PAVEL VRANICKY (1756-1808): Grande Sinfonie caractéristique pour la paix avec la Republique française in C Minor, Op. 31, Symphony in D, Op. 52.

Description: This or one of Vranicky's other long-titled, historical occasion symphonies was a hard-to-find item in old LP days if memory serves. Dating from 1797, its sonata-form movements is constantly interrupted by marching Englishmen, Prussians or Austrians, the guillotine makes a deafening noise before the funeral march second movement, the third has battle music (and more marching Englishmen, etc.) while the finale - the most memorable one thematically - celebrates peace with joyful, dance-like music. The other work is Vranicky's last symphony (1805), most notable for its finale also, which is bizarrely similar to the final of Anton Eberl's Symphony in D Minor, Op. 34, published at almost exactly the same time! North German Radio Philharmonic; Howard Griffiths. SACD hybrid