Martin Scherber's 3rd Symphony

[adriano]

Conductor Christoph Schlüren wrote to me to say that he performed (and recorded) Scherber's Third Symphony on December 1st in Barcelona - with the Orquestra Sinfonica Camera Musicae from Catalunia. This will be issued on CD soon. The audio I have received reveal an absolutely excellent and thrilling performance of this difficult work.

[der79sebas]

Great news!

[Richard Moss]

Adriano,

Any idea what label to keep an eye out for - some (such as VERSO, who seem to issue quite a lot of romantic spanish/catalan music)) don't seem to get listed by Presto et al in their New Releases listings, so it is very easy to miss such recordings).

Best wishes
Richard

[adriano]

As far as the label of this recording is concerned, I am not being informed (yet).

[Alan Howe]

Here's a link to the webpage about the concert:
https://www.orquestracameramusicae.com/en/programs/3rd-symphony-martin-scherber/

[Alan Howe]

The work has been recorded before, of course:
https://www.amazon.com/Scherber-Symphony-No-3-Martin/dp/B00005LAHK/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=scherber&qid=1576148159&s=music&sr=1-1

[Ilja]

 ... and that's not a bad performance at all.

[Alan Howe]

Ilja's right. But it seems to be deleted, so it'll be good to have the new recording.

[Alan Howe]

Mind you, this 53+ minute symphony isn't for faint hearts. If I were to characterise it, I'd say the idiom was basically Bruckner, but that the continual repetition of Brucknerian figures reminds me of the compositional processes of Philip Glass - which is OK if you like Glass, but for much of the time you're waiting for something to happen. And, frankly, not a lot does...

[adriano]

I still have 5 copies of the "old" recording of Scherber's 3rd in my "stock" :-)

[Alan Howe]

I'll wait for Christoph Schlüren's performance to appear...

[eschiss1]

Have read a number of his booklet notes - wasn't sure if I'd heard his conducting (ah, Schwarz-Schillings' symphony, fairly sure I have heard that recording. Check!)

I rather like Brucknerian methods of approach, one finds them in a small but select number of 20th-century composers (middle-period Wellesz - symphonies 1 & 2 for example (early symphonies but middle of his total output)- is far more Brucknerian than Mahlerian, to the point where his 2nd symphony opens with a sort-of-quote of the finale ostinato of Bruckner's 4th, but in other ways too.)

[semloh]

Yes, the 1st symphony sounds to me like barely disguised Bruckner (but none the worse for it).
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV467tgLqOc&list=OLAK5uy_lKxf6EbAfqEv-MZcFV52lJmTIPIzh-i5Y )
I can't find any sound bites of the 3rd.

[adriano]

One must have the will and patience to searc, semloh :-)

Here are "sound bites" of the older recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc_hj6Nsnhk

And Scherber has also a website:
http://www.martin-scherber.de/scherber-dritte-sinfonie.html

[adriano]

Just to advise that I still have also some left-over copies of the CD with Scherber's Second Symphony...