Sterndale Bennett Symphony in G minor

 Day 151 

Sterndale Bennett Symphony in G minor

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Nicholas Braithwaite

Sterndale Bennett retains a toe hold in musical history as the dedicatee of Schumann's Symphonic Studies, but his own works have all but vanished from the repertory. I do remember trying to play through some of his piano music at university but I don't think that I have ever heard any of his orchestral music before.

This symphony, from 1864, is his only mature work in this form (there are some early symphonies written when he was a student). Perhaps not surprisingly Schumann is the main influence - indeed if you heard this blind you would almost certainly identify it as an unknown work of his. There is are Mendelssohn-lie touches and the trombone writing in the first movement is very reminiscent of that in Schubert 9, which was beginning to become part of the repertory in the 1860s after years of being almost unknown. Oddly the trombones disappear after the introduction to the last movement even thought  the music seems very suitable for their use - - it is almost as if he had forgotten that they were available.

The score is rather uneven. The opening movement is undoubtedly the best of the four and the finale is almost at the same level. The slow movement, heavily featuring the violas, is a bit thick and glutinous at times while the third movement is very odd. It is a menuetto - quite old fashioned for 1864 with a trio just for brass instruments which seems completely out of place with the rest of the piece. As an experiment it was interesting but to me it didn't come off.

There are a number of concert overtures by Sterndale Bennett - I did look at one once when looking to put together interesting repertoire for a concert - perhaps it is time to have another look.

Vaughan Williams Symphony no 8

 Day 150

Vaughan Williams Symphony no 8

Bernard Haitink

London Symphony Orchestra

I have mixed views about Vaughan Williams.  There are some wonderful moment, such as the opening of the Sea Symphony and the end of the 5th Symphony and the whole of the Tallis Fantasia, but I don't find that much to enjoy in some of his other pieces. I've played symphonies no 1, 2, 5 and 7 and a few other smaller pieces.  I'm tempted to think that all VW sounds the same! Not true of course but one does find the same characteristics again and again. Now in Haydn or Stravinsky , for example, I see that as a positive -the composer marking his fingerprints over music which seems on the surface to be very different, but with VW it sometime seems like resorting to clichés.  Perhaps it is just a reflection of my own musical sympathies.

I think that 8th was the only VW symphony I had not heard before. It is a late work (1956) when the composer was in his 80s. It is also the shortest of his 9 symphonies.  I had very mixed reactions. The slow movement was for me the highlight - it is scored for strings only and has echoes of the Tallis Fantasia and The Lark Ascending.  By contrast I couldn't make much sense of the second movement, which is scored for wind instruments only.  Its rather 'rum-ti-tum' style seems completely out of place here. 

The last movement uses tuned gongs - inspired by the composer hearing a performance of Turandot. I was interested to see how he used then - I have to say I was rather underwhelmed. When you think what Britten was doing with tuned percussion in The Prince of the Pagodas, written at more or less exactly the same time, VW use does seem rather old-fashioned and unadventurous. But perhaps it is just that he is just not a composer whose wavelength I can quite get onto.  I'm sure that the loss is mine.

Rawsthorne Symphonic studies

 Day 149

Alan Rawsthorne

Symphonic Studies

London Philharmonic Orchestra 

John Pritchard

Alan Rawsthorne was considered to be an important figure in post-war British music, but his star has faded and he is now very much on the periphery of musical life. I don’t think that I had heard any of his music before.  These Symphonic Studies - a mixture between a symphony and a concerto for orchestra - are generally considered to be one of his finest achievements - they certainly put him on the musical map when they were performed at an international festival in Warsaw just before the Second World War.

I have to say that I didn’t find much here to grab my attention. The music seemed to me to be lacking in character and at times it felt rather like mere note spinning. It was quite brittle at times and there melodic material wasn’t memorable. The big tune in the last movement didn’t really come off.  So a disappointment - I couldn’t see why this piece has the reputation that it seems to have. THere is a lot of positive comment about the score on line, so perhaps it is just me, but I can’t see myself exploring more Rawsthorne any time soon.

Wordsworth Symphony no 3

 Day 148

William Wordsworth

Symphony no 3 in C op 48

Nicholas Braithwaite

London Philharmonic Orchestra

I’ve had the score of this symphony on my shelves for years - I got it at a surplus library book sale - but I have never heard it, or any of the composer’s other music before. William Wordsworth was a descendant of the poet’s brother. He lived from 1908 to 1988 and although he did have some success in his early career he was an almost forgotten figure at the time of his death.

