Gottfried Von Einem: Philadelphia Symphony

Day 240

Gottfried Von Einem: Philadelphia symphony

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Franz Welser-Möst

This was a real surprise.  I had heard of the composer and knew that he wrote some fairly intense operas so I was expecting this to be an intense expressionistic work full of angst and complex chromatic harmony. It was nothing of the sort. It was a delightful piece very much, as some on-line commentators have said - in the spirit of Haydn. It is light and witty and very much infused with the spirit of Neo-classical Stravinsky - indeed heard cold you might even think in placed that it was by Poulenc. The first and last movements are energetic and bouncy with lots of off beat rhythms in unexpected places. The middle movement is lyrical without being mawkish.  All in all a work I really enjoyed.

Von Einem stayed in Germany during the war but was a strong support of Jewish musicians and used his influence to help several of them escape the Nazis. He was prominent in German music life after the war and his operas are still part of the repertory there. This symphony dates from around 1960. It was written, as the name suggests for the Philadelphia orchestra but for some reason it was not performed there and was given its premiere in Vienna instead. There are hints that there was some sort of disagreement about the score but so far I can't find any more detail.

I don't know how typical this piece is of the composer's output but it certainly made me curious to hear more.