Osi/Griffiths - Franz Krommer: Symphonies 4, 5 & 7

�Under the conductor Howard Griffiths the OSI performed elegantly and just as brilliantly. In any event, a more convincing case could hardly be made for the music of Krommer, who is largely forgotten as a symphonist.� This is what klassik-heute wrote of cpo�s release of the first three Krommer symphonies, and Vol. 2 now follows with his Symphonies Nos. 4, 5, and 7. Generally considered, No. 4 was Franz Krommer�s most successful symphony. If one terms it his �Dramatic Symphony� because of its energetic forward motion, then �Festive Symphony� is the title that suggests itself for No. 5. In No. 7 Krommer, to a certain extent, returns to the dramatic character of No. 4 but generates it in a manner that might be termed archaizing or historicizing. The slow introduction of the first movement immediately begins with a theme presented in unison that with its double dotting seems to have been imported directly from the French overture type of the early eighteenth century.