Woyrsch, Felix: Symphonies no. 4 & 5 etc

[Alan Howe]

...not that I can see. Ilja?

[Ilja]

A synthetic recording used to be on YouTube, but it has since been pulled, apparently.

[Alan Howe]

What can you remember about them, Ilja?

[Ilja]

The 6th Symphony (or 7th if you number consecutively) in C minor, Op. 77 (1939) is subtitled "Sinfonia sacra" and contains three movements: Sanktus, Via Crucis, and Gloria, although it doesn't sound like you'd expect a religiously inspired work to sound. Stylistically it continues where the 5th Symphony left off, but it has more drive and perhaps also a bit more coherence. It's a bit shorter at 19 minutes for the MIDI rendering that I have.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks for that.

[Ilja]

Talking (quite a while ago, sorry) about synthetic recordings of Woyrsch: there has apparently been one of his Violin Concerto in D minor, the "Skaldische Fantasie" on IMSLP for a while now. Unfortunately, solo violins are still a bit of a challenge for NotePerformer, but it's definitely listenable.

From this appears quite a powerful work from 1902, inspired by ancient nordic poetry. It fits in with the numerous works based on the Edda, Beowulf, the Frithjof Saga, and similar nordic tales that were so popular in the late 19th century.

It is from early in Woyrsch's career, preceding even the First Symphony (which was the composer's second, but let's stay off that path) of 1907. That means it is sizeable in length (around 30 minutes) and quite Brahmsian in style (although with a quite un-Brahmsian sense of rhythm). It'd be lovely to have a "proper" recording of it at some point.


Edit: More information (in German) here.