Strauss Symphony in D minor

[Alan Howe]

Discussion of Strauss' F minor Symphony (his 2nd) reminded me that I hadn't listened for a while to his 1st in D minor (written in 1880). If you can track down a copy there is a superb performance on Koch Schwann featuring the excellent Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Karl Anton Rickenbacher:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Grieg-Symphony-minor-Strauss/dp/B000025PZU/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1443795110&sr=8-6&keywords=Strauss+Rickenbacher
It's a less heavy work than the F minor and I supposed it could be described as a shameless amalgam of various influences from the conservative symphonic tradition of Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms with barely a hint of Liszt or Wagner. Nevertheless, Strauss being a genius, it's a thoroughly engaging piece of writing with some wonderfully warm writing in the slow movement in particular. Apart from an uncompetitive old Marco Polo recording I don't know of any other recording; perhaps Sebastian Weigle will give us this lovely symphony too...

[Alan Howe]

By the way, it would make an interesting study in opposing stylistic trajectories to compare Strauss' transition from the conservative camp to his espousal of Liszt/Wagner's aesthetic with, say, Herzogenberg who appears to have travelled in the reverse direction. Try, for example Herzogenberg's programmatic symphony Odysseus and it's extraordinary to think that this was completely nearly a decade before Strauss' two much more conservative efforts - and that thereafter the older composer would content himself with writing in Brahms' shadow...

[eschiss1]

There was one conducted by Klaus-Peter Seibel on Colosseum, coupled with his Festival March. (1989 or 1990 CD, maybe a reissue of an earlier recording. At least, according to Worldcat...)

Those are the only three recordings listed at Allmusic. The Colosseum is given with a 2009 (reissue?) date. I don't think the work was published until relatively recently anycase (before 1990 maybe, but compared to the other symphonies he wrote which were mostly I think published in his lifetime.)

[Ilja]

There's also one by the Kölner Rundfunk Symphonie Orchester under Johannes Wildner, although I don't know on which label it was released.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, Ilja. I spotted that on YouTube - maybe it's an off-air recording? Oh, and the conductor is Johannes Winkler (1950-1989). The performance dates from 1988:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOH-_q9of3U (1st mvt)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NtmDcblx7U (2nd mvt)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjvv2hgkTQw (3rd mvt)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIazIqkqGzk (4th mvt)

Incidentally, Seibel's performance is also on YouTube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YZyHPQKUjk
It's very fine - rather more expansive than Rickenbacher, with somewhat glassy-sounding strings, but I actually prefer it because the symphony seems to emerge as a rather bigger, bolder piece.

[eschiss1]

This is probably a -really- stupid question, but unless there was no conducter Johannes Wildner, why are you so certain that was a typo? Getting more information about Wildner's association with the Rundfunk-orchestras than about Winkler's.

[Alan Howe]

Firstly, I'm going on the information on YouTube, which reads:

Kölner Rundfunk Symphonie Orchester
Johannes Winkler, conductor
Köln, 1988

In addition, there's no mention of Strauss' D minor Symphony in Wildner's complete discography available at his own website:
http://www.johanneswildner.com/cms/index.php/gesamt

Of course, you may well be right, Eric. But on the balance of the evidence...

[eschiss1]

Does that discography list every concert he's recorded for WDR, or only commercial releases? We already are fairly sure that whoever conducted it, it's not one of the latter, so a discography of commercial releases is sort of to the side here but anyhow, I don't know. WDR's website doesn't seem to mention Winkler as having any past or present connection with the Rundfunk Köln orchestra, but that proves nothing either- maybe they don't have any archival material on it where such a connection -would- be mentioned. I guess I haven't done enough searching...

[Alan Howe]

As I said, Eric, you may well be right. Just wondering why we should think that the YouTube poster got the conductor wrong, though...

[eschiss1]

They at least occasionally do, in my experience, depending on what their information is based on... (e.g. tapes with misattributed conductors or even composers) so I try to double-check -- if I can. That's all! Sorry

[Alan Howe]

As I now repeat: you may well be right, Eric. We simply lack evidence one way or another.

[Delicious Manager]

I have only just acquainted myself properly with the Strauss F minor. I hear he cribbed the beginning of Eine Alpensinfonie from this work. Interesting.

[adriano]

In radio stations today we can find many incompetent people. I remember a big responsible of Radio TV Suisse Romande who, at the occasion of a Vivaldi celebration, wanted to produce a film with musicians playing in Venice locations. He told me that he wanted to have them play on little bridges, and that had to be absolutely important. I asked him why, so he told me that, after all, that was written in some scores: "al ponticello". He did not even realize that this did not mean "little bridge" (literal translation), but on the string's bridge. Some time later he mentioned me that, in connection with a Liszt feature, they were looking only for Polish pianists to have his music performed. And this not only happens in music. Some time ago, Schiller's play "The Maid of Orléans" was mentioned as being a novel.

[Gareth Vaughan]

The ignorance of some radio presenters (even on BBC Radio 3) is extraordinary. I think this is a modern phenomenon. Presenters seemed to be better educated and more knowledgeable when I was a youth. Or am I just seeing the past through rose-tinted spectacles?

[Alan Howe]

No, you're entirely right, Gareth. All part of the dumbing-down process, I'm afraid. The key objective today is entertainment rather than edification - quantity (i.e. audience figures) instead of quality. Of course, edification takes time and effort; entertainment has to be instant.

I sense a collective harumph coming on...