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Hans Huber (1852 – 1921) – early works for orchestra and a world premiere recording

- the gentleman of Swiss Romantics

January 15 2023

Swiss Romantic composer Hans Huber from Solothurn belonged to the big names of the Swiss music scene at the latest after his composition of the monumental festival “Kleinbasler Gedenkfeier” of 1892: before that, after studies with Carl Reinecke in Leipzig, he had first struggled through with smaller choral compositions and piano lessons in Alsace. The timing for his arrival in Basel was ideal: the music hall at the Steinenberg (today’s Casino) had just been completed, followed shortly by the conservatory: Huber performed, composed, conducted and soon directed the music school and the conservatory, he was networked with all of Europe and gifted the culture-crazy citizens of Basel with chamber music, oratorios, nine symphonies and other works.

The new recoding of Schweizer Fonogramm offers French-greek conductor Yannis Pouspourikas a plateforme to dive into these marvellous orchestra pieces together with the Sinfonie Orchester Biel Solothurn . In addition to Huber’s two serenades (Summer Nights and Winter Nights), the program includes the Comedy Overture op. 50 and – as a world premiere recording – the Roman Carnival, a humoresque for large orchestra. All works were composed between 1877 and 1895. Musicologist David Rossel traces the compositional process in the booklet, Frédéric Angleraux was responsible for the artistic direction of the recording with his studio ADCSound.

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