| Site review by Castor April 22, 2006
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Performance: Sonics (MC): |
This wonderful series of Weingartner orchestral works goes from strength to strength.
As with the others so far issued, the listener will discover music full of rich melodic invention and an unfailingly beautiful sound world.
The two works recorded here were written in 1908 when the 45 year-old composer had just completed his unhappy first year as director of the Vienna Court Opera, following the departure of Mahler from the post, but had fallen deeply in love with a young singer Lucille Marcel who eventually became his third wife.
The Lustige Overture (10.20) is a Till Eulenspiegel-like piece that teems with lively and memorable ideas and features some ‘Telarc style’ bass drum thwacks that, between 6m11s and 6m 24s, produced a couple of ominous loud cracks from my front right- hand speaker. Strangely, this only happened in multi-channel so it may just be a fault on my copy.
The huge four-movement Symphony No.3 (65m) that follows is the most impressive of those recorded, so far, by CPO. It is scored for a large orchestra including six horns and an ad libitum organ, which is used here to great effect.
Weingartner’s new found love obviously unleashed this outpouring of passionate Straussian music that reaches its climax in one of the most gorgeous slow movements I have heard and whose peroration is crowned by the entry of the organ.
The joyous finale is quite unusual with its echoes of both Strauss and Mahler and a captivating Viennese waltz towards the end, but Weingartner handles his material with consummate skill and does manage to avoid it sounding an anti-climax to the preceding three movements.
Marko Letonja conducts throughout with his usual flare, and the excellent Sinfonieorchester Basel responds with total commitment and feeling for the idiom.
Once again the sound from this SACD is magnificently vivid with a wide dynamic range and in MC a convincing realisation of the acoustic space.
Anyone who has enjoyed any of the earlier releases should not hesitate to get this one. I hope that we will not have to wait too long for the remaining symphonies to appear.
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Copyright © 2006 Graham Williams and SA-CD.net
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| Review by audio-grubi August 14, 2006 (3 of 4 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics (S/MC): / |
Got this recording some days ago and about the "ominous loud cracks" from the right front-channel in the multi-channel recording of the "Lustige Ouvertüre": Have the same problem twice times at 6 min. 12 sec. and 6 min. 18 sec. and it's really VERY loud(!) and no fun to hear.
So it is'nt just a defect of Mr. Williams cpoy but propably of the whole production/multi-channel mix.
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| Review by krisjan August 15, 2006 (0 of 1 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics (S): |
The symphony No.3 is a huge, 65 minute work. It's style is quite close to that of Furtwangler's symphonies (which are also monstrously long) and it gives a similar impression - which is to say, there are few really memorable melodies throughout the dense orchestration. Without a score to judge, it seems that conductor Letonja does about as well as can be expected in sculpting the movements. I was most attracted to and impressed by the second movement scherzo and the finale which seemed to sustain their respective longeurs better than the other two movements. If Reger had endeavored to write a big synphony, I could imagine it would have sounded like this. Though these comments seem a bit critical (they are) I am very glad to have this disk. I am a sucker for big, romantic symphonies and this fits the bill nicely despite it lacking any sort of masterpiece status. If you want to indulge in really great, big symphonies you should stick with Bruckner and Mahler. The Overture is a nice (but uneeded) filler. I look forward to more in this series (especially the violin concerto which is promised by CPO).
Sonically, the sound is a bit opaque (stereo SACD). It also sounds like a pcm source to my ears. The symphony does have an organ part which one might easily miss in the dense sound mix.
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| Review by jlaurson October 10, 2007 (2 of 2 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics (S): |
| Felix Weingartner (1863-1942, he, of conducting fame) is a bona fide composer, too – and fits right into above crowd. Take his Third Symphony coupled with the Lustige Ouvertüre op.53 and you get a pastiche of styles that combines (in the best imaginable fashion) the great romantics that came before him. Meistersinger meet Musorgsky, Strauss (both, Richard and Johann junior), a tad Bruckner, a third movement that sounds like Mahler with a dull blade (this is not derision!) and ends with a very Wagnerian final chord. In the last movement you hear yourself vis-à-vis Offenbach. Add excellent playing from the Sinfonieorchester Basel under Marko Letonja (unknown forces to me, until now) and great sound and you have a romantic winner with a big smile and an even bigger heart.
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