Classical Explorations — April 2024

Constant Lambert
Suite from Anna Karenina: viii. Anna and Vronsky in Venice
Anna Karenina is a film from 1948 and is presented on a wonderful album on the Chandos label combining the film music of Constant Lambert and Lord Berners. The album is beautifully curated by Philip Lane who’s work to reconstruct the scores and write the fascinating inlay notes are a treat. They give forensic detail of the screenplay, cast, reasons for commissioning and the orchestral forces available to the composer. But beyond this detail, the music is intriguing and beautiful. In February, I featured Lambert’s Romeo and Juliet, commissioned by the Ballets Russes.

Oliver Messian
Le Banquet Céleste
Olivier Messiaen was of towering importance to the world of 20th­century music. He was appointed organist at the Église de la Sainte-Trinité, Paris, in 1931, a post he held for 61 years, until his death. His unwavering aura of the Catholic faith was radiated through his organ music and feels, for committed listeners, to travel towards articulating the divine. This wonderful piece brings together two distinct voices, slow ‘strings’ on the organ with more jaunty articulated figures. Written in 1928, the work's epigraph, "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him" (John 6:56). The music is wonderfully meditative and if you are in the right mood for it, the sounds can wash over you, creating a sense of deep peace. When the ‘bass drops’ (DJ term of course!) at the end, it’s a real moment of contrast and an arrival point.  

Danny Elfman
Percussion Concerto – I. Triangle
Danny Elfman has a glittering profile writing everything from The Simpsons theme tune to Spider-Man. I therefore surprised to see an orchestral work being promoted recently. Recorded with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra with Colin Currie as soloist who premiered the work in 2022 when it was completed. The result is a dazzling and well executed work with a composer well at home with orchestral textures and effects. The playing from Colin Currie as you might expect is outstanding and, in particular, I like the interaction with the soloist and the rest of the percussion section in the RLPO. What fun they must have had recording it!

Francis Poulenc
Concert Champêtre – ii. Andante: Mouvement de Sicilienne
Poulenc’s music is a heady mix of haunting melodies and vibrant rhythms all bound up his effervescent style. A 20th-century harpsichord concerto might seem paradoxical until we think of Les Six (of which Poulenc was a member), reacting to the Romantic giants like Wagner. The idea of neo-classical is here at the fore, fusing a Baroque instrument with a modern orchestra. Poulenc idealised Mozart which is played out here in his gift for writing a damn good tune. So good in this case, the harpsichordist for whom this concerto was written, said it made her "insouciant and gay"! Poulenc’s critics said his music was no more than frivolous pop music of the day. I suppose if they were looking for the towering works of Wagner, they must have been disappointed. But in their disappointment, is my utter joy.

Galina Grigorjeva
In Paradisum
Galina Grigorjeva is a Ukrainian composer living in Estonia. This In Paradisum doesn’t appear to be part of a Requiem Mass but it is none the less sublime with the most ethereal and delicate lines I’ve ever heard, recorded exquisitely by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir under Paul Hillier. The soundworld is open and expansive with intimations of the great Russian Orthodox choral tradition – perhaps an influence having studied in St Petersburg as well as the Odessa Conservatory.

Robert Saxton
A Hymn to the Thames – iv. —
A Hymn to the Thames for solo oboe and chamber orchestra was commissioned by James Turnbull, St Paul’s Sinfonia and its Music Director Andrew Morley. The work is made up of four movements, all linked and ask the composer states: “sets the soloist as both wanderer and river spirit in conjunction with the river of the orchestra from source to sea”. So I guess this last movement is somewhere in the Thames Estuary where tides are strong and currents wild. The movement is wracked with emotion and propulsion which never wanes. Fast running passages have interesting instrument pairings contrasted with almost hymn-like figures. The playing from the solo oboe is a wide, open sound with plenty of vibrato warmth.

