Beck: Symphonies - Northern Chamber Orchestra, Ward

Franz Ignaz Beck
Symphonies
Northern Chamber Orchestra, Nicholas Ward
Naxos 8.553790

Not another early symphonist! Well, Franz Beck is an early symphonist with a difference. Certainly, his roots are immediately clear. Born as he was in Manheim, the influence of the Manheim school is apparent--here and there a so-called Manheim rocket, as well as the kind of question-and-answer (soft answered by loud) or call-and-echo (loud followed by soft) format of first subjects, especially in the last movements, that the Manheimers favored. But given that Beck's symphonic career ended in the 1760s and that Mozart nonetheless admired him years afterward, he must have had something on the ball. And that something is found in the remarkable slow movements of the Sinfonias in B-flat and G. The slow movement of the B-flat Sinfonia is as long as some whole Manheim symphonies by the likes of Stamitz, and it has a tender, balletic quality that is almost proto-Romantic in feeling. I can't recall another symphony from circa 1760 that has such an individualistic movement. Did Mozart know this movement and think of it as he wrote the beloved slow movement of his Piano Concerto No. 21 a generation later? Perhaps not, but still, I hear echoes in the piano concerto that cause me to wonder if Mozart didn't learn almost as much from Beck as he did from his hero J. C. Bach.

Of the five symphonies on this disc, only Beck's Sinfonia in D, Callen 30, is in four movements. The rest are in the three-movement format favored by the Manheim symphonists. Some of the finales, notably the finale of this symphony and of the E-major Sinfonia, have the athletic fervor of early Haydn. But again, the gentle, distinctive Allegro first movement of the B-flat Sinfonia shows that Beck was his own man. Now, I must say that listening to him, you won't rethink the history of the symphony; you'll still come away astounded at what Mozart and especially Haydn contributed to the primitive musical form that Beck and others pioneered back in the 1750s. But I think you will see the merit in Beck's art, a merit that no less an authority than Mozart acknowledged.

These are very fine performances, characterized by good, vital playing from the whole orchestra; tasteful contributions from the continuo harpsichord; and special attention to that tender elegance that is Beck's calling card. The recording was made in a hall that imparts a special glamour to the strings, making the string body sound a bit bigger than it probably is in real life. But this seems just right too. Beck is a special case and deserves the special advocacy he receives from Nicholas Ward and his orchestra.

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