Hopefully this will be the first volume of her complete symphonies. Available from May 1 on:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9843578--johanna-senfter-symphonies-nos-1-9
Thanks for headsup, Tapiola. I've wait for new recordings of her works for quite a while.
Intriguing. Thank you.
This thread on UC from Nov.2023 (https://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php?topic=9258) from, I suspect, people involved in helping prepare these recordings describes each of the 9 symphonies including No.1 in F (1914) and No.9 in E-flat minor (author says No.8 is actually in E-flat major despite brief list) from 1949.
Just saw this update on YouTube:
This page on Naxos.com (https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=C5555) also contains information, the back cover, and sound samples. The page on JPC (https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/chelsea-deutsche-staatsphilharmonie-rheinland-pfalz-gallo-senfter-sinfonien-nr-1-9/hnum/12640312) doesn't have sound, yet, but bears watching I expect.
This is now out, and as much as it pains me, I must confess that after two exhausting listens I really don't see the point. The issue with the three Senfter symphonies I've heard sofar seem to be existential: nowhere does it become apparent why this music should exist, let alone in this form. The much-missed Alan Howe expressed it well in another thread dedicated to Senfter (https://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,9258.msg94521.html#msg94521):
QuoteI don't think it's the chromaticism itself that's the problem; it's the continually evolving chromaticism that's the issue here. By this I mean a type of chromaticism that never seems to resolve itself - and when it does, as at the end of the finale of the 4th Symphony, it comes as more of a surprise than a logical outcome.
The first and ninth are no different. That in itself is a problem as well; there is not the slightest hint of artistic development - both symphonies were written 35 years apart, but you'd never guess it from listening to them. And while that ninth symphony is ostensibly based on the chorale
Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir ("From the Deepest Sorrow I Scream at You", from Psalm 130), there is no musical translation of that harrowing message that I can discern at all (which, one assumes, was a sincere objective given that it was written in 1949). Instead, we get the same, relentless, chromatic noodling until the briefest of codas announces that we're done.
Earlier, some forum members entirely unjustly (in my view, obviously) accused the delightful Arnold Mendelssohn Symphony No. 2 of being "dry and academic". But if you really want to experience dry academicism, Senfter's symphonies sound like the place to go.
I too have been listening to these symphonies this morning, and can only agree wholeheartedly with Ilja's judgment. They're dry as dust, nothing in the orchestration tickles the ear, no piquant melodies lift the spirit, there's no sense of momentum or purpose, no journey, just endless chromatic meandering. It's a dispiriting experience. No doubt some will appreciate and admire them, but I just found them dreary. I plan some Dvorak for this afternoon!
Agreed,Mark. I have resorted to the Kaufmann Symphony (which would stand up well in the concert-hall - and may get played there when Ilja does his Zola book).