Bendix Symphony No. 2 "Summer Sounds from Southern Russia"

[Alan Howe]

Thanks to Ilja, we have an opportunity to hear this in a decent modern performance.

The download is available here: https://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,9529.msg97537.html#msg97537

[Maury]

Thanks for the notice. More well played Bendix is welcome.

[Maury]

Playing this file the sound is tonally unbalanced in unpleasant ways. I have pretty good computer audio playback systems. Is this the way the soundfile actually sounds or is something going wrong with my playback of this file?

[Maury]

Leaving aside the sonics of the soundfile, this Symphony 2 by Bendix must have been somewhat disconcerting in the context of the late 1880s symphony audience. It doesn't sound like Gade his teacher's symphonies. I have seen a few references in reviews of the Omsk recording to a similarity with melodies by Glazunov. However in 1888 Glazunov had only had his first two symphonies performed in Russia so I doubt he was much of an influence. In addition Glazunov's music is always well structured and not as wayward as the Bendix symphony. About the only connection I perceive there is a lack of obvious struggle or persistent tension in the music. As for Dvorak, the Bendix Sym  has little of the peasant earthiness or emotional immediacy of his music.

To my ears it already has a certain 20th C quirkiness in its quiet non-expressionist way. Are there any symphonies around this time which have a similar aspect or is this the earliest?

[eschiss1]

That's not uniformly true of Dvorak's music either, especially the earlier works. Anyhow, good question.

[Ilja]

Louis Glass' First Symphony (in E major from 1894) springs to mind, which is also rather free in a formal sense. Like Bendix (and Carl Nielsen) he was a student of Gade, who appears to have instilled a sense of musical adventure in his students.