Reductio
Widor: Toccata
Matt Walters aka Reductio is a social media sensation with nearly 100,000 followers across several social media platforms, but especially Instagram and TikTok. A graduate of Cambridge University, Matt studied classics alongside an organ scholarship. He describes his style as a “hybrid of the contemporary and the classical”. This very dynamic and talented young man is seen playing much of the standard repertoire, but it was this track which stood out recently. How could Widor’s Toccata be played, torn apart and reconstructed with banging dance rhythms? Well, Reductio shows us the way. I suppose this will really divide listeners but perhaps instead of this being a “I like / dislike dance music”, perhaps the question is, can and does this kind of fusion work? There are now more and more popular artists going on tour and including orchestras with their sets. This is hugely popular with audiences. The question remains, would classical audiences do the same and accept a little hybrid in? Here’s a challenge for you – if you feel you don’t like dance music, give this a try and tell me what you think, super especially if you are an organist! Apart from the obvious thumping bass, I like how Reductio has structured the track to repeat phrases in a way that don’t change the chord progression and making his own form by jamming sections together.  Probably the most famous piece of classical organ repertoire reduced from six minutes to just three. For the record I think it works!

JS Bach
Cantata BWV 159 – Es ist Vollbracht
A teacher once said to me that Bach can sound good on anything. Whilst I can appreciate the sentiment, I don’t agree: I’ve heard so much bad! But when you hear something well thought through and executed, it can catch you unawares, which I think music really ought to! Reading through the list of newly released music this month, this one didn’t particularly stand out but upon listening, it immediately captured my imagination. The gorgeous tone from the Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson is irresistible. Upon a little more inspection, the cantata is written for the last week of Lent. The theme and Bach's music foreshadow his Passion. This arrangement for solo piano is sensitively and convincingly done with a singing quality – just as is required. The approach is definitely a modern one, making use of a modern grand piano. This coupled with outstanding mixing and mastering gives a warm and inviting sound.

Alexander Scriabin
Symphony No.2 in C Minor
The Russian composer Alexander Scriabin is undoubtedly and deservedly known for his piano repertoire. I’ve always adored the Russian orchestral masters, so I’ve recently wanted to widen my knowledge, listening to Scriabin’s symphony cycle. There is great depth of emotion and clever thematic integration – particularly in this symphony. The harmonies are mostly conventional with some interesting twists. When Vassily Safonoff first conducted the symphony, he waved the score at the orchestra and said, "Here is the new Bible, gentlemen..."!

Huw Watkins
Piano Trio No.1 – ii. Lento
I’ve followed the music of Huw Watkins for quite some time and really enjoy his unique style of writing and in particular a bold and distinctive harmonic language. Here in this trio, impassioned movement and interaction from the instrumentalists repeatedly concludes with a haunting and bare open fifth motif. The sense of ensemble in this recording is really persuasive and communicative. The quality of the individual playing, ensemble and recording are really excellent.

William Mathias
Improvisations for Harp, Op.10 – i. Allegro moderato
Welsh composer William Mathias was once described as 'one of the most versatile musical minds of his generation'. A child prodigy, he could also improvise as well as to write at an early age.  His profile and music are both hugely underrated at worst and overlooked at best. So what better way to celebrate this great Welsh composer with the sound of the harp – the national instrument of Wales. Presented here with the superb performance from Elinor Bennett, the contrast between the energetic upper register of the instrument and the almost bell like tolling at the bottom gives brilliant depth and emotion to these pieces which celebrate Mathias as composer and improvisor!

Samuel Barber
The School for Scandal, Op.5
Samuel Barber is universally known for his Adagio for Strings, yet despite it’s blazing success it reveals very little of the intricacy and beauty of his overall output. Barber was writing at a time when 20th-century music was developing and was somewhat sidelined by the avant garde. While Copland was busy evoking the sounds of the Old West in Rodeo and Billy The Kid, and Bernstein was devouring everything from boogie-woogie to rock ’n’ roll, Barber stuck to his guns with concertos, symphonies and operas. 50 years earlier, his gift for luxurious melody, poignant harmonies and achingly nostalgic soundworlds would have made him a national hero, but by the 1960s it was John Cage and Elvis who were grabbing the musical headlines. This overture is expertly crafted and deeply felt with incredible detail in orchestration. This fact is made all the more incredible when you consider the work is his first work for full orchestra and helped him on his way to establish international fame. This performance by the New York Philharmonic is full of wit, energy and incredible detail. Why we don’t hear more of Samuel Barber on the concert platform is beyond me.

