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.
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