Musing on Symphonies: Part One-the 1820s-1840s

After picking up some boxed sets featuring music for the Ballets Russe and then the excellent stereo Sir Thomas Beecham set, I decided to explore my own large collection here by doing a little survey of symphonies across time starting in the 1820s and working my way forward. In this way, I could revisit some discs I had not had a chance to really just listen to in a long time. The choices of which performances to listen to grew out of that idea of making sure to explore some of these discs. This is not meant as an exclusive overview but just a fun way to enjoy great music.

1820s

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (1824)                               MN Orch/Osmo Vanska

Schubert: Symphony No. 9 (1826)                                  St. Louis SO/Leonard Slatkin

I felt like it was a good idea to start with Beethoven's last symphony. I have several options here to consider, but I wanted to revisit Vanska's recording with the MN Orchestra. This was really a stellar cycle overall. I actually finally also then picked up the re-issued second volume of Skrowaczewski's incidental music from the old VOX recordings. Both discs are really among the finest things he did and the sound is great.

Slatkin is one of those conductor's who always seems to fall under the radar, but as a young listener in the 1980s, I was, and still am, an avid fan. As I looked through my collection I was reminded of the vast repertoire he has recorded and how much of it is among the finest performances of those pieces. I'm sure others will have favorites of this Schubert symphony. I've tended to prefer Beecham in Schubert symphonies, but he didn't make a stereo version of this. I will say that this St. Louis performance is very engaging and well worth one's time. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing this performance again and was equally reminded at the proximity these two final essays in this genre are to one another!

1830s

Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 5 (1830)                           London SO/Claudio Abbado

Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique (1831)                          Boston SO/Charles Munch

I have an LP set of Karajan's survey of Mendelssohn symphonies which admittedly did not endear them much to me apart from perhaps the 5th. Previn's recording of the 4th was always a personal favorite from my LP collection. The Abbado set though holds up well and this was a fine performance to enjoy here. The Berlioz is a personal favorite and so there are several recordings I have to choose from but Munch's remains one of the finest.

1840s

Schumann: Symphony No. 1 (1841)                               Seattle SO/Gerard Schwarz

Berwald: Symphony 1 or 2 (1842)                                  Helsingborg SO/Okku Kamu

Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 (1842)                           London SO/Peter Maag

David: Le Desert (1844)                                                 Paris Chamber Orch./Laurence Equilby

Farrenc: Symphony No. 2 (1845) or 3 (1847)                  Soloists Europeens, Luxemborg/Christopher Konig

Schumann: Symphony No. 3 (1850)                               Chamber Orch. of Europe/Nikolaus Harnoncourt

Interesting works here in this decade where we seem to be in between the more popular music of the day. Schumann's symphonies are not always on my wishlist to hear though they seem to be quite popular of late on the local classical station. I must have heard the 4th several times over the last couple months. Gerard Schwarz's recording was part of the Delos years where he was making some excellent recordings in Seattle of American music especially. This is a solid performance of the first symphony. Harnoncourt's performance of the third is equally fine and makes a fairly good case for the work's popularity.

Berwald is a lesser known composer and the Kamu is a Naxos release where one can get to hear both these pieces. They are solid works of the period with some nice themes and orchestral ideas worth exploring. Maag's performance of the 3rd Mendelssohn symphony is the one I grew to love on cassette (which I still have, but this is the CD reissue I was listening to here). Having played the work a couple of times, I have to say that it is perhaps now my favorite of the Mendelssohn symphonies and it was interesting to listen to this after also exploring the other symphonies in this decade on the list.

The David was from a disc sent for review a few years ago. In its day, this was a quite popular work and it sort of fell into obscurity along with most of this composer's output. This symphony though is quite fascinating to hear and it helps fill in that gap one gets from Berlioz to Saint-Saens a bit.

Louise Farrenc is another great composer who, like most in this decade, sort of fall to the side. Her music is beautifully composed with wonderful color in the wind writing. The Naxos release is a great place to start to explore her work. What is interesting when one listens to her music in the company of the period is that it actually rises above most of the other pieces here.

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There you have a few great symphonic pieces at the early part of the 19th Century. The orchestra was sort of still coming into its own and you can see composers working to explore this new opportunity of expression. There is a lot of great music here and I think listening to things in this semi-chronological way has made for a really wonderful experience. Often we can get tied in to our personal favorites and this is a fun way to rediscover great music. Hope you enjoyed this part and more to come!