Music On Symphonies: Part Two-The 1850s

Here's the second installment of my personal survey of the symphony and recordings in my collection. The decade of the 1850s starts to see some rather unusual composers and works appear and it shows the growing availability of orchestras in new parts of the world.

Saint-Saens: Symphony No. 1 (1852)                             French Radio & TV Orch./Jean Martinon

Fry: Santa Claus Symphony (1853)                                Royal Scottish NO/Tony Rowe

Smetana: Festive Symphony (1854)                               Berlin RSO/Darell Ang

Bizet: Symphony in C (1855)                                          Suisse Romande Orch/Ernst Ansermet

Gounod: Symphony Nos 1 & 2 (1855)                            ASMF/Neville Marriner

Liszt: Bergsymphonie (1856)                                          Leipzig Gewandhaus/Kurt Masur

Liszt: Faust Symphony (1857)                                        Royal PO/Beecham

Gottschalk: A Night in the Tropics (1859)                        Utah SO/Maurice Abravanel

Saint-Saens: Symphony No. 2 (1859)                             Malmo SO/Marc Soustrot

Most of us tend to grab Saint-Saens third symphony to listen to if we are going to listen to one of his orchestral works at all. His first two symphonies frame the decade and are still interesting works even if not always as compelling. Martinon is the place to go for definitive readings of these works and I wanted to start there. The Soustrot is a modern reading in that same style and also a good companion to enjoy these pieces.

I added 2 American symphonic pieces here to my list and it is interesting that these, like some of the others, are somewhat lighter in tone. The Fry is just a real hoot of a work and one of the earliest symphonies in American music literature. I was in the middle of December when I hit this decade so it fit well. The Gottschalk is also a rather impressive work with its firm Wagnerian style blended with all those delightful percussion instruments. Abravanel's performance is a guilty pleasure. Many of the Utah SO recordings with him are not always "great", but they sure seem to have fun no matter what music they played.

Smetana's work is a solid early example of nationalistic style beginning to appear. The work is certainly interesting to hear within the chronological context as it stands out as a solid piece.

I am a fan of Ernst Ansermet's recordings as well and so it was his recording of the Bizet that I chose to revisit, along with the rest of the fun pieces on the CD from an Ansermet boxed set I've owned for decades. Having played this work, no where near some of the tempi here (!), it remains one of those pieces you sort of forget exists until you listen an enjoy the delightful orchestral writing. Marriner's Gounod recording of the two symphonies is also fairly solid. I'm not sure I was as convinced to listen to them anytime soon, but that is more a matter of personal taste, perhaps.

When we teach music appreciation, Franz Liszt tends to get pushed out of the way which is unfortunate because there is so much music there across many genres and it feels far more influential than just Wagner opera was harmonically. There are some strange things here even in these two works from this decade. The Bergsymponie is really a symphonic poem but an excellent example of music exploring themes of nature and depicting them. Like his other underplayed symphonic pieces, it sort of transforms the listener as you go and the Masur recording is really an excellent place to start. I've had this one a long time with the other symphonic poems as a sort of reference set. The Faust Symphonie seems odd unless you have also taken time to hear the David piece, Le Desert, that I mentioned in Part One of this series. I have an LP recording of this from the old Musical Heritage Society days and was thrilled to discover Beecham's recording in that boxed set. His reading makes the piece a bit more exciting than it might seem in other hands. He certainly gave it a committed performance and even though I had just listened to this while exploring the boxed set last summer, I was glad to have another chance to hear this again in context of the decade this time.

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As you can see, the symphony as its own genre is beginning to gain traction. One more decade of discovering how to write for orchestra in this expanded genre will set the stage for the last quarter century masterpieces that have become standard works on most symphony programs. Often, because the orchestras were playing these works as "new" from their earliest days.