Grimm, Julius Otto - Symphony in D minor Op.19 (1875)

[Reverie]

As there is no recording that I'm aware of here is a very brief programme note to accompany the realisation.

1st mov - Slow introduction followed by standard Allegro in which this driving rhythm dominates. D minor on the whole.

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At over 13 minutes (and that's without repeating the exposition) this is a heavyweight movement. Solid exposition / development which is quite eccentric then recapitulation with coda as standard.

2nd mov - Trauermarsch but surprisingly with much in the major key. A very beautiful string section (marked p and ppp) after the initial brass fanfares. 8 minutues in length.

3rd mov - Scherzo in 3/4 time but exploiting a ||_| 2/4 cross rhythm across the barlines which adds to the playfulness of this movement. It's 6 minutes in length and I think I have the tempo about right. It shouldn't be too rushed.

4th mov - Allegro. This is a perpetuum mobile and provides a good workout for the 1st violins. It is a thoroughly delightful movement, bright and cheerful and predominately in the major key. It's just under ten minutes in length.

This symphony runs for about 40 minutes in total and is clearly a significant work. It seems to be labelled as D minor but to be honest most of it is in the major key. It begs for a decent recording. Hope for the future maybe?

I initially didn't warm to this symphony but I have to conclude that after two or three auditions I find myself in complete admiration of Otto's achievement. His magnum opus?

I hope you find it enlightening at least.

Symphony in D minor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnYB2v7Q2t4

[Alan Howe]

This is magnificent work on a magnificent symphony. Thanks, Martin, ever so much.

[tpaloj]

Thank you so much Reverie. How do you work so fast? I've been putting together Borgstrom's Symphony in G from the handwritten parts (its full score is missing/lost), and I'm sure it will take another month for me. Regardless; it's fantastic to be able to hear this Symphony of Grimm's - I'll try to listen to it this afternoon.

[Mark Thomas]

Wonderful, Martin! Thank you so much. I'm delighted too that you've warmed to the work and that it bears out Chris Fifield's contention that it's a significant piece.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I too am full of admiration for your efforts, Martin. This is a really impressive symphony and I do hope your realisation will lead to its being taken up by some enterprising conductor and performed by a competent orchestra; and committed to CD. It is just the sort of repertoire that ought to appeal to CPO in this last respect.

[Alan Howe]

This is surely one of the great unknown symphonies of the 19th century. It's crying out for a recording.

[Mark Thomas]

Maybe a project for Martin Anderson's Toccata?

[Christopher]

And/or one of the Järvi family given that Grimm was from Estonia (a Baltic-German)?

[Christopher]

The recurring motif in the first movement is almost exactly the same as the opening of Dargomyzhsky's overture to his opera Rusalka.  I don't know if that's significant.

[tpaloj]

By the way, did you know there is a new edition of the score than the older Leipzig-Biedermann copy found on IMSLP? http://www.konsid-musik.de/KM092.html.

This Symphony was premiered (I don't know if it means premiered in the States or anywhere – at least the concert brochure says "first time") in Boston in 1884. https://cdm15982.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/PROG/id/190119

[MartinH]

What a fine realization of this score.  I had resigned myself to never hearing it but what do you know! It's been discussed so much that it seems like something CPO should have picked up a long time ago. Having heard it, well, now I must admit being somewhat disappointed. The first three movements are just textbook German routine. Although around 8 minutes in it sure sounds like Bruckner - those bass lines! Only in the finale does Grimm exert some energy and keep the music moving. But melodically, most of the symphony is pretty inert. Harmonically predictable. No real insights in the orchestra - although I like the use of the horns in the finale. Note spinning at its best. When you consider that only one year after this symphony came out Brahms would dazzle the musical world with his First, the Grimm seems pretty pale. I'm very glad to have finally had a chance to hear it, but like so many other symphonies of the era, perhaps its obscurity is understandable. Grimm was no Raff, no Bruckner or Brahms.

[eschiss1]

tpaloj- generally I think that means first time in Boston, not first time anywhere... but I'll see if any source I can find knows anything more...

[eschiss1]

A review of the reduction in the 1876 Allgemeiner Musikalische Zeitung, 1876 Jan. 12, says : "Die Symphonie ist bereits in Leipzig (unter Leitung des Componisten) , Berlin und Münster mit grossem Beifall zur Aufführung gekommen und wir empfehlen sie allen Musikdirectoren angelegentlich und zwar um so mehr, weil sie von Seiten der musikalischen Kritik bisher noch nicht diejenige Beachtung gefunden hat, welche sie verdiehnt. (See AMZ.)

("The symphony has already been performed in Leipzig (under the direction of the composer), Berlin and Münster with great applause and we recommend it to all music directors, all the more because it has not yet received the attention from musical critics which it deserves.")

This by way of possibly more or less proving it was premiered before 1884, at any rate.

[eschiss1]

I notice that there is an earlier (midi) rendition of the work on YouTube from 4 years ago, though I don't doubt that this one is probably better.

[Alan Howe]

When you consider that only one year after this symphony came out Brahms would dazzle the musical world with his First, the Grimm seems pretty pale

Well, herein lies the problem. There is evidence to believe that the Symphony was begun as early as 1852; for further information, one needs to consult Chris Fifield's important book, The German Symphony between Beethoven and Brahms, pp.267ff. The idea that the work is wholly a product of the mid-1870s is entirely to be rejected and reminds us all that publication dates can very often be misleading...

In any case, I find the symphony to be a very fine work - memorable, original and powerful. If Gernsheim in 1910 could sing the two-bar motif which opens the first movement following the introduction 58 years after Grimm had been working on it in their 'Leipzig time' together, it must have made quite an impression - as Fifield himself comments.