Thomas de Hartmann Orchestral Music vol.2 (Toccata)

[Alan Howe]

This Toccata Classics release is now available, allowing us to hear for the first time the composer's enormous (65½-minute) Symphonie-Poème No.1, Op.50, dating from 1934.

This is certainly music everyone should hear. It is highly coloured in manner reminiscent of, say, early Stravinsky or, perhaps Ravel - and it is in these passages that we find ourselves on the outer edges of even late, late romanticism. The idiom is certainly well beyond anything by Rachmaninov - I'd disagree with the rear inlay's description of this as 'a musical cousin' of that composer's 2nd Symphony. 'Distant relative' would be nearer the mark!

Nevertheless, it's an extraordinary achievement: an orchestral tour de force, clearly. All I'd add by way of critique is that, after the first movement and half the Scherzo, I was longing for some relief from the rather relentless hyper-exoticism of the music. I felt I'd been in the hothouse for just a bit too long. There is relaxation in the 3rd movement Andante, but it's like an island of relative calm in the midst of huge lava flow. And that, I suppose, is the point of de Hartmann's extraordinary work. He's a hothouse composer working at volcanic white heat...

Joseph Marx's Herbstsymphonie's wild Ukrainian cousin, perhaps? Or Scheherazade on speed?

[der79sebas]

I agree wholeheartedly. I appreciate nearly all of de Hartmann's orchestral works released so far (see https://thomasdehartmannproject.com), but the Symphonie-Poème No.1 is the most remarkable piece we've got to know. I am looking forward to hearing No.2, whenever this will be recorded...

[Alan Howe]

Agreed. This is by a long way the most impressive work by de Hartmann so far recorded.

[kolaboy]

Thanks for the recommendation.