Sohy: Symphony in C sharp minor

Day 332

Charlotte Sohy: Symphony in C sharp minor The Great War

Orchestra National de France

DeborahWildman

This was another significant discovery from the Bru Zane box of music by French Women composers, Compostrices. Sohy (1887-1955) was a name unknown to me until I started to explore this set. She was Schola Cantorum trained and was well connected with the major figures in French music in the pre-first world war period. This symphony dates from 1914-17:  the subtitle ‘The Great War’ is though to be a reference to the composer ALbert Maynard (a close friend) and to her husband, who was killed in 1915.

Astonishing the piece was not performed until  2019. Nobody is quite sure why it was not performed in the composer’s lifetime - she was a respected figure and several of her other orchestral works were performance.  Whatever the reason this piece did not deserve to be ignored for over a hundred years. I though that is was a very impressive example of a symphony in the late-romantic idiom. Stylistically it is closer to Saint-Sâens than Debussy though it is not obviously the work of a French composer. Anybody anywhere writing in the early part of the 20th century would have been very pleased to have written such a strong work. I’ve commented before in this notes that the verdict of history is often right - this is a really good counter example!

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.

Lutyens: String trio

Day 330

Elizabeth Lutyens: String trio op 57

Endymion ensemble

Elizabeth Lutyens was one of the first English composer to embrace serialism - in fact she claimed that she had independently discovered serialism technique without any influence from the second Viennese school. She seems to have been a difficult individual to cope with and she was not popular within the English musical community - in return she was the person who christen the pastoral music of the English tradition’ the cowpat school’.

Webern is the obvious influence on this string trio from 1963 - indeed on the page the score looks almost exactly like a late Webern piece. In fact it is slightly more lyrical and less disjointed than Webern’s music. I found the first four movements quite attractive but the longer (comparatively - this is not a long piece) - last movement seemed much tougher and aggressive. 

Lutyens made a living from writing scores for horror films. I don’t think that I have seen of them - perhaps I will make a point of watching one of them next time it is film night.

Clarke: Viola Sonata

Day 329

Rebecca Clarke: Viola Sonata

Phillip Dukes

Sophia Rahman

This is a piece I knew by reputation but which I had never heard before. Rebecca Clarke was another of those British women composers who made a really positive start to their composing career but then rather faded into obscurity. But again, in recent years she has, like other women of her generation, been rediscovered - there is now a society devoted to her work.

This sonata is her major work. It is a full blooded piece on a large scale with virtuoso parts for both the viola and the piano. Like the Howell piece yesterday there are many French influences. Some of the 9th chords could well have come from a sonata by Debussy - in fact I don’t think that heard cold many people would recognise it as having been written by an English composer at all. There is a confidence about the writing which seems far removed from the reticence of some of the music of her English contemporaries. 

It is not an easy listen but well worth the effort. Another composer on the list to explore.

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.

Price: Violin concerto no 2

Day 327

Florence Price: Violin concerto no 2

Randall Goosby

Philadelphia Orchestra

Yaniick Nézet-Séguin

I played in a performance of Price’s first symphony a couple of years ago. I enjoyed it a lot though I didn’t regarded it as the masterpiece that some commentators have suggested it is - a touch of special pleading there I think. Since then I have heard the other symphonies and the first violin concerto but this second concerto was new to me.

It is a fairly short piece in one movement. Stylistically it is rather all over the place. Some of the more lyrical music could easily have passed for minor Brahms but the more extrovert music was in places quite close to the bandstand!  I think that Price struggled to find a consistent voice - the same thing can be said of the symphonies.  Having said that the music itself was attractive and lyrical and there were some interesting orchestral effects - I didn’t have a score but what sounded like a prominent part for celesta at the beginning added a certain piquancy to the texture.  So well worth listening to but much as I admire Price’s personal narrative and the struggle she had for recognition this is not much more than a curiosity. 

Schnittke: Concerto for two pianos

Day 326

Schnittke: Concerto for two pianos

Victoria Postnikova

Irina Schnittke

State Symphony Orchestra

Gennadi Rozhdestvensky

I don’t think that I have heard any of Schnittke’s music so I started this with an open mind. I thought it was rather a good piece. It is extrovert in character and although written in a modernist style it is not too challenging. It is difficult to describe quite how the music fits into the 20th century musical world. Some of the rhetorical devices are not a million miles away from Prokofiev of Shostakovich, but the sound world at times reminded me of Ives. Yet elsewhere it could have been by Britten. It was quite ‘splashy’ in places and I am sure would make an effective piece in a concert. There is plenty more Schnittke to explore  - I am not really sure where to start.