a book of poetry, a tragedy, voluminous correspondence and a musical treatise that was closely associated with the Sturm und Drang movement in literature. His musical training began at the age of 12 when received training from members of the Mannheim court orchestra.

The Mannheim school and the music of Gluck and Haydn (both of whom Kraus met during travels to Vienna) influenced the composer and his symphonies certainly bear the mark of their influence. Kraus wrote fifteen symphonies and twelve of them are extant. This 2-CD recording by Concerto Köln features eight of the symphonies in performances that are nearly seventeen years old (they were originally issued on Capriccio) but still glow with energy and vigor. Haydn considered Kraus "one of the greatest geniuses I have ever met" and these excellent symphonies certainly merit such praise.

Kraus was a man of the theater and the pained opening movement of the Symphony in C sharp minor certainly sings like a gorgeous operatic lament. But there's more than breast-beating here, shades of Haydn hover about the work's two genial Minuets before a quintessentially Sturm und Drang drenched Allegro closes the work. The masterpiece of the set is the Symphonie funèbre. The work was written in 1792 after the assassination of Gustav III and it's a heart-wrenching and noble memorial to the murdered King. Darkly toned brass and strings dominate the work which is the model of restrained, elegiac writing. It's hard to believe this piece was written before the height of the Romantic movement.

The period instrument ensemble Concerto Köln delivers outstanding performances. As I said earlier, it's hard to believe these recordings are close to twenty years old. There's crispness in execution and passionate eloquence in every note. The ensemble has gone on to make dozens of recordings of Baroque and late 18th century music, but few are as fetching as this Phoenix reissue.

Nothing to add to the previous reviews, except to say that I am an agreement with Craig M. Zeichner rather than with J. Scott Morrison about the excellence of Concerto Köln's reading. Admittedly, I don't have the recent Naxos versions on modern instruments he refers to, but the 30-second samples I've heard let me think that they are going to be thicker and less ebullient than the readings of Concerto Köln. Well, I'll try them eventually. But there is so much to hear (and Naxos has been particularly active in 18th Century symphonies).

Anyway, I'll simply provide here the links to the original releases (which is where I've posted my own detailed reviews), on Capriccio, dating from 1991 and 1992. The potential buyer might find it a cheaper solution to buy them individually rather than this new combined reissue.

vol. 1: Kraus, Joseph Martin or Joseph Martin Kraus - 4 Symphonies [4 Sinfonien] (Symphonies in C minor, E flat major, C major, and D major) or Joseph Martin Kraus 4 Symphonies / Concerto Koln (Capriccio)

vol. 2: Joseph Martin Kraus: Sinfonien, Vol. 2 or Joseph Martin Kraus: Sinfonien, Vol. 2 or Joseph Martin Kraus: Sinfonien, Vol. 2

Joseph Martin Kraus (1756-1792) was a German-born and -trained composer who nonetheless is often called 'the Swedish Mozart' because he spent the last years of his life working for King Gustav III of Sweden. He was born the same year as Mozart and died the same year that Mozart did. Kraus's music is not so much like Mozart's as that of Haydn's Sturm und Drang middle period. This two-CD set combines and reissues two earlier releases on the Capriccio label from the early 1990s. It features the original instruments ensemble Concerto Köln under the direction of Werner Ehrhardt. When I first heard these releases back then I was taken with them. Now, almost twenty years later I am less so, at least partly because these works have since been recorded on modern instruments on the Naxos label by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra under Petter Sundkvist in decidedly more enjoyable performances, e.g., Complete Symphonies 4. I will admit my own bias in that I tend to prefer modern instruments to 'original' instruments, and that is particularly true for recordings that are from twenty or thirty years ago when the numbers of really good original instruments groups had not yet proliferated. Although the 1990s Concerto Köln was one of the finest of its era, it still does not measure up to contemporary groups, with occasional intonation and timbral problems. Although the ensembles winds are particularly warm-sounding, I was occasionally bothered by a principal flute that seemed marginally under pitch.

There are eight symphonies in this set, including one in C sharp minor that was the first four-movement version of the later three-movement C minor symphony, also included. It is interesting to compare the two. Not only did Kraus change much of the material and the key signature, he also altered the orchestration so that the two seem more like cousins than siblings. Also included is the marvelous 'Symphonie funèbre' in C minor which was composed for the funeral of King Gustav who had been assassinated at a masked ball, an event that became the source of Verdi's Ballo in Maschera.

The set is offered at budget price.

Scott Morrison