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.
No comments:
Post a Comment