NEW • NOUVEAUTE • NEUHEIT

05/17-(5)

Franz Schmidt (1874-1939) No. 2 (1864-1949) Festival Prelude op. 61

Beethoven Orchester Bonn Stefan Blunier, dir.

1 Hybrid-SACD

MDG 937 2006-6

UPC-Code:

Forgotten Master Textural Logistics Franz Schmidt was “the most musical man in Schmidt calls for a gigantic for his ” – this is what had to say second symphony. However, sheer volume is a about his fellow composer, who, unlike him, is concern only in a few passages. He instead almost completely forgotten today. Stefan Blunier emphasizes kaleidoscopic color shifts produced has rediscovered this late-romantic master and in what is often an instrumentation reminiscent of now with the mighty forces of the Beethoven . Behind it all there is a Orchestra of Bonn presents Schmidt’s Symphony masterfully composed texture with overlapping No. 2 together with Richard Strauss’s Festival themes and variations resulting in a cyclical work Prelude composed during the same year for the structure with a systematic logic. opening of Vienna’s Konzerthaus. Musical Feast Tonal Loyalties By contrast, in the Festival Prelude the musical Schmidt played in a string quartet with Arnold magician Richard Strauss – once again – aims at Schönberg, but the tonal idioms of the two big sound. The majestic development of composers could not have been more different. instrumental splendor leaves nobody unmoved – While Schönberg very early bade farewell to especially when the three-dimensional 2+2+2 live major-minor harmony and later turned to twelve- recording transports the illusion of a firsthand tone music, Schmidt remained true to tonality audio experiences right into your own living until the end of his life. After the Austrian room. When the prelude celebrated its premiere Anschluss this commitment brought him dubious Beethoven’s hymnic ninth symphony was also on distinctions from the Nazis – which of course did the concert program – but Strauss’s new work not help him after the fall of the “Thousand-Year had a much greater impact. Reich.” Franz Schmidt Symphony No. 4 Intermezzo from „Notre Dame" Beethoven Orchester Bonn Stefan Blunier, dir. MDG 937 1631-6 (Hybrid-SACD)

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