Album: Rufinatscha, Orchestral Works Vol 1 – BBC Philharmonic / Noseda (Chandos)

Johann Rufinatscha slipped into obscurity a decade before his death.

Much of his music was composed in a flurry of activity between 1834 and 1846, pre-echoing Bruckner in its antiphonal solemnity. Gianandrea Noseda's disc reveals a predilection for the mellow sonorities of viola and cello. Rufinatscha nods to Beethoven in "Die Braut von Messina", while the "Sixth" sounds like Schumann minus the neurosis and genius. Handsome, but not the stuff of grand passion.