Walter Braunfels' Bullpen

Started by jlaurson, August 04, 2013, 06:38:14 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

kyjo

#60
I'll revoke my quasi-dismissal of Braunfels' orchestral music, as I remembered how much I enjoyed this Dutton CD:



The Sinfonia Brevis (not so "brevis" at around 30 mins. in length) is a late work, overall quite dark in tone and unsettlingly chromatic in language. Stylistically, it reminded me a bit of the two substantial Sinfoniettas by Zemlinsky and Otakar Ostrcil. Not an immediately memorable work, perhaps, but a compelling one.

The two other works on the disc, the Symphonic Variations on a French Children's Song and the Suite from The Glass Mountain, are much earlier and lighter in tone, full of tunefulness, glittering orchestration, and a naivety of spirit (as befits the subject matter). Really charming stuff, but at the same time never too facile or "cutesy". So, it's very much a disc of two contrasting halves, both equally rewarding and convincingly performed.
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

Symphonic Addict

Quote from: kyjo on July 04, 2023, 08:26:33 AMI'll revoke my quasi-dismissal of Braunfels' orchestral music, as I remembered how much I enjoyed this Dutton CD:



The Sinfonia Brevis (not so "brevis" at around 30 mins. in length) is a late work, overall quite dark in tone and unsettlingly chromatic in language. Stylistically, it reminded me a bit of the two substantial Sinfoniettas by Zemlinsky and Otakar Ostrcil. Not an immediately memorable work, perhaps, but a compelling one.

The two other works on the disc, the Symphonic Variations on a French Children's Song and the Suite from The Glass Mountain, are much earlier and lighter in tone, full of tunefulness, glittering orchestration, and a naivety of spirit (as befits the subject matter). Really charming stuff, but at the same time never too facile or "cutesy". So, it's very much a disc of two contrasting halves, both equally rewarding and convincingly performed.

The other day I was listening to the another recording of the Sinfonia brevis and I agree, a marvelous, substantial and serious work that has nothing of 'brevis'. Another work with a misleading title is Reger's long and stodgy Sinfonietta, a symphony in all but name.

Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky