Webern: Songs with orchestra

Day 304

Webern: Songs with orchestra

Four songs op 13

Six songs op 14

Five sacred songs op 15

Five canons op 16

Three traditional rhymes op 17

Three songs op 18

Heather Harper (op 13-14)

Halina Lukomska

Instrumental ensemble

Pierre Boulez

I’m reasonably familiar with most of Webern’s orchestral and instrumental music but the songs are largely an unknown quantity - I have almost certainly one or two of them before but I have never explored them. These songs all date from the years 1914-1924 when Webern seems to have gone though some sort of artistic crisis and was able to compose very little. Although the list here of songs looks quite extensive each of these sets has only a few songs and nearly all of the songs are very short in duration - several less than a minute long. So there is probably only 30 mins or so concentrated listening here.

This music is now over 100 years old but I still find it extremely challenging to listen to. There are a few moments of near lyricism but otherwise this is tough and abrasive music which gives very little for the listener to relate to. Following these pieces with the score allows some sense of how the music is constructed - you can see some of the canonic passages work even if you can’t always hear it. But it would idle to pretend that this is anything but tough repertoire. The vocal writing is instrumental in style and I can’t imagine that can be satisfying to sing.

So a tough listen - I can’t imagine that I will be returning to these songs again.

Berg: Der Wein

Day 303

Berg: Der Wein

Anne Sofie Von Otter

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Claudio Abbado 

I discovered the music of Berg when I was still at school. I remember having an LP of the violin concerto and also of the double concerto and the three orchestral pieces. Since then I have heard most of his music and seen both of his operas but this composition had passed me by. It is a one-off concert aria written as a commission in 1930.

It is rather a curious piece. It starts off in a very serious mood with some knotty expressionist music typical of what we find in much of Wozzeck. But then there are moments of parody and near jazz. The solo part is difficult but still is obviously vocal music rather - Berg doesn’t treat the voice as just another instrument. I suspect that Der Wein will always be on the fringes of the repertory and I imagine it is a difficult piece to programme. It is not quite long enough to be a main feature of a concert yet is hardly suitable as an ‘extra’ after a more extended solo piece. But I am pleased to have heard it - I think that now I have heard all of the published music of Berg - for such an important figure there really is not that much to go at. 

Feldman: Piano and Orchestra

Day 302

Morton Feldman: Piano and Orchestra

Alan Feinberg

New World Symphony

Michael Tilson Thomas

Morton Feldman is another of those rather scary American academic composers. In his case he has a reputation for writing impossibly long music - his string quartet lasts anything between five and six hours. So I approached this music with some trepidation. But I needn’t have worried. This was a rather hauntingly beautiful piece of quietly undulating orchestral textures.  All sorts of interesting colours were revealed during the 30 minutes or so that the piece lasted. The only jarring moments with the occasional very loud short phrases or single chord which distrusted the gentleness of the musical dialogue. I can see why he included these but I think that on balance the peice would have been better without them.  As I say it was otherwise quite haunting.  So another example of music which was nothing like what I expected. But that it one of the points of this project - to explore parts of the repertoire that I hadn’t previously ventured into.  I still don’t think however that I am ready for a six-hour string quartet.

Stockhausen: Kontakte

Day 301

Stockhausen: Kontakte

Ensemble Musikfabrik

In my student days Stockhausen was one of the leading - perhaps the leading figure in European avant- garde music. His standing has rather declined since then, particularly when compared with Boulez, partly I think because he developed megalomaniac tendencies and became interested in all sorts of fringe movements and ideas.

I remember attending a live performance of Stimmung which, despite a few laugh out loud moments at the absurdity of the text was a really compelling experience. I also remember hearing recordings of Gruppen and some of the piano pieces - overall I must have heard a fair amount of his music as a student. I think that I might have heard an extract from Kontakte before but I am sure I never heard the whole thing.

Kontakte is one of the landmark pieces in integrating electronic sounds with live music. The performers were were a pianist, who also has to play some percussion, and a percussionist who has to play a multitude of instruments, including gongs, tam-tams, wooden drums, xylophones and cymbals. The sound world Stockhausen conjours up is astonishing. I don’t know precisely how the electronics work - I didn’t have access to a score - but they were an integral part of the texture and added much of real interest. There were a few times when the effects jarred or sounded comic, but these were rare. Equally there were a few moments of fairly random ‘bashing’ of the percussion instruments, which sounded out of place, but for the most part the peice was gentle and introspective.

