I have been informed that Adolf Reichel's two symphonies will be recorded in late September.
Excellent! Are you able to tell us who by?
Here's No.2 (not the forthcoming new recording!):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0y_qcyhoFk&list=RDX0y_qcyhoFk&start_radio=1
Quote from: Alan Howe on Wednesday 16 July 2025, 10:54Excellent! Are you able to tell us who by?
I'm afraid I am currently not at liberty to say more, but that may soon change, and then I'll post details here right away.
Understood. Very many thanks.
That's excellent news, thank you Thomas. I've always had a soft spot or No.2 and it'll be interesting to hear if No.1 is cut from the same Beethovenian cloth.
I can now reveal that the recording will be made by the Bern Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christoph-Mathias Mueller. There will be a CD release on the Schweizer Fonogramm label.
I thought the orchestra might be Swiss! Many thanks for the update.
Once again we can expect a great presentation by this label. I wonder if Fred is going to be the engineer of this.
This is unexpectedly good news. Interesting symphonies on a label that always delivers.
Quote from: Justin on Wednesday 16 July 2025, 18:04Once again we can expect a great presentation by this label. I wonder if Fred is going to be the engineer of this.
Hey Justin,
I'm on it, the first one is already mixed and I work on the second one.
We expect a release in February/March 2026.
We've just released Reichel's 2 sonatas for clarinette and piano.
Salutations de Bern,
Fred
Quote from: adcsound on Monday 22 December 2025, 18:16We've just released Reichel's 2 sonatas for clarinette and piano.
Merci! Already purchased the sonatas. The adagio in No. 2 is marvelous.
Yes, it's interesting music. I think it's an important addition to the clarinet repertoire. These sonatas are easy to listen to and could feature in a concert program.
I really enjoyed producing and discovering the symphonies.
The two have different writing styles and... I have a soft spot for the first one I must admit.
This is a new production with the Berner Symphonic Orchestra, whose musicians I have a great affinity with. I am already certain that the result will live up to Schweizer Fonogramm's ambitions.
Not a big orchestra for both: 2/2/2/2-2/2/0/0-Timpani-strings (8/6/5/4/3).
Fred
PS: By the way, Bernhard Röthlisberger the clarinet player is also a member of the BSO and he was also involved in the symphonies recording!
I will be buying these for sure!
Dear friends,
My part is finished and the master is ready.
Here is a brief overview of the first symphony, first movement up to the recapitulation.
Just for you, swiss music lovers ;D :
http://www.adcsound.ch/Temp/Unsung/SF023_01_Reichel_Sympho1_Allegro_excerpt.mp3
Salutations de Bern,
Fred.
Sounds great, Fred! Will definitely be purchasing this.
Absolutely!
This will be released in June.
(https://www.schweizerfonogramm.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Reichel_Cover_cmyk.jpg)
https://www.schweizerfonogramm.com/en/cd/the-reichel-adventure-goes-symphonic/# (https://www.schweizerfonogramm.com/en/cd/the-reichel-adventure-goes-symphonic/#)
Available now for download. June 1st for physical release.
These are excellent recordings of two enjoyable symphonies. They're very conservative in idiom for their time (1869 and 1870), being strongly Beethovenian, especially in their expansive first movements. Elsewhere, Reichel seems to allow himself to be more individualistic and the nervy energy of the final three movements of both symphonies, so well conveyed by Mueller and his Bernese orchestra, reminded me of Berwald. Highly recommended.
Mark, I'm seeing 1860-1863 for the first symphony according to the booklet. Regardless, that is still conservative for the early 1860s.
My favorite movement is the second from the second symphony. It is quite fast compared to the old Niklaus Aeschbacher radio recording, but very well played.
Quote from: Justin on Saturday 16 May 2026, 12:22Mark, I'm seeing 1860-1863 for the first symphony
You're quite right, I stand corrected but, as you say, it's still a very conservative work.
These symphonies have been a bit of a head-scratcher for me. They don't sound bad at all, are structurally well-crafted, the performance and sonics are more than fine, but they left me entirely cold. I think the problem is the lack of an artistic fingerprint. They're entirely generic, the epitome of a conservative mid-19th-century symphony.
Now, to avoid misunderstanding, I think derivative works can be fine: take Bortkiewicz's symphonies, for instance, which are conceptually arch-conservative - but what does make them stand out (and even exciting) is that the personality of the composer, their personal expression within a tested framework, is so clearly audible (for better or worse). Ignaz Brüll is another example, and closer to Reichel's time.
As much as I have to appreciate Reichel's craft, nowhere could I sense anything similar in these symphonies. Part of that is down to aesthetic sensibilities no doubt (I think mine lie more towards the late romantic era than the average on this forum), and others may have more sympathy, but for me there's just nothing there.
It's mere coincidence I come to the Reichel immediately after Ilja's post (and just having read his slight disagreement with me on Hiller).
I would have placed these charming works much nearer to 1850. To my ears, he is a conjuror of musical sounds rather than melodies ,and he shows a lightness of touch in both ( more markedly,perhaps, in the thistledown first symphony). The second is genial, and,on occasions, bucolic.
What Reichel succeeds in doing is to stir the imagination. The First Symphony transported me back to a moonlit night at Tivoli, listening to Dream Pictures, polishing off gravad lax, and puffing on a fine Havana that Miguel Angel Jimenez would be proud of. The crowds are dispersing,but the ambience is all that is right in the world.
I am teleported back to Switzerland by the Second. It is a fine summer's morning on the outskirts of a (small) country town in the Emmental and the farmers are coming to market. Contented livestock sounds abound.
Am I being - just a trifle - subjective? I certainly hope so.
Warmly recommended.
Europadisc's weekly column, the Spin Doctor, discusses Reichel in its latest post, here (https://www.europadisc.co.uk/blog/280/Rarities%3A-A-Neglected-French-Opera_-_-and-an-Unknown-Swiss-Composer.htm).