The strong visual power of the music is captivating, one commentator reported after he heard the first of two albums devoted to the four surviving symphonies of the "Rhineland music pope" Ferdinand Hiller (1811-1885). With the conclusion of this cycle - small in scale but remarkable in quality - Howard Griffiths and the Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt (Oder) now present us with the earliest and the latest works in the series. Once again, it is not only the enthusiastic reviewer who will find much to enjoy. The Symphony in E minor is the passionately effervescent creation of an artist who has just turned twenty and wants to show the world all he has. The "Final Word", written four and a half decades later, exudes the self-confidence of a man who has long since "made it". He can look back nostalgically on the days of Mendelssohn and Schumann and still allow himself to write harmonic oddities without asking permission. Astonishing!
