Ernst Krenek - Symphony 2 (Zagrosek, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig)

This recording is part of Decca's "Entartete Musik" series, which features music suppressed by the Nazis or written by composers who lived in exile from them. This symphony came from Krenek's pen in 1922, just a decade before Hitler rose to power. Atonal and dedicated to his wife-to-be Anna Mahler, daughter of the composer Gustav Mahler, it is a massive work that can be described as relatively easy to listen to, but very difficult to understand. In fact, you could play passages of this symphony for friends and they might not even notice its atonality. Neither, however, would they notice the presence of recognizable melodies or even a hint of humor. Most importantly, they wouldn't likely perceive a graspable structure after a full hearing. But the work is quite structurally cohesive, contains themes, and lacks humor by design, not by musical deficiency.

The first movement begins quietly on the celesta, but gradually works up tension and produces many climactic moments amidst almost continual churning and restive gloom and militaristic stomping. Near the end of the movement, quiet returns in a brief lyrical episode. The scherzo is hardly lighter, but is at least a bit brighter, if more than a bit grotesque. Mahler and foreshadowings of Shostakovich come to mind here, and there are even echoes of Vaughn Williams, specifically of his Fourth and Sixth Symphonies to come. The finale begins darkly, almost listlessly and remains for a time suspended in a morbid haze, just above the seemingly ubiquitous undercurrent of tension. At 6:06 (track 3), the music hesitantly, tentatively begins to reach toward something, something perhaps optimistic, hopeful. As the ending of this long movement (twenty-seven minutes) approaches, a titanic struggle begins, as if the suggested life-affirmation is in crisis, and the symphony ends amidst dire crashes and ambiguity.

Lothar Zagrosek has recorded this work once before, with the ORF Symphony Orchestra for Amadeo in the mid-1980s. That effort was not received well in all quarters. The performance came in under an hour, and so one can conclude that Zagrosek's more expansive reading here is the product of a rethinking of the score. The renowned Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra plays with commitment and impressive skill throughout, and I can't imagine a performance surpassing this one in any substantial way. The label cpo released a recording of this work a year or so ago with Takao Ukigaya and the Radio-Philharmonie Hanover des NDR. I have not heard it, and although it was well received, I would be surprised if Ukigaya's second-tier orchestra could equal the Leipzig in this work. And his total timing of 57:28 seems a bit brisk. Anyway, this Decca recording is widely available, features superb sound, and offers very informative notes (some by the composer himself, in a reprint from the 1940s). If you're an adventurous listener, this Krenek work may prove extremely rewarding to you. It is one of those pieces that can grow on you, listening after listening.

Robert Cummings @ AllMusic