Friedrich Gernsheim - Symphonies Nos. 2 & 4 (Hermann Bäumer)

Information

Composer: Friedrich Gernsheim

• (01) Symphony No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 46
• (05) Symphony No. 4 in B flat major, Op. 62

Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Mainz
Hermann Bäumer, conductor

Date: 2016
Label: cpo

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Review

Quite apart from being a contemporary of Brahms and also writing four symphonies, Gernsheim clearly found the Brahms orchestral style utterly congenial.

The Second Symphony has an easygoing sidling eloquence that is most attractive in the first movement. There's a pulse-racing tarantella of a second movement. The finale clearly doffs the hat and bends the knee towards Brahms' First Symphony and this works with conviction all the way to a sturdy close. The Fourth Symphony opens in four-square joyously peeling energy. Gernsheim clearly loves Brahms' winding tendril woodwind writing and he is up for some muscular jollity in the finale. These two symphonies approach the last word in succinct expressive power and the invention is something of quality.

This disc is the second of a pair from CPO covering all four Gernsheim symphonies. The first volume was reviewed by Jonathan Woolf here. The two-disc set of all four from Arte Nova (74321 63635 2) is played by the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz conducted by Siegfried Köhler. That dates from 1999 and is probably not that easy to get hold of although secondhand copies do turn up on Amazon. I have not heard that set recently but I note that the timings are about the same as here. Bäumer, having contributed the Foerster symphonies in Osnabruck for MDG (review review), is well up to the Gernsheim challenge as is his Mainz orchestra. The makings of the revival are further evidenced by the Violin Concertos (CPO), Piano Quintets (CPO and Toccata Classics), Piano Trios (Antes) and the diminutive Cello Concerto (Hyperion) courtesy of Alban Gerhardt.

Matthias Corvin's liner essay is a good example of its sort and stands well clear of some of CPO's worst excesses of the past. The essay is in German and English. Sound quality is as well rooted as the music.

-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

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Friedrich Gernsheim (17 July 1839 – 10 September 1916) was a German composer, conductor and pianist. Gernsheim studied with Louis Liebe in Worms, Edward Rosenhain in Frankfurt, and Ignaz Moscheles in Leipzig. was a prolific composer, especially of orchestral, chamber and instrumental music, and songs. His earlier works show the influence of Schumann, and from 1868, a Brahmsian influence is very palpable. Gernsheim taught music at the Cologne Conservatory (his pupils there included Engelbert Humperdinck and Carl Lachmund). In the latter year he became a teacher at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Gernsheim

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Hermann Bäumer (born 28 January 1965 in Bielefeld) is a German conductor. He studied at the University of Music in Detmold, then served with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, as both an orchestral player and at the podium. Since 2004, Bäumer has been General Music Director of the Osnabrück Symphony Orchestra and has guest-conducted in Germany and abroad. He has recorded for labels such as cpo and BIS. From 2011/2012 season onwards, Bäumer has been the General Music Director of the State Theatre in Mainz.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_B%C3%A4umer
http://www.hermannbaeumer.com

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