Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The final chapter in the Viennese symphonic tradition, 2 Sep 2009
If you subscribe to the view that Schmidt's fourth symphony is the last great example of the Viennese symphonic tradition (as I do), you surely can't fail to see this final chapter as one worthy of its illustrious and richly endowed predecessors. It is a beautifully crafted and deeply felt work, which Schmidt apparently wrote as (in his own words) "a requiem" for his daughter. It is as inspired and as heartfelt a memorial as has been written in music and, though its chromaticism marks it out as undoubtedly a Late Romantic work, the mode of expression is more subtle and restrained than you might expect from a post-Mahlerian work. An earlier reviewer's contrast with the musical styles of both Mahler and Richard Strauss is a point well made: this is not heart-on-sleeve music and nor does it demand the expanded orchestral forces sometimes used by those composers to make its points; in general, Schmidt eschews the opulent soundscapes that both those composers often presented. In both scores played here, where Schmidt adds instruments to the "standard" orchestra (such as the side drum in the symphony) their use is minimal and lightly handled so that they seem a natural and integral part of the sound rather than extra, colouristic effects. It is not for nothing, perhaps, that Schmidt described Mahler's symphonies as the equivalent of "cheap novels", an antipathy that soured his personal and working relationship with that composer.*
Schmidt's use of symphonic form is interesting too - the music consists technically and emotionally of a series of arches, both within individual movements (which are played without a break, though clearly delineated) and in the symphony as whole. In the latter sense, the finale acts as a recapitulation of the material of the first movement; the symphony ends as it begins with the haunting statement of a solo trumpet, this material having had a structurally important role throughout. Schmidt's wide-ranging knowledge of musical history is amply demonstrated in the beautiful counterpoint that is the primary device by which his symphonic argument develops.
The orchestral `Variations on a Hussar's Song' stands in the line of such works by Brahms and Reger to name two of the genre's most distinguished practitioners. It opens tentatively and with fairly dark-hued sonorities though there soon follow passages of more lyrical effulgence, strings delicately accompanied by harp. The theme itself, as you might expect, is one of jaunty character though this does not preclude the later music returning occasionally to the more lyrical mien of the work's start. The piece ends in high spirits and the orchestration is testament to Schmidt's command of the instruments at his disposal.
Franz Welser-Möst is a sympathetic conductor of both scores. In the symphony, his performance is - at 43 minutes in length - closer to the 39 minutes of Schmidt's own performance; this contrasts quite profoundly with a self-indulgent 53 minutes from Fabio Luisi and the MDR Sinfonieorchester, Franz Schmidt: Symphony No. 4 , or the 49 minutes from Zubin Mehta on Decca. Neemi Jarvi, in his uneven cycle for Chandos - Schmidt: Symphonies Nos. 1-4 - is closer to Welser-Möst and the composer, but his interpretation is less subtle and less taut; the sound quality on this EMI disc is far better than any of the rival performances as well.
Now that these performances are available under EMI's `Encore' banner, this disc really is a bargain and with no compromise in artistic or audio quality; the liner notes may be briefer and less detailed than one would ideally want, but the actual booklet design is nicely achieved. These really are almost superfluous details, however, compared to the musical qualities of this disc: if you don't know this music and are at all interested in Late Romantic music and the symphony - or indeed, given Schmidt's restrained and dignified, and perhaps at times conservative, musical personality, even if you are NOT normally attracted to Late Romantic music - I really do urge you to try this disc. On all counts, it gets a five star recommendation from me.
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* Schmidt was, for some time, principal cellist at the opera in Vienna, under Mahler's baton.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nobly done, 29 Sep 2007
If you like the Viennese symphonic post-Romantic style with long-breathed melodies and symphonic development of thought, somewhere in the Brahms/Bruckner/Mahler bracket, then you're sure to be attracted by this. Franz Schmidt was highly regarded in his day (1874-1939) and, while a bit of a throwback to an earlier sytlistic period, nevertheless wrote music that is highly serious and very satisfying. The performance here is very accomplished with an appropriately weighty depth of sound which lets this noble music breathe. After two or three hearings it becomes quite addictive.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Rich carpet of sound, 1 Oct 2007
Franz Schmidt, whose teacher once told him that with such a name he would never make it as an artist, composed only a small body of symphonic work, which is of a very high quality however. His first two symphonies are somewhat in the Reger tradition (looking back to the old masters with their variation techniques, clad in modern harmony), his third takes us through a very interesting sound world and his fourth, arguably his best known work besides the operatic interlude from "Notre Dame", is an extraordinarily complex work. It was written in 1933 as a kind of requiem for his daughter (she died during childbirth) and the eerie solo trumpet opening the symphony lets us know to telling effect. The trumpet theme recurs several times (played by various other instruments), turns up in the fugue opening the scherzo and the wheel comes full circle for at the end it is again the solitary trumpet that sounds the symphony out. The central funeral march is tremendous, although in this version somewhat underwhelming (I prefer Kreizberg's interpretation on Pentatone).
It is a wonderfully inventive, emotional (but never lachrymonial) and exeedingly well developed symphony that deserves a much wider audience.
The Variations on a Hussar's Song do not bring the jollity their title suggests, but start out on a wistful theme, only in the second part do we get to hear the bouncing Hussar's Song which is then taken through a number of variations that show to great effect Schmidt's skill as an orchestrator and his command of such a large orchestra, without going over the top (as Strauss and certainly Reger sometimes did).
At this price and quality this is a warmly recommended disc to one of the unsung heroes of late romantic symphonic music.
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~ Alfred Reiter
~ Franz Schmidt
~ Arthur Honegger
~ Vincent Stadlemair
~ Richard [Classical] Wagner
