What are you listening to now - I ?

[BBMmk2]

2nd half of BBM FM's LNOP;-

Elgar Pomp and Circumstance March No.4, op.39. BBC Concert Orchestra/Barry Wordsworth.
Finzi: God is Gone Up. op.27/2; Magnificat, Op.36. Queen's College Cambridge Choir, Christopher Robinson.
Bax: Tintagel. BBC PO/Vernon Handley.
Holst: The Planets, Jupiter. BBC SO/Boult.
Butterworth: On the Banks of Green Willow. LSO/Hickox.
Purcell: Chacony in G minor. English Chamber Orchestra
Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on Greensleeves. BBC CO/Wordsworth.
Charles Wood: Oh thou the Central orb. The Sixteen Choir/Christophers.
Henry J Wood: Fantasia on British Sea Songs; Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance march No.1, op.39; Rule Briitannia(Thomas Arne); God Save the Queen.
BBC Concert Orchestra/Wordsworth.

[Petrushka]

Charles Wood: Oh thou the Central orb.

This is a real favourite of mine since my choirboy days back in the 1960s.

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Not interested in tonight's Prom so a chance for a bit of CD catch up:

Verdi: Overture - The Force of Destiny
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Claudio Abbado

Lutoslawski: Symphony No 3
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Edward Gardner

[interval]

Strauss: Ein Heldenleben
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Sir Georg Solti

[Suffolkcoastal]

More from the journey through my symphonic collection:
1994
S Albert: Symphony No 2 (left incomplete 1992, completed Sebastian Currier)
Aho: Symphony No 9
Arnell: Symphony No 6 ‘The Anvil’
Maxwell Davies: Symphony No 5
Diamond: Symphony No 10 (final 2000 version)
P Glass: Symphony No 2 in C minor
Henze: Symphony No 8
Holmboe: Symphony No 13
McCabe: Symphony No 4 ‘Of time and the river’
Meale: Symphony No 1
Raichev: Symphony No 6 ‘Liturgical’
Rouse: Symphony No 2
Schnittke: Symphony No 8
Tischenko: Symphony No 7
Wernick: Symphony No 2

