Victor Bendix Symphonies - Career Bookends
I feel sorry for Victor Bendix. At the start of his career, Bendix was too avant-garde for Danish audiences. And at the end of it, he was considered too old-fashioned.
This release features two symphonies that bookend that career. Symphony No. 1 "Fjældstigning" (Ascension) was written in 1882. This is a big, ambitious work, full of excitement and energy.
The title refers to the symphony's over-arching theme. That is, climbing a mountain peak to a hidden temple. To me, the work sounded similar to Strauss' "Alpine Symphony." It has the same grandeur to it.
Franz Liszt liked the work, but audiences didn't. As one critic wrote at the premier, "The audience couldn't find their way in or out." Listening over one hundred years later, I didn't have that problem. Bendix was ready to scale the heights of music, but no one understood him.
Bendix was a successful conductor. But he struggled to get his composition career started. Near the start of the 20th Century, he was still trying. And tastes had changed.
Symphony No. 3 was completed in 1895. Bendix would compose one more symphony in 1907. But in 1895 he knew his moment had passed.
This symphony is far more sophisticated than the first. And it's more somber. The final movement, "Elegie." Like Bendix's dreams, the work seems to end not with a bang but with a whimper.
The Malmo Symphony Orchestra has some solid performances here. The energy level of the first symphony starts at exuberant and ramps up, really selling the work. They plays the third symphony with a lyric delicacy that is heart-breaking at times.
I'm hoping this ensemble records Bendix's two other symphonies. All four have a distinctive character. I think the orchestra's up to the task. Bendix's music was judged by contemporary tastes. With that context removed, we can listen to these works more objectively.
And objectivly, I found them quite engaging.
Victor Bendix: Symphonies 1 & 3
Malmo Symphony Orchestra; Joachim Gustafsson, conductor
Dacapo 8.224742
