Paderewski: Overture

Day 355

Paderewski: Overture in E Flat

Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra

Antoni Wit

Paderewski was probably the most famous pianist in the world in the early 20th century - there are lots of references to him in popular song and literature. He was also the Prime Minister of Poland in the post-war years and signed the treaty of Versailles on behalf of the Polish government. One of the outcomes of negotiations for settling the post-war order was the creation of the free city of Danzig so it seems appropriate that I listen to some of his music as I stay in Gdansk, the modern name for Danzig.

Paderewski mainly wrote piano music but there are some substantial piece, including a symphony which lasts 75 mins and the opera Manru. This overture from 1884 is an early work - it appears not to have been published in the composer’s lifetime. I found it an attractive piece which has obvious kinship with the works of Greig and Dvořák and perhaps Borodin as an example of what might be termed gentle nationalism. It had a melodic freshness which was very compelling.

Bacewicz: Overture

Day 354

Bacewicz: Overture

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Sakari Oramo

As I am Poland for a short pre-Christmas break I thought it would be a goods opportunity to catch up with some of the Polish composers I have not previously covered in this project. Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969) was one of the first female composers in Poland. I had hear the name but had not encountered any of her music before. For some reason, I am not sure why, I was expecting that she would have been a representative of the avant garde but this was very much a piece in the Central European style of Hindemith or Walton. It was bright and breezy with a more lyrical middle section. I detected nothing specifically Polish in the piece - it could have been my any number of mid 20th century composers. Nothing wrong with that of course: it was an attractive piece which would make a good, if not particularly memorable, opening to a concert. 

Glinka: Kamarinskaya

Day 342

Glinka: Kamarinskaya

Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra

Loris Tjeknavorian

Another fairly full day today so not much time for extended listening. This short orchestral piece by Glinka is seen as one of the key works in the development of authentically Russian music. It is said to be the first work based solely on Russian folk song. For such a slight work it had a very important influence on the next generation of Russian composers - you can hear pre-echoes of Tchaikovsky and Borodin in particular.  It is attractive music with a new nice touches but it does rather call to mind Constant Lambert’s  famous quote The whole trouble with a folk song is that once you have played it through there is nothing much you can do except play it over again and play it rather louder. Most Russian music, indeed, consists in ringing changes on this device, skilfully disguised though the fact may be.

That’s certainly true here. At least the piece doesn’t outstay its welcome but even so by the end the folk tune does start to get on your nerves.

MaCmillan: The confessions of Isobel Gowdie

Day 341

James MacMillan: The confessions of Isobel Gowdie

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Osmo Vänskä

This was the piece that established MacMillan as one of the leading composers of his generation. According to Wikipedia its first performance at a 1980 Prom it received an ovation the like of which had rarely been seen at a British premiere since the death of Benjamin Britten. I can see why. This was an extraordinarily accomplished piece which makes a huge impact. The opening and closing sections are largely for strings only and are clearly part of the long tradition of English (perhaps better to say British, given that MacMillan is Scottish) string music going back to Elgar but here most clearly part of the same world of Tippett. The sonority that MacMillan achieves with the string section is totally compelling. The middle section of the work is violent and totally raw in its energy and emotion. It is ferocious and at the same time extremely exciting. 

The music language is broadly tonal but within that framework MacMillan stretches the harmony without ever quite moving toward full atonality.  It does show what can be done within the tradition of late 20th century music without having to explore the wilder limits of the avant guard. This really was a very impressive piece and my only regret is that it has taken me so long to get round to listening to it. 

Butterworth: Two English idylls

Day 339

Butterworth: Two English idylls

Hallé Orchestra

Mark Elder

I've a busy few days ahead with concerts so only time for a brief piece today.

It is difficult not to see George Butterworth through the eyes of the First World War. He was killed at the battle of the Somme when he was barely out of his teens and is always regarded as one of the lost generation who might have gone on to great things in later life had he been spared.  He only left a small number of pieces, mainly songs based on Houseman and some short orchestral pieces which are very much part of the same ethos. This music is very much part of what Elizabeth Lutyens christened the 'cow pat' school and I have to say that I rather share her views. I've never quite connected with this style of English music. It is perfectly pleasant of course, but I do find it rather cloying and the harmonic language a bit fey. Still, one can't be too hard on the music of somebody who was still a teenager when he wrote the two Idylls. It is probably my fault that I hear them more as background music to a nostalgic TV drama set in the countryside in 1910 rather than music that grabs the attention in its own right.

