Francois-Joseph Gossec, born in what is now Belgium, was the leading instrumental composer in Paris during the second half of the eighteenth century. He wrote some 50 symphonies, much admired in their time; he might well be regarded as a sort of Parisian counterpart to J. C. Bach. Bach’s music, however, has proved the more durable, and I would say it is also more characterful. But the five symphonies recorded here are attractive music. I don’t think many people would recognize it as French. The two symphonies from his Op. 5, of the early 1760s, are lively, Italianate pieces in four movements; there is a charming if inventively slightly ordinary Romanza in one of them (this and the work in D employ clarinets), and a particularly jolly Minuet and a spirited, well worked out finale in the other. But some of the musical ideas seem static and anonymous. The later compositions, two from Gossec’s Op. 12 of 1769 and one from the mid-1770s, are in three movements, and altogether more interestingly written. The Andantino of the one in F has some very poetic writing and rich textures; the E flat work has a solemn, elevated slow introduction and an Andante with real pathos; while the one in D is a big piece with trumpets, a martial first movement and a sombre second, then a cheerful finale. All these have many appealing ideas, and finales enriched by contrapuntal passages.
Matthias Bamert, as usual, directs the performances with energy and commitment; Gossec couldn’t have hoped for a better advocate. Anyone interested in the byways of the classical or late pre-classical era should give it a hearing.'