This music dates from a period when Krenek decided to adopt a firm style of his own. After having searched for long, he had adopted the 12-tone serial style, with handlings of his own.The writing of this symphony is absolutely firm, the interest never decreases. As in the first symphony, the fugato at the end is absolutely awesome. In my mind, there are two sorts of composers which are not exclusive but complementary: those who are sensitive to their time, and whose music testimonies of their hesitations, changes and iterations. Such is obviously the case with Krenek (who changed his style after happy vacation in Switzerland, and then came back to serialism many years later), and those who go their way whatever the circumstances may be. Such is for instance the case of Webern, but it was more or less the case of JS Bach, who did not try to escape conflicts with the council of Leipzig.

As you can see, this is the second day that I listen carefully to this symphony, it is really outstanding. Schoenberg and Berg are often compact, Webern is often fine, here we have a medium position which keeps the music coherent for almost half an hour. It is relatively easy to hear this symphony even at the first hearing and would deserve a greater popularity, making the serial writing more familiar to music lovers (as does for instance the violin concerto of Alban Berg). The counterpoint is very clear. The serial technique is handled in some ways that remember tonal techniques. This makes things easier. Some comments of other commentators tend to prove it. Thanks to Radio-Philharmonie Hannover des NDR and to Takao Ukigaya, thanks to TheWelleszCompany for posting.

Great music, thank you for crediting the visual artist - we count, too!

This is beyond wonderful.

This is an incredible peice of music. Fantastic in every respect: wonderful orchestration, clarity of texture in writing, nice pacing of the lines. What a wonderful peice! Thanks so much for posting!!!

much better music than I expected--thanks

I'm a comparer by nature, but I think we do mr. krenek a disservice when we try to too firmly place him here or there. he seems to have emerged with his own voice quite young, he was well aware of the various artistic schools and movements, which had little or a lot of impact on his compositions depending upon how one measures impact. he is a polystylist ala schnittke but both less bombastic and also less concerned about what we think. which gives way to a very accessible style.

Aside from the astoundingly clear and interesting counterpoint (and orchestral counterpoint as well!), it is amazing he holds together so well the plethora of ideas of variation and color so well. In lesser hands you'd likely hear a very diffuse piece but Krenek in this work makes it work so well. Another thing I like is he avoid his orchestration becoming too much like that found in some of the American cartoons of the 40's and 50's - interesting for the moment but no substance without the image which the music mimics. This is a problem I have heard in some other music - serious classical that is - of this period. It is hard to explain here in the comments but it happens in some of Hindemith's works from the 30's and other composer of that time through the 40's. Face it, it had to as with the revolutions in orchestration going back to Mahler, numerous composers would employ them many reasons. But Krenek here avoids this problem in this work and manages to keep things cohesive. Basically, as a composer, I have to get the score to this piece.

A lot of thanks for posting such a beautiful music !

Feels very Mahlerian and listenable in a way

I passaggi lenti ricordano gli analoghi movimenti delle tarde sinfonie di Roger Sessions, a meno che non sia la tecnica dedocafonica in sé a rendere omologhe le composizioni.

great

like this a lot

Krenek looks to be very much his own person and should be removed from the shadows. His music sounds masterful and carefully thought out

Sounds kind of like Hindemith to me.