Does anyone have any experience with this composer?
Tom
Deadly dull, I thought. Which, of course, won't stop me from buying the new release of the 2nd Symphony...
"Deadly dull" was far from the experience I had when I listened to the 2nd Symphony.
I'd suggest, with respect, that we should be wary of such dismissive comments. They must inevitably leak back to the record company and place a question mark over projects to record works of unsung composers. That would be our sad loss. Deadly dull or not did not prevent Woyrsch from gaining advance and prestige in the musical world in his own time, and there are so many from that late 19th early 20th century culture who have now been quite forgotten that we do not want someone of the calibre of Woyrsch to join them.
As for me, well I'd be delighted if CPO continued their welcome exploration of Woyrsch, gave us the remaining orchestral music, and uncovered the fairly extensive corpus of chamber music.
Solid, well-constructed music of a serious demeanour. Need to be listened to carefully for its qualities to be revealed.
I will give another listen to the Woyrsch First. It took about three hearings of Tovey's symphony before its quality began to dawn on me. I love it now.
That's not a bad comparison, actually. The same amount of work is necessary to come an appreciation of both!
I've listened to the cpo 2nd a couple of times now. Didn't do much for me. Well written, well scored, and the man was obviously a talented composer. Just not great. I was hoping for more.
Not a bad summary, actually. I too was hoping for more...
Quote from: Alan Howe on Saturday 18 August 2012, 12:24
Solid, well-constructed music of a serious demeanour. Need to be listened to carefully for its qualities to be revealed.
I'm in the process of reviewing the Hamlet Overture and I must say I'm very impressed with the work. I have a compulsion to want to have everything written about Hamlet so I have (4) film scores and several overtures. I'm in the process of reviewing so I'll post the link when I complete it.
Hadn't heard of him before we received the CPO CD at the station. Liked it enough that I'm broadcasting the 2nd as I write this. Check out "The 20th Century Limited" on WWUH-FM (91.3 West Hartford, CT and streaming live at WWUH.org). Every Friday from 4 - 7 pm ET, we play contemporary classical music and feature a lot of Unsung Composers.
By the way - UC's answers to the questions I've been asked are wrong!
- There are only 4 fingers (plus a thumb) on a hand;
- Beethoven wrote 10 symphonies, 1-9 plus Wellington
Quote from: 20th Century Limited on Friday 24 August 2012, 21:51
By the way - UC's answers to the questions I've been asked are wrong!
- There are only 4 fingers (plus a thumb) on a hand;
- Beethoven wrote 10 symphonies, 1-9 plus Wellington
Huh? I hope you're not a spammer. If so, your days at UC are numbered! If you're not, welcome to the forum!
http://sdtom.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/hamlet-overturefelix-woyrsch/ (http://sdtom.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/hamlet-overturefelix-woyrsch/)
My take on the Hamlet
Quote from: sdtom on Saturday 25 August 2012, 21:29
http://sdtom.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/hamlet-overturefelix-woyrsch/ (http://sdtom.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/hamlet-overturefelix-woyrsch/)
My take on the Hamlet
Um, you might want to reword some spots in that review, Tom. You say he studied counterpoint
with Palestrina and Gabriel. I'm pretty sure both had been dead for centuries before Woyrsch was born.
Thanks for pointing that out to me. If you read the liner notes Dorsch isn't clear in my mind. Perhaps in the translation? Anyway take another look and it is much clearer
Tom
I instantly loved Woyrsch' first symphony: a very accessible, exhilarating work. Would love to hear No. 2. At around the same time I got the Volbach B minor symphony, and it's uncannily similar to that in many respects - same time period, same scale and ambition.
My impression of Volbach was of a rather more outgoing composer than Woyrsch. I shall have to double check!
Apologies for a rather tedious question ::) ..... but can someone tell me how to pronounce the name Woyrsch in English, please? Is it approximately ""Voy-rush"?
According to the liner notes of the First Symphony the name is virtually impossible to pronounce correctly. Fortunately or otherwise, there can't be many social situations in which one might be called upon to pronounce it aloud.
I'll go with "Voyursch".
Jim's near enough.
Thanks.
I can now rest assured that when I casually mention his name at one of my candlelight suppers there will be no embarrassing faux pas! ;D
Quote from: semloh on Monday 27 August 2012, 22:18
Thanks.
I can now rest assured that when I casually mention his name at one of my candlelight suppers there will be no embarrassing faux pas! ;D
Nice to know you are keeping up appearances! :o
Quote from: JimL on Monday 27 August 2012, 14:16
I'll go with "Voyursch".
Largely correct; the trick is to keep the 'r' guttural, candlelight-dinner-wise - the way it's pronounced in Piemontese Italian or in Portuguese words beginning with 'r', if that means anything to anyone.
No wonder he's been unsung if his name is unspeakable! :) I can't imagine the difficulties he must have had introducing himself at social gatherings...
Quote from: pcc on Thursday 30 August 2012, 08:24
No wonder he's been unsung if his name is unspeakable!
Woyrsch unspeakable? Unpronounceable, maybe ;)
Merely an assonant and verbal conceit of mine; "unpronounceable" was my intent, but it didn't fit against "unsung" as well! (It was a bad joke - sorry. Now I'll go and find him to listen to!)
Quote from: Alan Howe on Monday 27 August 2012, 10:37
My impression of Volbach was of a rather more outgoing composer than Woyrsch. I shall have to double check!
I would also say that "Volbach & Woyrsch" looks like a minor but forbiddingly earnest German music publisher! ;)
This has become a silly discussion! I sincerely hope it is not the result of UC' s revised remit. :(
True. Back to the music, then.
For me Woyrsch's music has a certain post-Brahmsian reserve about it; certainly Symphony No.2 of 1912-13 has nothing of the impetuous sweep of Volbach's 1st of 1909.
The first printed edition of Felix Woyrsch's Symphony No. 6 "Sinfonia sacra" is now available:
https://www.albismusic.de/notenshop/orchestermusik/6.-symphonie-op.77/
Albis Music has published the first editions of Woyrsch's Symphony No. 4 and his Violin Concerto before.
Albis Music had a synthetic version (NotePerformer) of this work up on their YouTube channel for a while, but it seems to have been taken down since, unfortunately.
The first movement of the Violin Concerto (or Skaldische Rapsodie) is still there (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qW6GxHP2VE), however (if you can withstand NotePerformer's less-than-stellar rendering of the solo violin), as is Woyrsch's Sanctus, Op. 73, a work for chorus and orchestra roughly contemporary with the Sixth Symphony and written in the last years of the composer's long life.
The symphony and Sanctus continue the trend already visible in the D major Fifth Symphony towards more compact forms: the symphony lasts just under twenty minutes in the synthetic version, and Sanctus takes just over five, but both are rich, expressive works. I'm looking forward to a performance.
Does anyone know whether the early B flat symphony of 1884 has been preserved somewhere?