Symphonies: November 2009 Archives

George Antheil
(1900-1959)

Symphony #4 "1942" (1942-43)
Decatur at Algiers (1943)
Symphony #5 "Joyous" (1947-48)

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra/Hugh Wolff
CPO 999706-2 63:03

American George Antheil is best known, or perhaps notorious, for his early Ballet mécanique, written before a radical change of style. This CD is part of a series containing all six symphonies and various short orchestral pieces.

The brief Decatur at Algiers is a hommage to the naval hero. The fourth symphony, very much a war symphony, is clearly influenced by Shostakovich, while the fifth owes a great deal to Prokofiev although its beautiful slow movement has an unmistakable dash of Copland.

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[ Sheet music by this composer: Sheet Music Plus - Musicnotes.com ]

Alfredo Casella
(1883-1947)

Symphony #3, Op. 63 (1939-40)
Italia-Rhapsody for Large Orchestra, Op. 11 (1909)

WDR Symphony Orchestra, Köln/Alun Francis
CPO 777265 66:28

Casella's third symphony shows a number of influences, not least of them Mahler and Soviet composers of the time. Part of the last movement sounds remarkably like Piston's 6^th symphony, but was written about fifteen years earlier – at least it's a point of comparison. Italia is, as you might think, a much more lighthearted affair, and contains some of the expected themes.

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[ Sheet music by this composer: Sheet Music Plus - Musicnotes.com ]

Eduard Franck
(1817-1893)

Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 57 (1860)
Symphony in B Flat Major, Op. 52 (1856)

Christiane Edinger, violin
Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra/Hans-Peter Frank
Audite 20.034 60:04

Eduard Franck was a German composer who was unrelated to the Belgian César Franck. The concerto has many similarities to Beethoven's, and the symphony has more than a trace of Mendelssohn and Schumann. Both works make an enjoyable change from some perhaps too familiar works of the period. The same artists perform the Violin Concerto, Op. 30, and the Symphony in A Major, Op. 47, on a Fermate CD (FER20025) which appears to have been deleted but which some web searching might find.

[ Available on CD: Amazon - UK - Germany - Canada - France - Japan - ArkivMusic ]