I had expected that this symphony might be like watered down Vaughan Williams in the ‘English Cowpat’ style but it was rather different - in my book a good thing. Though clearly tonal in idiom it had more of a bite to it - the predominant influences seemed to be Hindemith and Sibelius though there was more than a touch of Shostakovich about it - particularly in the long passage in the middle movement with a solo celesta part. The music is tight and lean and predominantly contrapuntal. I really enjoyed the first two movements. The third was not quite at the same level. It took a long time to get going and the main tune was not quite distinctive enough to support the final peroration. But overall this was clearly the work of a composer who knew exactly what he was doing and I  would be intrigued to find out more about his work - there are 8 symphonies in total and they have now all been recorded.

Searle Symphony no 2

 Day 147

Humphrey Searle Symphony no 2

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Josef Krips

Humphrey Searle is a name which crops up a lot in histories of post-war British music because he was one of the first British composers to experiment with serial technique. He was a Webern pupil - but also studied with John Ireland - I suspect that it is a unique combination.  I knew of his expertise as a Liszt scholar and also as a contribution to the Hoffnung concerts - a serialist with a sense of humour seems almost a contradiction in terms.  But I don’t think that I have consciously listened to any of his music.

I enjoyed this symphony.  It is more ‘mainstream’ than I was expecting. It does use serial technique but not in any obvious way and it has a real sense of symphonic style, with drive, energy and crucially a sense of pulse so that there is always forward momentum. It is not enervating as some of Schoenberg or even Stravinsky’s late music can sometimes be.  You tell tell that Searle grew up in the tradition of Vaughan Williams and Walton. His music doesn’t sound much like either of them but the sense of progression and shape clearly owes something to those more conservative composers.  Overall I found this a really interesting experience and , as I say, quite different to what I was expecting. I don’t know how typical it is of his music, but I would be very happy to explore the rest of his symphonic output.

Berkeley Symphony no 3

 Day 146

Lennox Berkeley Symphony no 3

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Lennox Berkeley

The only music by Lennox Berkeley that I have performed was accompanying a singer at university in one of his song cycles - I don’t think that I have played any of his orchestral music and I don’t recall listening to any of his compositions either.

I was expecting that this one movement symphony would be elegant and stylish in a way befitting a pupil of Nadia Boulanger, but in fact this was, at least at the start, rather tougher and more sinewy that I had expected. I must confess however that I didn’t find it easy to engage with the piece. It was not unpleasant but there seemed to be nothing distinctive about the music and now, a few hours later, I can’t recall much about it, other than some of the percussion writing seemed rather overdone!  So nothing here to suggest that Berkeley should be a composer to explore further - although of course like everything else in this blog I can only record immediate reactions. Further listening might produce a very different perspective. 

Arnold symphony no 4

 Day 145

Arnold Symphony no 4

London Symphony Orchestra

Richard Hickox

After a series of piano variations I am resuming my exploration of British symphonies.

I've played several pieces of Malcolm Arnold over the years. I did the second symphony in youth orchestra and I've done most of the dances.  I recently played the wind octet version of his three sea shanties - that certainly keeps you on your toes. I also played year ago the marvellous Grand Grand Festival Overture that he wrote for the Hoffnung concerts. Certainly that is the only time I have shared the stage with a trio of vacuum cleaners and a floor polisher!

Some musicians are very patronising about Arnold. Indeed I remember a professor at University telling us that Henri Pousseur was going to visit and stressing that he was a serious figure worth getting to know - not like Malcolm Arnold! - that struck me as very arrogant at the time and the feeling hasn't gone away - who was Pousseur anyway!

I chose this symphony at random out of the nine. It had all of the hallmarks of Arnold's style - fingerprints or clichés according to how you look at these things - include catchy tunes, ostinato rhythms with plenty of syncopation, virtuoso orchestration, little 'smears' within melodic phrases and plenty of percussion. Indeed I read afterward that the use of bongos and other percussion effects was a deliberate reaction to the Notting Hill riots, with Arnold wanting to show the universality of music.  Not knowing this I did think that some of the percussion effects were overdone!

This is quite a long piece (40mins) and it seemed to me to fall off somewhat toward the end. The first couple of movements were really attractive - Arnold had a melodic gift which was matched by few of his contemporaries. I thought that the third movement was rather overlong and I did think that the last movement was rather over the top and, dare I say, tasteless. There is nothing wrong with popular elements in symphonic music - where would Haydn and Mahler be without it - but perhaps here Arnold rather lost any element of self control. And I did wonder whether the allusions to the fugue in Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra - were intentional parody or not. 

So an enjoyable experience - not a great symphony in my view but one which certainly brought pleasure - I suspect that it is great fun to play.

