Josef Pembaur snr Symphony In Tirol in F major (1884)

[terry martyn]

I was lucky indeed to receive this CD the other day from the Landesmuseen and my first impressions are very favourable. I expected that it would be rather similar to Raff´s genial Symphony In the Alps but I reckon the flavours here are slightly more subtle, especially in the misty opening movement. By the time we get to the third movement, we are in the realms of Goldmark´s masterly and felicitous Rustic Wedding Symphony.
We are in the Tyrol, but I would say South Tyrol . The more the symphony developed, the more I was put in mind of Impressions d'Italie, as if Charpentier had ventured across the late-nineteenth century frontier.
There is a sprightly Spring Overture and a Cello Concerto which is Late Romantic (composed near the end of Pembaur´s life ,in 1910). I will have to give this darker and more melancholic concerto a few more outings before I am sure I am suitable for its nuances.