MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: Crotchet AmazonUK AmazonUS

 

Georg Christoph WAGENSEIL (1715–1777)
Symphonies Volume 2
Symphony in C, op.5/5, WV 361 [10:04]
Symphony in F, WV 398 (Overture to the opera, Il Siroe) (1748) [6:33]
Symphony in D, op.3/1, WV 374 [11:09]
Symphony a 6 in A, WV 432 [8:52]
Symphony in E, op.13/3, WV 393 [11:21]
Symphony in A, op.12/5, WV 421 (Overture to the opera, Demetrio) (1746) [6:20]
Stuttgarter Kammerorchester/Johannes Goritzki
rec. 15–18 November 2004, Liederkranzhalle, Stuttgart–Botnang DDD
CPO 7771122 [54:24]
Experience Classicsonline

It’s sometimes easy to forget that there were other composers hard at work at the same time as Haydn and Mozart, composers who were forging ahead with the development of forms which we now take for granted.
 
Born in Vienna, Wagenseil became a favourite pupil of Johann Joseph Fux, Kapellmeister at he Viennese Court, where later, in 1739, he became court composer, holding this position for the rest of his life, as well as harpsichordist and organist to the Court. In 1749 he was appointed Hofklaviermeister to the imperial archduchesses. He taught Johann Baptist Schenk (who later taught Beethoven) as well as Marie Antoinette. Both Haydn and Mozart were familiar with his works and he was a well–known figure in his day. Amongst other things he wrote sixteen operas, three Oratorios, Masses, Cantatas, other sacred vocal music, Symphonies, Harpsichord Concertos, other solo concertos, chamber music for strings alone or with keyboard or winds and numerous solo keyboard pieces.
 
Each of these six Symphonies is set in the Italian Overture mold: fast – slow – fast (although the second fast movement doesn’t recapitulate music from the first and on two occasions it is a minuet) and each part is a true movement not a part of a continuous whole.
 
There’s a lot to enjoy here and it’s fascinating how much variety there is in these small works. For instance, the Symphony in C, op.5/5, WV 361 begins with a real fast movement, all fire and passion with dramatic pauses, and the orchestral palate is really quite colourful. There’s a lot of humour in Symphony in F, WV 398 while Symphony in D, op.3/1, WV 374 has the most delightfully skittish opening movement and its slow movement is quite Mozartean in its pathos.
 
I need not go on for it’s obvious what these pieces are about and what they are like. Here is the Symphony in embryo, which was to be taken up, in exactly this form, and expanded and knocked about until it becomes what we now accept as the classical Symphony. A later generation would start to do other things to it but here, taking its first fledgling steps is the modern Symphony and it’s lovely to be in at the beginning of things.
 
There are no towering masterpieces here, nothing which will inflame the passions but we do have the work of a man who probably considered himself to be a jobbing musician who had no idea that he was helping to set in motion what would become the greatest achievement in instrumental music – the Symphony. We should celebrate him for this alone.
 
The performances are sprightly and well thought out, with playing of some brilliance. The recording is warm and full and the notes are very good. I’m sorry I missed Volume 1!
 
Bob Briggs
 


 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.