Symphony No. 2

Full title Symphony No. 2 in D Minor op. 19 / 2. Symphonie D-moll op. 19
Date composed 1922
Details Mässig / Stürmisch bewegt
Lebhaft (Scherzo)
Pro defunctis (Adagio)
Sehr lebhaft (Zwischenspiel)
Sehr mässig / Heftig bewegt (Finale)

Composition begun in 1919 and completed in 1922. The work originally comprised five movements; Weigl eventually dropped the original penultimate movement, titled Zwischenspiel, and revised it as the Fantastic Intermezzo op. 18. One of the Liebeslieder of 1908 appears in the work as “träumerische Erinnerung,” to quote Rudolf Stephan Hoffmann, and “Erscheinung,” the first of the Three Songs for high male voice and orchestra of 1915 is motivically integrated in the movement. Pro defunctis may be performed separately.
Orchestration: 4(3rd & 4th alt. Picc. I & II), 4(4th alt E.H.),5(l Cl. in E-flat, 3rd alt. B.Cl., 5th alt Cl. in E-flat), 4(4th alt. C.Bn.)/8(5th,6th,7th,8th alt. 4 Tubas), 4,4,2(1 Cb. Tuba)/Timp.(4 players), Perc./Cel.,2Hp./Str.
Pro defunctis is dedicated to the unknown fallen soldiers of World War I
Performance duration: ca. 45 min.
Manuscript sources NYPL JOB 73-160, holograph full score of revised four-movement version (4 vols.), with note: Composed April 1921–March 1922; see also ÖNB Mus.Hs.29517, four presentation pages from holograph full score of first movement, with composer's note: Aus der II. Symph (I. Satz) Herrn Danzinger frdl. überlassen. KW. September 1924.
Publication details 1924, B. Schott's Söhne; reissued 1950 [?] Mercury Music Corporation.
Availabiity Score and parts available from TPC and FCP.
Recordings  
Listen

String Quartet No. 2: movement 1, Allegro
Amada String Quartet

Performances (click icon to expand or collapse list)
2 May 1924*** Bochum: Städtisches Orchester Bochum, cond. Rudolph Schulz-Dornburg (5-movement version).
11 March 1930** Vienna, Großer Musikvereinsaal: Wiener Symphonie-Orchester, cond. Robert Heger (4-mvt revision). Also on program: Otto Nicolai, Overture to Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor; Brahms, Variations on a Theme by Haydn op. 56.
2 December 1989 Chicago, University of Chicago, Mandel Hall, Viennese Crosscurrents, Karl Weigl, Neo- Romanticism, and the Modernist Movement, concert 3: Comedy Overture op. 32 and movement 2, Pro defunctis, from Symphony No. 2 (University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra, cond. Barbara Schubert; Two Religious Choruses (University of Chicago Chorus, cond. Michael Melton). Also on program: Reger, Trost; Mahler, Kindertotenlieder; Bruckner, Te Deum.