Martin Requiem

 Day 181

Frank Martin Requiem

Soloists

Basel Sinfonietta 

Klauss Knall

I first came across the music of Frank Martin when I was still at school when I acquired an LP of his concerto for 7 wind instruments - I think that I had vague ideas of performing it with my fellow wind players at school, although of course it would have been far too difficult. Other than that I have heard his petite symphonie concertante but that it is about it for his music.

This setting of the requiem is a relatively modest work - about 30 mins - and is generally reflective rather than dramatic in tone. Even the Dies Irae is more of a contemplation than a picture of the last trump á la Verdi or Berlioz. I found it to be an impressive work. I couldn't find a score so my impressions are simply from listening but it did find it haunting and well worth another listen. The harmonic idiom hovers between tonality and atonality in the way that some late Britten pieces do - indeed listening to this cold you might have said that it was by Britten - the use of bells is highly characteristic of the latter. 

I'd like to hear it again with the benefit of a score to get a closer appreciation of the piece, but certainly on this first hearing I am inclined to explore more of Frank Martin's work.

Stanford Requiem

 Day 180

Stanford Requiem

Soloists

University of Birmingham Voices

CBSO

Martyn Brabbins

I've had limited exposure to the music of Stanford. Because I have never sung in church choirs I'm not familiar with the range of ecclesiastical music of his which still holds an important place in the repertory. I have heard a couple of his symphonies over the years but don't recall ever playing anything of his.

This Requiem is a full scale work from 1897 written in commemoration of Lord Leighton. While I enjoyed it I didn't get the sense that it was a neglected masterpiece. I don't think that Stanford had a sense of how to convey drama and so the more extrovert sections are rather foursquare and the fugues are rather hard going. On the other hand the more lyrical music is attractive - none more so that the Sanctus, which has some beautiful anitiphonal effects building to a strong climax. The harmonic style is largely conservative, as you would expect from a British composer writing in the late Victorian era, though there are some moments where you can certainly detect the influence of Wagner. 

A work certainly worth hearing, though I can't imagine that it will ever get many live performances. There has been something of a Stanford revival in recent years and most of his music is now available on record so perhaps there are other pieces worth exploring.

Suppé Requiem

 Day 179

Suppé Requiem 

Soloists

Chorus and orchestra of the Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon

This was a major discovery.  I was aware that Suppé had written a Requiem and I had read good reports of it but I had never heard it. My knowledge of Suppé was, like most people, confined to a few overtures, though I had heard and enjoyed, his light opera Die Schöne Galathée. He had an impeccable musical upbringing. He was a pupil of Simon Sechter - a distinction he shared with with Schubert and Bruckner, and also of Ignaz Seyfried, himself a pupil of Mozart. Suppé knew Rossini, Donizetti and Verdi.

What is striking about this Requiem is that there is almost no trace of the popular style that Suppé is well known for. It is a serious work showing off a full range of musical styles, from accompanied fugues which clearly are derived from the the tradition of the great Haydn choral works, though to dramatic arias which Verdi would have been happy to acknowledge. The choral writing is particularly impressive - with some chant-like passages as well as some expansive passages. Suppé has a real harmonic gift as well as an ability to keep the music moving forward, even in the most expressive passages. He often uses ostinato figures to achieve this. One movement is in the unusual time signature of 15/8.  So a real surprise and a piece to come back to. It does make me keen to discover what else there is of Suppé’s out there.

Bach W F E Westphalens Freude

 Day 178

Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach Westphalens Freude

Soloists

Das Kleine Konzert

Hermann Max

For the final work in this exploration of the Bach family I go forward a further generation to the only one of Bach's grandsons who composed. W F E Bach (1759- 1845). He was a Kapellmeister in Berlin and lived long enough to meet Schumann at the unveiling of a monument to his grandfather JSB. He was modest about his own achievements, saying 'Heredity can tend to run out of ideas' . This secular cantata dates from 1788 and celebrates the accession to the Prussian Throne of FriedrichWilhelm II. It is very much of the world of Early Haydn Mozart and Gluck and it well put together with some charming melodies and some attractive wind writing. You would never call it a masterpiece but on its own terms it works well and clearly went down well with the Emperor, because he offered WFE the post in Berlin.

WFE also wrote a piece for 6 hands at the piano which is played by two (female) pupils in the middle of the keyboard with the (male) teacher putting his arms round them both to play the very top and very bottom parts of the piece. It is quite fun though it would hardly be allowed today!

This ends my exploration of a handful of Bachs. What is extraordinary is how the family died out. You would think that having had 20 children JSB would have had lots of descendants but in fact WFE's children were the last undisputed members of JSB's line.  I say undisputed because there are various accounts of some illegitimate children in direct descent and some people in Oklahoma of all places claim to be direct descendants. We may well never know the truth. 

