eMusic Review 0
A few works of Goldmark's still turn up now and then — his Violin Concerto is sometimes resurrected by violinists tired of Mendelssohn or Bruch, and some excellent recordings have been made of this Rustic Wedding Symphony, a colorful suite in five movements from 1876. Never, though, have I heard the work's passionate high point, "In the Garden," played as incomparably sweetly and tenderly as Stephen Gunzenhauser renders it here. Goldmark loved this movement so much he reuses its main theme as a dreamy interlude in the Symphony's boisterous finale. Two overtures round out this disc: Fresh breezes blow through the highly animated In Spring, while In Italy is a brash travelogue in tarantella rhythm, with an interlude in (what sounds like) a Venetian gondola by moonlight. Wouldn't either overture be a refreshing change from your local orchestra's nine zillionth performance of Beethoven's Egmont?
