Théodore Gouvy - Symphony No.4; Symphonie brève; Fantasie Symphonique

Théodore GOUVY 1819-1898)

Symphony No 4

Symphonie brève

Fantaisie Symphonique

German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern

Jacques Mercier 

As an admitted non-specialist in the works of Louis Théodore Gouvy (1819 98), I am perhaps just the sort of listener for whom this disc is intended. Supported by the Conseil Régional de Lorraine and the Institut Théodore Gouvy, the CD is aimed at reviving interest in the music of Lorraine composers: Gouvy, if spending much of his time in Leipzig, had a home base in the Moselle region at Hombourg-Haut, which describes itself on its website as a ‘veritable melting pot that brewed ideas and passions for culture’.

Through an accident of history (ie the Congress of Vienna), Gouvy was actually born German and did not attain French citizenship until he was in his thirties. To judge from his Fourth Symphony in D minor, premiered in Paris in 1856, Germany was the country from which Gouvy’s musical inspiration chiefly derived. There is a Beethovenian sinew about it, coupled with a lyrical Lieder quality in the Larghetto intermezzo and something of the spirit of Mendelssohn in the finale: there is even a hint of Bottom’s ee awing. Mendelssohnian traits, mixed with textures and orchestral sonorities that come closer to Brahms, infiltrate the Symphonie brève, and there are points of contact with Schumann (though none with Berlioz) in the Fantaisie symphonique. You can understand why Gouvy was such a hit in Leipzig while only gradually making any popular headway in Paris, but there is a good, firm talent at work here and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie are persuasive advocates of his merits.

Gramophone