Koechlin Symphony No.1/etc.

[Alan Howe]

Just out on Capriccio:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9745589--charles-koechlin-symphony-no-1
...and reviewed in the June issue of Gramophone where it is described as 'in the lineage of Franck, Chausson and Dukas'. Just one problem, though: it sounds nothing like them - in fact it doesn't sound like a symphony at all, but rather a series of somewhat inert tone poems. I don't follow all Dave Hurwitz's reviews, but surely he's right about Koechlin's very strange 1st Symphony:   
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkGjUJZmx5c

So, does it fit with Franck, Chausson and Dukas? No! This is almost an 'Anti-Symphony', such is its rejection of standard symphonic 'motion', if you get my meaning. The music's not really about arriving somewhere, musically speaking - it's more about enjoying the scenery as one travels.

I've never heard such an odd symphony: 44 minutes of extreme strangeness...

Not sure when I shall want to hear this again...

[kolaboy]

I like Koechlin, but for the most part he leaves me wanting more - of something else.

[Alan Howe]

I agree - anything but more Koechlin!

[Mark Thomas]

I'm afraid that I too found Koechlin's Symphony a real bore. It's just an indulgent series of generally static sound pictures, which goes nowhere and leaves one wanting less. I hesitated before buying, and I should have known better.

[Ilja]

I'm really something of a Koechlin fan, but the symphonies leave me entirely cold with the exception of the Seven Stars' Symphony (which describes movie stars rather than the astronomical kind). The atmospheric (rather than programmatic) symphonic poem is really his strong suit, and even there he's like no one else. A true "marmite" composer, and I can understand why many would avoid him. Repeated listenings can reveal a lot, though, but I'd start at the Livre de la Jungle, which I find much better.

[eschiss1]

Whereas I very much enjoy the wartime 2nd symphony, and it sounds like the first symphony might be along the same lines...

[Mark Thomas]

Chacun à son goût, Eric.

[Alan Howe]

I genuinely wish I hadn't bought the CD. It's all Dave's fault - he describes the Symphony as 'gorgeous'.

[eschiss1]

I may occasionally agree with that reviewer but am no more inclined to follow or read his reviews than formerly...

[John Boyer]

Not everyone was meant to write a symphony. I think Koechlin's chamber music is quite lovely, so I'm not going to let his failure as a symphonist deter me from his other works.  If my first encounter with Robert Fuchs had been with his symphonies, I never would have returned to his music again.

[terry martyn]

Suppe is another example of someone who wasn't born to compose symphonies (and Dave went right over the top with his review of the trash that resulted when he did)

As for Koechlin, I would add "opaque" to "static". I will be steering well clear.

[Alan Howe]

I'd add 'drab'.

[Droosbury]

I don't know Koechlin's string quartets, but the symphony was his own orchestration of his second quartet, not that that per se excuses the symphony's odd, aimless construction. I quite like the accompanying symphonic poem Au Loin and the 3 Mélodies on this new disc, but this isn't first-rate Koechlin, to be sure.

Another disc of French music that has disappointed me in recent weeks. I had some hopes that Reynaldo Hahn's Le Dieu Bleu might offer something in the vein of Daphnis et Chloé, but it turned out to be turgid stuff. C'est la vie ...

[eschiss1]

Incidentally his 2nd symphony (which I believe there are plans to make the first commercial recording of; I think I uploaded my copy of a radio tape to our uploads, erm, downloads board years ago) is mostly (that is, except for one movement, iirc) orchestrations, but of works probably unknown even to people fairly familiar to the composer- including a piano fugue on a theme by a late pupil of his, which made for a nice opener (I did not know the circumstances.)

[Ilja]

I'll have to give this a whirl; my negative opinion was based primarily on the rather discombobulated archival version on YouTube.