Johanna Senfter - Symphony No. 2 in D minor, Op. 27

[britishcomposer]

The coming Friday Deutschlandfunk Kultur will broadcast a concert with the Philharmonisches Orchester Bremerhaven conducted by Marc Niemann.
The main item will be Johanna Senfter's Symphony No. 2 in D minor, Op. 27.

[eschiss1]

Thanks! I see there's a link at WorldConcerthall.com -- what I don't know is if this is a registration and pay site, or if, when it becomes available (24 January at 1900 GMT), it will be available for free? 

(I see that's 2 pm EST on Friday, and I have a class/group at 2 pm Fridays, so that's me out. If anyone's willing to upload this, I know I'm interested in hearing it...)

[Alan Howe]

It's here (scroll down to 20:03 Uhr):
https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/programm?drsearch:date=2025-01-24

[eschiss1]

(It's possible that the WorldConcertHall link will still work after the concert, btw, I'll try then. They seem to have a lot of concerts at that site- I should have a look, if I can.. oh-kay, that site may deserve a thread all its own actually, if it doesn't have one; links to archive broadcast pages on different radio stations (like DR Denmark), etc. ...- looks very, very useful...)

[britishcomposer]

Usually concert broadcasts are available for 30 days at Deutschlandfunk Kultur. But there are rare cases when this is not possible for legal reasons. Of course I will record this broadcast ,,live" but I mentioned it in case I should fail so other members can plan to record themselves.

[jimsemadeni]

Latvian radio itself keeps their broadcasts available after the concerts, at least a month I think. Latvian radio 3:
https://klasika.lsm.lv/lv/lr/arhivs/?curr_year=2021

Also World Concert Hall is wonderful, and Orchestra On Demand also offers archived broadcasts from quite a few orchestras.
https://orchestraondemand.blogspot.com/

[Alan Howe]

Did anyone manage to record this?

[eschiss1]

Isn't it not broadcast until Friday? (I incidentally see that I have the SWR Kultur app and will see if I can listen to the archive there Friday night...)

[Alan Howe]

Quite right, Eric. It's on Friday 24th. Apologies.

[britishcomposer]

The broadcast is currently on air. I missed the beginning. But the audio is already on demand here:
https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/musik-von-giorgio-battistelli-richard-strauss-johanna-senfter-100.html

[Mark Thomas]

Thank you, Mathias.

[Droosbury]

I've listened to the first movement and impressed by it so far! But try as I might I can't find a way to get an mp3 of this performance. Is anyone able to record it - or give any info on an app I can use (Mac)?

[Droosbury]

Ah, I should have checked the Downloads section! Many thanks for recording, britishcomposer

[eschiss1]

Thanks!
Did they give a list of movements?

[Alan Howe]

I'm afraid that, for me at least, the continuous, restless chromaticism here makes for a very arduous listen, despite some rather beautiful interludes. Resolutions at the end of movements, e.g. the first movement here, come as something of a surprise. I'm constantly reminded of Reger...

From our friend and Senfter expert, Petteri Nieminen, some pointers to Senfter's style and compositional processes:

2nd Symphony in D minor. Four movements, practically similar orchestration, about 40 minutes. She often did a 6/8 finale in her earlier symphonies. Was performed once in the early 1920's.

General characteristics of her symphonies.
-Usually they follow the sonata form very closely in the 1st and 4th movements (which makes typesetting easier as the first 30-40 bars of recapitulation are identical to the beginning).
-Senfter does dynamics with instrumentation. As the music intensifies, more are more instruments join a line (usually the woodwinds also in the manner that the 1st player joins first, then the 2nd) and they also exit a phrase in the same manner.
-In the earlier symphonies the woodwinds do not always show much independence but double the strings (as explained above), less so beginning with the 3rd and 4th symphonies.
-Senfter usually goes straight into business. No long introductions, the first theme groups starts at measure 1. No extended codas, either, once you reach the principal key in a reasonably satisfactory manner, it's OK and we can all go home (I like her endings).
-The horns are big players. They often introduce principal the groups (we.g., 2nd and 3rd symphonies) and for the remainder of the time, they have their own counter-melodies that add richness to the overall score.
-The trumpets are a bit more restricted for culminations of passages, trombones and tuba have interesting passages of accompanying especially woodwind solos and soli.
-Clarinets have a lot to do when it comes to woodwind solos, flutes next, oboes quite a lot of less and bassoons mostly double the cellos and double basses
-String parts are very demanding, requiring high passages for cellos (and also double basses), lots of divisi.
-The chromatism and accidentals are everywhere. A bar without an accidental is a rarity, a bar with a couple of double flats is the norm. Sharp accidentals perhaps only 20% of accidentals, its flat, flat, flat.