Spohr: Symphonies Nos.3 & 6, Overture to The Fall of Babylon

Howard Shelley's enchanting series of Spohr's symphonies continues to inspire interest and delight in this underrated composer. Spohr's third symphony is a richer, more romantic work than its two predecessors. The sixth was written in an entirely new form, with each movement in a different historical style. Today we accept compositions which borrow musical styles from earlier periods such as Grieg's Holberg Suite, but when Spohr pioneered the process, contemporary listeners and critics completely failed to comprehend this concept. But it is in fact a very effective work. The styles imitated are filtered through Spohr's imagination so giving the symphony its enduring fascination and providing it with a phoenix-like attribute of revival after each critical cremation.