For the next project I am going to look at various settings of the Requiem.    

Bach J C F Die Amerikanerin

 Day 177

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach Die Amerikanerin

Magdalena Kožená

Musica antiqua köln

Reinhard Goebel

JCF Bach was the fourth son of JSB to become a composer, although of the four he is the least well known. This cantata for solo voice and strings is an attractive work dating from 1776. The title and the year are pure coincidence - although the piece is called the American woman it has nothing to do with the USA - it was originally entitled A Moor's Song and American seems to have been a catch all phrase meaning exotic.

For 1776 the music seems quite old fashioned - much of it is reminiscent of Handel, particularly the dotted rhythms in the opening movement, though some of it does sound more like Gluck. It is quite attractive in its way though not particularly memorable and it does rather just come to a stop rather than any sort of proper conclusion.  It is obviously the work of a highly competent musician but I wouldn't put it any higher than that.

Bach J M Dem Menschen ist gesetzt, einmal zu sterben

 Day 176

Johan Michael Bach Dem Menschen ist gesetzt, einmal zu sterben

Yorkshire Bach Choir

Peter Seymour

Johan Michael Bach (1648-1694) was JSB's father in law. I got confused by this - how could his wife's father's name be Bach? - but the explanation is that JSB married his first cousin on his father's side, hence the same name. So JMB was not a blood relation of JSB but was still very much part of his musical world. 

This is music from the generation before JSB and is very much in the tradition of Schutz. It is setting for double choir and continuo of words of St Paul for use at a funeral service. I found it impressive and moving. It is fairly simply in design, with alternation between the two choirs throughout. It is mainly in slow moving block harmony but has some more overtly contrapuntal passages at times - particularly towards the end. JM Bach doesn't seem to have composed very much music - he was also an instrument maker - but on the basis of this piece he had a real talent. 

Bach W F Sinfonia in F

 Day 175

W F Bach Sinfonia in F Fk67

CPE Bach chamber orchestra

Hartmut Haenchen

W F Bach was JSB’ first-born son and this comes from half a generation earlier than J C Bach. This shows in this music, which has one foot in the baroque and one in the classical era. I found it fascinating and much more worthy of attention that the music of CPE and JC which I head in the previous two days (admitting that that is only a very small sample). 

It is curious mixture of Handel, Vivaldi and Haydn. Much of it has is in the spirit of a trio donate (though there are often independent viola parts) but there are also times when it looks forward to Haydn. The harmonic language is advanced for the time with some very surprising discords and changes of key and there are some rhythmic tricks which Haydn would have been proud of.

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this music - WF tends to have been overshadowed by CPE and JC. He was certainly less successful in his lifetime and ended up in near poverty, but that is no reason to assume that the judgement of his contemporaries was right.

Bach J C Two sinfonias

 Day 17

J C Bach Sinfonias op 3 nos 1 and 2

Camerata Budapest

Hanspeter Gmur

J C Bach was the youngest of JSB’s sons and belongs firmly in the classical period. He was known as the London Bach and was well connected with the major composers of his generation. These two sinfonias (from a set of 6) are very typical example of the early classical symphony. Scored for horns oboes and strings they are in three movements with the middle movement for strings only. There is some attractive music here though I didn’t think that there was too much that was particularly distinctive - there must be hundreds of early classical symphonies like this. The third movement had something of the spirit of Haydn with some rhythmic displacement and a few touches of adventurous harmony. J C wrote a French Opera, Adamis de Gaule, which has been recorded by Bru Zane. it will be something to investigate at a future state.

Bach CPE Double concerto

 Day 173

CPE Bach concerto for fortepiano harpsichord and strings

Collegium Aurem

Jos Van Immerseel

 Eric Kelley

The next stage of this project will be devoted to exploring the music of the wider Bach family - repertoire of which I am almost completely unfamiliar. I start with CPE Bach, JSB’s third son. He was probably the most widely recognised of Bach’s sons. Indeed to a musician in the 1760s onward the name Bach almost certainly meant CPE.

He was at the forefront of the transition from the Baroque to the Classical style - the so called ‘style gallant’ This concerto is a late work -1788 - by which time his music was very much in the established classical idiom - indeed parts of the piece could be easily be mistaken for Mozart and, particularly in the last movement, Haydn.  The choice of solo instruments also reflects changing tastes  with the old-fashioned harpsichord and the modern fortepiano both having solo parts.  

