Beck Franz Ignaz: Symphonies, Op. 4, Nos. 4-6

The court at Mannheim, one of Europe’s great eighteenth-century musical centres, provided myriad opportunities for creative development. Having absorbed the ideas of his teacher, Johann Stamitz, and of other luminaries, Beck wrote a series of symphonies notable for their dramatic contrasts, breadth and sweep, the progressive inclusion of woodwinds and a willingness to explore expressive intensity. Further Beck Symphonies may be heard on Naxos 8553790, 8554071, 8570799 and 8573248. Franz Ignaz Beck composed symphonies from the 1750s, when the genre was in its infancy, and they have long been regarded as some of the most important early symphonic statements. Couched in the Mannheim school they can rank with the symphonies of Stamitz in the structural clearness and melodic ingenuity. This is the second in the Beck series – the first was on 8573848. The rival to this disc is on CPO where Michael Schneider conducts La Stagione in Op.3 No.5; All the symphonies have since been collected in a CPO 3-CD box, released at the beginning of 2014 on 7778802, but La Stagione is an original instrument band and both Naxos releases are with modern instrument ensembles.