LOUIS SPOHR: Symphony No. 9, “The Seasons”; Symphony No. 7, “The Earthly and Divine in Human Life”; Introduzione; Festmarsch – Orch. della Svizzera Italiana / Howard Shelley – Hyperion

by | May 25, 2012 | Classical CD Reviews

LOUIS SPOHR: Symphony No. 9 in B Minor, Op. 143, “The Seasons”; Symphony No. 7 in C Major, Op. 121, “The Earthly and Divine in Human Life”; Introduzione in D Major, WoO5; Festmarsch in D Major, WoO3 – Orch. della Svizzera Italiana / Howard Shelley – Hyperion CDA67939 [Distr. by Harmonia mundi], 69:07 ****:
In a review that appeared elsewhere, I wrote of Louis Spohr that as a symphonist, he started at the top and worked his way to the bottom. As a young composer, he created Classical symphonies infused with a fresh highly personal approach to the growing trend toward musical Romanticism. That trend includes the rebirth of the program symphony, now even more specific in its pictorialism. (As scholars like to point out, eighteenth-century composer Justin Heinrich Knecht’s symphony Le Portrait musical de la nature seems to be the template for Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony.) But as far as I’m concerned, something went very wrong for Spohr around Symphony No. 6, the “Historical Symphony,” in which he mimicked the styles of the Baroque, the Classical era, the age of Beethoven, and finally his own musical era circa 1840. The result is one of Spohr’s weakest symphonies, and I place in the same bucket the Ninth, another programmatic symphony, this one representing the four seasons.
While the last movement, presumably representing the harvest festivals of autumn, is pretty lively and effective, the other movements evince a kind of rhythmic ossification that seemed to settle over Spohr’s symphonic writing. His late symphony simply don’t move. The first movement of the Ninth, representing winter is suitably blustery—or maybe windy is a better description—but Spohr’s attempt to capture the action of the winds results in a movement that seems, paradoxically, halting, almost static. The second movement, representing spring, is pretty in a vapid sort of way, with its imitations of bird calls, but it makes a listener long to be down by the brook side with old Ludwig van. As you can guess, the Ninth is not my favorite Spohr symphony, but I must say that Howard Shelley and his orchestra try valiantly to overcome its shortcomings and turn in an admirable performance of a not-very-admirable symphony.
Fortunately, the other symphony on offer, another program symphony, is much more successful because it represents a fresh idea as well as a novel approach on Spohr’s part. Again, Spohr’s pictorialism is benign and patently undramatic compared to that of Berlioz or Liszt, but the idea of casting the symphony in three movements that portray the three ages of man and further using two orchestras (one small, one large) to represent the battle between heaven and earth over man’s soul is inspired to begin with and successfully executed by Spohr. This is a work that should be heard in the concert hall, where the rival orchestras could make their full impact. (And come to think of it, the symphony is a natural for the surround-sound treatment, even if Spohr didn’t have fore-and-aft placement in mind when he penned it.)
Here’s how the symphony works: it starts with an evocation of childhood, the themes light and playful, the small orchestra of just eleven instruments dominating. In the second movement, representing adulthood, the age of passion, the large orchestra takes over and plays some pretty impassioned music that submerges the innocence of youth and drowns out the call of the spirit. The last movement reclaims for man the innocent calmness of youth. There is an initial tussle between the two orchestras in which the larger orchestra seems to get the upper hand, but finally, the two orchestras combine in a final C major apotheosis. The sentiments behind this program are all encapsulated in some fairly effective verses supplied by Spohr’s wife Marianne, which appeared in the printed score.
Despite the fact that the two filler works on the disk are designated as without opus number, they’re works of Spohr’s maturity, from 1830 and 1825 respectively. Both are attractive, especially the Festmarsch, written to celebrate the marriage of Princess Marie, daughter of the elector prince of Kassel, where Spohr served as court music director. Incidentally, if you’re familiar with Schumann’s Papillions and Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, you’ll recognize the eighteenth-century tune entitled Großvatertanz, which Spohr cleverly weaves into his wedding march.
The performances here are spirited and sympathetic, as they are in both symphonies. The recorded sound is fine throughout. I wish I could summon more enthusiasm for Spohr’s Ninth, but there’s enough fine music here, expertly delivered, to merit a firm recommendation.
—Lee Passarella

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