Lutoslawski Paganini Variations

 Day 144

Lutoslawski Paganini Variations

The Slovak Piano Duet

For the last of this short exploration of sets of variations for piano I have cheated slightly by picking a work for two pianos. This pieces dates from the years immediately after the end of the Second World War where in the chaotic conditions in Eastern Europe Lutoslawski and his friend and colleague Panufnik scratched a living by playing and composing piano duets. This work, which is wholly by Lutoslawski, is apparently the only work from that era which has survived.

I thought it was great fun. Onc can almost imagine the two musicians improvising on the famous Paganini caprice and gradually refining what they did into a finished composition. It is short, doesn’t take itself too seriously, and is full of invention. The broadly outlines of Paganini’s original are clearly retained in the background but it is subject to harmonic and rhythmic ingenuity which I am sure would have astonished the composer - but I also imagine he would have been delighted to see the bravura spirit of his original being recreated over a century later.

I’ve not listened to much Lutoslawski over the years and I don’t think that this piece is typical of his mature style. But he clearly had a first class sense of musical invention and he is certainly on my list of composers to explore in more detail.

Reger Variations on a theme by Bach

 Day 143

Reger Variations on a theme by Bach

Mark-André Hamelin

I don’t think that I have ever consciously listened to any Reger though I am sure that I must have heard some of his music at some time. Reger’s music has the reputation of being rather glutinous with counterpoint which, like his name, sounds the same backward as it does forwards!  

There’s certainly an element of that in the fugue with which this set of variations concludes but it is not all like that. What surprised me most was the sheer noise of some of the louder variations  - the keyboard took a real hammering at time and it must be quite uncomfortable to be right near the piano when these are being played. The contrast with the softer, more contemplative passages was very marked.

Alkan Le Festin d’Ésope

 Day 142

Alkan Le Festin d’Ésope

Jack Gibbons

I’ve heard a few bits and pieces by Alkan over the years but have never really paid any attention to his music. This set of variations - Aesop’s feast - forms the last part of his massive set of 12 etudes in all of the minor keys. In itself it is a substantial piece with 25 variations.

The range of piano techniques is astonishing for a piece written in the 1850s - at time it seems to come close to hitting the piano keys very hard in random chords. To that extent it is a fascinating composition but I have to say that in purely musical terms it doesn’t have much to recommend it. It is one of those piece where there is an insistence on virtuosity for its own sake at the expense of content. Some of its seems very cliched and only occasionally was there something taking the music out of the commonplace. It really did seem as if the composer was sitting down at the piano and showing off. 

Alkan has his admirers (enthusiasts is perhaps a better word) and some very distinguished pianists have recorded his music so there must be more to his music that I found here. But I can’t see me returning anytime soon to sample another piece where the pianist seems intent on bashing the living daylights out of the piano.

Rachmaninov Variations of a theme by Corelli

 Day 141

Rachmaninov Variations on a theme by Corelli

Vladimir Ashkenazy

I have played some of the major Rachmaninov orchestral works - I have quite enjoyed the experience but I think that they are sometimes rather over written. The second symphony is a case in point. It always used to be performed with cuts and though it is heresy to say so I think that practice should be resumed. It is one of those piece when, after playing for ages, you turn the page expecting to be at the end and find that there are still pages and pages to play. I actually prefer the first symphony, though again that is rather too long.

I don’t know much of the solo piano music. I have attempted to play some of the easier pieces but the reality is that there is not much that is really playable without a much more solid technique that I possess. I’d not heard these variations before. They are a comparatively late work (1931) - indeed it seems to have been his last major solo piano composition. They are very typical of Rachmaninov with some inventive harmony and plenty of virtuoso technical challenges. I am not sure that I would want to  listen to it again but I am glad that I made its acquaintance.

Rzewski Variations on The people united will never be defeated

 Day 140

Rzewski The People United Will Never Be Defeated

Marc-André Hamelin

This set of variations made quite an impact when it started to become well known in the late 1970s Rzewski had a reputation as a extreme avant-garde figure and yet here he was writing music which was based on a popular tune and was broadly (if loosely) tonal. It even has key signatures in places!

It is a very interesting piece. Rzewski wanted to find ways of bringing some of the techniques of advanced piano technique to an audience whose experience was rooted in tonal music. I think that largely it does work. The piece is fascinating in many different ways. The textures are highly varied and exploit the full range of the instrumental possibilities - including slamming the piano lid and asking the pianist to hum and play at the same time. At times the music is wild but at the same time the ghost of the theme is apparent in the shadows much of the time.  It is a real virtuoso showpiece and would have a real impact in a live performance. I don’t know whether this was a one off for Rzewski,but there is no doubt that the influence on the development of a post-modern musical language where there is a definite move towards an acceptance that some form of expanded tonality has a place in contemporary music.