I knew this work existed but I had never heard it.  I has assumed that CPE would have contrasted the different tones and capabilities of the two instruments - perhaps by giving the fortepiano more sustained melodic material and dynamic contrast - but he didn’t do that. The material for the two instruments is - to my eyes and ears - barely indistinguishable. Instead he obviously wanted to contrast the tones of the two instruments by them playing the same material in alternation, so that you could hear the difference. Whatever the reason the piece certainly works and I enjoyed it. The slow movement - quite long - is expressive in a very simple manner and the rondo finale is great fun with some very Haydnesque rhythmic and harmonic touches. 

There’s lots more CPE to discover but for the moment I need to go onto hear music from his brothers and then the other family members.

Macfarren Robin Hood

 Day 172

George Alexander Macfarren Robin Hood

Soloists

Victorian Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Ronald Corp

Macfarren (who was English and not as one might imagine Scottish) was one of the leading music administrators in 19th century England. He had a long association with the Royal Academy of Music, eventually becoming its Principal. He wrote extensively in all forms and his music was admired by, among others, Wagner and Mendelssohn. He was an admirer of Purcell and was of the view that English opera should follow the Purcellian model of being an amalgam of music and dialogue. You can clearly this this in Robin Hood(1860), which is essentially a ballad opera where there is little attempt at musical continuity.  The score has a lot of individually attractive numbers, some of which are called ballads, and a glee for the male voices. The whole thing is extremely old fashioned for 1860 (after all Wagner was writing Tristan at the time!) but on its own terms quite successful and charming.  There is a fair bit of ‘ye olde England’ in parts of the libretto, which now comes across as horribly twee, and the more energetic and concerted music is rather cliched. But overall I enjoyed making its acquaintance, even though it very clearly shows that this was not the parth that English opera needed to go down.

I’ve learned a lot over the last week of listening to these Victoria operas. In particular the discovery of Raymond and Agnes is something to be really appreciated. What a loss for English music Loder’s early death was.

The last few weeks have been spent very much in middle and late part of the 19th century so tomorrow it is time to start exploring something quite different - the music of the Bach family, of which I know almost nothing. 

  

Goring Thomas overture to The Golden Web

 Day 171

Arthur Goring Tomas overture The Golden Web

Victorian Opera Orchestra

Richard Bonynge

Goring Thomas (I think that Goring was actually a middle name but I always think of him as Goring Thomas) established quite a reputation for himself as an opera composer in the 1880s with several operas being produced successful both in London and in Germany. He is one of the might-have-beens of English opera - he had severe mental health problems and threw himself in front of a train at the age of 41.

Very little of his music has been recorded. This overture is from his last opera, which is lighter in character than the ones which want before it. It is an attractive piece which reminded me at time of French composers such as Bizet or Massenet but it hardly gives a rounded picture of the composer's work.  There are a couple of extracts from other of his operas in historical recordings. You don't really get much of an impression from these but the duet Dear Love of Mine from Nadesha recorded by Clara Butt and her husband Kennerley Rumford in 1925 suggests that the composer is worth exploring. A number of Victorian operas have now been recorded and perhaps it is time that Goring Thomas took his place among them.

Benedict The Lilly of Killarney

 Day 170

Benedict The Lilly of Killarney

Soloists

BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra

Stanford Robinson

This is the third of the operas forming the English Ring. Given that the other two were written by Irish men and this one has an Irish story and was written by a German-born composer the nickname seems completely inappropriate.

The only recording I could find was a very poor quality third-generation copy of a BBC broadcast from the 1960s so it was very hard to really appreciate the details of the score. But this was none the less a good opera. There are touches of Weber everywhere - not least in the choruses which do seem first cousins of the choruses in Oberon and Der Freischütz  perhaps not surprising as Benedict was a pupil of Weber and later wrote a biography of him. There is some really effective dramatic music here without too much of the rum-ti-tum that one often finds in early romantic opera but also some beautiful lyric passages which have some delightful light touches. The most famous number from the opera is the duet The Moon hath raised her lamp above, a great favourite in parlour get togethers and ballad concerts - it is surprisingly effective in context and does linger in the memory long after it has been sung. 

I'd really like to hear a good recording of this opera to have a chance to appreciate all of the detail - but until that comes along I am glad to have the opportunity to hear the work. Of the three operas in the English Ring I am clear that The Bohemian Girl is, by some distance, the weakest. Between this and Maritana I can't decided a preference. The latter is perhaps the strongest overall but The Lilly might well have some of the best individual moments. 

