Search - Carl Maria von Weber, John Georgiadis, Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra :: Weber: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2

The program is the key

05/18/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"These would be admirable performances at any price, but at Naxos' budget price they are especially recommendable. While I found the tempi in the symphonies sometimes a bit sluggish, the players and conductor mostly approach Weber's youthful exhuberance in just the right style.However, the real reason for adding this CD to your collection, even if you have a recording of the Weber symphonies that you're happy with (and I do), are the fillers, especially the Turandot music, which Stravinsky called "very talented." I think you will, too, if you haven't heard this music before, especially in such a robust performance as we have here. The charming piece from Silvana is something most listeners won't have heard before; it's a worthy addition as well. The equally charming but more familiar Die Drei Pintos overture, reworked by Gustav Mahler, rounds out a thoughtful Weber program. "Robust," almost bigger than life, is how I'd describe the recorded sound also. In short, a find."

A Delight In All Respects

DWPC | Ventura, CA United States | 06/22/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Weber clearly liked to keep a little fun in his music. These two symphonies are delightful music. Weber used a light touch to lead the listener through a spirited conversation between the orchestra sections. Instead of hiding the woodwinds behind a curtain of strings as was typical, Weber brought them out where they shine without being shrill or syrupy. None of that thin, reedy stuff here, its all full-bodied. Weber's love of the oboe shows. The orchestra plays Weber beautifully and the engineers did a great job too."

FIRE AND AIR

DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 01/23/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Naxos really are doing us proud. Here is yet another first-class disc of comparatively out of the way music, beautifully performed and recorded. I am very enthusiastic for Weber in general. He had a superlative melodic gift for one thing, he was a brilliant orchestrator and he is blessedly free of pretentiousness. Nobody would look to his compositions for lessons in intellectual techniques, but I will happily trade that to be spared laboured workings-out, twaddling `passages' and the whole baggage of second-rate 19th century instrumental music. All the music on this record is comparatively lightweight, but the symphonies less so than the incidental music. Being perfectly candid, I find them more interesting than the early symphonies of my beloved Schubert. There is a theatrical feel to them, but that is no bad thing in my opinion, and when the inevitable thoughts of Rossini came to the forefront of my mind I also found myself reflecting that Weber had a soul within him, a thing of fire and air, where Rossini had nothing but a vacuum.



The recorded quality is in some ways very striking indeed, with startling resonance in the bass - to start with I could almost have sworn that I heard a tuba. The Queensland Philharmonic play with real life, vigour and enthusiasm, and the conductor has to my way of thinking the right extroversion and sense of style and pace for this particular music. There is also a businesslike and helpful liner-note giving some information on conductor and orchestra as well as commentary on the music.



Right at the end we have something very different and very interesting indeed - an entr'acte put together by Mahler from material Weber had left from an unfinished opera The Three Pintos. Suddenly to hear Mahler's idiom and Mahler's scoring in a ghostly embrace with Weber's has real `tingle-factor` for me, something like the effect of the last bars of the Flying Dutchman overture, written by the Wagner of Tristan and Isolde. I am going to get very attached to this record."