Reicha L’art de Varier

 Day 139

Reicha L’art de Varier op 57

Ivan Ilić

This week I am moving away from the delights of French light opera to some heavyweight piano music. I’m going to explore some sets of variations. I won’t cover the Goldbergs or Diabelli as this project is about pieces I haven’t head before, but there is plenty more to go at.

I was alerted to this at David Hurwitz’s YouTube channel the ultimate classical music guide which is full of out of the way information presented in a witty, and occasionally outrageous, style. Reicha is known to wind players though his collection of quintets but before listening to this piece I had no idea how much he had written and how experimental some of it is. This set of 57 variations (it is no coincidence that it is his opus 57) is based on a very simple 12 bar tune.  Reicha is not interested in developing the structure - all most all of the variations have exactly the same 12 bar pattern as the theme, but in exploring different piano sonorities. Some of the writing is fairly conventional but in many places there are very surprising textures. To be honest in some places it sounds just as if he was strumming away at the keyboard seeing what worked, but in other places the music is highly inventive.  Beethoven is the obvious point of reference (the two men were friends and colleagues) but in other places I was reminded of Schumann, not only in some of the chromatic touches in the harmony but also in the rhythmic displacement where fragments of melody are touched on in the second or fourth semi quaver of a continuous passage. Given that this music was written in 1803 that really is a glimpse into the future.

I am not sure whether Reicha ever intended this music to be performances as a continuous piece  or whether he planned it as a pedagogical work for students to dip in and out of to practice particular piano techniques. There is just about enough variety here to capture the attention of the listener for the almost one and a half hours that the piece lasts (I took a coffee break halfway through) but there were times when I really wanted him to  break out of the self-imposed straight jacket of the 12 bar phrase. I had hoped that perhaps there would be a free form finale but no - the ending follows the same patterns and doesn’t really bring the work to the conclusion that you would expect after 90 mins.

So an interesting ramble though one of the byways of musical history but it will never be more than a curiousity. 

Hervé Mam'zelle Nitouche

 Day 138

Hervé Mam'zelle Nitouche (extract)

Today was a very busy day so only had time for the briefest of listening. 

Hervé, whose real name was the rather splendid Louis-Auguste Florimond Ronger, was with Offenbach one of the founders of French Operetta. The two men collaborated for a while and then fell out, before reconciling shortly before Offenbach's death. 

I had time to listen to the overture and one duet. The overture is a typical no-nonsense 'here are all the tunes' piece which one can imagine being played by a small orchestra on the local bandstand. The duet was rather more fun with a lot of comic business which worked well even without being able to see what was happening.  I'll try to listen to the whole piece when I have an opportunity.

As an appendix I also listened to a tiny waltz by Hervé from his curiously named ballet Sports in England. The title is Mal de Mer (see sickness) and as the expression has it it does what it says on the tin. It is delightfully queasy!

Planquette Les Cloches de Corneville

 Day 137

Planquette Les Cloches de Corneville

Soloists

Chorus of l'Opéra de Paris

Orchestra du Théâtre National de l'Opéra-Comique

Jean Doussard

Les Cloches de Corneville and La Fille de Madam Angot (14 May) were the two big hits on the French light opera state in the 1870s and both went on to have huge numbers of performances throughout the world. They are very different. Lecocq's work is very much towards the operatic side of opéra comique whereas as this opera, by Planquette, seems much closer to comic opera. The music language is is much more straightforward- there are occasionally passages of interesting harmony but for the most it consists of fairly simply tunes with straightforward harmony and fairly plain orchestration. Yet, perhaps for that reason, I enjoyed it more than I did the Lecocq. For example the big tune in the song about the bells (the bells will only ring out when the rightful master of the castle returns - which inevitably he does) has a very naive tune which is almost like a nursery rhyme. Yet a day later I can't stop hearing it in my head - it is a real ear worm.

There was something of a Viennese flavour to the score. Most of these French light operas have a waltz but the one here seemed as if it could have come straight out of the world of Lehár and indeed some of the comic songs would not have been out of place in The Merry Widow.  So although this was probably the least sophisticated work in this little exploration of lighter French operas I certainly got a great deal of pleasure from it.