Carwithen: Bishop Rock

Day 333

Doreen Carwithen: Bishop Rock

London Symphony Orchestra

Richard Hickox

Doreen Carwithen was reasonably well known as a film composer during her lifetime - she wrote the score for the official coronation of Elizabeth II, reportedly in only three days. She had made some headway as a composer of concert music but largely gave up her work in this field to look after her Husband William Alwyn. She did resume composition after his death. As in the case of so many female composers she rather faded away from view, though since her death there has been a revival of interest in her work.

This short piece dates from 1952 and is a musical portrait of the lighthouse and the surrounding area. It is very much in the spirit of Walton with a touch of Malcolm Arnold. I enjoyed it a lot - it would make a good bright and breezy first piece in a concert.

Beamish: The Caledonian Road

Day 331

Sally Beamish: The Caledonian Road

Swedish Chamber Orchestra

Ola Rudner

Sally Beamish is of a later generation than the women composers I have been featuring in the last few days. Born in 1956 she  will have seen women composers move gradually into the mainstream. In her younger days women composers were still very much the exception but her younger female contemporaries would now I think feel fully integrated into musical life and accepted without question.

The Caledonian Road is a short piece (12 mins) inspired by thoughts of the road to Scotland. It uses material from the St Andrew’s music book - a collection of French cathedral music from the 13th century. It starts very simply with a solo oboe and then gradually builds to a full orchestral sound. The idiom is post-Britten with perhaps a hint of Birtwistle and Messiaen. The bell sounds are nicely judged. Altogether this was a nice piece which I enjoyed listening to even though it wasn’t one of those scores which really leapt of the page.

Howell: Lamia

Day 328

Dorothy Howell: Lamia

Kardia State Symphony Orchestra

Marius Stravinsky

This was an astonishing piece. Dorothy Howell was born in Birmingham in 1898 - I had never heard any of her music before but as I went to Birmingham today I thought that I should sample something of hers. Lamia was her breakthrough piece - being performed at the Proms under Sir Henry Wood in 1919 when the composer was only 21. It is work of great maturity and confidence. Based on a poem by Keats it uses the full resources of large orchestra to impressive effect. There are a few traces of the English pastoral school but much of the music sounds French - the textures in particular have a Debussian flavour. It is hard to imagine how a British composer of the time would have the broad familiarity with European music that this 20 year old obviously had.

The press coverage of the piece was very positive - one reviewer called her the English Richard Strauss - even though it now reads very patronisingly “girl composer’s success’. But her star soon faded - she was still a respected pianist and teacher but the promise of the English Strauss never materialised. She died in 1982, by which time she was almost completely forgotten.  There has been a revival of her music in recent years and I am certainly keen to hear more.

Maconchy: Proud Thames

Day 325

Elizabeth Maconchy: Proud Thames

Elizabeth Maconchy was one of the second generation of British women composers. She was writing at a time when women were beginning to be accepted as composers in their own right, but still regarded as something of a special case. It is only in more recent years that women composers have taken their place as of right.

This short overture was written for a competition to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II - it was first performed at the Royal Festival Hall, in a concert which also included Kirsten Flagstad’s farewell performance. It is broadly a portrait of the river starting from the earliest small streams though to it is flowing into the sea. The little trumpet phrase at the beginning expands and devotes though the piece in an inventive and attractive manner  - I really enjoyed it. I suspect that it rather got overshadowed at the premiere by other items on the programme. How typical of Maconchy’s music this I do not know - her string quartets seem to be the most important part of her output and perhaps those are something to start exploring next.

Čiurlionis: In the Forest

Day 321

Čiurlilonis: In the Forest (Miške)

Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra

Juozas Domarkas

Čiurlionis  (1875-1911) was an important figure in Lithuanian artistic life. He was a painter as well as a composer, indeed judging by the results of a google search he seems to have been better known in the former capacity. I had heard one of his tone poems - The Sea - before and rather enjoyed it, but that was the only piece of his that I had heard.

I thought when I heard the opening of this piece that it was going to be a winner. The quiet string chords and the gentle undulation painted a really evocative picture of the forest. Alas it was not to be, After this opening the music rather lost its way and became completely characterless. It was rhythmically very four-square and the melodic material seemed rather trivial. Although it is quite a short piece I quickly became bored with it.  The opening material returns at the end, but by that time it was too late - I had lost interest. So a frustrating piece. That opening showed a composer of real imagination but after that it was all downhill.

