Woyrsch, Felix: Symphonies no. 4 & 5 etc

[Alan Howe]

No.4 is a 34-minute work in a rather knotty idiom, as one might expect from the earlier symphonies. What's really interesting is that a 70 year-old composer (the work was first performed in 1930) clearly believed that the Austro-German symphonic tradition still had life in it - as, indeed, did Fritz Brun, for example. I find the music fascinating, partly because Woyrsch isn't a self-indulgent composer: the symphony is mostly restless in mood, has terrific momentum and really blazes at climaxes. I don't think it'll ever be popular, but it is very satisfying - at least to these tired old ears.

[eschiss1]

Belated thanks by the way; maybe I should sign up for Spotify sometime.
If they record the 6th and 7th and have room to eg couple them with his "Skaldische" violin rhapsody-concerto- well!

[Mark Thomas]

Woyrsch's first three efforts had left me rather cold, but the 4th Symphony is a very intriguing work. As late-Romantic German symphonies go, I found it a very refreshing listen - a perfect antidote to the giganticism of so many over-inflated fin de siècle works from Urspruch to Hausegger and Marx (I'm ducking as I type!). This is a modestly-proportioned work, chock-full of variety, imaginative scoring and, particularly, unexpected harmonic turns. It also, as Alan rightly says, has refreshing momentum. What it lacks on first hearing is memorable thematic material. The slow movement is better in this respect, and has a certain craggy grandeur to it, whilst the finale is particularly successful and satisfying. The 5th Symphony is on an even more compact scale (barely 20 minutes long) and shows a more genial, relaxed and outwardly melodic face, but otherwise has all the hallmarks of its predecessor. Once again, the slow movement has real depth, and Woyrsch shows he's mastered the curse of the romantic symphonic finale. These are two fine works from an elderly composer, breathing life into a form many had given up as irrelevant in the 20th century. 

[Ilja]

Eric, sofar as I know there is no Seventh Symphony; the Sixth is the last. There's a "listenable" MIDI rendering up on Youtube.

[Ilja]

These are two fine works from an elderly composer, breathing life into a form many had given up as irrelevant in the 20th century. 

This is what I find particularly intriguing; Woyrsch is, in his own way, an innovator within a largely but not entirely traditional framework. I love both symphonies, particularly the fifth. We can clearly see an evolution here, from a rather run-of-the-mill (albeit very fine) Brahmsian First Symphony to a much more individual but still recognizable idiom in these works.

[eschiss1]

true. There's an early symphony no.0, but that's not what I meant. I misremembered

[Alan Howe]

This was a trajectory shared (in their different ways) by Brun and Röntgen. Forgotten masters all...

[Alan Howe]

No.5 is indeed a very impressive piece which feels bigger than its 21 minutes. If anyone has held back from investigating Woyrsch up to now, this CD ought to be on your wants list. It's superb - and superbly done too, with the NDR Radiophilharmonie of Hanover doing sterling work on behalf of this unfamiliar music.

[hyperdanny]

today, a really dismissive review of this release on Musicweb...

[Alan Howe]

Well, I'm not surprised. You have to work at this music...

[JimL]

Now if only some enterprising violinist would tackle the Skaldische Rhapsodie...

[Ilja]

I don't mind this sort of review; obviously I feel differently, and to some extent I think the reviewer genuinely doesn't understand this music, but it is phrased as a personal experience and one can't really disagree (or agree) with that.

[hyperdanny]

I agree, the review is well written and rather cogently elaborated, so it deserves respect...it's just that the reviewer, IMHO, is faulting the music for not being something that is not meant to be.
Woyrsch's music is "strange" anyway, and it's always bound to elicit controversy, even in the same listener---
Take me, for example: I think the 1st and 4th (which, interestingly , to my ears doesn't sound difficult or untuneful at all) are masterpieces, the 2nd really unsubstantial and piecemeal, while the 3rd and 5th I do not really "get" (I listened to the 5th just twice, though, so judgement suspended),
I cannot really think of another composer that elicits such drastically discordant reactions from opus to opus.

[Ilja]

Yes, I've found that in other people. What do you make of the 6th/7th Symphony?

[hyperdanny]

I haven't listened to those yet, are they on YT?