The C-sharp minor Third Symphony of Wilhelm Petersen (1890-1957) is a big beast, one hour in this account, and can be happily categorised as late-Romantic. Its expansive melodic gestures are certainly stirring, rather filmic, the orchestration colourful and diverting, but whether the long (twenty-four-minute) first movement goes anywhere, for all the moment-by-moment scene-setting if similarity of utterance, will be heard differently by respective listeners, possibly as overwrought, yet there’s no denying the emotional fervour contained within the generous whole; although it palls, too limited in ideas and development, for the time taken. The middle movement, twenty minutes, not sounding much different to its predecessor, is also handicapped by a ’roundabout’ structure, the composer unsure which exit road to take, so round and round the music goes, enough for me to cue track three before it arrives, a Finale marked Allegro molto, the most engaging music here, ending the work in a sonorous blaze of triumph. I did momentarily think of referencing Petersen’s Opus 30 as a Bruckner/Richard Strauss hybrid, but such thoughts faded quickly. Collectors curious about large-scale off-the-radar Symphonies needn’t hesitate – good performance and recording (Aug-Sept 2021) – on Profil CD PH22069. It might prove to be a masterpiece.
Constantin Trinks & the Frankfurt Radio Symphony record Wilhelm Petersen’s Third Symphony for Profil.
