Great Unsung Third Symphonies

[sdtom]

As Alan said they were very cheap and to answer Mark's opinion I didn't find the Im Walde's to be lifeless but I'll agree that I got the feeling that it was missing something. Perhaps now my best plan of attack is to wait for the Jarvi to come out
Tom

[Sibeliusfan]

I could mention several third symphonies that already figure in these pages, but as far as I know, nobody came up with the third by the Dutch composer Bernard Zweers: "Aan mijn vaderland" (To my fatherland). Certainly not the best (third), but then, which symphony is? Zweers's symphony can be heard on Youtube in a performance from the seventies in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkzNJ0wLCxU
Other unsung third symphonies that are well worth to be heard are Jef van Hoof's from 1945 and the symphony No. 3 by Marinus de Jong, composed in 1976 but truly romantic.

[scarpia]

Kalervo Tuukkanen's 3rd Symphony. Maybe not great, but I like it.

[eschiss1]

The Zweers 3rd can also be heard on CD (may be the same performance; I forget.)

[Lucanuscervus]

Johann Rufinatscha's  3rd Symphony !

[Alan Howe]

Interesting. What are your reasons, please?

[scarpia]

Witold Maliszewski's Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 14 is enjoyable.

[Alan Howe]

Gentlemen: please supply reasons, otherwise this thread is just a list of 3rd symphonies...

[Sibeliusfan]

Reasons, you are right. The Zweers (indeed, there is a 'new' Sterling-cd with the performance of this symphony by the Residentie Orkest under Hans Vonk. A very nice performance, though with some cuts in the finale) may be not the greatest symphony ever, but it shows the composer at his best. Zweers wrote mostly vocal music, but here he proves to be able to write broad melodies and his orchestration reminds sometimes of Bruckner. Together with the only symphony of Johannes Verhulst Zweers's third could be the called the best Dutch symphony of the 19th century. However: orchestras almost never perform it.
Van Hoof, Belgian composer, was oldfashioned when he wrote his third at the end of World War II. His symphonies are very melodious, mostly light hearted and well wrought. Again: not one of the desert island disks, but music that is worth hearing.
Finally the De Jong. De Jong, Dutch by birth, Belgian, or better Flemish by choice, was a prolific composer, who enjoyed a long life and wrote music almost upto his death. The third (as is the fourth) is a work of his old age and was composed as hommage to the composer's parents. De Jong wrote some fine tunes, but the qualilty of this symphony is the melancholy. In a sense this is music of a long gone past, revived by a 85 year old composer, still working in a tradition that a younger generation (in those years) would be pleased to bury. De Jong made his statement very well and as some of the avant-garde of the seventies sounds outdated, De Jong's symphony still stands.

[Alan Howe]

Thank you. That's really interesting to read.

[Ilja]

It may be interesting to know that the final movement of Zweers' Third Symphony was composed some years after the first three, and it is probably the lesser of the four. The third movement, on the other hand, is a truly inspired, magnificent and majestic piece, and certainly counts among the best music ever composed in this country.


And I wholeheartedly agree with Sibeliusfan's judgment of Verhulst's symphony – it isn't performed very regularly, but fortunately it does crop up every now and then in concert programmes.

[sdtom]

I've never heard of the symphony from Zweers so I'll look to investigate when I get caught up  a litttle bit

[Sibeliusfan]

Another (Dutch) third came to my mind: the third symphony of Jan van Gilse. Van Gilse (1881-1944) wrote it in 1908, relatively short after finishing his studies with Engelbert Humperdinck. Two of the five movements contain a soprano-solo. The music is greatly influenced by the German late romantics and could be family of works by Reger or Wetz. The dark colours make it an interesting work, although a little long. Van Gilse's fourth and last symphony is even better, but this topic is about third symphonies. On the CPO-label the four symphonies are well served by the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra and conductor David Porcelijn.

[scarpia]

Jāzeps Medinš: Symphony No 3 in E flat Major. Reasons for me are easy - anything written after 1900 that is tonal and tuneful is great in my book.

[Alan Howe]

...although it may not fit here. 'Tonal' may not mean 'Romantic'.