AUGUST KLUGHARDT (1847-1902): Symphony No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 57, 3 Stücke for Orchestra, Op. 87.
Catalogue Number: 08R002
Label: CPO
Reference: 777 740-2
Format: CD
Price: $15.98
Description: No introduction to the composer is necessary, this being the third release in this cycle so we merely report that the Fourth succeeded the Third by ten years and was premiered in 1890. The usual four movements, a not-too-long, not-too-short running time of 37 minutes, a Beethovenian scherzo and three other movements which take a couple of hearings to give up their secrets: all ultimately lead to a satisfying listening experience almost completely without the usual darkness-to-light or black-night-of-the-soul tropes of late Romanticism. And Klughardt cuts loose a bit in his final orchestral work, the three Pieces of 1901, using the harp (not in any of his symphonies or concertos) to evoke a courtly past in the Gavotte and even venturing a Tarantelle finale. Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau; Antony Hermus.