There is about half an hour of music here and the problem is trying to discern any shape of structure to the music. Without any rhythmic pulse or sense of harmonic direction there is nothing to give an overall feel for where the music is going or where it is going to end. The piece could have been over in 15 mins or go for for two hours. That to me is one of the real problems with music of this nature. The individual sound world can be fascinating and compelling but there is, at least to me, no sense of the wider whole. 

Still is it extraordinary to think that this music is now more than 60 years old. It still sounds fresh and new.

Babbitt: String Quartet no 2

Day 300

Milton Babbitt: String quartet no 2 

Unknown performer

Milton Babbitt is one of those rather formidable academic American serialists who seem to have dominated music in the US in the late 20th century. I can’t recall ever having heard any of his music before.

I had expected to find this completely unapproachable but in fact I did find quite a lot to appreciate here. The style is largely post-Webern but it had a rhythmic vitality that I don’t associate with that composer. Babbitt ability to create a dialogue based on a two note phrase brings an energy to the quartet. Unexpectedly I was occasional reminded of Tippett in a couple of places. So I was pleased to have sampled this music though I don’t suppose I will be returning to it any time soon.

Ferneyhough: String quartet no 3

Day 299

Ferneyhough: String quartet no 3

Arditti String quartet

Ferneyhough’s music has the reputation of being some of the most complex and knotty music ever written. In particular his rhythms are quite extraordinary - the notation almost belies belief. Almost every bar has cross rhythms and mathematically intricate subdivisions. How on earth anybody can play this music is a mystery though there are plenty of groups who are willing to take on the challenge.

I can’t say that this is was easy to listen to - at times the very high loud violin writing grated on the ear. But there was still much that was fascinating in the score - his ear for sonorities is astonishing. I don’t suppose that I would ever willingly sit down and listen to the entire series of quartets but I am glad that I dipped my toes into this music.

Xenakis: Three choral pieces

Day 298

Xenakis: Three choral pieces

A Colone

Nuits

Knephas

New London Choir

James Wood

After a couple of weeks catching up with some gaps in my coverage of earlier music I want to turn to some late 20th and early 21st century music - particularly some of the more challenging and difficult composers.

We did study a bit of Xenakis at university. I remember the lecturer talking about his use of Stochastic techniques - I didn’t understand it at the time and I don’t think that I do now!. We also had some performances of his music. I recall the cellist (I think is was Rohan de Saram) attacking his instrument with such vigour in Nomas Alpha that is seemed that the cello would disintegrate at any moment.

I don’t think that I have heard any Xenakis since to I came to these three choral pieces with an open mind. A Colone is an austere ritualistic piece for voices with trumpet trombone and double bass. It very much belonged to the world of late Stravinsky. But the other two pieces were anything but restrained. Xenakis uses the voices instrumentally and makes extraordinary demands on the singers - how they managed to sing this music is beyond my comprehension. Some of it was pretty hard to take but there were some moments here which were fascinating and which made a real impact. There was a real musical intelligence behind this wild and anarchic sounding music.

Wilbye: Madrigals from first set

Day 297

Wilbye: Madrigals from first set of Madrigals

Consort of Musicke

Anthony Rooley

Today was a busy day so only time for a few madrigals from John Wilbye’s first set.  After the extremes of Gesualdo yesterday it was a pleasure to move to the much calmer world of the English madrigal. I do remember enjoying doing a little madrigal singing at school and at university and these brought back some pleasant memories - I think that we did sing Adieu sweet Amarylis at school. This is very much music to perform rather than listen to passively but I certainly did enjoy the chance to hear this selection. The style is generally fairly straightforward but there is some entertaining rhythmic invention and the occasional moment of harmonic tension. Wilbye certainly knew how to shape a melodic phrase but also was able to bring some real intensity to these miniatures.

Gesualdo: 10 madrigals

Day 296

Gesualdo: 10 madrigals from book 6

Delitiae Musicae 

Gesualdo is know for two things - the fact that he murdered his wife and the extreme chromaticism in his music. I had heard the odd snippet from some of his madrigals as examples of his harmonic daring but I don’t think that I had ever properly listened to any of his music.

I found these madrigals very tiring to listen to. I had planned to listen to the whole of book 6 (it contains 23 madrigals) but after ten of them I had had enough. The extremes of dissonance that Gesualdo are astonishing even now - goodness knows  what they must have sounded like to listeners in the early 17th century. But the problem I had was that the actual music invention seemed quite thin. There was no real shape to the music, no obviously attractive melodic material and the rhythms seemed all over the place.

