kyjo
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« on: November 25, 2012, 01:50:59 am » |
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It's finally here! The long-awaited, large-scale (it occupies the entire disc) Symphony no. 7 in C major, op. 87 of conductor-composer Felix Weingartner is being released by CPO on December 11 ;D! Dating from 1935-37 and scored for baritone solo, chorus, and orchestra, Weingartner's final symphony has been on my (admittedly rather long ;D) symphony wish-list :). CPO has excellently recorded much of Weingartner's output, but this was the major unrecorded work. To be honest, I find Weingartner to be a rather uneven composer as well as often times not being as lushly late-romantic as his dates would suggest and often being just too "pleasant" (his Straussian Symphony no. 3 being a major exception). But, I still have high hopes for this symphony :). The performers are the Sinfonieorchester Basel under the baton of Marko Letenja.
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kyjo
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« Reply #1 on: November 26, 2012, 01:21:31 am » |
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I forgot to mention that this release will be in the form of an SACD :)! Get prepared for a sonic spectacular (hopefully) ;D!
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kyjo
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« Reply #2 on: November 29, 2012, 07:54:14 pm » |
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Here is an article on this release from CPO's homepage:
There is more to Felix Weingartner than the internationally acclaimed conductor and the influential figure who left his mark on Basel’s music life; during the course of his career he also produced an extensive compositional oeuvre. The Basel Symphony Orchestra under the conductor Marko Letonja has recorded this late romanticist’s complete symphonies for cpo. To celebrate the conclusion of this premiere recording, Weingartner’s last symphony was performed live on 15 February 2012 in the Basel City Casino, where the full-length work had experienced its only previous performance seventy years prior to this date. It calls for a full orchestra with three brass instruments each and four horns, a choir, four vocal soloists, and a solo organ. In the second movement Weingartner employs Friedrich Hebbel’s poem Zwei Wanderer, and the texts for the fourth and last movement are a poem by Weingartner’s wife Carmen Studer and Friedrich Hölderlin’s Hymne an die Liebe. Weingartner composed the symphony from 1937 to 1939, that is, after he had left Basel. We are proud to have (re)discovered a German symphonist of the first rank, and Marko Letonja and the Basel Symphony Orchestra have dedicated themselves to this adventurous journey of discovery with commitment and virtuoso talent.
:)
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