Lyadov: Three tone poems

Day 316

Lyadov: Three tone poems

Baba Yaga

The Enchanted Lake

Kilamora

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Alexander Titov

Lyadov is best remembered as the composer whose inability to complete the score of The Firebird led the way to Stravinsky being commissioned in his place. There is a lovely anecdote that he turned up to Diaghilev three months after being commissioned saying “I’ve brought the manuscript paper….”. As Richard Taruskin explains in his superb book on Stravinsky (see day.  ) this is not actually true. Lyadov was agreed to write the music in the first place. He was certainly approached but never agreed to write a score. And the story about the manuscript paper is, unfortunately, almost certainly apocryphal.

It is certainly true that Lyadov was ultra self-critical and that his output wasn’t extensive. It seems that these three symphonic poems originally formed part of a plan for a massive opera but when Lyadov realised that he would never actually get round to completing he extracted these three short pieces.

You only have to hear a few notes to know that this is Russian music. Rimsky Korsakov is the obvious point of reference - ironically Lyadov was thrown out of Rimsky’s composition class because of a poor attendance record, though he was eventually let back in. The music is colourful and the orchestration shows all of the flair of a Rimsky pupil. Perhaps the most interesting of three pieces is the Enchanted Lake, which is a mood picture almost devoid of melody - the gentle undulations and constantly changing orchestral texture really do evoke a sense of the water ebbing and flowing. Here there were some traces of Debussy and elsewhere some hints that Stravinsky was also lurking in the wings.

So an enjoyable encounter with a composer whose music was completely unknown to me. Not one of the greats, but certainly well worth listening to.

Mackenzie: La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Day 310

Mackenzie: La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Malta Philharmonic Orchestra

Michael Laus

Alexander Mackenzie was one of those figures who did much to improve musical standards in Victorian England and pave the way for Elgar and those who followed him. Ironically he outlived Elgar by a year, though by the time of his death he must have seemed a figure from a distant age.

The only piece of his I knew was his short Benedictus , which is a beautiful elegiac piece which deserves to be better known. La Belle Dame Sans Merci is a symphonic poem dating from 1883, based on the poem by Keats.

Initially I thought that this was going to be really impressive work. The slow introduction was striking in its melodic ideas and set a suitably sombre mood. There was some highly effective chromatic harmony and a real ear for orchestral sonorities. But after that the faster music which followed was something of a disappointment. It fell into that rather ‘olde England’ 6/8 style of country dance music. Nothing wrong with that as such but it did seems a bit out of place after than introduction. It was all just a bit too jolly. 

British composers of this generation were largely learning how to create an orchestral style. it would take another generation before they had the confidence and experience to write music that was the equal of anything being written anywhere in the world. But the pioneering work of people like Mackenzie was an important part of that process even though ultimately his voice was not strong enough to remain a permanent part of the repertory. 

Villa-Lobos: Choros no 6

Day 307

Villa-Lobos: Choros no 6

Orquestra Filharmónica de Gran Carania

Adrian Leaper

I have only heard a few pieces of Villa-Lobos. I know a couple of the Bachianas Brasileiras and did play one of them many years ago. But he is not a composer whose works I know well. 

There are 14 pieces in the Choros series (some and unfinished and others lost). In their various ways they are all attempts to evoke the spirit of  Brazilian street music.  They are not a cycle as such: they are scored for various groupings from a solo instrument though to a full orchestra. No 6, which dates from 1926, is for full orchestra. 

I have to say that I found it a big disappointment. I was expecting something lively with lots of South-American rhythms, percussion and extrovert energy. But it was all rather insipid. None of the melodies really imprinted themselves on the memory and it never really took fire. It just seemed like a succession of short pieces very loosely joined together. All in all it had very little impact.

Skalkottas: The Sea

Day 250

Skalkottas: The Sea

Iceland Symphony Orchestra

Byron Fidetzis

This was a real surprise. I knew that Skalkottas was a pupil of Schoenberg and had a reputation as a modernist so I was expecting a tough listen. But this was very different. It was a series of dance pieces (the work started out as a ballet) in an idiom which seemed to belong to the nationalist dances that one finds in Russian or Czech music. The music dates from 1948 but there was very little that couldn’t have been composed at least 50 years earlier. The music was pleasant enough and I could imagine it being a good accompaniment to dance tp, but on its own it didn’t make a great impression. I need to understand more about Skalkottas and how he seems to have had such a split musical personality.

