In Volume II of the Joseph Lauber series, the Swiss Kaspar Zehnder and the Symphony Orchestra Biel Solothurn present further sensational new discoveries by the Swiss composer, pianist, conductor and composition teacher of Frank Martin. With the 3rd Symphony and the symphonic suite ‘The Alps’ from 1896/97, Lauber demonstrates a compositional mastery perfectly balanced in craft, sentiment and energy.
While the Third, composed in the year of Bruckner’s death 1896, aspires to all the pretensions of symphonic confessional music with a romantic glow, in ‘The Alps’ he deliberately uses Helvetic folk songs and even inserts Switzerland’s former national anthem in the finale… With the 6th Symphony, written almost 50 years and two world wars later, Lauber hesitantly enters new neo-classical territory and reflects on his long artistic life in an unexpectedly film-music-like way.
The recording was made in December 2020 at the Menuhin Forum Bern, as always under the artistic direction of Frédéric Angleraux/ ADCSound.
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