Search - Benjamin Frankel, Werner Andreas Albert, Queensland Symphony Orchestra :: Benjamin Frankel: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 5; May Day Overture, Op. 22

A wonderful first CD to devote to Frankel's work

06/24/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Two very different symphonies and an earlier overture share this fine CD. The first symphony starts with an atmospheric opening movement alternating slow and fast tempos, continues with a fast interlude that for some reason reminds me of some of Leonard Bernstein's music in its main theme (perhaps of West Side Story, though only briefly, and in a positive way), and closes with a slow movement marked "vigil" that rises to several angry crises before dying away. Good music. The fifth symphony is perhaps even better, with a (non-serial, though very chromatic) opening movement whose delicacy reminds me of the opening of Mahler 9 (I do not know if it would remind anyone else so!), another light intermezzo-like middle movement (of somewhat different character than in the first symphony, and psychologically somewhat complicated), and a fast finale which, while serial, begins in D major and ends in B. Structuring is rarely obviously on a sonata or A-B-A model, and is always intriguing. I sometimes have (hard to localize) criticisms of the orchestration, but while more flexible in the 5th than in the first, I think, it is never laid on with a heavy hand. (I am just surprised that the delicacy shown at the end of the violin concerto, available on another cpo CD, is not really in evidence, and that work is earlier than the two symphonies here. But that is not a major criticism, for the degree to which it is absent should be no means be exaggerated!!)The May Day overture ends the disk on a memorably positive tone, and like the music preceding it is quite flexible in form (a potpourri, indeed... but positively so.) If I find myself returning more often to the symphonies, and especially to the 5th, it is because their particular emotional worlds imprint more strongly. But this whole disk is remarkable music - I would say, in fact, excellent; and draws me back with regularity. - Eric Schissel"