Customer Reviews

Symphony No 3

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4 star:		(2)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

CPO's Weingartner series is a welcome addition to the discography - and it is work being done at a very high level. This is the first CPO SACD I have had the pleasure to listen to, and am quite impressed with the sound the engineering team has captured - vivid, highly detailed, with a downright sumptuosness to it. Good placement of the soundscape, and the rear surround speakers add depth and presence. Undistorted bass frequencies, and the strings have real sheen to them - which is, of course, also a testament to the Basel orchestra's excellent playing. Letonja's direction brings this rarely heard music blazingly to life, his players throwing themselves into it with style. The works themselves are the work of a sure hand in full control of the art of composition, and make for enjoyable listening.. even if, perhaps, not quite reaching those heighest heights that would secure them a permanent footing in the repertoire..

On the whole though, I look forward to the other installments of the Weingartner series, and any further work from these performers.

We are in the midst of a series from the enterprising cpo label which purports eventually to present recordings of all of Felix Weingartner's (1853-1942) important orchestral works. This recording of the Symphony No. 3 is, by my count, the fourth of the seven symphonies to be released, all played by the fine Basel Symphony under the Slovenian conductor Marko Letonja. And what a discovery the series has been! Most music-lovers think of Weingartner only as a conductor, albeit a towering one. Like many composers who made their living -- and their largest reputation -- as conductors, Weingartner's music more or less died with him. My own feeling is that Weingartner has been quite unjustly neglected and I offer my sincerest thanks to cpo for bringing it back to life.

The CD begins with a concert overture, the 'Lustige Ouvertüre' ('Merry Overture') that is very reminiscent in spots of that other 'lustige' piece, Richard Strauss's 'Till Eulenspiegels Lustige Streiche', written at the time Weingartner had just married his beloved Lucille. His happiness certainly shows! I don't ordinarily place much stock in music being emotionally influenced by the state of mind of the composer at the time of its composition, but one can hardly avoid that here. This is sunny, yet impish, music that is filled with memorable themes and masterful orchestration. The harmonic framework, particularly the sweet-tart sideslips, reminds one very much of Richard Strauss and also portends that of Serge Prokofiev (albeit in a completely Germanic, not Russian, way). This ten-minute piece could easily become favorite concert opener for mildly adventuresome conductors.

The Third Symphony, for large orchestra, is in the usual four movements and lasts about 65 minutes. This is definitely meant to be a significant work. I think it falls just short of its objective but it has so many wonderful things about it that it definitely deserves an occasional airing. The first movement begins with a lovely arching cello melody spiced by a leaping clarinet figure, both of which are then treated to extended sonata-allegro treatment. There is a rustic air to the movement that periodically has to struggle with dramatic irruptions. The scherzo is a bumptious, merry (Till Eulenspiegel again?) piece that cavorts and rollicks in triple time. The Adagio contains Brucknerian horn harmonies intoning a solemn (and beautiful) hymn. Midway in the movement a slow, inexorable procession begins that builds to a shattering climax that adds the full resources of the organ. The Allegro moderato finale is a sonata-allegro cum variations that takes eighteen minutes to work out its thematic implications. For me this complicated movement is not quite up to the level of the earlier three movements but there is plenty to admire, particularly in Weingartner's masterful orchestration, his contrapuntal skill and his ability to build a climax. There is, for reasons that escape me, a near-quotation of a theme from Die Fledermaus along the way.

This is a hybrid SACD recording, playable on both SACD and regular CD equipment. I heard only the CD layer, but my experience with earlier issues from this company lead me to believe that as good as the CD layer is -- and it is state-of-the-art -- the SACD layer is probably even better. The playing of the Basel Symphony under Letonja sounds world-class to me.

An easy recommendation for the CD buyer who has never heard a note of Weingartner's music but is curious to explore this late outgrowth of the late-romantic period.

Scott Morrison

Felix Weingartner is of course primarily known as one of the greatest conductors of all time, and while his compositional language is - as expected - rather conservative and excellently scored, the music in this invaluable series from CPO reveals him as a composer of some substance (and his output was surely substantial, containing nine operas and seven symphonies among much other music, including a rather (in)famous orchestration of Beethoven's Hammerklavier sonata). That said, his second symphony strikes me as his best, and while the third is certainly worthy it is not on par with its predecessor. It is, however, like all the installments in CPO's series, beautifully performed.

The problem with Weingartner's third symphony isn't really the ideas; many of the ideas are good and Weingartner employs them in inventive and imaginative ways. The problem is that a symphony on the scale of Weingartner's third (65 minutes) needs a rather stringent formal framework, which it doesn't get. As a result this becomes a rather sprawling work - it doesn't really ever outstay its welcome when you are listening to it for the first time, for the material is engaging enough, but it fails to add up. Part of it is perhaps the fact that the music lacks variety - the difference in mood and pacing between the first movement (allegro con brio) and the third (adagio) is small, and the second movement scherzo is really more of the same as well.

But still, there are so many nice things here, and so many gorgeous touches in the orchestration, that you cannot help enjoying this somewhat formless, effulgent blob of a symphony. Besides, it is coupled with a really lively, spirited Lustige Ouverture - the overture doesn't contain any memorable themes, perhaps, but it still provides a very nice contrast to the mood of the symphony.

The performances are generally very good. The Basel Symphony Orchestra under Marko Letonja provides glorious textures, and wonderful details and colors. But they seem to have sacrificed some momentum and structural coherence in the process; I am not completely sure to what extent this exacerbates the problems in the symphony, but it certainly does not help either. The sound is warm, ambient, present and well-balanced (I have only heard the regular stereo version). To sum up, I will certainly, and despite the caveats, give this disc a relatively firm recommendation to lovers of big, grandiose, lush late-romanticism; if you don't know Weingartner the composer, however, I suggest starting with the second symphony.

In music there are great discoveries, there are works that deservedly remain unplayed, and then there are those harmless fripperies that will get recorded once and that's it. You know the ones I'm talking about: those with fine intentions well played and resurrected that sit on your shelf and eternally gather dust, like lovely $60 coffee table books on The Orchids of Northeast Australia.

Although others clearly differ with me, Weingartner's music strikes me as what Richard Strauss would have composed had he been commissioned to write elevator music.

Mastery of orchestration means that if you switch the parts for the horns and the cellos, something significant and different takes place. That's not the case with Weingartner's Symphony #3 (or #2, for that matter). The music rises and falls, falls and rises, displaying considerable knowledge of the orchestra and how it functions but delivering nary a memorable tune, tempo, key change, or anything else to differentiate it from an especially advanced assignment in college composition. Perfectly harmless stuff, like sugar-free white chocolate...containing no real sweetness and no real chocolate bite. The perfect recording to put on in the background when your classically-minded friends come over and you want to have something on the stereo that won't distract them from actual conversation.

When the last movement of a mature 65-minute symphony degenerates into and concludes with an undistinguished, seriously derivative Viennese waltz, you know you're in trouble. Instead of being moved, uplifted, enraged, or otherwise affected, the most immediate impression I carried away from listening to his music that Weingartner would rather have been on a picnic with his family.