Felix Weingartner Intégrale des symphonies Letonja Francis - CPO555761 - - par CPO

Our complete recording of Felix Weingartner's symphonic works is now finally available at a top price in a box. The press has confirmed that our edition of these symphonies is »a must for all those interested in top-class symphonic music« (Partituren). Marko Letonja and the Basel Symphony Orchestra set out on this adventurous journey of discovery with great devotion and virtuosic skill. Felix Weingartner was not only an internationally acclaimed conductor and a highly influential figure in Basel's music world; he also bequeathed to posterity an extensive compositional oeuvre marked by timeless freshness. The following CD has been added to the box: Weingartner's Homage to Schubert. »The score of an E major symphony by Schubert is in London. The introduction and a part of the first movement are instrumented in full. The whole course of what follows is marked to the conclusion of the lined-out score with the leading themes and sometimes with an indication of the accompaniment voices. […] I have repeatedly been approached about completing Schubert's sketch. In the clear presence of the bold modulatory intentions, in the character of the andante radiating with Beethoven's spirit, and in view of the great C major symphony, which gives us the scherzo, I recognized that here a transition from the master's early works to his great least creative period is underway and agreed to undertake the task of its completion.« It was thus that Felix Weingartner described how he came to rework and finish this Schubertian symphonic fragment in 1934. Given his lifelong love for this composer, nobody was more predestined for this task. Twenty years before Weingartner had composed his violin Concerto for Fritz Kreisler, a »little festival of the violin, full of joie de vivre, in which, however, the orchestra, resplendent in modern colors, also joins in the celebration.« It was thus that the critic Julius Korngold applauded the premiere of what now marks yet another milestone in our exploration of Weingartner's musical world.