More Gouvy from cpo

[Alan Howe]

Announced for November release are Gouvy's Symphonies 1 & 2:
http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/SESSIONID/14b4acb310a945e850299f20f7bd5e58/cpo/detail/-/art/Louis%20Theodore%20Gouvy%20%20Symphonien%20Vol.%203/hnum/1539077

[Mark Thomas]

You beat me to it!

[eschiss1]

great!
(and I've seen sym. 2 in score - actually, another company's beaten them to it- K617 I think?- but no reason at all why it should have only one recording.)
I've heard a few of the Gouvy symphonies on the best classical station around here that isn't only available online (the TV classical station, oddly) and the more the merrier- really good music. Hope more of his output generally gets out there of course.
(I sound like I'm complaining about the duplication now- and I'm not. The cpo Gouvy recordings have been very good so far...)

[Peter1953]

My appreciation for cpo is growing & growing & growing...

[Alan Howe]

I defy anyone not to enjoy this lovely new release from cpo - audio excerpts now available:
http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/Louis-Theodore-Gouvy-Symphonien-Vol-3/hnum/1539077

[Alan Howe]

My copy's just arrived and I'm listening to Symphony No.1 amazed that the piece has been so neglected. The first movement bears some striking resemblances to Schumann's 3rd (it's in the same key), except, of course, that the Schumann hadn't yet been written (it was some five years in the future: Gouvy 1 dates from 1845). Then we have a most lively and lovely Scherzo - my goodness we're almost in early Tchaikovsky territory here. The slow movement was admired by Berlioz - and quite rightly so, for it has something of that master's sense of line and passion. This is simply gorgeous music. The finale is a typically Gouvyesque mix of lively material and lyrical episodes, with superb writing for the woodwind and suitably ominous brass interjections. Gouvy also clearly loves the French horn! And what a great coda, with the big tune belted out by all and sundry!

The performance given by the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern under Jacques Mercier shows the composer to best advantage: graceful, impassioned when needed but never overbearing, and always rhythmically alive. Wonderful. They clearly have the Gouvy idiom at their collective fingertips.

Gouvy's music is full of good things: a keen ear for colour, melodic generosity and shapely development. Far too good, in fact, to be so neglected. More on the performance of Symphony No.2 (already familiar from the recent Sterling release) in due course...

[Mark Thomas]

A mouth-watering review, Alan. I really must put in my order. Gouvy has been a real revelation - the symphonies in particular show such joi de vivre. Somehow the various chamber and choral pieces previously released on the k617 label never hinted at the vivacity and élan now revealed in this symphonic cycle.

[Alan Howe]

Initial reactions to No.2 concern the superiority of the orchestra in this new cpo recording to that on Sterling. It is obvious that Mercier and his band are entirely attuned to Gouvy's idiom (they are, after all, in the midst of a Gouvy cycle being made in conjunction with public performances) and that they have at their disposal a rather greater range of sonority.
The music itself is absolutely wonderful: a mid-ninteenth century French/German idiom that doffs its hat to Beethoven, Mendelssohn, etc., but which is actually quite individual. Very, very attractive music presented to a superlative standard. A must-buy for all lovers of the 19th-century symphonic tradition.

[FBerwald]

The CPO release of the Symphony, Op. 87 is entitled "Symphony no. 6" in G minor yet elsewhere on the net  I have seen this symphony refered to as Symphony No. 7 and "Symphony No. 6" as Symphony No. 6 in G Major, Op. 58, entitled Symphonie brève; variations et rondo pour orchestre.

Which is which? Is the "Symphonie brève" the actual Symphony No. 6 or is CPO correct in it's naming convention.

[Mark Thomas]

Breitkopf & Härtel's piano reduction of the Symphony op.87, just titles it Symphony in G minor - no "No.6" or "No.7". That was often the case for the symphonic scores of many composers in the 19th century - the numbering of symphonies was added by someone else, often years later. So I suspect that it's a moot point whether Op.68 should be counted as No.6, leaving op.87 to be No.7, especially as there doesn't seem to be a Gouvy Society or it's equivalent to make a decision and propagate it.

[eschiss1]

Actually, there is an Institut Théodore Gouvy...

[Mark Thomas]

Mmm. Not exactly the most comprehensive composer site I've visited and certainly no help with this question.