Richard Flury: Orchestral Music, Volume Four
The Second Symphony of the Swiss composer Richard Flury (1896–1967) is deeply bound up with his personal life. In 1932 his first marriage broke up, and his wife and four children left Solothurn in the north to settle in Ticino, in the south. Through visits to his family in Lugano Flury grew to know the area well, so much so that he decided to celebrate their new surroundings in his Second Symphony, the movements of which are based on the carillon of the Flury family’s local church and three Ticino folksongs. Structurally, the work belongs to the Brucknerian tradition, but it also has points of contact with the orchestral naturepainting of Flury’s good friend Joseph Marx. The landscape of the Poème nocturne is an interior one: it is an expansive dreamfantasy of occasionally violent passions, a worthy cousin of Richard Strauss’ tonepoems.
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Paul Mann, conductor
Listen To This Recording:
Symphony No. 2 “Ticino Symphony” (1936) (48:27)
- I. Allegro (13:07)
- II. Andante (12:33)
- III. Scherzo. Allegro molto (8:26)
- IV. Finale. Allegro (14:21)
- Poème nocturne (1939) (18:01)
First Recordings
MusicWeb International :
‘Where would we be without companies such as Toccata who are regularly responsible for recording the works of neglected composers? Much poorer is the answer, and this is yet another in their series of CD’s presenting compositions by Richard Flury, who has been largely overlooked outside his native Swiss canton. The CD booklet, printed in both English and German, provides detailed insights into the works, featuring extensive quotations from contemporary critics. The recording is rich and dynamic, and despite their probable unfamiliarity with the piece, the BBC Symphony performs it with enthusiasm and energy, doubtless inspired by conductor Paul Mann.’
—Jim Westhead, MusicWeb International