A new recording from CPO:
Symphony in E minor, op. 67 'Es muss doch Frühling werden'
Symphony in F minor, HWV 2.4.4
https://www.clicmusique.com/ferdinand-hiller-symphonies-griffiths-p-113566.html?osCsid=9tk8s617e4000i8u58q51t1rt5
Yet another bolt out of the blue from cpo and the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt - this time with the indefatigable Howard Griffiths! A wonderful tonic for the jaded palate.
A long overdue bolt, though! And we needn't even wait that long.
Wonder if it has both versions of the finale of the F minor? (Probably not as I think only one version is at "GUF", and - well - I anyway don't know of any place to find the other, just a mention of it in Hiller's workbook. But maybe it survives somewhere I don't know of! )
Eric, this should answer that:
(http://quiosq.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/0761203562527.jpg)
Dare I ask your source, Ilja?
The only difference I know about is that the revised finale may have been Allegro rather than Allegro assai, but that's not certain.
Quote from: Alan Howe on Saturday 15 March 2025, 19:06Dare I ask your source, Ilja?
go to the Cliqmusique page; there is a "see back cover" button beneath the image.
Thanks! Should have spotted that.
Wow, this is great news. Can't wait to hear them! I hope CPO will continue this streak with the excellent C major symphony of Hiller's, too.
In August last year Alan posted that Howard Griffiths had kindly informed him that he had recorded for CPO all 4 extant symphonies by Hiller, including the C major. So it will appear in due course.
CD now available from jpc:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/ferdinand-hiller-symphonien-e-moll-op-67-es-muss-doch-fruehling-werden-f-moll/hnum/11425071
Download from Presto:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9766439--ferdinand-hiller-symphony-op-67-symphony-in-f-minor
From these excerpts I'd say what we have here is a couple of very exciting, vigorous and memorable symphonies. My order's in...
This is what Howard Griffiths told us last year:
We have recorded all four of the Hiller symphonies and I include the information about them below.
Symphonie e-Moll (E minor),'Es muß doch Frühling werden' op. 67 (das ist die 1865 im Druck erschienene Symphonie/published 1865)
2 Fl (Fl picc), 2 Ob, 2 Cl, 2 Fg, 4 Cor, 2 Tr, 3 Trb, Timp, Streicher
The other symphonies are early (ca.1829-34) and have only come down to us in manuscript:
Symphonie f-Moll (F minor)
2 Fl, 2 Ob, 2 Cl, 2 Fg, 2 Cor, 2 Tr, Timp, Streicher
Symphonie C-Dur (C major)
2 Fl, 2 Ob, 2 Cl, 2 Fg, 4 Cor, 2 Tr, 3 Trb, Timp, Streicher
Symphonie e-Moll (E minor)
2 Fl, 2 Ob, 2 Cl, 2 Fg, 4 Cor, 2 Tr, Timp, Streicher.
The last two of these symphonies will therefore be released as cpo volume 2.
After spending a lot of time listening to Lachner, it's quite a shock to encounter Hiller's concision of thought! And I'd say that his powerful E minor Symphony (1848) is worthy to stand alongside those of his contemporaries Mendelssohn and Schumann. Can't understand myself how it's been neglected for so long...
Purely personally, Hiller is one of those composers who could always put a smile on my face. Even when it's not always that profound (or even aspiring to be), it's always great fun. There are very few composers that have that quality (Gouvy and Saint-Saëns are two other examples).
This recording shows him as someone capable of displaying true depth though, particularly in the E minor symphony. The recording, the playing and the interpretation are all nothing short of superb; a great disc.
I'm greatly looking forward to the next instalment. The "C major" that Griffiths refers to is presumably the same as the one published on YouTube by Tuomas Palojärvi (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY22op-F0bc&t=1367s) – which, by the way, Tuomas is adamant can't be from the 1830s.
Quote from: Ilja on Thursday 20 March 2025, 19:37This recording shows him as someone capable of displaying true depth though, particularly in the E minor symphony.
Quite right! It's a superb work, powerful too.
Quote from: Ilja on Thursday 20 March 2025, 19:37Pure personally, Hiller is one of those composers who could always put a smile on my face.
I agree wholeheartedly. The symphonies at last on CPO is a happy thought.
By the way, I don't mean to imply that the F minor is anything less accomplished, it's just a different work in terms of ambition, I think, and radiates an altogether different energy and vigor. It's even a more cohesive work than the E minor, whose Adagio perhaps doesn't quite reach the pinnacle of the other movements.
I don't think the F minor is as memorable as the E minor here. Who can forget the latter's scowl of an opening?
Here is the entire E minor Symphony, Op.67:
(i) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXKY0nhNIiI
(ii) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD7z97ObzDQ
(iii) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXCnt1OJ93c
(iv) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi5j5T957iA
I'd say that this is one of the most important neglected symphonies from the first half of the nineteenth century. And Howard Griffiths has done it proud in this new recording.
And here is the entire F minor Symphony:
(i) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfSCsLRlQMk
(ii) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuIyb9oeSZk
(iii) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrNsaMN4xiQ
(iv) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MhWzTuddK8
Jed Distler wrote this at ClassicsToday.com on Ronald Lau's piano arrangement of Op.67:
<<Then again, I don't see other pianists lining up to record Lau's effective arrangement, nor any orchestral performances of the symphony on the horizon.>>
https://www.classicstoday.com/review/schumann-and-hiller-de-orchestrated/?search=1
How wrong he was! cpo surprises us all...
I've probably made this point before, but it's worth comparing Hiller's F minor Symphony (1832/33) with Mendelssohn's Symphony No.1 in C minor (1824). The kinship is pretty obvious. However, Hiller's music has considerably greater rhythmic variety and freedom which, to my mind, link him just as clearly to Beethoven.