Message #32583

[Dundonnell]

Having listened to the new Capriccio cd of Gerhard Frommel's Symphony No.1 (admittedly but once) I would not describe it as "a great work" but it is certainly a worthy representative of the German symphonic tradition which (largely but not entirely) died out with Hans Pfitzner. It is in considerable thrall, first to Bruckner and then to Max Reger. I can understand why it would have appealed to Furtwangler-who gave the first performance in Berlin in 1942. It does not deserve total neglect and it is a boldly expansive first symphony (and last symphony for full orchestra) of a young man in his early thirties in the Germany of his time. It is certainly not earth-shattering and gives no real indication that Frommel would ever have graduated to the ranks of the greatest German composers but it is a solid and worthy representative of the tradition to which it very much adheres.