Search - Fritz Brun, Adriano, Moscow Symphony Orchestra :: Fritz Brun: Symphony No. 3 in D minor

One for the specialist

G.D. | Norway | 12/03/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"We should really be grateful to the Sterling label for their tireless exploration of the unknown and forgotten, often by pretty good performances - especially since the focus usually is on rather ambitious orchestral and choral works that require quite substantial forces. One need only think of, say, the Hans Huber revival, the Alfvén cantatas or the series of music Oskar Lindberg - and may they long continue the explorations. Sometimes, though, the works that turn out will, probably inevitably, be less than excellent. Fritz Brun (1878-1939) appears, unfortunately, to be an example of that.



The third symphony is a very ambitious work, hour-long in three huge movements and it seems to draw equally on Bruckner and Brahms as influences. If you think such a combination is unlikely to result in a cogent whole, you're correct (at least in the case of Brun). The symphony is a meandering work, traveling from one uninspired episode after the other with little or no sense of overall purpose. There is certainly no grand Brucknerian sense of architecture: the disparate nooks and crannies the symphony takes us through are dusty and boring - more like run-down and dirty truck stops in the flat and dusty American Midwest than imposing mountains or beautiful villages in the Alps (Alpine wanderings were supposedly the inspiration behind the symphony). And after meandering on for an hour it suddenly, out of nowhere, arbitrarily decides to halt - again, more like a surprising engine breakdown at the interstate highway than the spiritual culmination of a philosophical journey.



The performance is not entirely satisfying either. Adriano is clearly determined to make the most out of the work (he seems to believe in it, for he has apparently gone on to record the rest of the symphonies for Guild as well), but at times it sounds uncannily as if the orchestral players are sight-reading (although the lack of a sense of determination and apparent uncertainty concerning where to go next might be the music's fault more than the players). Still, I am grateful to Sterling for giving us an opportunity to actually hear and be the judges Brun's music - there are surely unknown works out there which will yield more successful recordings. This one, though, is unfortunately one for the specialists."