Stephen Albert’s 2nd Symphony was left incomplete following his tragic early death aged 51 in a car accident in 1992. It was complete in draft and some orchestration was indicated and Sebastian Currier completed and edited the work. It is in three movements lasting around 30 minutes. It is an expansive and moving score. The outer movements are expansive, the finale having an almost Mahlerian coda and the central movement is full of life. The score is quite approachable and well worth a listen.
Kalevi Aho’s 9th Symphony is really a Sinfonia Concertante for trombone and orchestra. The work is in three movements and lasts a little over 30 minutes. The trombone’s important solo role is quite taxing and in the amusing 1st movement a sackbut is used as the music amusingly mimics the pre-Baroque manner. This eclectic score is not the most tightly organised piece, but it is very entertaining and in the central movement lyrically expansive.
Arnell’s 6th Symphony comes after a 35 year gap from its predecessor. It is a short work lasting under 15 minutes and is in 4 sections. Its title comes from the use of a struck anvil at various points in the score. The language is very much of the composer of 30 years earlier, though there is sometimes a little more bite to the harmonies. One feels though that it is a little short and there should be more to follow.
Peter Maxwell Davies 5th Symphony is in one continuous movement lasting around 25 minutes and in duration is much shorter than the symphonies that surround it. The shorter duration is misleading as much is packed in to this work. Some of the material is derived from an earlier work Chat Moss and modality and plainchant play a key role, as does the ghost of Sibelius’s 7th. This is a dark work that proceeds in waves of great drama and power combined with moments of eerie stillness and loneliness. The work is quite striking in its impact and focus and real concentrates the listener.
The 10th Symphony of David Diamond is a large scale four movement work of around 50 minutes duration. The first movement is full of a continuous contrapuntal web that keeps the music moving. The 2nd movement is the largest and is a noble, eloquently expressive movement. The scherzo is relatively short with a touch of humour and plenty of scurrying energy. The finale is fairly broad and has an important part for organ. It is perhaps a little less focused than the other movements and has tender to wander somewhat. Still this is a fine work on a grand scale.
Glass’s 2nd Symphony is a 3 movement work of around 45 minutes duration. The work employs all the standard Glass techniques and mannerisms. Glass struggles to maintain interest of this large timespan and the result is an awkward patchwork that doesn’t add up to much. Also there is a lack of any really interesting or memorable material.
Henze’s 8th Symphony is a three movement work of a little over 25 minutes duration. The inspiration comes from A Midsummer Nights Dream. The score is transparent and quite light in texture and is quite captivating. The central movement in particular has a fascinating interplay of textures and the finale is a movement of captivating transparency. This is certainly worth listening to, even for those who don’t normally respond to Henze’s music.
Holmboe’s 13th and final Symphony is a three movement work of a little under 20 minutes duration. The 1st movement has an almost strident urgent momentum that propels the music forward. The 2nd movement begins more expansively but soon gains momentum and stops abruptly. The finale has plenty of forward movement but is also broader and expands towards the end leaving just a solo flute. A fine piece of craftsmanship, and a fitting conclusion to one of the more important 20th century symphonic cycles.
John McCabe’s 4th Symphony is in two movements and lasts a little over 30 minutes. The 1st movement begins quickly but gradually slows down, whilst the 2nd movement does the opposite. Each movement also moves through the cycle of 5ths, the first from D major to A flat minor and the 2nd from A flat minor back to D major. The opening is very Brittenesque and the score as a whole is very interesting and absorbing.
The 1st Symphony of the Australian composer Richard Meale is a one movement work of about 25 minutes duration. The score is neo-romantic in tone, almost cinematic at times and eclectic. The work is full of big seeping textures which have quite a vivid impact. Everything is derived from the opening, however there isn’t the real sense of inevitability you get from the finest symphonists and generally the work lacks some focus and direction.
Raichev’s 6th Symphony lasts about 30 minutes and is a rich and expansive score with plenty of atmosphere. The language is quite straightforward and the orchestration sometimes quite colourful, however though the atmosphere it creates stays with the listener the thematic content doesn’t. There is also one miscalculation towards the end when a wordless soprano is introduces who literally wails glissandi and the effect is horrible.
The 2nd Symphony of Christopher Rouse is a three movement work of a little over 25 minutes duration. The 1st movement has a nervous, anxious and anticipatory momentum that is somewhat unsettling. The 2nd movement, a memorial to the composer Stephen Albert is an expansive movement of real power that reaches a dramatic and dissonant climax. The finale is intense and full of momentum, but this time it leads to brutal violence as the work reaches a shattering conclusion.
Schnittke’s 8th Symphony lasts around 35 minutes and in many ways follows on from his 6th and 7th symphonies. Like these works the 8th is generally rather sparse texturally and horizontal movement of parts is kept to a minimum. The thematic lines here though are more expressive with an arching expansiveness. Harmonically the work is often quite dissonant with great clusters of sound being built and then diluted creating great unease and tension.
Boris Tischenko’s 7th Symphony is a five movement work of around 50 minutes duration. This is a difficult work to grasp overall and is rather enigmatic, encompassing as it does a considerable range of moods. The 1st movement has an odd nonchalant quality and a dance like freedom and the 2nd movement takes this dance like pulse to greater extent making much use of the ‘cakewalk’ rhythm. The third and fourth movement seem to go much deeper and are slightly Shostakovich like and very Russian in their brooding searching quality. The finale has plenty of wit, playfulness and dark sarcasm creating a mood that, like the whole work, is difficult to pin down. Certainly worth a listen though.
Finally the American Richard Wernick’s 2nd Symphony. Lasting a little over 20 minutes this work is scored for soprano and orchestra. It is a rather sombre score, with sparse textures and fragmented ideas. The work seems to lack real focus and is in no way memorable.