Barnett overture to The Mountain Sylph

Day 169

John Barnett

Overture to the Mountain Sylph

Victorian concert orchestra

Richard Bonynge

A busy day today so only time for a brief overture - in any case this is all that is recorded of John Barnett's 1834 opera The Mountain Sylph. John Barnett (1832-1890) had some early success, particularly with this opera from 1834 but rather faded away and largely retired from composition. This overture is short and rather attractive - it is very much in the style of Weber and if it were advertised as a hitherto unknown piece of Weber I don't think that many people would have been any the wiser. It builds to a nice climax but then winds down into a quiet ending - I assume to go straight into the action of the opera.

I don't suppose that there will ever be a chance to hear the whole opera - a pity as it would be intriguing to see whether Barnett kept up the high standard of the overture.

Loder Raymond and Agnes

 Day 168

E Loder Raymond and Agnes

Soloists

Richard Bonyge

 This is not part of the so-called English Ring - the third part of that will come tomorrow. It is instead one of the most intriguing of all English romantic operas.  Loder was well connected musically - he studied with Beethoven’s friend and colleague Ferdinand Reis - but has somehow disappeared almost completely from English, let alone European, musical history. He wrote several operas but this is the only one which has been performed since his death and is the only one one which is recorded. It had a fairly successful premiere in Manchester (1855) and had a few performances in a secondary opera house in London. After that it disappeared completely until a chance discovery of the vocal score by the scholar Nicholas Temperley let to a revival at Cambridge in the 1960s, where several leading operatic critics heaped praise on the score. Since then it has not been revived until this recent recording.

It is a fine opera. Loder had a real sense of dramatic flair and knew how to balance action and reflection. The harmonic language is well developed - certainly for an English opera of the time - and the melodic lines are attractive. Yes there is a bit of blood and thunder and rum-it-tum, but not much of it and instead we get orchestral accompaniments of real insight and invention. There are some splendid ensembles, particularly in the Act 2 finale and some affecting recitative. The musical language owes much to Weber and Rossini, with touches of Auber and Meyerbeer but it is never derivative 

This was a real find. I had know about the opéra from reading reviews of the Cambridge revival but I had never heard any of the music before. It is astonishing that this work was completely forgotten whereas the mediocre (to put in generously) Bohemian Girl, which dates from around the same time, held the stage for 100 years.  One can only imagine that the history of opera in England might have been quite different if this opera had been taken up property at Covent Garden and the big international opera houses of Europe - it certainly would not have been out of place on any of those major stages. Instead it was only a chance discovery of the score that prevented it being completely forgotten. 

Balfe The Bohemian Girl

 Day167

Balfe The Bohemian Girl

Soloists

National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland

Richard Bonynge

The Bohemian Girl is the best known of the three operas making up the English Ring, not least because there is a Laurel and Hardy film which is, very loosely, based on the opera. It survived in the repertoire into the mid 20th century - oddly enough Sir Thomas Beecham only conducted two operas at Covent Garden after the war - Die Meistersinger and The Bohemian Girl. Like the other two operas in the set (if you can call it that) a few numbers had a life outside the stage, particularly from this opera I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls, which was a staple of the drawing room recital. There is a famous recording of it by Joan Sutherland at her most languorous - it sounds beautiful but there are no consonants and so she might as well be singing in any language you care so name.

The opera has all of the problems I referred to yesterday with Maritana, but alas none of its redeeming features. I found it a very poor piece of work - tedious and uninspired. Balfe may have been able to conjure up a good tune or two but he seems to have no idea how to go about writing an operatic scene. He doesn't use harmony to drive the action forward when necessary and there is a complete lack of any drama - some of it is simply comic where it is not supposed to be. He falls back on cliches and worn out gestures and seems to have very little imagination of his own.  I find it astonishing that such a poorly written piece could have been such a popular work throughout the late Victorian era and beyond. Had I not been determined to hear it all the way though for this project I would certainly have given up on it well before if it finally ground to a halt.   

Wallace Maritana

 Day 166

William Vincent Wallace

Maritana

RTE Philharmonic Choir and Concert Orchestra

Poinnasias Ó Duinn

In this exploration of British Romantic Opera I come to the first of three operas which are together know, somewhat tongue in cheek, as the English Ring. Considering that the operas are all by different composers and have nothing in common despite the time that they were written it is a bit of a stretch to associate them with the Ring, so say nothing of the fact that two of the three composers were Irish.

William Wallace was certainly an interesting character - his life story is well worth reading, containing as it does time on a Whaling ship in the south seas and conducting opera in Mexico City, though there are some doubts about whether any or all of what he said was actually true,

Mariana (1845) was his greatest success and held the stage in one form or another for 100 years. The plot is absurd (it shares some similarities with The Yeomen of the Guard), the characters are wooden and the libretto is stiff and in places unintentionally comic. Yet despite all of this is made quite a strong impression. Wallace has a real melodic gift and some of the numbers in the opera - especially the martial aria Yes Let me like a solider fall became popular items at ballad concerts and amateur music soirees. There is an energy about the score and although some of it certainly relies on the standard  musical devices of early 19th century opera Wallace knows how to keep the interest going. 

