MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

Support us financially by purchasing
this through MusicWeb
for £12 postage paid world-wide.

 

 

Norbert BURGMÜLLER (1810-1836)
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 2 (1833) [33:00]
Hugo STAEHLE (1826-1848)
Symphony No. 1 in C minor (1844) [40:30]
Orchester des Staatstheaters Kassel/Marc Piollet
rec. Kassel Opera House, August-September 2001
STERLING CDS1046-2 [74:25]

Both these symphonies were new to me, and the composers almost were. I'd never even heard of Staehle, and the only Burgmüller I'd previously heard was some ballet music that Richard Bonynge recorded years ago. The booklet represents both composers as part of a "Kassel School", trained in composition by Louis Spohr during his stint as court conductor and opera director in that city, from 1822 to 1857.
 
This is also beautiful stuff. Some people will call it "derivative" - there are clear echoes of Mendelssohn and Schumann, and the shadow of Beethoven hangs over everything. But if we hear the period's higher-profile composers in this music, that's simply because their music is already familiar to us, and this music isn't. Besides, the quest for originality is very much a modernist fetish; nineteenth-century composers weren't expected to reinvent the wheel with each new creation. So don't judge the music - just enjoy it.
 
Burgmüller's symphony certainly sounds more substantial than did those ballets. In the first movement, the themes aren't really distinctive, but the composer's use of the orchestra is striking: even the quieter passages - in the slow introduction, for example - always sound fully fleshed-out. The Adagio, with its segmented phrases, is simple and wistful; a few episodes of brief turbulence - the longest, at 3:33, introduced by peremptory horn fanfares - don't prove serious. The rambunctious, volatile Scherzo, punctuated with Beethovenian eruptions, unexpectedly scales down to a baby-hunting-horn Trio. The Finale's edgy, dramatic first theme, unfortunately, is too quickly allowed to bang away in tutti. The woodwinds' airy second subject provides a respite, spinning out more expansively on its reappearances; still, the overall effect remains bombastic.
 
The first influence we hear in the Hugo Staehle symphony isn't Germanic at all: the dark, ominous unison of horns, bassoons, and clarinets, answered by tremolos, is straight out of early Verdi! The tremolos continue to feature prominently in the Presto proper, where the first subject suggests Mendelssohn's more dramatic side. The oboe's broad contrasting theme seems static, but proves useful in the development, where bits of it are layered with the whirling accompaniment figures from the first group. The Adagio cantabile begins with a sweet chorale intoned by the strings. As the woodwinds take up the theme with string support, the textures gradually fill out, with a nice interplay of colors as woodwind strands weave in and out of the string-based sonorities. Harmonic shifts bring an unexpected note of disquiet, and later restore serenity. Short upbeat motifs give the Scherzo its forward-pushing impulse; the cheerful Trio, introduced by a little horn-and-clarinet fanfare - did Spohr give both composers this idea? - climaxes in a blaze of glory. The short, turbulent opening motif of the Finale segues smoothly into a tender clarinet melody. The development's homophonic wind phrases, in their dotted rhythm, recall Schumann's Spring Symphony. A diminished seventh chord abruptly stops the forward motion, after which the music turns slower and more chorale-like, tapering to a quiet yet full-toned conclusion.
 
Marc Piollet, the principal conductor of the Kassel State Theatre, provides sympathetic leadership, maintaining rhythmic buoyancy through the turbulent passages. He elicits beautiful sounds from the theatre's orchestra, a tremendous improvement on the scrappy ensembles that once documented such repertoire on Genesis, Vox, and other LP labels. The dark, burnished tone of the string body is particularly attractive; the violin sections aren't huge, but their playing is clean and unanimous in exposed passages - try 5:23 of Burgmüller's Adagio.
 
The engineering is good enough that I wish it were better. Most of the time, there's a lovely depth and warmth; but the full orchestra acquires a hard edge when the brass dominate - underlining Burgmüller's over-use of the tutti in his Finale - and sounds congested when they don't.
 
One wonders why we don't hear this sort of music in concert. The Burgmüller's finale mightn't wear well, but most of what precedes it is fetching, and the Staehle is simply lovely. Are we so jaded that we can't appreciate well-crafted, expressive music unless it's by the acknowledged greats? So much the worse for us, then.
 
Stephen Francis Vasta

see also review by Rob Barnett

 


 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.