My appreciation was not helped by the performance I listened to. This CD has been widely praised in reviews but it seemed to me that in trying to squeeze the last ounce of expression out of the music the performers sucked any life out of these scores. It would I think have been better to have left the music to speak for itself. The very dramatic pauses, rhythmic shapelessness and extremes of dynamic contrast did the music no favours. And the rather ‘hooting’ sound of the countertenor on the top line started to be grating very quickly.

This music will always have a fascination because of its harmonic daring, but I am not sure that it is music that I would want to hear very often.

Marenzio: Madrigals for five voices - book six

Day 295

Marenzio: Madrigals for 5 voices - book 6

La venexiana

My old music professor started his book on Marenzio with the words ‘Marenzio is the Schubert of the madrigal - both were master of settings words to music.  That quote has remained with me for 50 years but  I can’t recall ever listening to any of his music.

I was intending to listen only to a selection of this madrigal book but I was so captivated by the music that I ended up listening to the whole book. I can see exactly what Dennis Arnold meant by that phrase. There is a real lyrical gift in this music - and although I don’t speak Italian I could sense that there was a real sensitivity to the Italian language. It is impossible to imagine these madrigals being sung in English.

The harmonic language is generally consonant but there are plenty of moments of chromatic tension - a sign that the late renaissance era was gradually making way for the Baroque. What a fascinating time in musical history.

Guerrero: Battle Mass

Day 294

Guerrero: Battle Mass

Westminster Cathedral Choir

His Majesty’s sagbutts and cornetts

James O’Donnell

This came as something of a surprise. The name of the piece plus the fact that there were instrumental forces involved led be to expect some sort of technicolour spectacular - a hypothetical creation of how this music might sound in a festival performance. But it was not like that at all. Guerrero (1528-1599) was a Spanish composer who had a long career and seems to have had an adventurous life - Wikipedia mentions that he spend some time in prison.

The Battle Mass title is somewhat misleading. The name comes from the fact that the music uses a few fragments from a chanson by Janequin La guerre. But you would never know that from listening to the mass - in fact is rather a serious and sober piece with none of the instrumental flourishes that I had been anticipating. There are some extrovert moments but generally the music is more inward looking. To be honest I didn’t find anything particularly distinctive about the score or quite understand why some commentators rate the piece so highly. Perhaps I really need to immerse myself in Renaissance music to start to appreciate some of its subtleties. At the moment I can only go on first impressions.

I will continue this exploration of Renaissance music in the next phase of the project, listening to the work of various madrigal composers.

Tomkins: Three anthems

Day 293

Tomkins: Three anthems

O sing unto the Lord a new song

Then David mourned

My beloved spake and sang unto me

Choir of St George’s Chapel Windsor

Christopher Robinson

Tomkins was just a name to me - I don’t recall hearing any of his music and I don’t think that he featured in the music history course at university. I chose these three anthems at random. They are in a quite different style to the polyphonic masses that I have been listening to over the last few days. That’s not just because they use English texts. There is also the question of organ accompaniment. I am not entirely sure exactly what role the organ played in this music but it was present in these performances and not just doubling the voices.  The music itself was expressive and had a wide harmonic range coupled with a sense of energy in the more chordal sections.  I certainly enjoyed hearing these three pieces but in all honesty they have not remained in the memory in the way that some of the other music I have listen to this week has.

Lassus: Missa Super ‘Triste depart’

Day 292

Lassus: Missa Super Triste depart

Christ Church cathedral choir

Stephen Cleobury 

This is a superb piece . I think that I must have heard some music by Lassus as part of the University music course but I don’t have any particular memories. This is fully mature renaissance music which has all of the richness of complex polyphony. But what was fascinating was the foreshadowing at times of later music - there were distinct pre-echos of the poly-choral music of the Gabrielli school. This was by no means crude juxtaposition: the chordal passages emerged naturally out of the textures. All told there was completely mastery of the material: it demonstrated just why Lassus was such a venerated composer in his own lifetime and has remained centuries later one of the towering figures of renaissance music.

Obrecht: Missa Caput

Day 291

Obrecht: Missa Caput

Oxford Camerata

Jeremy Summerly

I remember learning about ‘Caput’ masses at University. These masses are based on a a florid line of chant which an appears in an antiphon from the Sarum rite - the Salisbury collection of liturgical music. Several composers wrote ‘Caput’ masses, in particularly Dufay (though there is now some doubt about the attribution) and Ockeghem. This one is by Obrecht . He is a generation later than Ockeghem and you can hear that his music is smother , less rhythmically complex and harmonically more consonant that the earlier composer.  I found it very pleasant to listen to but after a while perhaps a little less characterful that some of the early music that I have been listening to recently. At times I did rather let it wash over me rather than play close attention to the detail. Nothing wrong in that of course, but perhaps it was a sign that a certain blandness had set it. Of course it could just be me having a slightly off day…..

