Born three years after Mozart, dead three years after Schubert, Franz Krommer lived for seventy-one years and had a magnificent career even if, after his death, his name somewhat fell into oblivion. What a shame… Because these last symphonies, written from 1820 after some fifteen years of symphonic silence (even if he kept on composing, among other things, quartets and quintets at every turn), display an absolutely breathtaking modernity. Schubert couldn’t be of any influence, and yet from where did Krommer find this strength of language? From within himself, quite simply, with some obvious leanings toward Beethoven but also Weber, the latest Haydn, but nowhere could it be said that he was a poor imitator. The Quatrième Symphonie (Fourth Symphony), from 1820, includes a thousand surprises, especially in the dazzling scherzo. The Cinquième (Fifth), written the following year, starts (and continues) on a high note with a thousand surprising ideas that Beethoven would admittedly never have rejected, even if he never had them… As for the Septième (Seventh) from 1824, which was never released when the composer was alive, unlike the previous ones, it leans toward a Romanticism that was already off to a good start—even if its architecture seems to borrow, in the blink of an eye, from the first classicism from Haydn, but this is here an obvious archaism for pleasure, somewhat like so many composers from the 20th century borrowed the Baroque forms. Because the language from the Septième, rather tragic, splits between dark, deep themes and (rather rare) lighter moments, and the last movement, an “old style” fugato, remains rather bleak—with some amusing Rossini reminiscences in the course of a few pages. It is a beautiful interpretation from the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana; we would like to hear this music in concert far more often… © SM/Qobuz