One of the most grown-up review sites around

2020
54,416 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here

     
  
 

 

International mailing


 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


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

REVIEW


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 cpo reviews

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


All APR reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

 

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS
Downloads from The Classical Shop

Richard WAGNER (1813-1883)
Symphony in C major, WWW29 (1832) [34.05]
Symphony in E major (orch. Möttl), WWW35 (1834) [19.10]
Huldigungsmarsch,WWW97 (1864) [5.16]
Kaisermarsch,WWW49 (1871)* [8.51]
Rienzi: Overture, WWW104 (1842) [11.16]
Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Neeme Järvi
rec. Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, 19 August 2010* and 21-22 March 2011
CHANDOS CHSA5097 [79.14]

Experience Classicsonline



Wagner’s little known efforts at symphonic writing have received only a handful of recordings, and this was my first hearing of these works. I came to the recording with foggy recollections of Romantic Music History lectures characterizing these works as immature juvenilia, displaying scant evidence of Wagner’s later compositional genius. After my first listening, I quickly came to appreciate that such characterization was unfair, and, perhaps more importantly, incorrect. 

The Symphony in C Major, written in 1832, is clearly modelled on the symphonies of his beloved Beethoven. The first movement opens with explosive chords, followed by woodwinds and brass calling to one another over tremolo strings. This introductory material soon leads into a vivacious Allegro, its fanfare-like theme brashly proclaimed by brass and strings. Wagner’s writing exhibits a fondness for constantly shifting orchestral timbre, sudden dynamic contrast, and intriguingly differentiated textures. The following Andante features some lovely melodies, richly harmonized, while the Scherzo is surely the most playful music Wagner ever penned. The finale brings the expected counterweight to the first movement, explosive right from the start. Energetic syncopated writing and a lilting joyfulness bring Mendelssohn to mind; how Wagner would hate that.
 
The liner-notes are informative and interesting, but overly apologetic about the music’s derivative nature. As author Emanuel Overbecke notes, “the atmosphere is entirely Beethovenian”. The same can be said of several composers: Franz Schubert and Ferdinand Ries immediately spring to mind. Writing after Beethoven’s death each struggled to find his own individual voice. Surely that does not negate the value or interest of their compositions? At this point Wagner was intent on becoming the next great writer of symphonies, not operas. It is a foolhardy exercise to judge the worthiness of Wagner’s symphonic music based on how much it reveals aspects of the mature compositional voice we know from the operas. Rather, the question should be whether the symphony is enjoyable and interesting enough for repeated listening. Will repeated listening offer up new things to discover and appreciate? Does it express some spiritual and emotional truth to which we can connect? To all these questions, I answer a resounding “Yes”.
 
The Symphony in E Major proved less enjoyable, perhaps because its manuscript was left largely incomplete. As Overbecke explains, it was considered lost, but was “then rediscovered, and acquired in 1886 by Cosima Wagner who asked Felix Mottl to orchestrate the music.” The manuscript - which was auctioned in 1913 and whose whereabouts today are unknown - consisted only of sketches for the first movement and 30 bars of an Adagio. It is pleasant music, but does not exhibit the same imaginative fire found in the C Major Symphony.
 
Huldigungsmarsch and Kaisermarsch are festive occasional pieces, with plenty of nationalist tub-thumping and martial brass writing. Interestingly, Huldigungsmarsch, which consists of four progressively faster sections, exists in two versions. The first, completed by Wagner, is for military band; the second version, performed here, is for full orchestra. Wagner began its orchestration, but then, on the advice of conductor Hans von Bülow, asked composer Joachim Raff to complete it. Its writing bears more than a passing family resemblance to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
 
The most notable feature of Kaisermarsch is its use of Martin Luther’s Ein feste Burg. It was originally to be orchestral only, but Wagner decided to add a sacred text, to be sung by everyone in attendance, and chose Luther’s famous hymn for the tune. The integration of the tune into the music is masterly, and I only wish, though it was surely cost prohibitive, that the performance could have included singers. Nevertheless, the performances of both marches leave little to be desired, played, as here, with obvious relish and genuine enthusiasm.
 
Somewhat daringly, this CD of little known works also includes a performance of the Rienzi Overture, of which there are 18 recordings currently listed at archivmusic.com. Luckily this is an excellent performance which I found entirely convincing. Its solemn beginning moves at a livelier tempo than is the norm these days. The Allegro episode features resplendent orchestral playing, especially from the brass.
 
The recording is up to Chandos’ usual high standards. The orchestral sound is caught in a large acoustic, adding warmth without any loss of clarity. The normal stereo sound layer is splendid, but the SACD brings an extra opulent richness that serves this music well. Greeted with enthusiasm.

David A. McConnell

See also review by Paul Corfield Godfrey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 


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
Pat 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






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.