Wilhelm Petersen Symphony No.3

[Alan Howe]

Composed 1931-2, this sounds rather like Franz Schmidt:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/wilhelm-petersen-sinfonie-3-op-30/hnum/11133486

[Rainolf]

Great news!

[eschiss1]

We had symphony 4 at one point, iirc. Intriguing!

[Holger]

Certainly one of the most interesting new releases of these days!

[Alan Howe]

Longer excerpts here:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9445891--petersen-symphony-no-3-in-c-sharp-minor-op-30

Sounds pretty glorious to me.

[Mark Thomas]

Indeed, but excerpts can be deceptive. I've just listened to Petersen's Fourth Symphony on YouTube here and, despite some arresting passages, its 44 minutes did drag. The Third lasts a few seconds short of an hour, so I really do hope it justifies its length and I won't be buying until I've read a few reviews.

[Alan Howe]

I'll let you know in due course...

If I'm wrong, I'll close the thread of course.

[Mark Thomas]

Don't get me wrong, I think the music itself falls within UC's remit - it's just that the Fourth was, well, boring.

[Alan Howe]

I'm hoping No.3 is more euphonious...

[Mark Thomas]

The complete first movement of this new recording has been posted to YouTube by the distributors, Naxos, here. There's also a reasonable recording of Petersen's Sinfonietta for string orchestra on YouTube here. Like the Fourth Symphony and what we can hear so far of the Third, the tempo of each movement is lento to moderato (at best) and, while these slow-paced soundscapes are often lovely in the moment, I fear they pall as the work progresses.  However, I see that the Third's finale is marked Allegro molto, so maybe that'll prove me wrong.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, Mark. I thought it was glorious. Wonderful playing too from the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. For the idiom, think Franz Schmidt only more so...

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, superbly played and recorded, I do agree.

[Alan Howe]

The issue with this music will probably be its length and chromaticism. But there is real beauty here; some of the woodwind writing is truly luminous.

[JP]

Actually I think that the densely contrapuntal, polyphonically overlaid and chromatically sonorous texture of Petersen's third symphony is more akin to the compositional language of Alexander Brincken's fourth symphony, which falls squarely in the post-Schmidt/Pfitznerian mould, and was issued not too long back by the Toccata label.

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/orchestral-music-vol-1/hnum/9558435

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8704513--alexander-brincken-orchestral-music-volume-one

On the same note, it would be intriguing to discover whether the "Florianer" and "Goethe" symphonies composed by Otto Jochum (brother of Eugen Jochum) belong to the same neoromantic symphonic tradition as those cited above and whether labels like Profil-Hannsler, Capriccio and Gramola would take up this endeavour to record these yet to be unearthed works which might very well turn out to be another revelatory pair of rarefied musical gemstones.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Jochum

https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/jochum-otto

[Alan Howe]

That's very perceptive - thanks. What we're uncovering here is the tradition that ignored the direction taken by the members of the 2nd Viennese School. I suspect there's more to come - and I'm reminded that Furtwängler's symphonies belong here too.