Ibert: Symphonie Marine

Day 247

Ibert: Symphonie Marine

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Louis Frémaux

I knew Ibert from his riotous Divertissement and a few shorter pieces but this Symphonie Marine was new to me. It dates from 1931 but apparently the composer forbad performances of the work until after his death, Quite why nobody knows because there is certainly nothing remotely offensive or objectionable about the peice. On the contrary is a fairly typical light-hearted confection of the type that French composers were so good at turning out. The scoring evokes the world of Ravel and Debussy, particularly in the use of the harp, but there is also a prominent saxophone part which does bring some jazz overtones.

An enjoyable diversion then - no masterpiece but then it is unreasonable to expect every work to be a masterpiece. B roads can be more interesting than motorways.

Bloch: Poems of the Sea

Day 245

Ernest Bloch: Poems of the Sea

Malmõ Symphony Orchestra

Sakari Oramo

Bloch was one of the first major Swiss composers, although he spent music of his life in the USA, where he had a distinguished academic career. I had heard his Schelomo but as far as I am aware hadn’t heard anything else of his. 

These three Poems of the Sea were originally written, as far as I can establish, for solo piano in 1922 but were orchestrated by the composer soon afterwards. I listened to the orchestral version and without knowing their original as piano music you would never suspect that they started out as keyboard pieces - the orchestration is very convincing. The first of the three has some echoes of Ravel but otherwise this is fairly conventional early 20th century neo-romantic music tinged with some folk-song elements. To be honest they didn’t make much of an impression. There were not unpleasant by any means but there was nothing distinctive here and the last movement seemed to me to be bombastic in places, particularly towards the end. So ultimately there was nothing much here to detain me.

Henry Hadley: The Ocean

Day 244

Henry Hadley: The Ocean

Ukraine National Symphony Orchestra

McClaughlin Williams

I’m on holiday this week so it seems a good idea to explore music inspired by water and the sea.

Our view of American music in the early 20th century is now somewhat distorted as we see it largely through the eyes of Ives and the other modernist - I explored some of this earlier in this project - but if you been a typical American concert goer at the time these composers would either have been totally unknown or regarded as nothing more than eccentrics. Instead it is much more likely that you would have been aware of more mainstream figures writing in a more overtly romantic idiom.

Henry Hadley (1871-1937) was a typical figure in this tradition - he was American born but studied in Vienna and was part of the Brahms circle. Back in the US he did important work as a conductor and teacher. This symphonic poem dates from 1921, though there is little in it that could not have been written 50 years earlier. I found it a highly attractive work, obviously well written and effectively scored. But after the rather striking open ending there was nothing particularly distinctive about it - it could have been written by any number of composers anywhere in Europe or the USA. I don’t know if I was influenced by the fact that Hadley was one of the earliest composers to have been involved in film music but it did think that as I listen to this peice that it would make a good film score. I’ve commented before that what was original and innovate music in the 1870s and 1880s became the cliches of film scores in the 1930s.

Ruggles: Sun Treader

Day 191

Ruggles: Sun Treader

Cleveland Orchestra

Christopher con Dohnányi

Ruggles was one of the most self-critical composers. In a very long life (1876-1971) he wrote only a dozen or so pieces - most of them lasting less than 15 mins. I came across a couple of his pieces years ago and rather enjoyed Angels for six muted trumpets. Sun Treader , completed after 5 years work in 1931, is Ruggles’ longest piece. It uses a large but not enormous orchestra. What struck me how ‘normal’ the piece was. There was none of the experimental textures or allusions to popular music that you find in Ives, the mad rhythms of Antheil or the tone clusters of Cowell. Instead this is a serious piece of music firmly in the European tradition. At times is could be mistaken for pre-Serial Schoenberg or even Hindemith. It had an impressive seriousness with some clear building blocks - particularly the opening drum motive which returns at key points in the score. 

I was impressed by the whole ethos of the score and can well imagine it making a good impression in performance. It is far more than simply an experiment or a creation of sensation for the sake of it. 

Ruggles by all accounts was an unpleasant individual who held some very unsavoury views. But he clearly was a composer who knew exactly what he was doing.

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!

Lilli Boulanger: 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, though 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 discover more of her music in due course.