Franz Krommer (František Vincenc Kramář): Symphony No.2 in D Major, Op.40, Matthias Bamert

Franz Krommer (František Vincenc Kramář) - Symphony No.2 in D major, Op. 40, Matthias Bamert & London Mozart Players:
I.Adagio - Allegro vivace - 00:00
II. Adagio - 09:22
III. Allegretto - 16:42
IV. Allegro - 21:23
František Krommer (27 November 1759 in Kamenice u Jihlavy - 8 January 1831 in Vienna) was a Czech composer of classical music, whose 71-year life span began half a year after the death of George Frideric Handel and ended nearly four years after that of Ludwig van Beethoven.
Between 1773 and 1776 he studied the violin and the organ with his uncle, Antonin Matthias Kramár, in Turin (near Brno), and became organist there about 1777. He made his career in the service of various noblemen, finally settling in Vienna, where he became director of music for the Court Ballet and later entering the service of the Emperor Franz I, finally as imperial director of chamber music and court composer, succeeding his compatriot Leopold Kozeluch. He retained the position until his death in Vienna on 8 January 1831 (just over three years after Schubert's death).
Krommer was one of the most successful and influential of the many Czech composers active in Vienna at the turn of the eighteenth century. The extent of his reputation is indicated by the rapid spread of his published compositions in reprints and arrangements, by German, French, Italian, Danish, and even American publishers, and by his honorary membership of musical institutions in Vienna, Innsbruck, Paris, Milan, Venice, and Ljubljana. His 300-odd works include half a dozen symphonies, a score of concertos (mainly for wind instruments), more than seventy string quartets, and a large quantity of other chamber music for strings and for winds. Stylistically, Krommer's music reflected the spirit of Haydn and Mozart rather than that of Beethoven.
“Krommer composed at least nine symphonies. Symphony No. 2 in D, Op. 40 was published in 1803, with a dedication to a 'Monsieur P. Bernard', and is scored for strings, flute, and pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, and timpani. It opens with an impressive slow introduction in D minor, very reminiscent of Mozart's ‘Don Giovanni’. The most salient feature of the first subject of the main Allegro vivace into which this leads is a rising octave scale (initially in D major, the movement's main key), which has two distinct off-shoots: a succession of staccato chords on the full orchestra, and a gentler, legato idea on the strings. A discussion of these three elements in combination leads to an attractive second subject, in A, presented in dialogue between woodwinds and strings. A substantial development section, which brings into play the two subsidiary elements of the first subject as well as the second subject, is followed by a recapitulation that is fairly regular except for the fact that it does not begin with a formal restatement of the opening flourish. The Adagio, in A, begins with an elegant, Mozartian theme on the strings, which sounds as if it is going to form the basis of a set of variations. But a contrasting, un-melodic episode, in A minor and for full orchestra (less, for the time being, trumpets and timpani), intervenes, and from this point on these two contrasting factors are alternated and combined in free, rhapsodic style, perhaps with some 'programmatic' significance of which we are not aware. The third movement is a rather Beethovenian scherzo (masquerading as a minuet), full of pounding triplet fanfares, but not without a sense of humour.” (extracts from Album Notes by Robin Golding)