Elfrida Andree Symphony

[MartinH]

I'm one of those addicts who readily, and without much thought, buy new recordings of forgotten repertoire just knowing that "this time it's going to be a great, undiscovered gem". Last week's arrival was the Sterling disk of the Elfrida Andree symphony 2 and the Fritiof suite. Is this disk new? I hadn't heard of it until last week when Music Web reviewed it quite positively, referring to these "captivating scores". Well, ugh. I found nothing redeeming. The melodic in both works was dull, the orchestration dull. Neither outer movement of the symphony had anything to raise the temperature - just note spinning, going through all the motions, resulting in 30 minutes of boredom. Compare it to the nearly contemporary Brahms first, and it's easy to see why Andree was forgotten.  The recordings were made in 1995. The orchestra is pedestrian and so is the conducting. So I struck out...again. Anyone have a different response?

[eschiss1]

Nope, not a new disc. Recorded and released 21 years ago (May 1995, ©1995); not sure why Musicweb waited until now to review it (I thought they had, if not on Musicweb-International then in their earlier incarnation which I can't recall. But maybe no...) It seems to be one of several rather-older CDs reviewed in this week's crop, too, not of itself a bad thing at all- it's not just composers and music that slip through the cracks - just unusual.

[Alan Howe]

MusicWeb sell Sterling CDs and are simply going through the back catalogue, publishing reviews. As for the Andree Symphony - well, it's pretty small beer.

[Mark Thomas]

I bought it years ago, and have played it at most twice. A definite dud all round.

[eschiss1]

Tangentially, what was the relation between the families Andrée and Stenhammar? Apparently Per Ulrik Stenhammar (Wilhelm's father) was brother in law to Fredrika Stenhammar (born Andrée), Elfrida Andrée's niece was Elsa Stenhammar (singer & organist, 1866-1960, daughter of the same Fredrika), but I'm still a bit confused...

(If it's Andree and I'm mistakenly Frenchifying it with the extra "é", I apologize! It just looks like the accent belongs there... but that's not the point, quite off the point, and - forget that, just asking about the family thing...)

[FBerwald]

Elfrida Andree's Symphony No. 1 exists in score according to the Swedish Musical Heritage website. An attempt at this work might be fruitful.

[Alan Howe]

No.2 is a dull work, though, so...