While Benjamin Britten's Simple Symphony, written when the composer was 20, based on themes he supposedly penned when he was ten, is fairly commonly known, that Sibelius, Janácek, and Bartók also wrote works for string orchestra is less well-known. Like Britten, Janácek's Suite for string orchestra and Sibelius' Two Impromptus for string orchestra were composed early in their output. Janácek's Suite sounds far removed from his mature, developed voice, appearing to have more in common with similar German or even Russian ...
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While Benjamin Britten's Simple Symphony, written when the composer was 20, based on themes he supposedly penned when he was ten, is fairly commonly known, that Sibelius, Janácek, and Bartók also wrote works for string orchestra is less well-known. Like Britten, Janácek's Suite for string orchestra and Sibelius' Two Impromptus for string orchestra were composed early in their output. Janácek's Suite sounds far removed from his mature, developed voice, appearing to have more in common with similar German or even Russian compositions than Czech. Bartók is the only composer represented on this Bayer Records SACD who composed for string orchestra later in his career, completing his Divertimento in 1939. Even so, this clever but unusual oddity in his output would not easily be identified as being from the master of Hungarian and Romanian folk music. Performing this set of intriguing works for string orchestra is the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Hilbronn under Ruben Gazarian. The orchestra lives up to its...
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