Berwald Symphony no 3

[Judith]

Ashamed to say not come across this composer before. My Twitter friend from Vienna Philharmonic download a radio link of their performance of this symphony conducted by Herbert Blomstedt and was very impressed.
Easy on the ear and not challenging. Needless to say, ordered his symphony set🎼🎼

[aligreto]

Slightly off topic, and I am not sure whether or not you enjoy Chamber Music, but this is a very enjoyable and recommendable CD

[Judith]

Slightly off topic, and I am not sure whether or not you enjoy Chamber Music, but this is a very enjoyable and recommendable CD

Love chamber music. Thank you. Will bear this one in mind🎼🎼

[aligreto]

You are most welcome.

[Brian]

It's a great piece! Just as singular as the subtitle says. I saw this and listened to some more Berwald.

[some guy]

Easy on the ear and not challenging.

Ouch!

[amw]

No, it's a general principle that music should be challenging and mind-expanding.

(I personally find the Berwald symphonies to meet both criteria but w/e)

[71 dB]

No, it's a general principle that music should be challenging and mind-expanding.

What? General principle? According to who? I don't want to listen to challenging music ALL the time.

[Daverz]

I don't think Judith meant to damn them with faint praise.  For me, these are among the most criminally neglected works of the Romantic era, though we have many fine recordings.

My current favorite set is probably Ehrling on Bis, though I'm also fond of Hogwood and the older (incomplete) Ehrling recordings with the LSO (engineered by Ken Wilkinson).

[asin]Ken Wilkinson[/asin]

[some guy]

I altered my "Ouch!" post, deleting the part about commerce.

Otherwise, it is fascinating to see how often situations are presented as binary. I say "ouch" to "easy on the ear and not challenging" and immediately there is a chorus of "music should be challenging" responses to explain my "ouch."

But "music should be challenging" is equally wrong or, I should say, equally misses the point, that is, one of the points, which is that neither easy on the ear and challenging describes the music, but each describes a response to that music by a particular listener. And, as we all know, to boredom, each listener is different. We all know it, but it's funny how easily we all forget it whenever we open our keyboard up and start typing.

Otherwise, and here's really where the "ouch" comes in, there's the whole "faint praise" thing. In this case, it is definitely NOT "damning with faint praise." It was definitely meant to be praise and nothing faint about it. Or so I concluded. And that hurt. It was also, so I also concluded, a plain swipe at the idea that music has to be challenging to be good. Or, I should say, a swipe at people who think that that is so. So a pointless swipe at a contextless group of people (out of context, but always conveniently around to be swiped at).

And that hurt as well.

So, yeah. "Ouch."

[Please note that I have already given Judith the "out" that perhaps some of you are itching to offer her.

And, just to make things perfectly clear, this symphony has been a favorite of mine for over fifty years. Fifty four at least.]

[Judith]

Who says I don't like a challenge??

[some guy]

Who says I don't like a challenge??

Hahaha, well played!!

[kyjo]

It's a masterwork in my view - astonishingly ahead-of-its-time for 1845 and forecasting the "Nordic sound" of Sibelius and Nielsen. The organically building opening is one my favorite in the symphonic repertoire. Berlioz and Mendelssohn are occasional influences, but Berwald is very much his own man - certainly more so than most other lesser-known composers of the time. I really like his 1st Symphony as well.

[Jo498]

Is that the one with a fourth dominating several motives/movements? If so, it is also one of my favorites by Berwald.

[kyjo]

Is that the one with a fourth dominating several motives/movements? If so, it is also one of my favorites by Berwald.

Indeed it is! The masterful opening is almost entirely built of fourths.