Louis Glass - Symphony No.4 in E Minor, Op.43

Louis GLASS (1864-1936) 

Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 43

Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie

Daniel Raiskin

Our third CD with symphonies by Louis Glass features his Fourth Symphony - a large-scale work with a playing time of about one hour. It calls for triple woodwinds as well as six horns and the strongest wind section that Glass used in his symphonies. And the composer also works here with tighter thematic structures than in the three earlier symphonies. The piece immediately attracted attention and was not only performed repeatedly in Copenhagen from 1912 to 1933, but also abroad. After the composer's death, it was performed three more times; since then, however, it has probably not been performed in public. But with this large-scale symphony, Louis Glass had consolidated his position as one of the most important Danish symphonic composers of his time.

"Glass may not have had the inventive genius of his contemporary Nielsen but, in his own tuneful, late-Romantic way, was no mean symphonist. The Adagio third movement here is particularly exquisite."

BBC Music Magazine