As a footnote it was surprising to find that the original performer of one of the lead soprano roles went on to record a few numbers from the opera. Given that the opera was first performed in 1877 that seemed unlikely but it turns out that Juliette Simon-Girard was only 18 when she sang in the first permanence so was only in her mid 40s when she made the recordings in 1903 (she lived on until 1854). I heard one of her recordings and through the rather primitive sound you can still hear a very lively and free performance - much more like a music hall artiste rather than an opera singer. That is probably very indicative of the style of the original performances

Bizet Djamileh

 Day 136

Bizet Djamileh

Soloists

Chorus of Lille opera

Les Siècles

François-Xavier Roth

When I was at University it would still have been slightly infra dig to be an admirer of Carmen. Yes you were allowed to enjoy it but opera, unless by Mozart, Monteverdi or Wagner was not really thought of at the same level as the traditional classical forms. Thankfully those days are past and we can appreciate Carmen for the masterpiece that it surely is.  There is of course more to Bizet than Carmen. I know most of the other popular pieces and some of the songs, but this opera was new to me. It has just been added to the Bru Zane collection and as ever comes with extensive background notes.

It many ways it is a typical piece of mid 19th century French exoticism, with plenty of opportunities for colourful ‘oriental’  music - or at least oriental music as imagined by a western composer.  We know that Bizet was a master of this - think of the slow movement of the symphony or the lovely Adieux de L’hôtesse Arabe - and the music here is ravishing. But there are also plenty of lighter moments with some lovely melodies.What did surprise me was the harmonic range of the score - there was some movements which would not have been out of place in Tristan. Indeed Bizet was accused by some critics of the crime of Wagnerism.

Exoticism apart the score was perhaps less overtly French than some of the other operas I have been listening to this week. I think that (whatever language it was being sung in) you would probably eventually conclude that it was French but it would not be immediately obvious.  

There is a lot more Bizet to explore (the Bru Zane set contains a lot of almost unknown music). is operas have suffered from the lack of a proper critical edition and there are all sorts of problems in establishing a reliable text. He also left several works unfinished. Only four of his operas (two of them one-acters) were performed in his lifetime and of course he died only only a few weeks after the first performance of Carmen when he was only 36.  What he might have achieved had he lived to a full age is one of the great unknowns in operatic history. 

Offenbach Monsieur Choufleuri

 Day 135

Offenbach Monsieur Choufleuri

Soloists

Orchestra Philhamonic de Monte Carlo

Manuel Rosenthal

There is more to Offenbach that the Can Can!  Many years of playing this as an encore piece at Christmas concerts might have put me off him for life but in fact I have a great admiration for Offenbach - as I get to know more of his operas the more I find to enjoy in his scores. There is a huge range of material in his music from extrovert energy though to touchingly romantic episodes and moments of real drama. Depending on how you count them they are more than 100 operettas to go at - I’ve not found one I didn’t enjoy.

This is a short one-act piece which is great fun. Right from the beginning the music leaps off the page. Subtle it isn’t - there is a lot of parody of Italian Opera and characteristic Offenbach use of nonsense syllables - but it makes a real impact and shows just what a master of the theatre he really was. 

Lecocq La Fille de Madame Angot

 Day 134

Lecocq la Fille de Madame Angot

Soloists

Choeur du Concert Spirituel

Orchestra de chamber de Paris

Sébastien Rouland

La Fille de Madame Angot was one of the most popular of all light French operas in the 19th century. According to Wikipedia it was performed in more than 100 French towns and cities within a year of its first performance and was produced all over the world. This is a recording in the Bru Zane series so there is a lot of interesting detail in the accompanying book, including Lecocq’s own reminiscences of how he came to write the score.  The title will be familiar because of the ballet version choreographed by Massine, which broadly follows the plot of the opera and uses much of its music. So some of the score was familiar to me from that context.

I must confess to a slight disappointment with the opera. Everything I have read about it suggests that it was one of the finest of all these lighter operas with a really high quality score. I didn’t quite hear it that way. It was clearly the work of a very accomplished composer and is full of interesting ideas but to me it didn’t quite hit the spot. There weren’t as many memorable numbers as I was expecting - indeed I don’t think that there was any really big tune in the whole of the first act. There were some in the latter acts, including a rather gorgeous waltz theme at the end of the second movement. The score was more overtly operatic than I was expecting - with many recit and filling in passages that would not have been out of place in Meyerbeer and perhaps Lecoq did not quite get the balance right between serious and light music. The comparison with yesterday’s opera by Verney is illuminating: Lecocq was clearly the more accomplished composer yet the much more basis score by Verney fizzed off the page in a way that the Lecocq didn’t.  It is surprising to me that la Fille was taken up by so many amateur operatic societies - I can’t be an easy piece to put together.

Varney Les Mousquetaires au couvent

 Day 133

Varney Les Mousquetaires au couvent

Soloists 

Orchestra Symphonique de la RTBF

Edgard Doneux

For the next few days I am crossing the channel and concentrating on one of my main interests - 19th century French Opera. Louis Varney (1844-1908) was was prolific composer of opéra comique/operetta. This is the only one of his pieces which has retained even a tenuous place in the repertoire. 