[teamsaint]

great read , Suffy, many thanks.
Rouse 1 was a GREAT find a few weeks ago, so No 2 is a must.

Lots more to ponder and listen to.

[Stanfordian]

Verdi per due - Angela Gheorghiu & Roberta Alagna
Don Carlos, I lombardi, Simon Boccanegra, I vespri siciliani, Rigoletto, Aida, I masnadieri, Il trovatore, La traviata,
Angela Gheorghiu (sop), Roberta Alagna (tenor)
Berliner Philharmoniker/Claudio Abbado
Recorded 1998 Jesus Christ Church, Berlin
EMI Classics

Brahms:
Sextet, Op. 36;
String Quartet, Op. 51/1;
Leipzig String Quartet
with Hartmut Rohde (viola) & Pater Burns (cello),
Recorded 2004 Markkleeberg & Pauol-Gerhard-Kirche, Leipzig, Germany
MDG Gold

Jim Robinson and his New Orleans Band:
‘Blues in the classics tradition’
(1961)

[pilamenon]

Smetana: Vyšehrad and Vltava from Má vlast, St Louis SO/Susskind, 1974

[BBMmk2]

I love the Charles Wood as well. Our school choir did a very good job of it, last Michaelmas term

That Edweard Gardner, I must invest in the rest of his Lutoslawski cycle.

Could someone mention here, what they think of my 2nd half programme? anything I should put in or leave out?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Could someone mention here, what they think of my 2nd half programme? anything I should put in or leave out?

Something by a composer who lived a little more recently? (The most recent died fifty-five years ago!)

[Exonian]

Today:

Bartok : Concerto for Orchestra ; Deux Images - Concertgebouw with Antal Dorati (Philips)

Mozart : Symphonies 39 & 41 - Staatskapelle, Dresden with Sir Colin Davis (Philips)

Nice to listen to after such a long time. I do like Sir Colin Davis' musicality.

[Stanfordian]

Rachmaninov:
Symphonic Dances, Op. 45;
Philadelphia Orchestra/Eugene Ormandy
Recorded 1963 Severance hall, Cleveland, Ohio
Sony Classical ‘Essential Classics’

Quincy Jones:
‘You've Got It Bad Girl’;
A&M (1973)

Hindemith:
Mathis der Maler, symphony;
Nobilissima Visione, orchestral suite;
Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber;
Berliner Philharmoniker/Claudio Abbado
Recorded 1995 Philharmonie Berlin (Mathis de Mahler live)
Deutsche Grammophon

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I do like Sir Colin Davis' musicality.

[Oliver]

A propos that Colin Davis performance of the Jupiter..... I much prefer period performances and, in general, I find Davis's superb musicality undermined by a too- comfortable string tone in those Dresden performances.
However, there's one thing I love about his Jupiter and that is the chuckling bassoons in the final movement. They make me laugh. My preferred performances (Hogwood and Tafelmusik/Weil at the moment) just "don't get it".

[BBMmk2]

Schubert: Symphony no.9, in C major(The Great). Wiener Philahrmoniker, Sir Georg Solti.

Richard Strauss: Don Quixote, op.35;(Paul Tortelier, cello; Giusto Cappone, viola; Siegfried Borries, violin) Berliner Philharmoniker, Rudolf Kempe;
Tod und Verklarung; Salome(Dance of the Seven Veils). Staatskapelle Dresden, Rudolf kempe.

Debussy: La Mer; Respighi: Fountains and pines of Rome. Chicago SO, Fritsz Reiner.

[BBMmk2]

Something by a composer who lived a little more recently? (The most recent died fifty-five years ago!)

Ah! Marc Anthony Turnage!!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Ah! Marc Anthony Turnage!!

- and why not!