Johan Wagenaar: Sinfoniëtta

[JimL]

The Sinfoniëtta in C is available on YT.  I compiled the 4 separate movements on one playlist here:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZhhAQZ-N-UZjRldFnVwCtR_WfIQ8hhRa

[Peter1953]

The Sinfoniëtta, op. 32, is certainly a fine work by the too much underrated Johan Wagenaar (1862-1941). I have it on a Et'cetera CD. The four movement piece is dedicated to the University of the city of Utrecht on the occasion of his receiving his honorary doctorate (source: booklet notes). Some connoisseurs think it's Wagenaar's best orchestral work, but my favourite has always been Levenszomer (Summer of Life), a fantasy for orchestra, op. 21.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

I think my fellow namesake (though younger in years!) is right to pick out Levenszomer (Summer of Life) as an especially fine and satisfying work. And maybe that is why it has received two recordings. There is the Et'ceterea CD referred to by Peter, and a CPO disc released (as far as I recall) at the same approximate time. Levenszomer is the only duplicated work between the two discs - and since it is such a fine work there is no reason not to have both CDs on your shelves!

[JimL]

There is nothing of his that I have encountered so far that hasn't been an absolute joy to listen to.  My own favorite is still the Cyrano de Bergerac Overture, but I haven't heard Levenszomer yet!

[bulleid_pacific]

It says a lot about Wagenaar that he made it onto a major label (Decca) with an international conductor (Riccardo Chailly).  Does anyone know anything about the circumstances of this most unlikely recording?  I imagine Chailly was the driving force since this sort of innovative recording policy was well behind Decca by the late recording date.  Did he insist on recording Wagenaar?  I'd be astonished if Decca asked him to!  I suppose most likely it was a sweetener to the Concertgebouw Orchestra to allow them to record some local repertoire.....  It's a fine record by the way, although I also tend towards "Levenszomer" as my favourite - I only have the CPO disc, which I find very compelling indeed.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

The above questions - each of them perfectly valid - might suggest to the innocent eye that the Chailly Decca disc is a recent one. But a quick check reveals it was released in 1991 - which is actually rather a long time ago, and in a significantly different economic world.

I don't know for sure, but I would guess that most record companies in 1991 were not especially "innovative". The emphasis of the major players such as Decca was then on either recording again mainstream stuff for release in CD format (or re-releasing existing LP recordings on lower priced CD series). Crudely speaking when Decca (or EMI or DG or Philips etc) completed that aim they folded up, and the happy days (for us) of greater innovation commenced with the emergence of the smaller independent labels. (Whether that crude summary of 'gramophone' history over the last 20 years or so is approximately correct or wildly wrong (if not stupid) could be the subject of another thread. (But I'm NOT going to start one given that the primary interest to us is unsung romantic music, and not the history and economics of the recorded music industry.)

However if I'm right then surely all the more "astonishing" that Chailly was recording Wagenaar for Decca in 1991? What was going on here? Like you, Bulleid_Pacific, I'd be interested to know.

And now for another astonishing piece of information, albeit an insignificant one. Like you, I possess the CPO Wagenaar disc and am glad of it. My notes on its purchase (yes, I'm clearly an exceptionally dull fellow for retaining such things) indicate I bought it secondhand on Amazon in January 2011, and from an especially conscientious and wholly reliable seller who trades under the name of 'Bulleid_Pacific'. A small world is ours. And since it is such an enjoyable disc I've been especially grateful to you ever since on account of the very modest cost of the disc. I guess that, just like me, you sometimes curse yourself for buying the same disc twice and then having to get rid of the duplicate on Amazon. Long may the practise persist so that others might reap the benefits!

[Ilja]

The above questions - each of them perfectly valid - might suggest to the innocent eye that the Chailly Decca disc is a recent one. But a quick check reveals it was released in 1991 - which is actually rather a long time ago, and in a significantly different economic world.

[...]

However if I'm right then surely all the more "astonishing" that Chailly was recording Wagenaar for Decca in 1991? What was going on here? Like you, Bulleid_Pacific, I'd be interested to know.

This recording was made right at the beginning of Chailly's tenure as principal conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra (he succeeded Haitink). What I heard about it was that it was an obligation in his contract to do 'something' with Dutch music, and some concerts and this recording (along with a recording of some Diepenbrock works) were its consequence. Sofar as I know, however, he has done little with Dutch music after this (there's a vague collection of a Vermeulen symphony in a CGO concert, but that wasn't Chailly IIRC).

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Thanks, Ilja. Interesting.

But it is a case of what in England is called 'dipping the toe in the water'. Whatever the merits of those now largely departed major and 'global' / 'international' labels, what always disappointed me was their emphasis on the central canon. Which I suppose is the stuff that sells. But rather awful really that a major orchestra such as the Concertgebouw was contractually required to merely 'do something' with Dutch music, to make some notional, slight recognition of it. Maybe it is only now that we're beginning to catch up on the wealth of Dutch music (and there's still a long way to go!)

[Ilja]

Peter, I maybe have to stress that all I heard about it was in an 'across-the-table' remark made by someone who is in a position to know; but it still on rumor level. The CGO has occasionally been making nods to our national musical heritage, albeit not that often. About three years ago, they performed Van Gilse's Second Symphony under Markus Stenz - a fine performance, but it is somewhat disappointing that apart from the occasional Wagenaar Cyrano de Bergerac (the most commonly abused alibi for involving an orchestra with Dutch repertoire) Chailly's successor Jansons has hardly touched our music.

About Cyrano: it's not a bad piece at all, but a bit too derivative of Strauss' Don Juan for my taste. Of Wagenaar's overture's, I rate Frithjof's Meerfahrt the highest; the longer pieces, certainly the Symphoniëtta.

[eschiss1]

I'd answer by pointing to the other fine orchestras and radio stations but I just looked at what's up tonight on Concertzender and now I am too distracted. Still, the regular "Kroniek van de Nederlandse Muziek", fwiw, no longer has any equivalent I know of over here-wards (it might, I just don't know of it...)

[JimL]

About Cyrano: it's not a bad piece at all, but a bit too derivative of Strauss' Don Juan for my taste. Of Wagenaar's overture's, I rate Frithjof's Meerfahrt the highest; the longer pieces, certainly the Symphoniëtta.

Other than the fact that Strauss' opus ends tragically, whereas the Wagenaar end on a rather more positive note than its subject?  BOTH works stand up rather well.  I also like the Overture after Gozzi's The Philosopher Princess.