Bruch Symphonies 1-3 (cpo)

[Kevin]

Ok that's interesting info about the intermezzo. I was baffled when I read the description of their being an extra movement for the first symphony, never heard of that before until then.

[dhibbard]

Ok  just ordered mine last week.     Thanks for the heads up!!

[hyperdanny]

I went back to check the book, and this is how I understood the issue.
First of all, the existence of a discarded movement of the 1st is not mentioned in the "main text" of the biography..the reason evidently being that it was not known (or it was forgotten, if you prefer) when the book was originally written.
In fact, the subject is then brilliantly chronicled by Maestro Fifield in the "Afterword to the new edition", in a piece titled "Bruch in Sondershausen" (pages 358 to 392), that summarizes later research findings from 2001.
Fifield  (p.361) talks about the "discovery of the Intermezzo in the orchestral library of the Lohorchester in Sondershausen" and states references from 1868 concert programs and articles that confirm "the Intermezzo in B major as coming from his first symphony".
So, as I understand it,  the origin of the music is indeed in the symphony.
Then he explains that after the excision the movement had a very short concert life as a stand alone piece, and after that Bruch planned to "recycle" it in various pieces , even in the third symphony (!), but never did.
And it "has lain in Sondersahausen ever since" (p.362).
Fifield seems to implicitly agree that the excision was a loss, since he says that the penultimate movement Grave is "a somewhat unsatisfactorily short slow movement" (the cpo booklet says explicitly that the Intermezzo provides just that, a "real" slow movement).
Fascinatingly, the "why" of all this is not provided, I guess that Bruch did not leave it, so we'll never know.
But I am very glad we got this music back.

[eschiss1]

It's neat when biographers discover lost music -while working on longterm biography projects- - I can think of other examples (Beaumont's Zemlinsky) Anyhow, looking forward to hearing this 5-movement first. (Who knows, maybe I'm lucky and it's at NML and I can try it out for free soon...)

(Sorry, I assume Fifield discovered it, but I am making an assumption.)

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, he did.

[hyperdanny]

then he's a remarkably self-effacing man, because in the book he does not boast about it..and he well could!

[Mark Thomas]

He mentions it in his later book The German Symphony between Beethoven & Brahms - a terrific read, by the way..

[Gareth Vaughan]

then he's a remarkably self-effacing man

He is indeed. A fine conductor and a really lovely man. I am happy to know him, if only slightly.

[hyperdanny]

Indeed , at page 220 of The German Symphony between Beethoven & Brahms, mr. Fifield says that he himself discovered ( or, I would say, rediscovered) the manuscript in the Sondershausen library while guest conducting there in 2001.
Such is the wealth of information and revelations provided by that invaluable book that this one must have slipped through the cracks.
And I totally concur with Mark: it's a terrific read.

[Ilja]

I just gave the set a first listen (normally I wait for CPO recordings to show up on Spotify, but I didn't have the patience now). It's interesting to hear to the "full" First Symphony, and the intuitively the "new" intermezzo sounds like an improvement to me. It serves as a good bridge between the opening Allegro and the Scherzo; I always thought this was a strange transition. Another "nice-to-have" is the incidental music to Hermione, which I don't think existed in a commercial recording until now. Sofar I've only given the 2nd Symphony (my favorite, to be honest) a thorough listen, and Trevino is quite expansive in the first movement but doesn't stray too far from others in the other ones. I'm not entirely sure this works, though. Playing is fine, as was to be expected from the Bamberg, but for now the Leipzig/Masur combo remains my favorite recording.

[Alan Howe]

but for now the Leipzig/Masur combo remains my favorite recording.

We were always fortunate to have a top-flight orchestra and conductor in this music.

[Ilja]

Yesterday I finally got around to listening to the other symphonies. Whatever reservations I had (and they were slight) about Trevino's 2nd were taken away entirely by the other two. Having the "full" First Symphony is great, and it is clear that Bruch made a bit of a mistake taking out the lovely second movement (Intermezzo: andante con moto). But more importantly, it is played with a crispness and sense of rhythm that absolutely suits the piece. The Third is far more expansive in approach and I feel that the tempi used by Trevino are just about perfect. I played Hickox' account with the LSO afterwards, and that sounded a bit rushed by comparison. Also, the recording engineer has done a great job, and the Bambergers sound much fuller than the LSO.


The CDs contain a few pieces that are rarely heard: some excerpts from Hermione, Op. 40, and two overtures (to Odysseus and Loreley). Although everything is testimony to Bruch's sense of melody, I would say that they're really mostly filler material, with the exception of the Vorspiel to Odysseus. That is really a sumptuous piece of music.

[Alan Howe]

I think it could become the reference set for these symphonies. Interestingly, although it's not appropriate for this forum, Trevino has just done a complete set of the Beethoven symphonies for Ondine which, from excerpts at Presto, sounds terrific.

[Ilja]

I listened to that. Truth is, though, that to make a Beethoven set stand out you need it to be exceptional (in whatever way). Trevino's set is very good, but it has to compete with a load of other very good sets, and it's not really exceptional. The big exception is the eight, which is among the greatest I've heard.

[Alan Howe]

You're probably right. If one is to buy more Beethoven, it needs to be exceptional.

Anyway, Trevino's Bruch is exceptional, it seems to me...