Dufay: Missa Ave Celorum

Day 290

Dufay: Missa Ave Celorum

Cantica Symphonia

Kees Boeke

This is astonishing music - it has so many facets - it looks forward to mellifluous renaissance counterpoint and back towards medieval, more astringent, music. And at times there were choral progressions which seemed almost to foreshadow Baroque harmony. Some pars of the music were rhythmically highly complex , where the voices seems almost completely independent of each other. 

It does beg the question of how this music was originally performed. We have all the usual questions of how many voices were involves, what speeds was the music taken at, what expressive nuances were employed, and whether instrument were used to double/substitute for the voices. On this recording instruments are used fairly freely  - sometime just to highlight a short melodic passage in one voice - at others to take over vocal lines completely. To my untrained ear much of this sounded convincing but how might it originally have been done. As far as I know this music was written in individual parts rather than what we would now think of as a vocal score. How did they rehearse such complex music? Surely they must have rehearsed - even the most experienced musicians would surely not have been able to deal with all of the difficulties at sight. So if they did rehears did somebody lead the rehearsal in a way that a modern choirmaster might? And would he have had a score. However otherwise would be have know that everything was together in the right place.  All sorts of question to be answers. I imagine specialists in this music do have some of the answers but I doubt that we will ever have the complete picture.

Dunstaple: Three pieces

Day 289

John Dunstaple: Three pieces 

Veni Sancti Spiritus

Tonus Perigrinus

Alma redemptoris Mater

Purcell concert of voices

Guade Virgo Salutaris

Hilliard Ensemble

First the name. Historically he had always been known as John Dunstable but it now seems clear that this was a transcription error and that his name was spelt with a ‘p’ as Dunstaple. I do remember hearing some of his music at University but I can’t put a name to any particular piece apart from ‘Oh Rosa Bella’ .a fairly simple song with a catchy melody.

These three pieces - selected at random - are rather more serious. They show a fascinating step in the evolution from the medieval music of Machaut towards the more sonorous music of the renaissance. Some of the ‘rougher edges’ of Machaut had disappeared and generally speaking the rhythms are less spiky than those of an earlier generation. But there is still enough here to know that this is still very early polyphonic music. Some of it was particularly beautiful, particularly the last of the three pieces, which seemed almost timeless.

What struck me most however was the evolution in performing styles. The second performance here, by the Purcell consort, was recorded quite a while ago - in fact it was probably performances by this group that I would have heard as a student. It now seems very old fashioned, with instrumental additions not specified by the composer and voices that seem quite rough, with a ‘hooting’ counter tenor. It is a world away from the very refined and understated performance by the Hilliard Ensemble, But perhaps in another generation our ideas of how to perform this music will have evolved and the Hilliards might seem out of date. It all goes to emphasise that we really don’t have much idea how this music was originally performed. Each generation must finds its own way of making sense of the bare notes on the page.

Machaut: Four Motets

Day 288

Machaut: Four Motets

Di Souspirant

Fine Amour

Puis qui la douce Rousse

Quis plus aimme

Hilliard Ensemble

I’m getting towards the final stretch of this project - less than 100 days to go. So for the next few weeks I will try to systematically fill in some gaps of important composers that I have not so far covered. Part of the pleasure of the project has been exploring some of the lesser known, and in some cases totally obscure composers I have met along the way, but I do want to make sure that I have not missed any significant figures. The best way to do this is to take a chronological approach. So the earlier important figure I have not previously covered is Machaut. 

Machaut is in fact one of the earliest composers for whom we have solid information. The only information we have about the earliest composer in this project - Perotin - comes from lecture notes complied long after his death. By contrast we know quite a bit about Machaut’s life and work and we know that he was celebrated as a composer in his own lifetime.

My earliest memory of Machaut is quite vivid. I’d had secured a place at University to read music and was sent a reading list before the course started. One of the books was Gilbert Reaney’s book on Machaut. I got a copy out of the library and was pretty taken aback when I understood very little of it. I had by that time a fair experience of a wide range of 18th to 20th century music but had no idea about much earlier music and found the whole discussion of Machaut’s musical style very difficult to grasp. It did make me wonder whether or not I would be able to cope with a music degree.  But when I got to University the book was never mentioned and it turned out that my tutor didn’t even know that the reading list had been sent out!

