Kevin John Edusei

Münchner Symphoniker, Kevin John Edusei – Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6 (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · July 11, 2023 · Comments off

The recording presented here is dedicated to the last two symphonies of Franz Schubert’s earlier compositional period. Both are united by their emergence in the atmosphere of the amateur orchestra founded by Otto Hatwig, in which Franz played the viola, and his brother Ferdinand the violin. This orchestra was a stroke of luck for the young Schubert, akin to a laboratory where he could thoroughly test his compositions against the works of composing contemporaries such as Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Méhul, and in real world conditions. Nevertheless, in their compositional intent, the symphonies are so fundamentally different that it is tempting to present these two dissimilar siblings on one album. Looking at the entire cycle of the Schubert symphonies, and the existential crisis in which Schubert found himself after 1818, this criticism seems in hindsight to be justified only to a certain extent. The creative chasm that opened up in front of Schubert is documented in his many symphonic drafts and abandoned works. In chamber music and in song composition, his productivity likewise decreased considerably. At that time, there was also the break with his father. Against this background, the Sixth seems like a charming “coming-of-age” work that demonstrated to the composer – with the utmost severity – the creative limits of youth-fuelled ardor.

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Münchner Symphoniker & Kevin John Edusei – Münchner Symphoniker – Schubert Symphonien 3 & 7 (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · July 11, 2023 · Comments off

The motto of this new release of Schuberts Symphonies Nos. 3 & 7 in E-major might be On to new horizons! In general, this phrase has positive connotations, and it offers an apt description for the sparkling innovative force driving forward Symphony No. 3 in D-major. Here, Schubert is still in a state of experimentation characterized by youthful energy, having overcome the teething troubles which plagued the previous Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2. Does the phrase, however, also apply to the completion of the score fragment of Symphony No. 7 in E-major? One has to admit that the answer is: yes and no. On the one hand, the slow introduction of the Seventh in E-major sounds like something perfectly new (and something newly perfect), on the other, there may have been reasons why Schubert, who impatiently began composing straight into the sketched-out score, left the symphony a mere skeleton. Even in a version completed by another hand, this work is worth exploring, as it builds a bridge from the carefree Symphony No. 6 to Schuberts late works, the Unfinished Symphony and the Great Symphony in C-major. Two departures for new horizons and they are two different horizons are what we seek to document with this recording.

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