Bamert

Spanish composer Roberto Gerhard (1896-1970) is one of the most underappreciated composers of the 20th century, whose music is only now, thanks primarily to this new series by Chandos, coming into major recognition. Gerhard's music transcends any easy categorizing. Suffice to say that it's a rigorous (almost radical) postmodernism that employs extreme musical textures and sonic embellishments of surprising complexity….. …This will knock your teeth out.

Paul Cook @ Amazon.com

Luigi Boccherini was born in 1743 in Lucca. He was to become one of the greatest cellists of his time, and travelled all over Europe giving virtuoso performances. His compositional genius only fully emerged when he took up permanent residence at the court of the Infante Don Luis in Spain. He is most associated with chamber music, especially the string quintet. But his output also included about thirty symphonies. Three have been recorded here. Nos 3 and 8 were composed for Don Luis in 1771, whereas No. 21 was written for King Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia in 1786. None of the symphonies is well known and they are seldom recorded.

Roberto Gerhard's First Symphony comprises music of considerable force, where all is anger and anguish; there is a sense of impending violence. Gerhard chooses a three-movement scheme, placing the weightiest musical argument in the finale. The opening bars comprise an idée fixe, which Gerhard uses much like Berlioz in the Symphonie fantastique, employing the motif as a recurrant tag. The middle ……

Gerhard completed his unnumbered Symphony "Homanaje a Pedrell" twelve years before his Symphony No 1 (1952-3). Its genesis may have been a long drawn-out affair, the opening movement suggesting that is did not begin as a symphony. Perhaps as early as 1922, the year of Felipe Pedrell’s death, Gerhard began to contemplate this tribute to his revered teacher with whom he studied from 1915 to 1920. The tribute is based on ……

Gerhard was commissioned to write his Fourth Symphony in 1966 by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and it was first performed in New York on December of that year, conducted by William Steinberg. The following year the score was revised for its continental premiere. In terms of orchestral forces, Gerhard made the most of the commission and scored it for quadruple woodwind, six horns, four trumpets, four trombones, tuba, celesta, piano, two harps, four timpani, four percussion players and full string orchestra. The overall form of the symphony is extremely ….