I heard the Machaut mass at University and probably a few other peices but I can’t recall which ones. So I selected these four motets at random. This is fascinating music - it offers a glimpse into some of the very earliest developments of music in three or four independent voices. Perotin’s 4-part organa are from an earlier generation but they are essentially in two parts - a slow bass and three upper parts moving at the same speed almost as one voice. Here these motets have quite independent parts (the first three are are for 3 voices and the last one is for 4 voices). There is still a slower moving lower part (not as slow as the Perotin) but the upper parts are much more independent of each other. There are some strong harmonic clashes between the voices at times but they come together from time to time in cadential figures. The rhythms can be complex. In modern transcriptions this can mean that the bar lines don’t coincide across voices, though of course the concept of the bar lines was still several hundred years away.

As I have said before in dealing with very early music we can only speculate on how this music might have sounded. We have no idea about speed, dynamics, expression or indeed exactly what forces would have been used. The performances I would have heard as a student tended to be quite colourful, with instrumental doubling and sometimes added effects but more recent performances have become more austere and use, as did the ones here, just solo male voices. The effect is compelling and ‘other-worldly’ though of course that is to project a modern sensibility onto the music - it would be fascinating to travel back in time to hear this music as it was performed in Machaut’s day - would be be thrilled or disappointed as to how matter of fact it was?

Bellini: La Sonnambula

Day 287

Bellini: La Sonnambula

Soloists

London Opera Chorus

National Philharmonic Orchestra

Richard Bonynge

I don’t know much Bellini. I did see a performance of Norma years ago but as far as I remember I haven’t heard any of his operas. I know some of the famous arias but that’s about it. As far as La Sonnambula is concerned I know the famous sleepwalking aria Ah non Credea from the recording by Adelina Patti, a fascinating glimpse into 19th century performance traditions and also the ensemble D’un Pensiero, which Sullivan parodied so brilliantly in Trial by Jury.

Bellini has a reputation as a melodist and there is no doubt that the finest parts of the score are the lyrical moments, particularly those where Bellini’s ability to devise melodies with a real overlay of dreamlike melancholy really has an impact. But some of the vigorous moments have an energy and momentum which creates a real sense of drive. But, as with many Italian operas of the period there is also a fair amount of what I call ‘painting by numbers’ music, where the composer goes into autopilot using all of the cliches of early-romantic opera. This is especially true of the end. After the beautiful atmospheric sleepwalking scene Bellini brings down the curtain with what can only be described as a ‘jolly knees up’ of a final ensemble. It really does jar.

All told, however, I really enjoyed the opera. I won’t displace my affection for Rossini but it certainly expands my knowledge of the broader Italian opera repertoire.

Messiaen: La Nativité du Seigneur

Day 286

Messiaen: La Nativité du Seigneur

Jennifer Bate

This was a tough listen.

I first encountered Messiaen at school when the choir sang O sacrum Convivium. That is quite a gentle piece and not really characteristic of the composer’s mature style. The only couple of Messiaen pieces I know reasonably well are the Quartet for the end of time and Turangalila- I don’t think that I have ever listened to any of his organ music. I couldn’t really find my way into the piece. I don’t find the sound of the organ particularly appealing, particularly with some of the very jarring sonorities that the composer calls for, Then I find he music rhythmically flaccid - his additive rhythms don’t give any real sense of shape or momentum. Stylistically it seems to me all over the place - some of it is highly dissonant but into other places it seems almost naive. 

To be honest there were moments when I really wanted the music to stop. I found it almost unbearable. Obviously listening in a domestic setting via headphones is a very different experience to listening to a live performance in a cathedral setting but even so I can’t ever imagine wanting to listen to this music again.

This has to go on the list of the pieces I actively disliked during this project.

Bantock: Omar Khayyám

Day 285

Granville Bantock: Omar Khayyám

Soloists

BBC Singers and Symphony Orchestra

Norman Del Mar

I have enjoyed listening to quite a bit of the orchestral music of Granville Bantock - the Hyperion series of CDs conducted by Vernon Handley has been a source of real pleasure. I’ve also heard a couple of his symphonies for unaccompanied voices, which are perhaps a bit more of an acquired taste.

I knew about Omar Khayyám  - his massive 3-hour long setting of the complete Rubaiyat in the Fitzgerald translation - but had not got round to listening to it. But this project seemed like an ideal opportunity so I devoted a considerable part of the day to listening to the whole thing.  What an extraordinary piece it is. Rambling is one way to describe it. There is a great variety of styles in the peice. Some of it is highly sophisticated in a post Straussian idiom with some complex chromatic harmonies but some of it can only be described as naive - indeed some of the more overtly ‘oriental’ music seems to be straight out of the shool of Albert Ketelby’s In a Persian Market. Nothing wrong with that of course - I rather like Ketelby’s music but it hardly a model for this sort of serious work.

