Ndr Radiophilharmonie Manze - Symphonies 38 & 39 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

No woman composer of the time compiled an oeuvre as extensive as that of Emilie Mayer, who was born in Friedland, Mecklenburg, in 1812 and made contributions to a wide range of musical genres. She succeeded in doing what remained a mere wish dream for most women composers of her generation she reaped great praise from the critics and pursued a successful career as a composer - and our three previously released albums featuring her piano and chamber music have confirmed her mastery. Emilie Mayer wrote her eight symphonies between 1845/46 and (at the latest) 1857. Her first two symphonies date from her Stettin study years with Carl Loewe. This period lasted from 1842 to the beginning of 1847, but she hardly would have ventured to write such works at the beginning of these study years with Loewe. The Symphony No. 1 very much leads one to believe that it may have been something like a final examination piece with which she concluded her instruction from him. She quite ostentatiously constructs classical models, displays her modulatory talent, demonstrates her rich formal imagination, exhibits her command of double counterpoint, and works through tonal intricacies with sovereign control (last movement) - and does it all with unrivaled mastery. In the Symphony No. 2 Emilie Mayer emancipates herself from models and pursues completely new paths, above all in dramaturgical development within the compass of the large form. This is immediately shown in the slow introduction of the first movement. With it's forty measures it is unusually long, and in some respects it previews the structural idea of the first movement the building and dismantling of long lines of suspense that are linked together by contrasting and intermittent passages.

After their prize-winning Mendelssohn symphonies cycle and acclaimed Mozart symphonies album, the NDR Radiophilharmonie and it's chief conductor Andrew Manze now present Beethoven's Fifth and Seventh symphonies. While Beethoven's Fifth is arguably the most famous symphony in the history of music, the Seventh counts as one of the most rhythmically-advanced pieces of nineteenth-century music; an Inchapotheosis of danceInch, to quote Richard Wagner. Both works display Beethoven's mastery of and audacious approach to musical form as well as the richness of his melodic invention, and are generally praised as paragons of symphonic composition. Andrew Manze brings his experience in the field of historically informed performance to the polished symphonic sound of the NDR Radiophilharmonie, providing an ambience that fits these early nineteenth-century works like a glove.

The symphonic oeuvre of the Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz has never before been recorded in it's entirety Inchfrom one sourceInch, so that the series beginning here represents a pioneering act. The Third Symphony for large symphony orchestra was written in early 1952 and the monumental and pathetic music shows a hitherto unknown face of the composer. One of it's characteristics is the use of large instrumental blocks, although fragments also appear that hint at the lighter expressivity of the neoclassical tradition. It is a masterfully constructed work and the overt formal schemes of the Classical period are complemented by the subtle use of elements that were characteristic of music between the wars - in particular the timbres of the French tradition. Nevertheless, this work is not about setting new accents. The same applies to the Fourth Symphony. The orchestra of this work from 1953 is larger than in the previous symphony - among other things, English horn, E-flat and bass clarinet, contrabassoon and harp are now also called for. In both works, the composer achieved an excellent balance between the music of the past (form referring to tradition) and new sources of inspiration (folklore) as well as a new approach to traditional elements (rhythm). As a result, she managed to reconcile the autonomous, artistic qualities of her music with the expectations of the cultural policy of the time. We are very happy to have found congenial interpreters for this project, which sets new standards in the WDR Symphony Orchestra and the Polish conductor Lukasz Borowicz.