I can't image that the opera could be performed nowadays - I think it would be in danger of being laughed off the stage - but that is is a pity as there are some fine moment in it. Particularly I think the big ensemble at the end of Act II where Wallace produces music that Donizetti would have been happy to have called his own.

MacCunn Jeanie Deans - extracts

 Day 165

MacCunn Jeanie Deans (extracts)

Soloists

Scottish Opera Chorus

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Martyn Brabbins

After some time both literally and metaphorically in France it is time to go back across the channel and spend a few days exploring a genre of which I have only the sketchiest of knowledge - British 19th century Romantic opera. 

Hamish MacCunn is known almost entirely for his overture The Land of the Mountain and the Flood, which came to prominence when it was used as the signature tune for a TV series for a drama set, not surprisingly, in Scotland. I’ve played it a couple of times and thought it quite pleasant without giving it quite as much regard as some people clearly do.

Jeanie Deans dates from 1894 and  like some many 19th century operas is based, if somewhat loosely, on Walter Scott, in this case The Heart of Midlothian. It was well received at its premiere but soon fell out of the repertory and has had only occasional performances since 1900.  I was expecting it to be an example of  fake folklore with a lot of pastiche highland country music. That impression was certainly met early on when, after a short introduction, we got straight into Scots Wha Hae territory. But actually one you got past that there was some impressive music here in a mid to late 19th century mainstream operatic style - Verdi was certainly in the background as was Meyerbeer, and at times it does seem possible that I was listening to a little known Tchaikovsky opera in a bad translation.  There was a fair amount of amount of blood and thunder here and subtlety wasn't one of MacCunn's strong points, but the quieter, more contemplative, music was impressive particularly the lament Effie Deans (sister of the title character) sings in a prison cell. That could have found its place quite happily in an opera by any of the major 19th century opera composers without any embarrassment.

Dubois Fantasie for harp and orchestra

 Day 164

Theodore Dubois Fantasie for harp and orchestra

Emmanuelle Ceysson

Orchestra Régional Avignon-Provence

Samuel John

Dubois is a name which turns up quite often in studies of French music because he held important academic posts and was well respected as a theorist. He was regarded as a conservative figure and was mixed up in the scandal that erupted when Ravel was denied the Prix de Rome for being too much of a modernist.

This Fantasie lasts 15 minutes and I have to say that it is one of the most inconsequential pieces I have heard in this entire project to date.  There is nothing wrong with it and it is quite pretty in place but the music just ambles along in a sort of sub-Fauré style but without ever being memorable or inventive. Much of the harp writing seems to me to be quite unidiomatic and looks like piano music. So I am happy to return Dubois to the obscurity from which he came

Bonis Salomé

Day 163

 Bonis Salomé

Leo Hussain

Mel Bonis is another of the seemingly inexhaustible supply of female French 19th century composers brought back into prominence by Bru Zane and other CD labels. It really has given us a fresh light on musical life in France. 

Mel Bonis (1858-1937) achieved some early successes. Saint Saens is supposed to have said’ I never imagined that a woman could write such music’ on hearing her piano quartet but she later faded away into obscurity, though she never stopped composing. Her personal life was rather tragic including the birth of an illegitimate child who was given up for adoption.

This piece is the third in a series of music portraits of mythical women - the other two are Cleopatra and Ophelia. It is very much Salomé with an acute accent on the final ‘e’ - and belongs squarely in that French tradition of exoticism and mystery when looking Eastwards. Indeed at times it seems that you couldn’t be considered a ‘proper’ late 19th century French composer unless you had made your contribution to the genre.  I thought it was a really good piece - full of interesting harmony and with considerable rhythmic freedom. The orchestration was distinctive and certainly looked forward to the world of the Firebird. All in all I thought that it was one of the best pieces I have come across in this little survey of French symphonic poems. My only criticism was that it was too short - something I’ve not said very often so far in this blog. It ended rather abruptly and I would have been happy to have heard more.  The Dance of the Seven Veils from Strauss’s Salome seems very tawdry and overextended in comparison!

Boulanger (L) D’un matin de printemps

 Day 162

Lilli Boulanger D’un matin de printemps

Orchestra national de Lyon

Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider

Lilli Boulanger is one of the great ‘might have beens’ of French music. She was the first woman to win the music prize at the Prix de Rome and she was beginning to establish herself as a significant presence before her tragic death at the age of only 25. Her sister Nadia also composed but she never thought herself the equal of her sister and of course Nadia went on to be the most influential music teacher of the first half of the 20th century.

