Mortelmans' Homeric Symphony

[Alan Howe]

Slated for an October release is Hyperion's new CD of Lodewijk Mortelmans' Homeric Symphony of 1898...

http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/al.asp?al=CDA67766

Sounds like a rather enjoyable piece of fin-de-siècle Wagner-influenced music.

[Pengelli]

Sounds intriguing! Talking about Homer,makes me think
of August Bungert,who seems to have outdone Wagner.

[Mark Thomas]

Good news about the Mortelmans symphony. A welcome, but somehow odd, choice for Hyperion.

As for Bungert, I would love to hear more of his music. I have radio recordings of the Piano Quartet and of an overture. Because of his reputation for, as Pengelli says, "Ooutdoing Wagner" I was expecting works which were gargantuan not only in scale but also in their chromaticism and, in the case of the overture, musical forces. Not a bit of it, they are both pieces which stem pretty much directly from Schumann/Mendelssohn and could have been written by almost any middle-ranking master of the 1860s-80s: Dietrich, Rheinberger et al. More, indeed any, Bungert would be good.

[Pengelli]

He was funded by the Queen of Romania & unlike Wagner
drew his inspiration from Greek mythology.

[Pengelli]

He is VERY intriguing! Just looking at his Wikipedia entry. I know that Havergal Brian wrote about his neglect.

[Alan Howe]

Just listened to the symphony. Banal, bombastic, cod-Wagner, over-ambitious - these are the words that come to mind. It's truly third-rate. This time I just wonder what Hyperion are doing when there's so much really good music from this era still to be recorded. By comparison, Berger 2 seems like a cutting-edge masterpiece.

Of course, I thoroughly enjoyed it...

[Syrelius]

Just listened to the symphony. Banal, bombastic, cod-Wagner, over-ambitious - these are the words that come to mind. It's truly third-rate.

Sorry to hear that. I have a cd with some of his shorter orchestral works that I really like, and was looking forward to hearing the symphony.

[Alan Howe]

I was just being honest about the quality of the symphony. It's pretty old hat too, for 1898.

However, as a piece of Wagnerian hokum, it's very enjoyable...

[Pengelli]

Is it as bad as Boehe?

[Alan Howe]

Same ball-park, although Mortelmans is nowhere near as advanced as Boehe. I enjoy both while recognising that neither wrote great music.

A telling comparison would be with, say, Draeseke 3. Draeseke had absorbed Wagner/Liszt's innovations and forged an advanced and personal style a decade before Mortelmans. By comparison Mortelmans was just playing mock-heroics using a quasi-Wagnerian idiom. Very old hat indeed.   

[Gareth Vaughan]

I have a collection of old hats. I rather like them!

[Pengelli]

I've got a balaclava! A brown one. I might do a Vogue cover shoot! Back to
Boehe now...........?

[Pengelli]

Incidentally. Off topic.I've been listening to  F. Schmitt's 'Antoine et Cleopatre'
(Timpani). Wow! Surely this has got to be an unsung masterpiece?

[mbhaub]

Yesterday my copy of the Mortelmans arrived. I listened to it twice, and thoroughly enjoyed it! Deep, profound music? Not at all. The tunes aren't even that good, the harmonic language appropriate if not adventuresome. So why did I like it? The orchestration. Mortelmans use of the orchestra is astonishing. Color comes and goes with rapid changes -- it's a feast for the ear. I would never expect any of the three works to show up live in any concert, but I am very happy to have heard them. Head and shoulders above Boehe.

And yes, the Florent Schmitt work is marvelous, as is most all of his music I've been able to find. He's another one of those whose absence from concerts amazes me. It's every bit as enjoyable as Debussy, Ravel, Roussel, Chabrier and Dukas. The Tagedy of Salome is terrific, especially in the full orchestra version.

[Pengelli]

'Oriane et le Prince d'amour' doesn't appear to have ever been recorded complete.
Does anyone here know anything about this score?