Symphonies Nos 2, 3, Quatre Mouvements : Caetani / Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Alexandre Tansman: Symphonies volume 3

Symphony No. 2 in A minor
Quatre Mouvements pour orchestre.
Symphonie concertante - Symphony No. 3

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Oleg Caetani, conductor

DSD Recording
SACD Hybrid
CD STEREO/ SACD STEREO/ SACD SURROUND

Oleg Caetani and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra continue their advocacy of the orchestral music of Alexandre Tansman with this third volume of symphonies. The conductor states the theme of this third volume to be 'On the Symphonic Edge' due to the unorthodox ways in which Tansman treats these three early and late symphonic works.

The Second Symphony, which here receives its premiere recording, was composed in 1926 and shows clear influences of Stravinsky in the earlier movements but becomes something of a musical kaleidoscope. Tansman’s third venture into the symphonic form, here also receiving its premiere recording, is of an unusual kind as it includes a piano quartet, the result of the conditions of the original commission by the Queen of Belgium. This Symphonie concertante (formally Tansman’s Third Symphony) features an even richer array of musical allusions within the overarching framework of baroque concerto grosso and Bach’s style of rhythmic ostinati and fugal expositions, along with playful Stravinskian elements. The disc is completed with the Quatre Mouvements of 1967-68. Here again Tansman’s eclecticism comes through, this time including explorations of non-tonal music.