Search - Wetz, Rheinland-Pfalz Youth Choir, Albert :: Wetz: Symphony No. 3

A Brucknerian symphony with lasting value

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 11/14/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Richard Wetz (1875-1935) is one of the hidden composers of the late romantic era in Germany. In the past decade his three symphonies, violin concerto and requiem have all been recorded on the cpo label, yet nothing exists about this composer in august musical guides including the Penguin Guide, All Music Guide or Rough Guide to Classical Music. While Wetz isn't the most individual voice in late romance, his music surely contains the threads and strands that made Bruckern beloved by millions.



Wikipedia has a splendid biography of the composer from which I will borrow here. It says in his three symphonies he "seems to have aimed to be an immediate continuation of Bruckner, as a result of which he actually ended up on the margin of music history". It cites his decision to stay in mainstream forms abandoned by his contemporaries from Schoeberg to Schreker and to join the likes of romantic throwbacks Rachmaninoff, Pfitzner and Franz Schmidt. Faint and not so faint echoes of Liszt and Wolf also permeate his music.



There is no question the four movement Symphony No. 3 is his greatest triumph in the form. It contains the majestic Bruckner style with themes that are more developed and end in a traditional recapitulation of ideas introduced and reinforced throughout each movement. I also enjoy this composer's three-movement Symphony No. 2 very much.



The closing "Gesang des Lebens" (song of life), a 9-minute paean to life by an all-male chorus, is episodically lovely and piercing, easily assimilated and understood by listeners even though no vocal score is included in the notes. The light major key comoposition is a fine encore to the dark storminess of the symphony.



Veteran Euopean conductor Werner Andreas Albert leads the Rheinland-Pfalz State Philharmonic in the symphony and is assisted by a local choir in the song of life. Everyone sounds better and more committed here than in their equally splendid version of the Symphony No. 2. Any lover of Bruckner should try to obtain this symphony. It is as close as anyone's ever come to finding a Bruckner Symphony No. 10.



Note: avoid the other recording of this symphony, which is poorly played and far less winged in its execution. Also, Wetz's Symphony No. 1 contains little of his mature style and Wagnerian-Brucknerian grace. If you've heard it and were turned away, don't judge the later symphonies by it."