AUGUST KLUGHARDT (1847-1902): Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Festouvertüre in E Flat, Op. 78, Konzertouvertüre "Im Frühling", Op. 30.

Description: The third Klughardt symphony release (and the second on cpo) brings a five-movement work which began life in 1892 as a string sextet but whose glowing orchestral colors utterly belie that fact. Supposedly, there is a struggle implied in the first movement but it all sounds muscularly positive to me and the succeeding movements, a heartfelt adagio, a rustic scherzo, an intermezzo of folk character and finale with an elegiac and a mazurka-like theme, make up a thoroughly enjoyable experience putting Klughardt into our top 10 list of unknown symphony composers. The Frühling overture of circa 1870, one of those from-the-darkness-of-winter-to-the-eruption-of-spring pieces, has its echoes of Schumann and Mendelssohn while the 1898 Festouvertüre, written for the 100th anniversary of the court theatre in Dessau, citing two local Anhalt musical trademarks, is a bit Brahmsian in style (à la the Academic Festival Overture). Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau; Antony Hermus.