Herzogenberg's Second Symphony

[Mark Thomas]

I'm generally not a huge fan of Herzogenberg's music, but I could easily be persuaded by more performances of it like that of his Second Symphony which I've just added to the Downloads board. It's by the St Gallen Symphony Orchestra under (the unknown to me) Henrik Nanasi and, compared with the one which we have commercially available from Frank Beermann, it brings the work to life. It's altogether lighter and livelier, the shaping of phrases is much crisper and there's a sense of momentum lacking in the cpo account. Highly recommended.

[Alan Howe]

Mark's 100% right. It has all the life that the (very neat) cpo recording doesn't quite have.

[britishcomposer]

Mark, this performance has already been uploaded by Atsushi back in October 2011:
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,1345.msg21633/topicseen.html#msg21633

[Alan Howe]

Thanks for that. Nevertheless it's good to remind ourselves of it. I hadn't bothered with Atsushi's original upload (provincial orchestra, unknown conductor and all that), so I'm personally glad to have it this time round.

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks, Matthias, I had quite forgotten Atsushi's upload too, not being a very keen Herzogenberg fan. I'll leave mine there, though.

[Gauk]

It is a general problem that whenever a poor performance of an unfamiliar work is released, the first reaction is to blame the composer for writing dull music, when in fact it is the conductor's fault. Not many listeners have the skill to imagine how a piece could have been performed differently; at least, not at one hearing.

[Alan Howe]

...a poor performance of an unfamiliar work...

What you say is true, but not really applicable in this case. The cpo recording of Herzogenberg 2 is a perfectly good studio performance - it certainly presented the work in a very favourable light as far as this listener was concerned. However, the live recording we now have is undoubtedly more gripping, as befits an actually concert performance, and adds considerably to one's appreciation of the music. Of course it's rather more untidy too...

[Alan Howe]

...under (the unknown to me) Henrik Nanasi...

Apparently he's a young Hungarian conductor, born in 1975 and currently General Music Director of the Komische Oper Berlin. A name to watch, I suggest...

[BerlinExpat]

Henrik Nánási is definitely a name to watch. I recently saw him conduct Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa at the Komische Oper and it was stunning. So much so that I returned to be gobsmacked again!!! After that I don't think I ever want to see Eugene Onegin again! Next season Nànàsi is due to conduct Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel (19 Jan 2014+) and Mozart's Cosi fan tutte (3 November 2013+). Booking is now open at www.komische-oper-berlin.de