Search - Franz Schmidt (Composer), Radio Bratislava Symphony Orchestra, L'udovít Rajter (Conductor) :: Franz Schmidt: Symphonies Nos. 1-4

Romantic Schmidt at bargain price still wonderful!

K. Farrington | Missegre, France | 04/23/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Up to the 1960's Franz Schmidt used to occupy a position in Austria like Vaughan Williams in England. They used to say his music, rich in the idioms and his peculiar use of the melodic line over the other elements in the composition was too conservative and retrograde, like the English master looking a bit anachronistic in the age of atonalism and serialism. They said his stuff was 'too Austrian, whatever that meant! However, thankfully, these value judgements are long behind us and we can now focus on the quality of the music itself rather than listen to what was in vogue according to the minority who espoused these comments, in my mind to appear 'clever'. This wonderful, bargain-priced CD set was a replacement for a lost set, the full-priced Jarvi, which was unfortunately stolen from me. I cannot remember enough of the more expensive version to rate them but I remember enough to tell you that this set is as good in every way as the more pricey version. In fact, the Radio Bratislava Symphony Orchestra plays with more passion than I remember on the other set! The beautifully crafted Symphony No 1 in E major harks from 1896-7. Schmidt makes the first use here of his characteristic clarinet Magyar sound in the slow movement. Schmidt played with the Vienna Philharmonic for years and detested the way Mahler had taken the Symphony with his discordant, twisting of harmonies to make the listener empathise with his internal mental struggles. Schmidt takes the rich Straussian strings with their Viennese harmonies and Brucknerian Laendler as a starting point and in his Symphonies No 2 and No 4 this heritage has been traced back via this compser to Schubert. Schmidt does have his moments of lesser sucess as in the Finale for No 1 which lacks the conviction of the earlier three movements but this youthful impetuousity is overcome by the Symphony No 3 in which he reduced his textures down to classical Schubertan size and in the finale here the organicism that was lacking before is welded into a fugue after an introductory chorale and rondo. Schmidt never sacrifices his lyrical gift and now the integrity of the work is diamond hard in terms of both its melodic and formal attributes. The Symphony No 4 is rightly considered to be the magnum opus of Schmidt's oeuvre. It was considered by the composer to be a Requiem for his late daughter. Schmidt's rich joyous, sometimes exhilarating music now becomes full of sorrow and grief yet held together thrillingly as a strict formal structure. The solo trumpet is Schmidt's own voice paying his last respects to eternity and here we join with him in saying goodbye with his mastery of the variation technique as his non plus ultra in the symphonic genre. I had some doubts before I invested in this cheaper version of these symphonies and I want you to rest assured it is all beautifully played and recorded. Top marks!"