Sinfonieorchester Basel, Marko Letonja - Weingartner: Symphonic Works, Vol. 1 (2022)

Felix Weingartner was a multifaceted personality: conductor, piano soloist, music writer, educator, and composer. Weingartner is renowned as a conductor and as Gustav Mahlers successor at the Vienna Court Opera. Weingartner regarded composing as his true calling, and his oeuvre is very extensive and covers a broad spectrum: seven symphonies, in addition to symphonic poems, operas, songs, and chamber music. Together with the Basel Symphony Orchestra (Weingartner was once its principal conductor) and its current principal conductor Marko Letonja, cpo plans a major edition recording Weingartners symphonic music in its entirety. The present Vol. 1 presents the First Symphony op. 23 and the Symphonic Poem King Lear, which received Mahlers highest praise.