Johann Wilhelm Wilms (1772-1847)
Symphony No. 6 in D minor, Op. 58 (1819)
Concert Overture in E (1820s?)
Overture in E flat (1820s?)
Overture in F minor (1820s?)
Concert Overture in E flat (1820s?)
Munich Radio Orchesstra/Ivan Repušić
rec. 2021, Bavarian Radio Studio 1, Munich, Germany
cpo 555 472-2 [67]

This purely orchestral program allows us to form a clearer idea of Wilms’s late-Classical, cusp-of-Romantic music, undistracted by the clattery fortepiano in the concerto disc I’d reviewed a few years ago. There, I’d blamed the heavily decorated textures on that instrument’s lack of a true, sustained d legato, necessitating some rather brisk Adagios in the process.

The symphony begins promisingly, with a solemn, mostly tutti chorale; a few woodwind counterthemes remind us we’re not far from Mendelssohn. A slashing, energetic Allegro molto ensues, taking in perhaps a lot of scrubbing tremolos. But the busywork takes over in the development. The slow movement sings sweetly at first, but the increasingly embellished returns become a bit much, and the movement rambles. The Scherzo, in 6/8, is driving and buoyant, although the little fugato sounds uneasy; the closing Rondo is a quietly bustling duple. None of this is bad, but clearly Wilms favoured rather more decorations and embellishments than his material wanted, or needed, and we can’t just blame the fortepiano.

The four overtures, unrelated either to the symphony or to each other, eliminate much of the symphony’s fussiness. The slow introductions tend to the solemn and mysterious; the Allegros occupy the middle ground between Beethoven and full-on Sturm und Drang – again like Mendelssohn, but with more imposing tuttis. The composer tends to “hit at” the closing cadences hard, a few times too many at that. All four overtures contain beautiful music – the jaunty second theme of the F minor is fetching – but the most straightforward piece, the E-flat overture on the final track, struck me as most successful.

Repušić understands the style; tempi are mostly judicious, though, in the symphony’s first movement. he kicks the development faster, and the strings struggle to keep up. Elsewhere, their straightish tone suggests period instruments, and the players acquit themselves well.  The deft woodwinds sound only slightly harried projecting rapid phrases with liquid tone; in the E major Concert Overture, the clarinet is buoyant in the extended solo, and the focused solo horn is nimble. The brass choir is solid. The sound is fine.

So there it is. If you liked the earlier installments in cpo’s Wilms series, you should try this; if not, you can safely bypass it.

Stephen Francis Vasta
stevedisque.wordpress.com/blog

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