But nonetheless I found a great deal to enjoy. Some of the choral writing is thrilling - it is a sign of just how virtuosic amateur choirs could be at the beginning of the 20th century. There are also some passages of great intensity - Bantock certainly had a strong sense of how to drive the music forward. His lyrical writing can be highly effective - his sense of word setting is much more intuitive than in some of the 20th century English music that I have listened to in this project. 

Of course the whole thing is quite impossible. It is hard to imagine that there will be anything but a very occasional revival as a special festival event and even that seems unlikely. I don’t suppose that I will listen to the whole thing again for a long time (if ever) but I am very glad I did devote the time to it today. Bantock music is certainly worth hearing and the best parts of Omar are I think as good as anything else that was being written in England at the time. But only the very greatest of composers can sustain consistently high level music invention over a three-hour period.

Smetana: Hubička

Day 284

Smetana: Hubička (the Kiss)

Soloists

Chorus and Orchestra of the Janáček opera Brno

František Vajnar

My knowledge of Smetana is fairly limited - I know Vltava and a couple more of pieces from Ma Vlast, and the E minor string quartet and did see the Bartered Bride many years ago. But thats about it.

The Kiss is a later opera (1876), by which time Smetana was completely deaf. But you would never believe it from this music, which is full of life and vigour.  As you might expect that spirit of Czech folk music and the dance permeates the entire score and gives it a real sense of energy. But it is not all dance music - there are some very tender passages for the two main characters - they finally kiss at the end of the opera after a series of misadventures.

The mood changes for the second act, which is set in the Forest where some smugglers are hiding. Smetana counjours up a real sense of menace here which took me a bit by surprise. To be honest I thought that the second act flagged a bit after this scene but all does sort itself out by the end, with some strong music to bring the opera to a rousing conclusions.  I’d certainly want to explore Smetana’s operatic repertory in more details after this project has finished.

Dittersdorf: Sinfonia in A

Day 283

Dittersdorf: Sinfonia in A Sinfonia nazionale nel gusto di cinque nazioni

Failoni Orchestra

Uwe Grodd

I first came across Dittersdorf when I was a school - I heard the double bass concerto which I remember as quite a fun piece. Since then I have got to know the six sinfonias based on Ovid’s metamorphoses, which I find quite fascinating. This symphony is not quite in that league but it is nevertheless well worth listening to. Each of its five movements is based on the music of different country - Germany, Italy, France, England and Turkey. It hovers between affectionate tribute and outright parody. In particularly the Italian movement is full of cliches and clearly the composer didn’t think much of his Italian contemporaries. The French movement is much more sophisticated and shows a real affection for the style.  The piece could never be more of a curiosity and could never form part of the regular repertoire, but it was quite fun to hear it once.

This is the last in this current series of symphonies. From tomorrow I will be exploring some of the more important composers who have not so far featured in this blog, plus I am also taking the opportunity to listen to some longer pieces that I would not otherwise be likely to have the time to listen to.

Lloyd: Symphony no 6

Day 282

George Lloyd: Symphony no 6

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

George Lloyd

George Lloyd is an interesting figure. He had some early success but then his music was largely ignored by the musical establishment of the 1950s through to the 1970s on the basis that is was old-fashioned and not worthy of serious attention. But then towards the end of his life the mood changed. Performances started to happen and almost all of his music, including 12 symphonies, was recorded. A society was formed to promote his music. But after his death (1998) that revival rather faded away and now performances of his music are rare.

I don't think that I have heard any of his music before. I chose this symphony simply because at some point I had acquired a CD including it. It dates from 1956 and must have seen very old fashioned at the time. It seems to inhabit a world somewhere between Edwardian light music and smaller late 19th century symphonies. But on its own terms it was very attractive - beautifully put together with an immediacy which which really came across to the listener. The slow movement was particularly beautiful. 

It is very difficult to assess music like this which is so out of its time. From what I understand this is probably the most lightweight of Lloyd's works, and I wonder how he dealt with more emotionally challenging large-scale structures. Perhaps I will do a bit more exploring. But I am certainly glad to have heard this piece. I can see what his music eventually did receive quite a following - a reaction to some of the extremes of the avant garde in the 1960s was certainly one of the factors that brought him back into prominence.

