Great music - incredible bargain
By Paul Hounsfield
Five CDs for a little over £3 each! Even if you were only wowed by a couple of the symphonies, you would have a bargain. You are likely to do better than that. I came to Schuman's symphonies via the very powerful violin concerto on DG (Zukofsky/Tilson Thomas, with Ruggles and Piston). (Why is it that so many great discs disappear for so long?!) These symphonies - plus over half a dozen orchestral works - are abstract music, all of ot bracing, coherent and, at its best, profoundly satisfying in a way that gradually creeps up on you: the serious No 6, the energetic No 3 that builds up such a head of steam, the challenging No 8 (two slow movements followed by a presto) which occupies a strangely compelling world. How to place the music? As melodic and Hindemith or Copland, as convincing as Nielsen, as American as Vaughan Williams is English. As noted by various online reviews, the performances and recordings are top-class. If you like 20th-century music - mainstream and just beyond - you are in for a treat. This is a very fine body of work. It's surprising that at least some of the symphonies have not survived in the mainstream. But then how often do you hear Henze or indeed greater works such as Gerhard's symphonies? All the more reason to snap up this box. And snap it from MDT! £several cheaper than rival sites. (No... I don't work for them - just buy from them!)
