RICHARD FLURY (1896-1967): Carnival Symphony (Beromünster Studio Orchestra; Richard Flury. rec. Jan. 6, 1954), Forest Symphony (Orchestra della Radio Svizzera Italiana; Flury. rec. July 9, 1959), Altisberg Suite (Beromünster SO; Paul Burkhard. rec. Jan. 1954).

Description: This Swiss composer, some of whose piano music has previously appeared on this label, studied under Hans Huber and he's a worthy late Romantic successor to that fine symphonist. The two "symphonies" here, though, are really tone-poems of 18 and 19 minutes. Carnival (1928) was inspired by a ballad about a dying city armourer listening to the youth of Solothurn celebrating Carnival with torches and noise-makers and reflecting on his past life; Forest (1942) was transmitted with no commentary but is in four sections: Birdsong, Storm, The Mysticism of the Forest and Epilogue - in other words, the very stuff of Germanic Romanticism. The 31-minute Altisberg Suite (1953) is also of symphonic character and woodland Romanticism - the mountain of the title was near Flury's boyhood home and he recalls its pastured lower slopes, a local festival, walking on the mountain in the moonlight and childhood play imagined in medieval times in its four movements Pastorale, Woodland Festival, Nocturne and On the Burghubel. Astonishingly good mono sound - especially for the Altisberg Suite!