Braunfels: Fantastical Apparitions
Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Gregor Buhl
What an extraordinary work it is… Variation form is expanded far beyond breaking point to become, effectively, a single-movement symphony… The performance lacks nothing in commitment or sense...
Braunfels: Fantastical Apparitions
Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Gregor Buhl
Purchase product
What an extraordinary work it is… Variation form is expanded far beyond breaking point to become, effectively, a single-movement symphony… The performance lacks nothing in commitment or sense...
About
Walter Braunfels’ music died twice: first, when the Nazis declared his music ‘degenerate art’; and again when post-war Germany largely rejected tonal music, with arbiters of taste declaring any form of romantic music (almost the whole pre-war aesthetic) to be tainted. This seventh volume in Capriccio’s Braunfels Edition again demonstrates the considerable range of Braunfels’ colourful music. The focus here is on his great, early orchestral work Fantastical Apparitions of a Theme by Hector Berlioz, Op. 25 (1914–1917). The first complete recording of this amazing composition is coupled with his last orchestral work, the Sinfonia brevis, Op. 69 (1948).
Contents and tracklist
- Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz
- Gregor Bühl
- Recorded: 11, 13-16 June 2018
- Recording Venue: Philharmonie, Ludwigshafen, Germany
- Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz
- Gregor Bühl
- Recorded: 11, 13-16 June 2018
- Recording Venue: Philharmonie, Ludwigshafen, Germany
Awards and reviews
June 2019
What an extraordinary work it is… Variation form is expanded far beyond breaking point to become, effectively, a single-movement symphony… The performance lacks nothing in commitment or sense of long-range form, though you might find yourself hankering for a more luxurious string sound, slightly sharper characterisation of the individual episodes, and a recorded balance that gives the brass less severity and the bass less boom.