Büttner, Paul: Symphony No. 4; Heroic Overture
CDS 1048-2 Paul Büttner (1870-1943): Heroic Overture (1925); Symphony No. 4 (1917-19). Berlin Radio SO conducted by Hans-Peter Frank (overture) and Gerhard Pflüger (symphony).
This is hardly believable. Here is an absolute first rate late romantic composer, forgotten because the Nazis made him forgotten! He kept loyal to his Jewish wife and to his political convictions and lost all his important positions in the Dresden musical life. He was much inspired by Richard Strauss, and his orchestral texture is full of a longing, radiant beauty. He has the same absolute command of the orchestra as Richard Strauss!
"Büttner was, on this evidence, a composer in the Bruckner-Schumann vein rather like Wetz but with a fantastic tendency fuelled by Berlioz and Richard Strauss. He would I am sure have been delighted with these recordings. I doubt that he heard a more passionate performance of the Fourth Symphony during his lifetime. Recommended to pursuers of the late-romantic trend as it made its way into the twentieth century." - MusicWeb