Brun: Symphony no 1

Day 281

Brun: Symphony no 1

Moscow Symphony Orchestra

Adriano

I purchased this CD on spec at a charity shop, having never heard of the composer and knowing nothing about his music. It turns out that he was a Swiss composer working in the first half of the 20th century. His music is mostly unpublished and received very few performances in his life. Brun was also a conductor and was quite well connected to several mainstream figures in European music of the time but he was very much a minor figure. Indeed the conductor of this CD - who goes by the single name Adriano - seems almost singlehandedly to have promoted Brun's work - the extensive notes that go with the recording are among the most pretentious I have ever seen and make some very exaggerated claims about his music.

It turns out that this is a fairly competent symphony in a conservative Brahmsian style written by an obviously capable musician - nothing more nor less.  There must be hundreds of such symphonies written by students (Brun was in his early 20s when this was written) lurking in dusty cupboards in the music conservatoires of Europe. I suspect that they all are like this - not unpleasant but entirely unmemorable. To be fair to Brun, there are some quite striking ideas in the first two movements, but they go nowhere and the other two movements have less to offer.  The whole cycle of Brun's symphonies has been recorded by Adriano - I can't imagine ever wanting to acquire the rest of them to follow his development as a composer over 50 year - there are some pretty scathing reviews of the complete set on the internet.

Van Dieren: Chinese Symphony

Day 280

Bernard Van Dieren: Chinese Symphony

Soloists

BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales

William Boughton

Bernard Van Dieren (1887-1936) was Dutch composer but he spend his adult life in England. Like a number of his contemporaries (some of whom, such as Hollbrooke) have featured in this project, he was an eccentric who sat well outside the musical establishment and who attracted a small band of devoted followers who funded who work.

This Chinese symphony dates from 1914, though it was not performed until 1936, just before the composer’s death. It is a large scale work for large orchestra, 5 soloists and choirs, although the choir has comparatively little to do.  It is very much an orchestral piece. 

I thought it was awful! It was shapeless and flabby with no sense of rhythmic pulse or direction. The vocal writing is completely unidiomatic and at times very awkward. The general musical style is somewhere between Delius and Schoenberg and is best described as muddy and glutinous.

This is said by his admirers to be one of his finest works. I hate to imagine what the others must be like, but I am certainly not going to waste time finding out.

Pjiper: Symphony no 3

Day 279

Pjiper: Symphony no 3

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Eduard van Beinum

Here is another composer whose name is vaguely familiar but of whose music I knew nothing,  This time, however, I was very pleased to encounter one of his pieces. Pjiper was a Dutch composer (1894-1947) who earned his living as a music critic. This symphony, the last of his three, was composed in 1926 and is very much a work of its time. It starts in an almost off-hand way with a jazz-like strolling bass motive and is shot through with the rhythms of jazz. I thought that it would be a fairly light divertimento style piece but as it progressed it became more complex with some really dense textures involving, among other instruments a piano duet, saxophones and a mandolin. Towards the end it seemed to me to however between the worlds of Bernstein and Ives, though of course Bernstein was still a child when this was written and I doubt very much whether Pjiper had ever head a note of Ives. Altogether this was a fascinating piece which had a weight which belies its short (15 mins or so) duration. Pjiper is certainly on my list for further listening once this project has been completed.

Khrennikov: Symphony no 3

Day 278

Tikhon Khrennikov: Symphony no 3

USSR State Symphony Orchestra

Evgeny Svetlanov

Khrennikov is notorious as the hatchet man of the Soviet musical establishment who from 1948-1991 was the secretary of the the union of Soviet composers. He was a Stalinist and is quoted as saying ‘Stalin knew music better than any of us’ .He denounced formalism in music and attacked any avant garde tendencies.  

I expected that his music would be competent and facile bearing all of the hall marks of socialist realism. I was not mistaken. He clearly had some talent and the slow movement has a certain melodic charm but much of the rest of the score of this (mercifully quite short) symphony is nothing but a music poster painted in garish colours. Superficially some of the music seems to belong to the same world as that of Shostakovich, particularly in the fast scherzo-like moments but Shostakovich has irony, humour and a sense of danger whereas this music has none of that - it is like a sanitised version for younger listeners. Some of it really was pretty awful.

I’m glad I heard this, if only to confirm my prejudices. There are some who take a revisionist view of the composer and say that in fact he did a lot to support the development of music in Soviet Russia and protect a number of musicians from persecution. Whatever the truth he will, on the evidence quite deservedly, be remembered for his iron grip on musical bureaucracy in Russia rather than as a composer.

