MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Symphony No.4 / Variations on a Hussar's Song

Writing in The Symphony (ed. Robert Simpson, Penguin Books: 1967) the late Harold Truscott made out a strong case for Franz Schmidt. He robustly dismissed the notion that his music does not travel. "It 'travels' very well, when allowed to do so, and I will go so far as to say that anyone who claims a love and understanding of Beethoven, Brahms or Sibelius, should have no difficulty with Schmidt. There could," he went on, "scarcely be a more positive work than No.4, whose confidence is complete and without bombast" and it is obvious that Schmidt's mastery of the art of symphonic thinking and of the orchestra is everywhere in evidence.