Hartmann: Symphonies 1-8 Netherlands Radio Orchestras

Karl-Amadeus Hartmann (1905-63) did what so many others didn't. When the Nazis took power in Germany, he prohibited performances of his work, but continued to write, including a First Symphony, completed in 1940 and titled Attempt at a Requiem, which laments and protests Nazi rule. Hartmann admired Mahler and Schoenberg, studied with Webern for two years, and described some of his music of the late 1940s as being "in the spiritual landscape of Alban Berg". His symphonies, deeply passionate, often visceral, sometimes scintillating, have never registered in Ireland. These recordings of all eight of them, conducted by James Gaffigan, Markus Stenz, Michael Schønwandt, Christoph Poppen, Osmo Vänskä and Ingo Metzmacher, serve the music well. challenge.nl