Felix Woyrsch - Symphony No. 2; Hamlet Overture (Thomas Dorsch)

Information

Composer: Felix Woyrsch

• (01) Overture to Shakespeare's Hamlet, Op. 56
• (02) Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 60

Oldenburg State Orchestra
Thomas Dorsch, conductor

Date: 2012
Label: cpo

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Review

In the photo on the back of the front cover, German conductor Thomas Dorsch smiles cheerfully, and so he might - this recording with the excellent Oldenburg State Orchestra of Felix Woyrsch's Second Symphony and Hamlet Overture is not far off superb.

The quality begins with the German-English booklet notes which, as is normal for CPO - are expansive and informative. Co-written by Dorsch and Andreas Dreibrodt, they give a detailed biography of the once much-admired Woyrsch and his music, including the two highly impressive works heard here. Not quite as common for the label is an excellent rendition of the notes into English - but here, though no translator is credited, CPO do themselves more credit.

Dorsch and Dreibrodt's essay astutely recognises the leading role played by musicologists and critics in the lack of public interest in composers who were not "fixated on compositional innovation", a practice which unfortunately still goes on, despite the heroic efforts of labels like CPO, Naxos, Toccata, Chandos and others to redress the balance with bold - some would say foolhardy! - recording projects like this.

In a more enlightened world, Woyrsch's music would be a safe bet. The Second Symphony is imaginatively orchestrated, tunefully dramatic, vivid and emotive. At various points it recalls Sibelius, Bruckner, Prokofiev, flashes of Brahms and one or two other - without ever really sounding like anyone other than Woyrsch. The audaciously atmospheric Overture is even better in some regards - the Symphony is four times as long and not easily assimilated in one or two listen-throughs.

Despite this potentially wide appeal, this is only the second monograph of the composer's music, following an MDG recording (3290588) of the First Symphony, paired likewise with a concert overture, released nearly twenty years ago - and now deleted! Dorsch and the Oldenburg State Orchestra have that little bit extra brilliance and imagination, however, and it can only be hoped that they will eventually - soon, indeed - record all of Woyrsch's symphonies, including the First.

Recordings of orchestral music on CPO are often less than ideal, with a sound that tends towards the thin lossy, but here all is well - arguably one of the label's most impressive symphonic realisations. With luck they will either always enlist this engineering team, or at least someone will remember these particular settings! 

-- Byzantion, MusicWeb International

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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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Thomas Dorsch (born 1968 in Hannover) is a German conductor and composer. He received his training in Hanover and Detmold, and completed his study in masterclasses with Jorma Panula, Neeme Järvi and Esa-Pekka Salonen, among others. Dorsch has served in various positions in Hildesheim (1st Kapellmeister and choir director), Wuppertal (choir director), Mainz (1st Kapellmeister), Oldenburg (principal conductor) and Lüneburg. Dorsch has taught composition, musicology and arrangement at the Musikhochschule Hannover and the Universities in Oldenburg and Hildesheim.
https://www.thomasdorsch.de/

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