Mieczysław Weinberg
Trumpet Concerto – iii. Fanfares
I must admit to not knowing about Weinberg until now. A Polish, Soviet, and Russian composer and pianist. His compositions include 22 symphonies and 7 operas! A contemporary of Shostakovich they apparently shared ideas with each other. There is a definite air of the Jazz Suites in this particular concerto, but it clearly isn’t Shostakovich is it? The haunting muted line which opens this movement is played by the Russian-Israeli virtuoso Sergei Nakariakov. What an expressive and idiomatic sound!

Martin Butler
Preludes Inégales – iii. Chameleon
Martin Butler is known to many on the contemporary music scene and with an incredible back catalogue of recordings and plaudits. I discovered this piece on the contemporary label NMC, with the following note from the composer: “Three years ago I wrote Preludes Inégales – three piano pieces that started life as completely free improvisations I did at Club Inégales. The improvisations weren't recorded, but I jotted down my memory of them and used these sketches as raw material to compose with.” Chameleon is wonderfully evocative, using a large expressive range of the piano with some rather delicious harmonies, with expertly judged dynamics to give the phrases shape, depth and direction.

Yō Gotō
Lux Aeterna
Not a composer many people will have come across but with the lively wind band scene in Japan, Yō Gotō is something of a fixture in his home country but also in USA where he later studied. Performed to a professional standard, this piece is a great example of the incredible textures and soundworld a wind orchestra / band / ensemble can create. Beautifully judged, graded and musically intelligent, the score (which include a voiceless choir) is brought off very well, even in this live performance.

Bohuslav Martinů
Memorial to Lidice, H. 296
Long before I ever worked with the Czech Philharmonic, I listened to their wonderful recordings of Martinů’s symphonies as a student in the early noughties. The rhythmic repetition seemed an ostinato removed from Gustav Holst, another of my great loves. I now cherish those Czech Philharmonic recordings in their battered CD cases! This piece is a real gem. From his birth in the tower of St Jakob’s Church in Poliŭka, Bohemia, Martinů is one of contemporary music’s more eccentric personalities. Recognising his unusual talent the townspeople paid for him to study at the Prague Conservatory decamping to the capital in 1906. Encouraged to focus on composition by none other than Joseph Suk he remained indifferent to his instrumental studies. Despite being expelled from the music conservatory for "incorrigible negligence", he went on to work as a second violinist in the Czech Philharmonic. Here he was exposed to the works of Debussy, who became a huge influence on him. The creative tension between Martinů's profound Czechness and more cosmopolitan influences continued throughout his life, and provides a key to his wonderfully quirky musical language. Lidice, a Czech town, was systematically destroyed by the occupying Nazi forces in retaliation for the attempted assassination of its Governor Heinrich Heydrich in 1942. From the jarring bitonality of the opening, Memorial remains resolute in its harmonic challenge and austere environment. As the listener confronts the starkness of Martinů’s vision we are reminded of the eternal nature of hope as he cites the 13th Century St Wenceslas’ choral and concludes the piece with a reference to the victory call from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony – contemplative and profoundly moving.

Roger Quilter
Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal
Singers will no doubt be very aware of Roger Quilter, a composer of over 100 elegant songs and virtually nothing else! His distinctively impressionistic style is heightened by breathtaking lyricism. Sidelined perhaps by Parry, Stanford and Elgar for being too popular, you can’t deny his gift for creating great melody which flows so naturally, expertly accompanied with just enough conversational material on the piano. This is one of my favourite songs by Quilter and who better to sing it for us than Ian Bostridge, accompanied by Julis Drake. Simple and beautiful to close this month’s playlist.