Spohr: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 9
Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Howard Shelley
The performances, like the pieces themselves, are a shade laid-back, but their lack of urgency never seriously detracts from the attractive qualities of this music.
Spohr: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 9
Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Howard Shelley
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The performances, like the pieces themselves, are a shade laid-back, but their lack of urgency never seriously detracts from the attractive qualities of this music.
About
We talk of the nine symphonies of Beethoven and Bruckner but what about the ten of Spohr? Howard Shelley and the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana conclude their survey of his symphonies with two that push the boundaries of the genre itself. Both Nos 7 and 9 are programmatic works, something that Spohr along with Berlioz did much to champion. In the Seventh, titled ‘The earthly and divine in human life’ and inspired by a holiday in Switzerland, he uses not one but two orchestras to great colouristic effect. His Ninth explores that perennial favourite theme of composers from Vivaldi to Glazunov, the Seasons (though Spohr starts with winter rather than spring). As if that were not enough, Howard Shelley also offers the premiere recordings of a brief, powerful Introduzione and a triumphant, at times almost Rossini-ish, Festmarsch.
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Awards and reviews
May 2012
The performances, like the pieces themselves, are a shade laid-back, but their lack of urgency never seriously detracts from the attractive qualities of this music.
May 2012
[Shelley] is at his most sympathetic in Autumn, at home in its atmosphere of hunting and social camaraderie
1st March 2012
The music itself is pleasant enough, if unremarkable, sometimes echoing Beethoven (the Pastoral Symphony especially in the Ninth), and showing affinities with Mendelssohn and Schumann elsewhere; the performances are first rate, and the solo horn playing is glorious.
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