Rufinatscha from Chandos

[Alan Howe]

Peter Quantrill's review isn't a bad one, although anyone who thinks that Brahms died in the same year as Rufinatscha...

[emi122]

i like his symphony 6. i listened many times. i'm looking forwoard to hear more works of him.

[Alan Howe]

Welcome to the forums! I am glad that you are enjoying the Rufinatscha CD! We hope that Chandos will record volume 2 in the autumn.

[herrarte]

You can now buy this CD from emusic for $5.99.

[Alan Howe]

Another review can be found here...
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2011/July11/Rufinatscha_orch_CHAN10665.htm

[JimL]

I actually find the finale to be a rather more successful movement than many other symphonic finales from the period.  The "big tune" is the motto theme from the first movement.

[John H White]

I haven't heard this new recording yet, so I cannot pass judgement on it, but I tend to be of the opinion that Franz Lachner's 5th & 8th symphonies are more interesting to listen to than Rufinatscha's 6th. This could be due to the contrapuntal nature of some of the movements and more colourful orchestration.

[Alan Howe]

I have learned to appreciate Lachner's contribution to the symphonic literature, but I'm certain in my own mind that Rufinatscha is the more original composer. Of course, he is half a generation later than Lachner, so comparisons are maybe inappropriate...

[Josh]

At long last, I finally got this CD just about a week ago.  To me, the highlight ends up being a work I'd never heard before: Die Braut von Messina.  This ends up being somewhat bizarre and a touch rambly (not necessarily in a bad way).  The orchestration is, as with all Rufinatscha I've heard, rich and complex without being overly syrupy or bombastic, and even at its harshest moments doesn't offend my ears.  I especially like the last 2 minutes or so, it's quite dramatic and exciting.  This is a work definitely worth hearing.

The Symphony #6 was already one of my favourite symphonies, and I thought with Chandos we'd get exceptional audio quality.  Yep, they delivered, as usual.  What I'm not so sure about is the performance.  The orchestra demonstrates superior clarity to the world-premiere recordings from the Tiroler Landesmuseen, and this is not just about the great audio quality from Chandos.  I really like orchestral clarity, where individual parts are more easy to pick out.  But to be honest, there are certain elements to the original recording that I prefer, but it's really hard to put my finger on.

I'd rarely ever think that having two recordings of the same work is necessary, but in this case, if someone has the money, I'd probably recommend getting both.  The orchestral clarity and overall sound quality from this Chandos disc is just excellent, and it gives a chance to get a more clean and nuanced "view" of Rufinatscha's extraordinary orchestral abilities.  The orchestral terrain that he lays down would be worth exploring even if he completely lacked any gift for melody, climax, &c., but he most definitely was not lacking in other departments!

[Alan Howe]

The Chandos CD features in MDT's top sellers of 2011....

[Mark Thomas]

Oh, well done Alan!

[Alan Howe]

It also repays Chandos for the faith they put in the composer...

[Gareth Vaughan]

That's most encouraging, Alan. Well done! (Chandos too - and all involved in this venture).

[Alan Howe]

Ralph Couzens reports on the Chandos forum:

<<Due to busy orchestral schedules the next volume of Rufinatscha has been postponed for a year. Apologies for this and I will post a message when I get a new date.>>

A tad disappointing, I suppose, but at least we know that vol.2 will follow in due course...

[eschiss1]

Noticed btw that RISM lists Rufinatscha symphonies 5 and 6; apologies if mentioned before and therefore redundant (or not even nearly on topic). Those wanting incipits/themes or other information on sym 5 before the CD of sym 5 is released (who don't already have the other recording) may want to check this link for instance. (Click of course "Weitere incipits" to get sample themes from all the movements.) This is based on the copy of the material at Innsbruck. (RISM is often a useful resource for various reasons- rather more useful than this, actually... by which I mean in the next year or two, Chandos Records will probably have posted a PDF with all that material to their website, more or less, etc., and a CD with a performance of the work will be available for sale or download; not so much many other works of some interest to people here that RISM has manuscript-or-first-edition information on. Wasn't a negative about the Rufinatscha works I've heard, which have me looking forward to more as I'd expected.)