KRAUS: Symphonies vol.2

Swedish Chamber Orchestra;
Sundkvist, Petter;
Svensson, Urban

8.554472

As a composer, Kraus can be seen as one of the most innovative of the entire century. His earliest training brought him the Italian style of the Mannheim composers, the contrapuntal rigour of Franz Xaver Richter and J. S. Bach, as well as the dramatic style of C. P.E. Bach, Gluck, and Grétry. A man of many talents, the composer was also theorist, pedagogue and author (a book of poetry and a tragedy). His compositional style features the unexpected and the dramatic and it is no surprise, therefore, to find many forward-looking stylistic devices that anticipate music of the next century. • Kraus began composing symphonies during his youth, and completed his last only a few months before his death. In all some fourteen works in this genre survive, although there are indications that this is only a fraction of the total. Indeed six symphonies written in Göttingen and described in his correspondence have been lost, as have groups of works from Buchen, Mannheim and Paris. What has survived, though, indicates that a strong dramatic element infuses the works, making them more theatrical than simply mass-produced concert works.

CD

Muzyka klasyczna

Naxos

17-05-1999

636943447222