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.
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