5つ星のうち5.0An underrated late romantic symphony modeled on Wagner
2009年3月7日にアメリカ合衆国でレビュー済み
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German Felix Draeseke (1835-1913) wrote a trio of numbered symphonies as well as a Symphony No. 0. The numbered symphonies have all been recorded by CPO in the last decade or so. By general consensus, critics and musicologists believe his Symphony No. 3, inappropriately named "Symphonia tragica", is his greatest symphony and perhaps his greatest work.
Even though Draeseke was an admirer of Wagner and Liszt, this opus, like his Symphony No. 1, begins with ill-tempered timpani thwacks remindful of Beethoven. The music soon turns more high than late romantic, bringing to mind Mendelssohn and Schumann rather than Liszt and Wagner. It is followed by an Eroica-like adagio marked Grave where the imprint of Beethoven is still great.
A delightfully Mendelssohnian scherzo follows that leads to a sweet allegro with strings leading woodwinds and brass. This gravitates to a jaunty ending. The finale begins with more Mendelssohnian felicitousness that turns late to an extrememly powerful Wagnerian interlude before ending quietly, as if the dramatic circuit this music makes is completely realized and now can be laid to rest.
I'd never heard this music before I bought this recording and took a flyer on all three of Draeseke's symphonies. The Symphonies Nos. 1 and 4 were, by my reckoning, derivative and forgettable. Especially in Symphony 1, Draeseke was the secondary voice of Schubert.
This concluding symphony of his ouevre is another matter altogether; here is no doubt a dramatic masterpiece of contrapuntal design, orchestratiion, timing and pace, all beautifully realized by the forces employed here, the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra of Hanover and conductor Jorg-Peter Weigle, who has recorded all three of Draeseke's numbered symphonies for CPO.
What I found curious about this interpretation was Weigle. He conducts the score as if it were the Mendelssohn Symphony 6 rather than Bruckner, Liszt or Wagner even though he had a chance to do that, especially in the more riveting moments of the finale.
He held back throughout the proceedings, however, and played the score as if it were a middle 1800s creation. I haven't heard the other recording of this music, by the Symphony Orchestra Wuppertal under George Hanson, and I'd be curious to hear if he moves it more in a late romantic direction.
This recording, made in 1997-98 in Hannover and released in 2000, was said to be the first CD recording of the music. The lengthy notes are full of history and suggest the Symphonia tragica was on the bill of Germany's greatest conductors through the 1920s, before the Nazis apparently used Draeseke as a model national socialist composer. Even Furtwangler, say the notes, played this symphony in concert.
This recording, going on 10 years old now, was well-received everywhere when it came out and rightly so. It is exceptionally well-played and recorded, with vivid clarity and fine detail throughout. I've read critics that put it on their best of year lists.
The one thing I don't hear in this interpretation, however, is tragedy. This is an up tempo, upbeat performance, mostly in major key. The Funeral march that accompanies it on the recording is quite tragic, by contrast, and ends in a flurry of romantic tragedy. So at least you get some on the recording.
5つ星のうち5.0Clearly the place to start investigating the composer
2014年4月20日にアメリカ合衆国でレビュー済み
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The third symphony was the work that ensured that Felix Draeseke’s name wasn’t completely forgotten in the decades after his death. An enormous success, it was presumably the work that led Brahms to consider him together with Bruckner as his main symphonic rivals, and it was the only major Draeseke work generally available during the LP era (a 1955 recording under Hermann Desser). It is, in fact, a very impressive work. Despite its ambitious scope, Draeseke keeps the reins tight, and the whole work is tautly and coherently argued – indeed, I am willing to deem it masterly done, on par with what the very greatest composers could do. That being said, Draeseke was definitely better at working out his themes than at coming up with really memorable material in the first place, and that, of course, is where he really cannot compete with someone like Bruckner (or Brahms).
The majestic first movement is stylistically somewhere between Beethoven and Bruckner, with more than a hint of Schubert, Weber and Liszt. Though the material is elusive at first, Draeseke manages to get the listeners to grasp the point through what he does with it. The second movement is a powerful funeral march, and while the scherzo may look overlong on paper it works splendidly – this is also where Draeseke gives us his best themes and the trio is beautiful. The finale is powerful enough but may just perhaps go on for a moment or two longer than the material can sustain. One should perhaps also note that the subtitle “Tragic” should not be taken too literally – the music is not particularly tragic, not even in the funeral march, but it is definitely serious and aiming for a kind of profundity that I would, in the final verdict, probably say that Draeseke at least almost manages to achieve. It is, in short, a major work, and one that deserves to be heard by fans of 19th century German symphonism.
It is a bit more curious that the bonus Funeral March isn’t more serious – it is actually quick and snappy and light. Perhaps Weigle and the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover play it a bit too fast. Even if they do, at least the interpretive choices seem exactly right in the symphony, and the playing is polished, spirited and full-blooded. The recorded sound is clear and big, adding up to what I think is the ideal introduction to the overall significant though variable compositional output of Felix Draeseke.