Felix Weingartner - Symphony No. 2; Das Gefilde der Seligen (Marko Letonja)

Information

Composer: Felix Weingartner

1. Das Gefilde der Seligan, symphonic poem, Op. 21
2. Symphony No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 29: I. Lento - Allegro mosso
3. Symphony No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 29: II. Allegro giocoso
4. Symphony No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 29: III. Adagio, ma non troppo
5. Symphony No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 29: IV. Lento - Allegro risoluto

Basel Symphony Orchestra
Marko Letonja, conductor

Date: 2005
Label: cpo

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Review

This is the third volume in cpo's ongoing series devoted to the orchestral music of Felix Weingartner (1863-1942). Like the others (cpo 999 981, 777 098), it places on view an imaginative and well-trained if uneven compositional talent, influenced strongly by Brahms and Wagner.

With the previous pair of releases, I tentatively concluded that Weingartner worked better in closed forms. Traditional, structural constraints of time, development, and internal contrast gave bones to his work. In longer pieces that inherently lacked these requirements, he was inclined to sprawl. Weingartner's tone poem, King Lear , is one good example of this; and on the new release, its companion piece, Das Gefilde der Seligen ('The Elysian Fields'), offers another. It is one of those slow-moving, slowly transforming tone poems of which Rachmaninoff's The Isle of the Dead is an effective example. (Coincidentally, they are both based on Böcklin paintings.) But Rachmaninoff's thematic material has more profile, while his orchestral presentation of it is more varied and brilliant. Though less subtle in detail, the work slowly builds to a notable climax. The Elysian Fields is both less interesting in its materials and less distinctive in their treatment. On repeated hearings, small changes impress: the way a rhythmic fragment of the second theme appears briefly in the general orchestral texture before the work's conclusion, for instance. But I suspect this really isn't enough to command the attention of most listeners over a 22-minute score.

Three years separate the premieres of The Elysian Fields and the Symphony No. 2. There is no dramatic shift in style; both works build upon a musical vocabulary derived from Brahms and Wagner. But where the former piece says little of interest at great length, the latter is focused and cogent. The Symphony's thematic content is appealing and frequently memorable, with idiomatic and often striking instrumentation. (The chorale theme of Wagnerian brass that occurs roughly eight minutes into the slow movement furnishes one impressive example.) It balances large-scale structures against refinement of detail and never loses itself in meandering incident. The heart of the work, a magnificently lyrical Adagio, is the finest thing I've heard of Weingartner and could stand alongside its models without fear of comparison.

Letonja and the Basel SO have been featured throughout this series. As in earlier releases, too, they emphasize clarity at the expense of tempo extremes. The Elysian Fields predictably suffers worst, with little change to its overly fast pacing throughout the work. The Symphony's Scherzo, an allegro giocoso , loses energy and wit with the brakes applied, but Letonja works up enough of a rhythmic pulse to make a success of his under-sped finale. It's only fair to credit Weingartner, too, who builds the movement subtly and ingeniously to an impressive conclusion.

As is often the case with cpo, Eckhardt van den Hoogen provides lengthy, discursive, and highly speculative liner notes. The sound environment is rich and full in stereo, without being over-reverberant. In multichannel mode, it literally encompasses the room (those brass, again!). For the Second Symphony, this is definitely worth the purchase, especially as another recording is unlikely to come along anytime soon.


-- Barry Brenesal, FANFARE

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Mar06/weingartner_symphony_cpo777099.htm
https://www.allmusic.com/album/weingartner-symphony-2-mw0001393155
https://www.amazon.com/Weingartner-Symphony-No-2-Felix/dp/B000CGYO9A

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Felix Weingartner (2 June 1863 – 7 May 1942) was an Austrian conductor, composer and pianist. He studied at the Leipzig Conservatory, and was one of Franz Liszt's last pupils in Weimar. Weingartner was the first conductor to make commercial recordings of all nine Beethoven symphonies, and the second to record all four Brahms symphonies. Despite his lifelong career as a conductor, Weingartner regarded himself as equally, if not more importantly, a composer. Besides numerous operas, Weingartner wrote seven symphonies, a sinfonietta, violin concerto, cello concerto, orchestral works, string quartets, quintets and lieder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Weingartner

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Marko Letonja (born August 12, 1961) is an Slovenian conductor. Letonja studied piano and conducting at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana. Following his studies with conductor Otmar Suitner at the Academy for Music and Theater in Vienna, Letonja went on to be music director of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra from 1991 to 2003 and Music Director and Chief Conductor of both the Symphony Orchestra and the Opera in Basel from 2003 to 2006. Since 2012, Letonja has served as the chief conductor of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and as the chief conductor and artistic director of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/marko-letonja-mn0002189240

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