I’d not heard any of Lilli Boulanger’s music before - it has the reputation of being quite intense and serious but this piece - a portrait of a spring morning - is very genial and attractive. It is very obviously French in style and, particularly, orchestration, but at times seems to be looking forward to some of the textures in Stravinsky’s Firebird.  There is a huge confidence in this music - remarkable for one so young and one can see why her early death was such a tragedy for the development of French music. I certainly want to discovery more of her music in due course.

Joncières La Toussaint

 Day 161

Joncières La Toussaint

Orchestra National de Lyon

Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider

So far in this blog I have heard of all the composers whose music I have listened to even if I did not know any of their music. But I had not come across Joncières before acquiring the Bru Zane double CD set of French symphonic poems - Aux Etoiles - which has been the source of most of the music I have been listening to in the last few days.

He lived from 1839 - 1903 and seems to have been only moderately successful as a composer. He earned his living as a critic and seems to have taken pleasure in attacking the music of composers who were much more successful than he was.

This short piece is a slow processional for all saint day. Some of the reviews I have seen dismissed it as not really worth listening to but I enjoyed it. It was well written with a good sense of line and some piquant harmonies. It is no masterpiece but would make quite a good interlude in a concert which otherwise consisted of louder faster pieces. Bru Zane have recently recorded the composer's opera Dimitri and I am sure that I will get round to acquiring a copy before too long.

 

Boeildieu Jean de Paris overture

 Day 160

Boeildieu overture to Jean de Paris

Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana

Howard Griffiths

As I have been staying in Rouen for a few days it seems right that I make this by including some music by its most famous musical son Boeildieu. I've know La dame blanche since university days and I have great affection for the piece. Over the years I heard a few more of his overtures and his harp concerto but this overture was new to me.  I'd have liked to have heard the complete opera but there were many other things going on and I had to make do with just the overture.

This overture (1812) is a lightweight but charming piece. It seems to be a bridge between the world of Haydn and that of Rossini - indeed if you heard it cold you may well think it was an early piece of Rossini though it doesn't yet have an extended crescendo section. I enjoyed it a lot and it made we want to listen to some more of the composer's work. Incidentally there were a number of places where this performance differed from the published score - there was quite a lot of added percussion which to my way of thinking rather spoilt the charm of the piece. But there are so many issues with authentic texts of operas of this period that there may well be authentic variants of the score.

Bruneau La Belle aus Bois dormant

 Day 159

Bruneau Le Belle aus Bois dormant

Orchestra National de Lyon

Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider

Bruneau (1857-1934_ is another of those people who turn up in histories of French opera and collections of historic recordings.  His operas l'attaque du moulin and Le Rêve did attract a considerable amount of attention in the early 20th century but his day is surely long past. This little symphonic poem is an early work (1886) based on the story of the Sleeping Beauty. The opening was atmospheric and its sound world is not a million miles away from what Debussy was developing around that time. But as the piece continue I found myself less and less engaged. The big peroration at the end is obviously intended to bring the music to a resounding conclusion but I thought that it misfired and seemed rather trivial and cliched. Some reviewers of the CD of French symphonic poems from which this performance is taken took a different view and singled this piece out for special praise. Did I miss something?

Rabaud La Procession Nocturne

 Day 158

Henri Rabaud: La Procession Nocturne

Orchestra National de Lyon

Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider

Henri Rabaud (1873-1949) is one of those splendidly moustached figures that one comes across in French  operatic history. The name has not quite completely faded away - largely because some early 20th century singers recorded arias from his one big hit Mârouf and those are still listened to by students of historical singing. But he is very much a minor figure.

This is an early tone poem (1899) which was the first of his works to gain wide attention. It is in several fairly slow sections, each of which is quite distinctive. It does sound like the work of a French composer, but again you can hear by the end of the century just how much Warner’s music had worked its way into the French musical idiom.  Indeed when one considers what Richard Strauss was achieving with tone poems a decade earlier (Don Juan dates from 1889) the music does seem a little stiff and old fashioned.

So my curiosity as to what Rabaud’s music might be like has been satisfied for now. I suspect that there is more to him that this and I might try to find time to listen to Mârouf at some point, but for now I will leave him here and go on tomorrow to another little known late 19th century French composer. I’ve not quite chosen which one yet - there are plenty to go at.

