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.

Richard Rodney Bennett: Saxophone concerto

Day 324

Richard Rodney Bennett: Saxophone concerto

John Harle

Opus 20 String Ensemble

I have a vague memory of hearing some by Richard Rodney Bennett as a student but whatever it was hasn’t stuck in the memory. Other than that I think that the only music of his I will have heard will be some of his film scores - famously of course Murder on the Orient Express.

This saxophone concerto was written for John Harle, who plays it in this performance. I enjoyed it a lot. The saxophone is not an instrument I am naturally attracted to - to me the rather oily sound can be off putting, but here the composer has been very skilful in the way that he has written for the instrument so we get to hear a more attractive side of the instrument. The work is not too long - some composers seem to have no idea that they have outstayed their welcome - and the soloists is given plenty of chance to shine but virtuosity never gets in the may of the musical invention. There is plenty of rhythmic energy in the outer movements - the first especially, balanced by some attractive melodic material. All in all a good piece and one which probably exceeded my expectations - I don’t think that I would ever otherwise have listened to a saxophone concerto if it wasn’t for this project.

Dutilleux: Ainsi la nuit

Day 323

Dutilleux: Ainsi la nuit for String Quartet

Belcea Quartet

Although I knew the name I don’t think that I have heard anything by Dutilleux before. This piece is a work for string quartet dating from 1976/77. The title translates as thus the night. It is in  seven movement separated by four brief interludes. The whole work lasts no longer than 20 mins or so. Judging by the number of recording of the piece it had become a classic of the modern string quartet repertory. I didn’t have a score so couldn’t study the music in detail but on a purely aural basis it made quite an impression. The style is partly post-Webern but is less fragmented that much of the music of the 1970s. It would be wrong to call it lyrical but it certainly has a shape to it and the textures are constantly interesting without being aggressively extreme. All in all this was a good piece to have discovered and I will certainly put the composer down as somebody whose music I should get to know better.

Ireland: Piano concerto in E flat major

Day 322

John Ireland: Piano concerto in E flat major

Kathryn Stott

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Andrew Davis

John Ireland is another of those mid 20th century musicians whose name is familiar but whose music is unknown to me - I might have heard a film score of his at some time but nothing sticks in the memory.

This piano concerto was for a while an enormously popular piece and was a staple of Prom performances for many years - then it dropped out of fashion and is now only rarely performed. I can’t say that I was sorry that I had got so far in my musical life without hearing it. It seemed rather a routine piece with nothing particularly memorable either in melodic material or harmonic invention - there were, to be fair, a few moments of quite snappy rhythms which did break up some of the monotony, but otherwise I didn’t find much here to keep me interested. Partly is it that I am not a great fan of the concerto form - when I look back at this project it is surprising how few concerti I have listened to and even fewer than really made an impression. I’ve no idea whether this work is typical of Ireland’s work but I don’t feel inclined to spend much time finding out - there are plenty of other things to listen to first.

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.

Finzi: Dies natalis

Day 320

Finzi: Dies Natalis op 8

Andrew Kennedy

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

James Judd

I am normally fairly immune to early 20th century English song. I find the harmonic style cloying and the whole effect often quite soggy - no doubt the problem is with me rather than the music.  So I didn’t anticipate much from this piece but I was very taken with it. It is a setting of words by the mystic/religious poet Thomas Traherne for solo tenor (though the first performance was by a soprano) and string orchestra. What stuck me most was the fluidity of the word setting. There is a freedom here which is unusual for the time (at least in England) with the use of a semi-parlando/recitative style which keeps propelling the music forward, even in the slowest passages. Perhaps the most distinctive song is the last. I’ve seen this described as a being like a chorale prelude, with a simple tune in the violas being supported by generally slower moving music in the rest of the strings. This is in the purest G major, with hardly any chromatic inflection at all. It reminded me of the end of the Vaughan Williams 5th symphony in its expressive simplicity. 

I think that I was roped in to play a piece of Finzi at very short notice (I think I might have even sight read it in the concert) but I can’t remember what it was and don’t have any other experience of his music. I must have heard a few of the songs over the years, I suppose, but nothing has stayed in the memory. But this piece certainly will.

Halévy: La Reine de Chypré

Day 319

Halévy: La Reine de Chypré

Soloists

Flemish Radio Choir

Chamber Orchestra of Paris

Hervé Niquet

Halévy is one of the giants of 19th century French Grand Opera. He is most notably for La Juive, which was performed by the University opera group the year before I went up to university so I missed the opportunity to take part, but this opera was his second great contribution to the repertory.

It has a curious place in the footnotes of musical history in that Wagner was commissioned early in his life to prepare the vocal score of the opera. I followed this performance using that vocal score and there were plenty of places where the recording offered a significantly different text. The background to the complex textual history of the score is well set out in the booklet accompanying this recording - another example of the very high production values of these CD sets from Bru Zane which have brought so many important French operas back to life.

There was some tremendous music in this opera - particularly, as one would expect, in the big set piece ensembles, which had tremendous energy and excitement. But there is plenty of quieter, more contemplative music as well, and overall the opera has a really good balance of material.

As ever with French operas of this period you have to take the rough with the smooth. Like Meyerbeer Halévy is no master of transition.  There are some very abrupt gear changes which really grate. There is also a fair amount of rum-ti-tum music of no particular interest. And the end is rather underwhelming. The death of the villain is over in a few bars and the final air by the soprano is rather trivial. Interestingly the notes to the CD remind us that often the key attraction of the final scene was a coup de théâtre , where the scenery and costumes for the finale were the main attraction and would often be met with loud applause covering the music.  But this weakness in finales is something which is characteristic of 19th century French opera - it is something I have commented on before in these note.

So not an out-and-out masterpiece then, but at its best this is an opera of very high quality and dramatic force. I can't imagine it ever being revived on stage other than as a curiosity - the whole ethos of French Grand Opera is so far removed from our current view of what is effective in the theatre. I can't help thinking that this is our loss.