Ominous storm clouds gather in the well-chosen image on the front cover of Naxos' Johann Baptist Vanhal: Symphonies, Vol. 4. Well chosen, as the music inside is suitably stormy and tempestuous; the concluding movement to the Symphony in E flat, Bryan Eb1, is even subtitled "La Tempesta." Vanhal editor Paul Bryan, who contributed the notes to this volume, the second in this Naxos series to boast the talents of Kevin Mallon and the Toronto Chamber Orchestra, suggests that the four movements of this symphony correspond to the ...
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Ominous storm clouds gather in the well-chosen image on the front cover of Naxos' Johann Baptist Vanhal: Symphonies, Vol. 4. Well chosen, as the music inside is suitably stormy and tempestuous; the concluding movement to the Symphony in E flat, Bryan Eb1, is even subtitled "La Tempesta." Vanhal editor Paul Bryan, who contributed the notes to this volume, the second in this Naxos series to boast the talents of Kevin Mallon and the Toronto Chamber Orchestra, suggests that the four movements of this symphony correspond to the four seasons of the calendar year. This argument seems not far off the mark, and while the "Tempesta" movement appears to be fragmentary in its extant form, it certainly does suggest a "wintry mix." Vanhal is a very visually oriented composer whose music seldom seems "abstract" even in the eighteenth century sense; it is far too unpredictable and variable for that. Vanhal's tense and restless "Menuetto and Trio" from the E minor Symphony (Bryan e3) is one example where the composer...
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