EMIL NIKOLAUS VON REZNICEK (1860-1945): Eine Lustspiel-Ouvertüre, Thema und Variationen nach dem Gedicht "Tragische Geschichte" von Adalbert von Chamisso, Symphonische Variationen über Kol Nidrey.

Description: cpo's Reznicek series continues with a nine-minute overture, written in 1895 (the year after Donna Diana) and, although it manages to replicate the bubbling energy and joyous celebration of the latter, practically vanished without a trace. The two large (19 and 25 minutes) sets of variations are brilliant examples of subtle and refined orchestration and will delight any collector of German Romantic music. There is much information in Eckhardt van den Hoogen's expectably gaseous note explicating the minute ways in which these works may have been inspired (by whom, for what purpose, with what almost impenetrable minutiae of humor, allusion and personal animus) and the Chamisso's work's possible associations with the tone-poems Schlemihl and Der Sieger - but it will take a lot of re-reading and headscratching to get most of it. Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra; Michael Jurowski.