Single symphony

Started by André, September 10, 2017, 09:25:57 AM

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SymphonicAddict



Adolphe Biarent's only symphony in D minor. It has been a recent discovery. There's nothing challenging, just enjoyable music.

Monsieur Croche

Quote from: André on September 13, 2017, 05:00:53 AM
It's so taken for granted that nobody has yet mentioned the maiden effort of 17 year old Georges Bizet!

Multiple dozens of recordings exist. Practically every french/belgian/swiss conductor of note had a go or two at it. It is as charming, exhilarating, frothy, saucy and melodious as Prokofiev's first symphony, "Classical" (they are sometimes coupled together, with good reason).

* There is a "sort of" second symphony in the form of Roma his "Fantaisie symphonique: souvenirs de Rome" (that's how it was described at the 1869 première). It is variously described as "symphony" or "suite" on the extant discs on the market.
Ahhh.  Very well-deserved mention, and as well qualified as, really, his only symphony.

Bizet wrote this one month after turning 17 and finished it just about one month later -- as a student assignment, and never pushed it forward to performance, thinking it owed to much to his teacher, Charles Gounod.  It remained among his private papers after his death, changed hands, and did not see its first public performance until 1935!

It is a youthful masterpiece, and a real delight.

The most incisive performance I've found, and prefer
https://www.youtube.com/v/JtiOCpSalLw
~ I'm all for personal expression; it just has to express something to me. ~

Jo498

Since its rediscovery in the 1930s it has easily and clearly eclipsed Gounod's symphonies. Allthough the latter had probably been mostly forgotten already by then.
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

Monsieur Croche

Quote from: Jo498 on October 01, 2017, 02:24:30 AM
Since its rediscovery in the 1930s it has easily and clearly eclipsed Gounod's symphonies. Allthough the latter had probably been mostly forgotten already by then.

It certainly still sounds directly vital to these 'modern' ears ;-)
~ I'm all for personal expression; it just has to express something to me. ~

Christo

Quote from: Monsieur Croche on October 01, 2017, 02:52:53 AMIt certainly still sounds directly vital to these 'modern' ears ;-
Bizet was certainly one of the most gifted composers of the whole 19th century and his early death was a tragic loss. We didn't mention this early masterpiece before, however, since of course he wrote two symphonies:

Symphony in C major (1855)
'Roma' Symphony (also in C major) (1860–71)
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

André

Quote from: Monsieur Croche on September 30, 2017, 10:47:15 PM
Ahhh.  Very well-deserved mention, and as well qualified as, really, his only symphony.

Bizet wrote this one month after turning 17 and finished it just about one month later -- as a student assignment, and never pushed it forward to performance, thinking it owed to much to his teacher, Charles Gounod.  It remained among his private papers after his death, changed hands, and did not see its first public performance until 1935!

It is a youthful masterpiece, and a real delight.

The most incisive performance I've found, and prefer
https://www.youtube.com/v/JtiOCpSalLw

That's a fantastic recording, including the improbable coupling, Tchaikovsky's Francesca da Rimini. I wonder what made the producers choose this particular coupling ?

Roma is more a musical travelogue than a real symphony. Four tableaux, so to speak.

Christo

Another one, a recent discovery caused by the same composer's 'entirely beautiful' Serenade for strings: the Symphonie de danses pour cordes, timbales et piano (1958) by Daniel-Lesur:

... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

yekov

Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie

Mirror Image

Quote from: André on September 14, 2017, 07:05:56 AM
Irving Fine''s symphony is a beauty. I have the first 2 discs you show. Will look for the other one (thanks for that!). Fine also composed Blue Towers, a racy little orchestral piece that stubbornly refuses to leave the mind after hearing it. It's on 2 of those discs.

As much as I love many American composers of Fine's generation, I did not find Fine to be too interesting. I suppose it, in part, had to do with what I believe is a lack of a musical language of his own. The Symphony, more or less, just flew right by my ears with nothing sticking out that made it distinctive. It sounds oddly 'academic' and dry. The other works of Fine's that I've heard suffered the same problems for me.