FELIX WEINGARTNER (1863-1942): Sextet in E Minor for Piano, String Quartet and Double Bass, Op. 33, Octet in G for Piano, Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon, String Quartet, Op. 73.
Catalogue Number: 08J003
Label: CPO
Reference: 777 049
Format: CD
Price: $15.98
Description: Weingartner orchestral collectors will have to make do with this 77 minute release of richly and colorfully instrumented, large-scale chamber music while waiting for the next disc of symphonic works. The piano sextet (1906) is a 41-minute work in four movements dedicated to a pianist-friend, Alfred Reisenauer, who died at the age of 44 in 1907 of, as they used to say, "dissipation". A generally stormy and gloomy work, it contrasts nicely with its discmate from 1925 which, for all its seeming to represent a dividing line and struggle overcome in Weingartner's compositional life, is generally much more settled and optimistic in outlook. How Weingartner could compose so much high quality, large-scale music while maintaining his conducting and writing careers is just mind-boggling and we should be ever grateful to cpo for alerting us to its existence. Ensemble Acht, Oliver Triendl (piano).