RICHARD FLURY (1896-1967): Symphony No. 1 in D Minor, Violin Concerto No. 2 (orch. Urs Joseph Flury [b.1941]), Overture, Introduzione pastorale and Marcia Svizzera from the Opera Casanova e l'Albertolli.

Description: After the striking mono recordings of this Swiss composer's symphonies-cum-tone poems which we offered last month, we now get some brand-new recordings (of great orchestral spread and dynamic range). The 35-minute symphony is a youthful work from 1922-3 and exhibits elements of German Romanticism and French Impressionism: the first movement is as if Bruckner or Richard Strauss were writing a big nature-symphony using Debussy's color palette at times; the second is a gorgeous pastoral piece with prominent harp; the scherzo the most Impressionistic of all four movements and the finale a good-natured romp which, however, in the manner of Franck (and with much of his weighty, burnished sound), cyclically refers back to the first theme of the first movement. Heady stuff. The concerto comes from 1940 (Flury left it in piano score and his son orchestrated it after his father's death), is in the traditional three movements (lasting just over 26 minutes) and is a laid-back, freely rhapsodizing, lyrical work without much of the younger Flury's Impressionist palette. We aren't told much about the opera Casanova but it's clear from the 11minutes of music from it that it was a comic opera. Ulf Hoelscher (violin), Biel Symphony Orchestra; Urs Joseph Flury.