I found it a delight and thoroughly enjoyed making its acquaintance. As I have commented before there is no fundamental distinction between ‘serious’ and ‘light’ French operas. The basic musical language is broadly the same and differences are a matter of nuance rather anything more fundamental. So here we have elements of Auber and Rossini, but also Meyerbeer and on to Messager, with the shadow of Offenbach always in the background.  Varney has a very attractive lyrical musical voice with some real knockout melodies. The story - men doing into disguise to rescue pretty young girls from a convent -has similarities with with Le Comte Ory  and Princess Ida and gives lots of opportunities for attractive melodic writing for the female soloists in thirds. There is so much to enjoy here and there were many times when it made me smile or even laugh out loud. The verve is irresistible.

I’m looking forward exploring more of this repertory over the next few days.  

Grainger The Jungle Book

 Day 132

Grainger the Jungle Book

Polyphony

Stephen Layton

I’ve got to know a lot of Grainger’s music over the years - there is certainly more to him than Country Gardens and Handel in the Strand, delightful as they are. He is an intriguing figure - like more of the Frankfurt gang he was certainly rather odd (I don’t recall any other composer’s biography which includes naked photographs of subject and his wife) and he spent a lot of his later life experimenting with what he called free music using machines that he invented. One suspects that had been born a generation or two later he would have been a leading figure in the development of electro-acoustic music.

This setting of extracts from Kipling’s Jungle Book occupied Grainger on and off for 50 years. Some of the pieces are for unaccompanied voices, others are accompanied by a typically eccentric combination of instruments, including Grainger’s beloved saxophones.  I found the whole thing fascinating. Some of it was in a fairly characteristic folk-music style but others were quite wild with some extraordinary vocal and instrumental sonorities. Sometimes Grainger’s music can be rather gluttonous, with thick orchestration and and highly chromatic harmonies. There is some of this here, but in other places there is real lightness of touch.

It is hard to imagine that the whole cycle could be performance very often - the choral writing is virtuosic and a large group of instruments is required , some of which play for only a few moments. But as a one-off is was certainly a fascinating piece.

I discovered quite recently that I have a family connection with Grainger - a distant great uncle know Grainger well and there is correspondence between them in the published Grainger correspondence. Finding that out gave me real pleasure. 

Sullivan Overture to the Sapphire Necklace

 Day 131

Sullivan Overture to The Sapphire Necklace

RTE Concert Orchestra

Andrew Penny

Sullivan was the subject of my PhD thesis so I am familiar with most of his output but I had not heard this before. The Sapphire Necklace is a bit of a mystery. It was written in the early 1860s (it is his first opera) but although it seems to have been finished it was never performed and the score has disappeared. A couple of songs were published and the overture survives in piano-conductor’s score of military band arrangement. There have been various attempts at orchestrating it - this one is by Roderic Spencer. 

The piece shows clearly that the young Sullivan was a highly competent Leipzig-school composer. The beginning is dramatic but it then develops into something which is recognisable as Sullivanesque. Who knows what the history of English music might have been had the opera been performed. Would Sullivan have developed into a major composer of something equivalent to French Opèra Comique. Something like an English Bizet or Messager? An intriguing thought. 

Scott Lotus Land

 Day 130

Cyril Scott Lotus Land

Percy Grainger

Cyril Scott was  another member of the Frankfurt gang, several of whose members have featured (or will later) in this series.  Like most of the other members he was a slight odd figure, with, in his case, an interest in alternative medicine and the occult. His vast output is almost completely forgotten. This short piano piece is his most famous work. It is the only recording of his music I have in my collection. The performance is by Percy Grainger - the one member of the gang whose music has remained at all well known.

Lotus Land, from 1905, had a great vogue in the early years of the last century, mainly because it was taken up by the violinist Fritz Kreisler, who made an arrangement for violin and piano. To me it sounded as if a talented pianist familiar with the work of Debussy had sat down at the piano and improvised in a vaguely impressionistic style. It was quite attractive to listen to but rather cliched, without any real musical individuality of its own.  To me it was an interesting novelty but no more. I can’t imagine wanting to spend any more time with Cyril Scott, though perhaps buried in his vast output there might be things worth listening to.  But I am not tempted to take the time to find out. 

