ERNÖ DOHNÁNYI (1877-1960): Symphony No. 2 in E, Op. 40, 2 Songs for Baritone and Orchestra, Op. 22 (World Premiere Recording).

Description: Written in the final year of World War II, this symphony was intended as a monument to the Romantic Symphony which Dohnányi felt was passing into history as a genre. Recorded here in its final form (1957), it lasts almost 55 minutes with three of the four movements bearing a quote from a Hungarian philosopher. The first deals with love and strife, the second represents Eve in the Garden of Eden, the third is a sardonic scherzo (not quite as bitter as Shostakovich could be) and the huge, 22-minute finale, opening with a quotation of Bach's chorale Komm, süsser Tod followed by five cariations a fugue represent the fluctuation between an exhausted longing for death and a renewed will to live. The two orchestral songs (1912) are first recordings, prepared from handwritten copies made by Dohnányi's sister and sent to him after his arrival in the U.S. and his employment at Florida State University where his archive is housed. Texts and translations available on-line. Evan Thomas Jones (baritone), Florida State University Symphony Orchestra; Alexander Jiménez.