Dora Pejacevic (1885-1923) died young of complications arising from childbirth. Her talent was considerable. It’s easy to view the principal reasons for reviving her music as stemming from considerations of political correctness (a woman, first Croatian composer to write a major symphony) rather than musicality, but ultimately the music’s quality speaks for itself. Granted, she relies too heavily on tunes built out of sequences, but then so does Elgar. Her music is very late-romantic and melodramatic, sort of like early Scriabin, but with a stronger sense of form.
The symphony starts with a fat, juicy, grinding dissonance, but quickly settles down to more conventionally voluptuous melodic writing. Although nearly 50 minutes long, there are remarkably few dead spots, and the triumphant conclusion turns out to be unexpectedly convincing. The Phantasie Concertante packs quite a wallop: it’s exciting, turbulent, noisy, and 15 minutes of great fun. Pianist Volker Banfield plays the living daylights out of it, and matches Ari Rasilainen’s enthusiastic accompaniments climax for climax. The latter also does a fine job with the symphony, while CPO’s sonics, perhaps a touch over-bright, project the music with force. Worth getting to know.
