Joseph Lauber's symphonies

"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the passing on of fire." - A quote that is attributed to Gustav Mahler as well as Thomas More. On the cover of the first recording of Joseph Lauber's Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2, the Swiss composer is depicted adding twigs to a fire with a pitchfork. Conductor Kaspar Zehnder discovered Lauber's symphonic works in the Lausanne University Library and has now released a technically exemplary recording with his Biel Solothurn Symphony Orchestra (sound engineer: Frédéric Angleraux) on the new Schweizer Fonogramm label. Two more albums with Symphonies Nos. 3 to 6 will follow in the course of the year. No ashes are unearthed here, but blazing embers. Although Joseph Lauber (1864-1952) does not present himself as an innovator in the symphonies composed in 1895/96, his approach to tradition certainly has its own character.

Musically inspired by his teachers Joseph Rheinberger and Jules Massenet, he combines German late Romanticism with French refinement in the use of color. His symphonies are characterized by elegance, fine differentiation and a rather two-dimensional structure. And occasionally also Swiss local color, when he begins the first symphony with a two-part alphorn melody in the horns, which two flutes repeat as an echo and continue symphonically. The first symphony unfolds many lyrical points of calm and lacks any real drama. The warm string sound of the Biel Solothurn Symphony Orchestra, as in the fine unison opening of the Andante espressivo, is the basis of Zehnder's coherent interpretation. Agogic flexibility and dynamic nuance are further quality features. In the fast repetitions, as in the finale, Felix Mendelssohn also looks around the corner. The Second Symphony in A minor combines enchanting themes, for example in the opening movement, with more dramatic developments. The Andantino, quasi Allegretto is reminiscent of Antonín Dvořák in its sweet melancholy. Bohemia in Switzerland - this can also be discovered in Joseph Lauber's music.