Composer: Max Bruch
Orchestra: Bamberger Symphoniker
Conductor: Robert Trevino
Number of Discs: 2
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: CPO
Catalogue: 555252-2
Release: 2020
Size: 680 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
CD 01
Symphony No. 1 in E Flat, Op. 28
01. I. Allegro maestoso
02. II. Intermezzo. Andante con moto
03. III. Scherzo. Presto
04. IV. Quasi Fantasia. Grave
05. V. Finale. Allegro guerriero
Symphony No. 2 in F minor, Op. 36
06. I. Allegro passionata, ma un poco maestoso
07. II. Adagio ma non troppo
08. III. Allegro molto tranquillo
CD 02
Hermione, Op. 40
01. Prelude
02. Funeral March
03. Entr’acte
Die Loreley
04. Overture
Odysseus, Op. 41
05. Prelude
Symphony No. 3 in E major, Op. 51
06. I. Andante sostenuto
07. II. Adagio ma non troppo
08. III. Scherzo
09. IV. Finale
Max Bruch’s three symphonies, composed between 1868 and 1882, were originally intended as a series of works forming a trilogy. However, Max Bruch set aside the third part in order to focus on dramatic and choral symphonic projects. He first wanted to write his second opera, Hermione after The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare, and Odysseus, his first secular oratorio. As things turned out, the spectacular long-term success of these musical pictures from antiquity meant that his original symphonic project was relegated to the back burner. However, once we experience the three sister works in their originally planned context, as the present new production enables us to do, the tide turns in their favour. The revealing path from the heroic idea underlying the first symphony, which, by the way, we are presenting for the first time in its original five-movement version, over the tragic stance of the second symphony, to the “Rhine idyll” of the third symphony leads us to the realization that this triad deserves much more credit than its meagre performance figures would make us believe.