Quilter Three English Dances

 Day 129

Quilter Three English Dances

Northern Sinfonia

Richard Hickox

I’ve never had a particular interest in the 20th century English song tradition so although I do know a few of Quilter’s songs he is a not a composer I knew much about - the only orchestral piece of his I can recall hearing is the Children’s Overture.  These three dances date from 1911. I found them pleasant enough but at the same time not particularly memorable. There’s nothing of the wit that Grainger - a fellow member of the Frankfurt Gang (see day 127) - brought to such music. One felt that any competent English composer of the time could have turned out music like this almost on demand without too much effort or thought. Quilter fills up a space in the alphabetical list of composers in this blog but I am not sure that, based on this music, he does much more than that!

 

German Dances from Henry VIII

Day 128

 Edward German Dances from Henry VIII

Northern Sinfonia

Richard Hickox

Edward German is best remembered as the composer of Merrie England, a work which was once the mainstay of amateur musical societies - Wikipedia says that over 500 amateur societies performed the opera in Queen Elizabther’s coronation year - and I believe that when Sadlers Wells was looking at how to open its first season after the war there were many who suggested that Merrie England would have been a better choice than Peter Grimes.  I wonder how the history of music in post-war England might have gone had they got their way.

These dances, written for Irving’s 1892 production, were delightful. I have expected them to be very much in the ‘ye olde England’ tradition but they were fresh as a daisy. What did surprise me was how French they sounded - at times we seemed to be in the world of Delibes or Massenet. German’s career seems to have fizzled out around the turn of the century and he seems to have been saddened by the changing tastes in music which meant that his work seemed old-fashioned.  I hadn’t realised that he lives through to 1936, so much do I think of his as a late Victorian/Edwardian figure. But quality light music such as these dances will always be worth listening to - there is room for  Merrie England and Peter Grimes in the musical pantheon.

Gardiner Overture to a comedy

 Day 127

Henry Balfour Gardiner

Overture to a comedy

Richard Hickox

Balfour Gardiner is known today mainly as the man who put up the funds for the first performance of Holst’s The Planets, and also as the Great Uncle of the conductor John Elliot Gardiner. He was quite an important figure in British musical life for a while, being a member of the so-called Frankfurt Gang, along with composers such as Percy Grainger and Roger Quilter.

The only piece of his I have heard before is the oddly named shepherd fennell’s  dance which was once a mainstay of light music concerts.  This overture is slightly more substantial. It starts out in typical British light music style but then expands its musical vocabulary to reflect the influence of Elgar and even Richard Strauss.  It lacks a ‘killer tune’ which would make it truly memorable - as it was it was an attractive listen and I particularly enjoyed the jokey ending where there is what seems to be the closing passage only for the music to start off again briefly with some music from the beginning before finally comes to a resounding end. 

Much of Gardiner’s music is lost and he gave up composing in mid life to concentrate on organic farming. He is only a footnote in musical history but a number of composers - not just Holst - were grateful for his financial support. So he deserves our thanks. 

Carter A symphony of 3 orchestras

 Day 126

Carter A symphony of 3 orchestras

New York Philharmonic Orchestra

Pierre Boulez

I have heard a few pieces by Elliott Carter over the years - I recall a string quartet and the double concerto - but he is not a composer that I have ever got to know in any depth. This symphony dates from 1976 and so is a late work, though ‘late’ is a relative term for Carter, who continued composing beyond the age of 100.

This was a tough piece and I am not sure whether I really enjoyed listening to it. I didn’t have a score and so only could get a very broad over view of the piece.  I can’t say I followed the structure, although it had a quite clear coda with a gradual disintegration broken by a series of explosive chords.  The main attraction of the piece was the textural variety. The orchestra is divided into three distinct groupings (hence the title) and I imagine that in performance the division would be much clearer than on a recording. 

This is the last in this series of American symphonies - it has been a worthwhile experience sampling the work of a number of composers, most of whom I knew by name only. It has been the symphonies which are more European in style that have made the greater impression - I suspect that for an American listener the opposite might well be true.  I am very busy over the next week so I will be listening to some shorter, more lightweight, English orchestral pieces

Mennin Symphony no 3

 Day 125

Peter Mennin Symphony no 3

New York Philharmonic Orchestra

Dimitri Mitropoulos

Peter Mennin is one of those many mid 20th century American composers who combined composition with an academic career - In Mennin’s case this included a long period as president of the Juliard School of music. He wrote nine symphonies though the first two were withdrawn (he later allowed performances of the second). This symphony dates from 1946 and was in fact his PhD composition. It seems to have had an immediate impact and was widely performed - this recording dates from as early as 1955.  I thought that it was an impressive work. It was not recognisably American at all but clearly has its roots in the European symphonic tradition. As I have noted several times in this series, Hindemith is clearly an influence but there are also hints of Vaughan Williams and Sibelius. The last movement has very strong overtones of Walton’s first symphony. 