Myaskovsky: Symphony no 16

Day 277

Myaskovsky: Symphony no 16

USSR Symphony Orchestra

Evgeny Svetlanov 

I was aware of the name Myaskovsky as the author of a large number of symphonies (there are 23 in all) but I was not aware of having heard any of his music. I picked this symphony at random. It was written in 1935-6 and has the nickname the Aviation Symphony as it is supposed to be connected in some way with an air crash that had happened recently in Moscow. The funeral march (3rd movement) is said to be written in commemoration of the victims, thought there is apparently little evidence that this is in fact the case.

If yesterday's music by Schreker took me by surprise this symphony was very much as I expected it to be. Bombastic at times with some lyrical material but with nothing too challenging for a work of the 1930s. It occupies a place somewhere between Glazunov and Prokofiev but without the latter composer's astringency.  The middle movements impressed me more than the outer movements, which did seem to be in the accepted 'painting by number' Soviet style. The second movement was an attractive scherzo - though the trio was rather trite and the funeral march third movement did have a real weight to it. But at the moment I can't see myself rushing out to buy the CD set of all of the Myaskovsky symphonies. I suspect that it would be as case of hunting through acres of the routine to find moments of real inspiration.

Schreker: Chamber Symphony

Day 276

Schreker: Chamber Symphony for 23 players

Gateway Chamber Orchestra

Gregory Wolynec

This came as something of a surprise. I was vaguely aware of Schreker, having heard some of his orchestral preludes, but I’d never made any sort of study of his music. So I was expecting heavyweight post-romantic angst but instead this was rather a charming lightweight piece. Indeed at the start I was not sure that I had actually got the right piece, The opening sounded French to me, with some very filigree passage-work suing celesta harp and flute. The whole work was quite delightful with some beautiful quieter sections and some energetic material either side.

Schreker is obviously a composer of greater variety than I had imagined. I am keen to hear some more of his work.

Bush: Symphony no 2

Day 275

Geoffrey Bush: Symphony no 2 Guildford

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Barry Wordsworth

Geoffrey Bush was an English composer whose dates are 1920 -1998. He was involved in musical education all his life and composed a reasonably substantial body of work, including 2 symphonies of which this is the second, written in commemoration of the 700th anniversary of the City of Guildford in 1957.

I do have a slight personal connection. The first piece of ‘modern’ music I ever played was Bush’s 1967 Music For Orchestra which was still a very new piece when I played it at a youth orchestra course in about 1972. I remember receiving the music in advance and being surprised, and perhaps a bit alarmed, by the constant changes of time signature and seeing for the first time composite time signatures such as 4/4+3/8. The opening must have stayed in my sub conscience because when I heard it again recently (it is on the same CD as this symphony) I immediately remembered it and it brought back memories of rehearsals and the performance - I don’t think that the assembled parents knew quite what to make of it, though in reality is was pretty mild compared to a lot of the music which was being written at the time. Geoffrey Bush came to at least one of the rehearsals and talked to us a little. Strange what you remember - I can’t recall much about what he said - other than he had disguised a musical neumonic of a place name somewhere in the score - but I do remember the cap he wore which gave him the look of a railway man!

This second symphony is an a slightly more relaxed style - I suspect that he didn’t want to upset the audience of the great and good of the city too much. I would say that stylistically is occupies a place somewhere between Walton and Malcolm Arnold. It is in that ‘bright and breezy’ style so characteristic of English composers in the middle of the 20th century.  I enjoyed listening to is but I can’t say that it made a big impression on me. It was to be honest nicely put together but rather anonymous. Still it is pleasant to think of my links to him and the opportunities I had in my youth orchestra days to explore interesting repertory.

Simpson: Symphony no 7

Day 274

Robert Simpson: Symphony no 7

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Vernon Handley

I was aware of Robert Simpson as an author and broadcaster but although I knew that he composed I don’t think that I have heard any of his music before. He wrote 11 symphonies (plus several earlier ones which he destroyed). This 7th symphony dates from 1977 and is dedicated to Hans Keller, a long-time colleague of his at the BBC.

Simpson wrote books on, among others, Nielsen, Sibelius and Bruckner and his music is steeped in the ethos of their work, with its emphasis on long-term symphonic growth and intense motivic development. This symphony is in a single movement in an arch structure with two faster sections surrounding a slower middle section. That middle section to me was the high point of the work. It was beautifully expressive with long lines and intense expression. But the whole symphony was a very rewarding piece to listen to. There was nothing in the least flashy or showy about the music - just a seriousness of purpose and a sense of inexorable progress to the final pages. I am certainly keen to hear more of Simpson’s music at some point in the future.