JOHANN NEPOMUK DAVID (1895-1977): Symphonies No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 18 and No. 6, Op. 46.

Description: Three of the most important influences on David's symphonic music are Bach, Bruckner and Mahler. His symphonies are monothematic and counterpoint is omnipresent. While they don't have the towering, touched-by-God, cathedrals-in-sound quality of Bruckner, they often sound like Bruckner when he was scoring quiet music transparently. Their transparent, often wind-rich sound quality may even make you think of the Hindemith of Mathis der Maler. The First dates from 1936/37 and the Sixth from 1954 but with revisions made and a new finale composed in 1966 but they are immediately recognizable as being from the same pen but with an increasingly refined use of counterpoint in the monothematic structure. This is apparently the beginning of a complete cycle of his eight published symphonies (several more earlier works exist which were withdrawn) which will mark David out, beyond German-speaking lands, as an important 20th century symphonist. Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra; Johannes Wildner.