The first and last movement have real energy and a symphonic drive which compelled attention. The middle movement was lyrical with just enough astringency to ensure that it did not become banal - something that not all of the American symphonies I have listed to in the project managed to avoid. I couldn’t find a score to follow the music but I found I didn’t need one to retain my concentration  - unlike some of the other symphonies I listened to recently where without a score to keep my attention. I’d certainly be up for listening to some more of Mennin’s music. 

Still Symphony no 1

 Day 124

William Grant Still Symphony no 1 Afro-American Symphony

Forth Smith Symphony Orchestra

John Jeter

This is generally reckoned to be the first symphony written by an African-American performed by a leading US orchestra - in this case the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, which gave the first performance in 1931.  As such it deserves respect and recognition, but I must confess I found it rather tedious. It inhabits the same musical world as George Gershwin and I have never been much attracted to his music so perhaps it was not surprising that I had the same reaction to this symphony. It seems to me to have all of the clichés of the popular American jazz-folk style without really absorbing them into a symphonic whole. It did not quite know how seriously to take itself. I can imagine that it is quite fun in a live performance - to see a Banjo playing with a symphony orchestra is a rare sight (though there are some Gershwin pieces that do this) but other than novelty value I don't see this pieces as having any sort of permanent place in the concert repertoire.

Sessions Symphony no 1

 Day 123

Sessions Symphony no 1

New York Philharmonic Orchestra

Neeme Jarvi

Roger Sessions is another of those American composers whose name I recognised but whose music I have never heard. He has the reputation as a severe serialist but this early work (from 1927) is more neo-classical in style. I enjoyed it immensely. The outer movements are wind dominated and the idiom and sound seemed close to that of Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments, written only a few years earlier. I don't know whether Sessions would have had any opportunities to hear the Stravinsky and the score was not published until much later. There are also hints of Copland, not least in the rhythmic complexities. The slow movement is surprisingly lyrical and I thought that it was highly effective - the harmony was largely tonal but with some 'rough edges'. Altogether the piece made a very positive impression and I am keen to hear more of Sessions' work, though I expect that some of the later pieces will be much tougher nuts to crack.

Hovhaness Symphony no 2

 Day 122

Alan Hovhaness

Symphony no 2 Mysterious Mountain

London Symphony Orchestra

John Williams

Alan Hovhaness is  another composer who I was aware of but have no recollection of hearing anything of. I think I first came across his name because of his piece and God created great whales which featured recordings of real whale sounds - that had a certain notoriety in the late 1960s. Also his record label advertised almost every month, it seemed in the pages of Gramophone, which I have been reading continuously since I was about 16.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this music - if anything I anticipated some ‘new age’ sounds in the spirit of Tavener or Argo Pärt (though those composers came a generation later). So I was surprised at how English the whole thing sounded.  Listened to cold I think that you would guess that much of it was by Vaughan Williams - indeed the string chords which open the peice and return several times seem an almost straight lift from the Tallis Fantasia. The allegro string writing in the second movement - almost entirely on white notes - would not be out of place in one of those characteristic string orchestra pieces that early to mid 20th century English composers seem to have a real affinity for, though I don’t think that any of them would have been happy with such a narrow harmonic pallet.

I think that the best description of the piece is ‘inoffensive’ - it was quite pleasant to listen to but didn’t seem to have much to really make you sit up a listen. I got the sense that the composer was able to operate on auto pilot and turn out this sort of thing by the yard.  This is one of 67 numbered symphonies by the composer , whose opus numbers go up to 434. I don’t think that there is any possibility that I will make listening to the whole cycle a priority.

Schuman Symphony no 3

 Day 121

William Schuman Symphony no 3

New York Philharmonic Orchestra

Leonard Bernstein

William Schuman was just a name to me - as far as I know I have never heard any of his music. This symphony, written in 1941, seems to be regarded as one of his finest symphonies (he wrote 10, though two of them were withdrawn) and I have to say that I found it to be a very impressive work.  It is in two movements, each of which are in two parts, so in reality it is a four movement symphony.   Thought there are certainly American influences here it seemed more rooted in European tradition that the other mid 30th century symphonies I have been listening to over the last few days. Some of it recalls Hindemith and there were hints of Sibelius but also of Walton - certainly some of the ferocious string writing has a kinship with Walton's first symphony.  

The first movement, in particular, was gripping and leads to a tremendous climax with some superb brass writing. Perhaps the second movement is not quite on that level - the toccata second part did seem to drift a little and I couldn't quite see what he was doing at some points. But overall this was a really good piece and one which I would be keen to hear again.  Indeed I would like to explore the other symphonies in the cycle - if there are anything like as good as this one then they will be rewarding listening.