Track Listing

1. Overture Aus Ernster Zeit Op.56
2. Allegro Agitato
3. Allegro Scherzando Ma Poco Moderato
4. Andante Solenne
5. Fuge Di Due Te Mi

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #145352 in Music
• Released on: 2008-01-29
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Hybrid SACD

Customer Reviews

A Pure Symphony
What a great pleasure to discover Weingarter's 2nd symphony. I first heard it on a Sirus satellite radio station and thought it must be Mendelssohn. Perhaps a work that accidently fell off his desk. But no ... Weingartner.

Although your intellect will search for a theme to this symphony and you will ask: "what is Weingartner trying to say " your eyes will eventually close and you'll be transported to a world of beautiful music.

In a way this symphony perfectly fits the philosophy of Carl Neilson, the great Danish composer, who wrote that 'music can only be evaluated in musical terms'.

The recording and Basel orchestra are excellent. The CD notes in English are intellectual gobblygook.

mediocre composer who made a name as a conductor
There have been a number of professional conductors who aspired to be recognized as a composer, with varying success. Weingartner is probably among the greatest failures. Incidentally, just a few months later, CPO released the symphony by von Hausegger, a contemporary of Weingartner and a conductor whose best known recording is his Bruckner 9th. Weingartner's 5th pales greatly in the comparison.

One would expect Weingartner, who made the earliest Beethoven cycle and one of the earliest Brahms cycles, and wrote thesis on symphonies since Beethoven, to know how to write a decent romantic symphony. Among the 5 recorded so far, the Mendelssohnesque 1st and 4th are lightweight bonbons. Call them bucolic, or pleasant, or merry, or whatever you like, they are nothing more than glorified country music -- and there are people even calling Dvorak's early symphonies "provincial". The larger scaled 2nd, 3rd and 5th are obviously beyond his style and technique. Lacking vivid and identifiable themes, these works turn out to be a structureless mess. Other romantic composers drew inspirations from historical events, legends, literature or nature etc. Weingartner was instead hormone infested. The 3rd was composed fresh after his wedding, 5th a birthday piece to his 4th wife. His 65 + 43 minutes' worth of marital joy is hardly anybody else's business and frankly sounds quite boring. Nevertheless, I admit the 5th is more passable than the others.

Switzerland is a rich country that can afford to pour tons of money into its lesser talents in hope for their ultimate recognition. For the less affluent, the hope is to scavenge a few bucks back from a local used cd store. This music really isn't worth the blank CDR that it is written on. Fancy Swiss romantic music? Go for Raff, or Huber.

Kudos to CPO for bringing Weingartner's compositions to light-
This 5th symphony of Felix Weingartner is as deserving of joining the symphonic repertoire as the first four released by CPO since 2003. All five should be in the rotation with Brahms, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky. They are well-constructed and melodic, with opening movements that grab the listener's interest immediately, quicksilver scherzos, beautiful slow movements that are frequently very moving (especially the adagio of the 2nd symphony) and his finales are more than just the "summing up" that some composer's final movements can be.

Reviews have been glowing, with American Record Guide, Fanfare, Gramophone and every other classical journal raving about the merit of Weingartner's work. CPO has a hit series on its hands, and they will apparently complete the projected total of 7 or 8 symphonies (the octet & sextet were released together last year) and possibly some additional discs. The shame is that North American symphony orchestras are unlikely to program this wonderful music since the repertoire is basically set in stone: Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Sibelius, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Bruckner & Mahler. Nothing is going to change this (or at least, add to it) which makes labels like CPO, Hyperion, Chandos, Harmonia Mundi, Sterling, Naxos so welcome ! We've all heard the standards, but we want to hear what else is out there. On vacations to Europe I've heard local orchestras perform symphonies of Glazunov, Magnard, Peterson-Berger, Malipiero, Elgar, Melartin, Ludolf Nielsen, Wellesz, Marx, Vaughan Williams, Atterberg and that wonderful, odd symphony of Rott. Chances of hearing any of these back in Seattle ? Only on my CD player.

I wholeheartedly recommend this disc of Weingartner's Fifth, but each of the other discs in the CPO series of his works are also worth your while. This legendary conductor will be known 50 years from now as the composer who also conducted, not the other way around, if there's any justice.