Woyrsch: Symphony No. 2 - Hamlet Overture

Felix Woyrsch (1860-1944) studied music with Ernst August Heinrich Chevallier. In his youth he held posts as a conductor and organist in several German cities in the 1890s and 1900s and by 1917 he was a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts. In 1933 at age 73 he was ordered into "forced retirement" as head of the Altona Singakademie by the Nazis. In 1936 Woyrsch received the Goethe Medal. He lived until 1944.

Woyrsch stated his main influences included his friend Brahms as well as Bach, Palestrina, Lassus, and Heinrich Schütz. As a composer Woyrsch considered himself self-taught by these past masters. He stated: "I have not had a bad teacher, name of a good sound: I have a counterpoint in Palestrina, Lassus, Sweelinck. Schutz and Hassler studied and very often sat quietly at the foot of the Great Sebastian; composition taught me Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn, as well as the masters of modern times, Brahms and Wagner, I have to thank a lot." Historically Felix Woyrsch is part of the group of obscure German late-romantics, such as William Berger, Felix Weingartner, Albert Dietrich and Paul Juon who shared a harmonic language ranging from Brahms to Richard Strauss as well as early Schoenberg and Korngold. Composers who carried on the tradition of the symphony. The CPO label together with the Oldenburg State Orchestra led by Thomas Dorsch have embarked on bringing the colorful, romantic music of this "North German Brahms" successor to greater public awareness. - CPO (Translated from German)