Guiraud Ouverture d’Arteveld

 Day 157

Ernest Guiraud Overture d’Arteveld

Orchestra National de Lyon

Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider

Thousands - probably millions - of people will have heard music by Guiraud even though they were almost certainly unaware of it. That is because of Carmen. The opera was originally performed at the Opéra Comique and included spoken dialogue. Spoken dialogue was banned at the Paris Opéra so when, after Bizet’s death the Opéra wanted to perform Carmen Guiruad, who had been a close friend of the composer, was engaged to turn the dialogue into orchestrally accompanied recitatives.  It was in this form that Carmen was almost always performed up to the 1960s and 1970s when the original version with dialogue started to be revived. Nowadays it is very rare for the recitative version to be used. Guiraud was also responsible for sorting out the chaotic state in which Offenbach left The Tales of Hofmann at his death and again Guiraud’s edition was widely used until more recent scholarship has started to disentangle Offenbach’s true intentions.

So he was an important figure in French opera but not for his own music. I’ve never heard any of his own compositions but this short freestanding overture, on a compilation of Symphonic Poems on the invaluable  Bru Zane label, was today’s choice.  It starts very dramatically with a slow and menacing introduction, probably the best music in the piece. The main section is more vigorous and contains some attractive music but was perhaps less distinctive and which occasionally descended into cliche. The music is obviously French but there were some distinctly Schumann-like touches and the spirit of early Wagner lurked in the background. 

I doubt that there will be many other opportunists to hear more music by Guiraud so I am glad to have encountered this overture. But I am sure that he will continued to be remembered only by his association with Bizet and Carmen.

Berlioz Chant des chemins de fer

 Day 156

Berlioz Chant des chemins de fer

Rollando Villazón

Orchestra nationale du capitol de Toulouse

Michael Plasson

I’ve been an Berlioz enthusiast for as long as I can remember. I’ve conducted/played a number of the orchestral works and have listened to virtually everything that he wrote. But this oddity had eluded me until now. I decided to start this brief exploration little known French music with this piece, not least because it was written to commemorate the opening of the railway between Lille and Paris and today I was travelling on that very line to start a short break in the Normandy area.

I’d know that Berlioz had written a piece with this title but didn’t know anything about it. I was expecting something fairly brief and loud without much subtlety but in fact there is quite a lot to this music. It had a generally brisk main theme - led by a solo tenor - which recurs several times, but there are also some slower sections including an impressive hymn-like passage. The music is full of Berliozian fingerprints and is unmistakably his. Although it was written in a hurry (3-4 days) and for much needed money it does in my view stand comparison with the composer’s more well-known music. Indeed had parts of it been incorporated into the Damnation of Faust I don’ think that anybody would have be any the wiser.

I am pretty sure that there is nothing else of Berlioz remaining for me to discover - I even know his toccata for Harmonium - the only piece of purely abstract music he ever wrote.

Holbrooke symphony no 3

 Day 155

Joseph Holbrooke Symphony no 3 Ships

Deutsche Radio Philharmonic Orchestra

Howard Griffiths 

Holbrooke is one of those figures who crop up in the sidelines of histories of music as an eccentric character. He features in an anecdote in Beecham’s autobiography and there is a lovely story that the conductor Dan Godfrey once had to put in a last minute amendment to a concert programme which read (according to Wikipedia) Mr Dan Godfrey begs to announce that Mr Joseph Holbrooke declines to play today, at this concert, because his name is not announced on the bills in large enough type, consequently the programme will be changed. Yet he had, at least in his younger days, a considerable reputation and his music was conducted by such major figures as Richter and Nikisch. He lived through to 1958 - he must have seen like a figure from a forgotten age.

This third symphony (1925) has three movements: warships, hospital ships, merchant ships. It is a fairly substantial work lasting over half an hour for a large orchestra include euphonium and saxophone. I found it an infuriating work. There was undoubtedly a powerful musical imagination at work here and there were were some very attractive movement. But the whole thing was a mess. No sense of style or continuity and it lurched from quite serious music in moment of excruciatingly bad taste. At times I thought that the first movement sounds like Richard Strauss takes a trip to the seaside! There are hints of Delius and, especially, Grainger in the use of folk song in the last movement but Grainger had much more control over his material than Holbrooke shows here. 

Holbrooke was by all accounts one of the most self centred of all composers - and that is saying a lot. He seems to have regarded the whole of the musical establishment as being in conspiracy against him. Perhaps had he had a greater self-awareness he might have developed his obvious musical talents in a more disciplined way and produced a body of work which would still have a place somewhere in the corner of the repertory. But as it is I can’t imagine that his work is going to be taken up by the modern equivalents of Richter and Nikisch.

