Felix Draeseke's career was not a happy one, despite encouragement from Wagner - who after a tricky start found him good company - and especially Liszt, whose shadow falls heavily over his single Piano Concerto. Yet the work is Lisztian only on the surface: there is plenty of bravura, for which a rather more dashing approach than Claudius Tanski's is needed, but none of Liszt's subtlety of form nor much of his harmonic individuality. The most attractive movement is the second, a set of variations which Tanski characterises agreeably.
If the manner here suggests other of Liszt's admirers (for instance, contemporary virtuosos such as Henselt and Bulow), the First Symphony of 1873 ranges rather wider in its influences. The Wagner of Lohengrin, a work that thrilled Draeseke, puts in an appearance in the Adagio, and the cheerful Scherzo, popular in its day, suggests that Draeseke also admired Berlioz. Even Brahms, despite belonging ostensibly to a different musical camp, has had an effect on the opening movement. Draeseke, in fact, was an intelligent musician with an alert ear, if not one of commanding originality, and the symphony is much in the vein of other composers (Raff springs to mind) who were seeking ways of maintaining a symphonic tradition in difficult times. Except on records, it is a little-known repertory nowadays, and George Hanson and the Wuppertal players do a service with their sympathetic performance.'