Weingartner: Septet in E Minor, Op. 33 & Octet in G Major, Op. 73

Album review

Felix Weingartner is recognized as one of the major conductors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, yet he is barely known as a composer, despite his rather prolific output. The two pieces presented on this 2007 CPO release are but two of Weingartner's chamber works, though they appear on disc for the first time here while his string quartets, violin sonatas, and keyboard works languish in obscurity, unrecorded. If those forgotten compositions are anything like the Sextet in E minor, Op. 33 (1906), and the Octet in G major, Op. 73 (1925), then Weingartner's oeuvre is likely to receive only a modest reappraisal by interested parties, not a full-blown public revival, because his music is a pale imitation of greater Romantic models and lacks originality, technical brilliance, and expressive depth. Performed with vitality and sympathy by the Ensemble Acht with pianist Oliver Triendl, the Sextet and the Octet sound like reasonably well-crafted post-Romantic pieces that have lush harmonies and opulent textures, melodies that are sufficiently lyrical to be charming (if not exactly memorable), and rhythms that make the music feel active and propulsive. Yet there is nothing in these works that can't be found in Dvorák or Brahms, and done far better, for Weingartner's talents for development and formal design are weak, and his tendency to treat a chamber ensemble like a full orchestra, with everybody playing most of the time, makes his music seem dense and inartful. CPO's reproduction is clear and warm, so the performances come across well, even when the music is at its most opaque.
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