That’s the last in this current round of British symphonies. There will be at least one more round to come. But I am off to France for a few days and will not have much time for listening so the next posts will look as some shorter orchestral peices by some minor French composers who have faded from view but whose names do crop up in the history books.

Fricker Symphony no 3

 Day 154

Peter Racine Fricker

Symphony no 3

BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra

Edward Downes

There was a time in the late 1950s early 1960s when Peter Racine Fricker was regarded as one of the leading figures in English Music (he merits a mention in Kingsley Amis’ novel Lucky Jim) yet he has virtually disappeared from view - the fact that he moved to the USA no doubt had something to do with it, but it does seem that he was a victim of changing fashions and that his music was simultaneously regarded as too modern and not modern enough.  I think that I head a string quartet of his years ago but I have no conscious memory of any of his music.

I chose one of his five symphonies at random - this 3rd symphony dates from 1960. It is quite a concentrated work in a traditional 4 movement layout. I enjoyed it a lot. The music is not distinctively British in any way - it seems to belong squarely into the post war non-serial European tradition - again one can hear echos of Hindemith and Stravinsky. But the composer’s voice is distinctive enough to carry off the piece with confidence. It didn’t outstay its welcome and shows how effective concise musical ideas well crafted can be. The slow movement was particularly impressive but all four movements had much to commend them. And, unlike some of the British symphonies I have listened to recently, the ending was effective - a gradual release of tension and fade away to nothing.

It is hard to imagine that Racine Fricker (which is how is is often referred to even though Racine is a middle name acknowledging his descent from the French writer) will ever regain his place as one of the leading British composers of the second half of the 20th century, but based on this piece he certainly does not deserve to slip away into oblivion. 

Maxwell Davies Symphony no 3

 Day 153

Peter Maxwell Davies Symphony no 3

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

Maxwell Davies

Peter Maxwell Davies was a hugely important figure in British musical life in the 1970s and 1980s when I was starting to develop my musical horizons. Pieces like the Songs for a Mad King and the opera Taverner  placed him firmly at the centre of contemporary music. But as he got older his reputation as an enfant terrible began to fade as he moved a little closer to the main stream. His various lighthearted pieces such as Orkney Wedding with Sunrise, several of which I have played, have shown a different side of his character and his Farewell to Stromness - which of course I listened to when I was on a ferry out of the harbour there a few years ago - has achieved widespread popularity.

I remember the surprise when in the mid 1970s he wrote his first symphony - it seems a backward looking gesture by a contemporary composer but it marked a sustain engagement with traditional forms, such as the symphony (there are 10 altogether), the concerto and the string quartet.

I hadn’t heard any of the symphonies before and I chose this one at random. It is a substantial piece of- nearly 50 mins long - and was by no means an easy listen. But I got a lot out of it. It feels symphonic in form with a sense of logic. Indeed more than once I was reminded of Sibelius. The music itself sounds nothing like Sibelius of course but the way that Maxwell Davies builds up the tension through long phrases and ostinato figures is certainly reminiscent of Sibelius’ approach to symphonic writing.  The orchestral writing is highly complex and demands virtuoso players - the writing for the horns trumpets and oboes in particularly is often in the highest register for bars on end. To be honest I found some of that material to be quite painful to listen to - but away from those moments the composer’s ear for interesting sonorities was absolutely clear.

I can’t imagine that a difficult and long work like this will be performed very often but I am glad that I heard it. It will be interesting to speculate how Maxwell Davies is regarded by generations to come. Will he be seen as part of the long tradition of English symphonic music or will people only remember his early, more shocking, work?  He is such an important figure that it is hard to imagine that he will disappear from view completely.  

Williams Symphony no 2

Day 152

Grace Williams Symphony no 2

Vernon Handly

Grace Williams is generally reckoned to be Wales’ first professional female composer - she was also the first British woman to write a score for a full length feature film. She has always retained a small foothold in British musical history for those reasons and she now has established a small but important place for herself in the repertoire,

There is nothing notably Welsh, or indeed feminine, in this Symphony from 1956 - it is a good example of mainstream symphonic style from the immediate postwar years. At times I was reminded of Shostakovich but there are also moments which could be by Hindemith. Incidentally it is surprisingly how often Hindemith has been mentioned in this project - a sign of just how important a composer he was in the 1950s before his star rather faded.

Music of the music was spiky and rhythmic with dry rather than luxuriant textures. But the slow movement, the highlight of the work for me, was beautifully lyrical without ever being sentimental or becoming over-luscious. Perhaps the very end didn’t quite come off = it is again worth noting how many times I have said this about British symphonies in this project - but overall I thought that this was a fine work and it made me keen to discover more of her music - which is after all the whole point of the exploration that the project is all about.