Felix Woyrsch - Symphony No. 1; Symphonic Prologue (Miguel A. Gomez Martínez)

Information

Composer: Felix Woyrsch

• (01) Symphonic Prologue to Dante's "Divina Commedia", Op. 40
• (02) Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 52

Hamburg Symphony Orchestra
Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez, conductor

Date: 1995
Label: Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm

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Review

I had been completely ignorant of Felix Woyrsch until I chanced upon this superbly recorded disc of two of his major works and I can safely say that I was extremely enthusiastic about what I heard.

The Symphonic Prologue to Dante's classic 'La Divina Commedia' is indeed quite brilliant, a very emotionally charged piece full of tragedy and victory in a rich orchestral garb. The Hamburg Symphony Orchestra play with superb conviction and intensity, and are quite admirably conducted by Gomez Martinez. The same goes for the First Symphony, an intensely personal work all round that shows Woyrsch's admirable sense for long symphonic breadth that is uncannily prescient of Mahler and his contemporary Rott, whose First Symphony is one of the gems of late romantic expressionism. Again, both orchestra and conductor are completely immersed in the beautiful music that permeates the symphony and their performance is certainly one of the best that one could hope for.

The disc comes packed with detailed and exploratory notes that are an intriguing addenda to the music. Anyone with a penchant for late romantic symphonies should snap up this disc without delay.

-- Gerald Fenech, Classical.net

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Felix Woyrsch (8 October 1860 – 20 March 1944) was a German composer and choir director. Largely self-taught in music, he became director of the Altonaer Liedertafel in 1887 and director of the Altona Church Choir in 1893. Already a music professor since 1901, he was elected into the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin in 1917. Woyrsch worked as a conductor, and as Altona's city music director, until 1931. Woyrsch's compositions include seven symphonies, five further works for orchestra, three operas, 100 songs, and a violin concerto. His main influences included his friend Brahms, as well as Bach and Palestrina.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Woyrsch

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Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez (born 1949 in Granada, Spain) is a Spanish conductor and composer. He studied at the Music Conservatory of Madrid, and later in Vienna under Hans Swarowsky’s guidance. During his long career since his debut as conductor in Vienna in 1973, Gómez Martínez was Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of numerous international orchestras, including the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, of which he served as Chief Conductor from 1992 to 2000. Gómez Martínez is also a composer. Among his works is the Sinfonía del Descubrimiento (1992) and the Sinfonía del Agua (2007).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_%C3%81ngel_G%C3%B3mez_Mart%C3%ADnez

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