Classical Explorations — March 2024

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Russian Easter Festival Overture, Op.36
Happy Easter everyone! I wanted to start with something soulful, joyful and rousing for Easter season – so what better way to start with the dazzling lights, bells and acclamations of the Russian Orthodox Church. Finished in 1888, the piece is dedicated to the memories of Mussorgsky and Borodin, two friends and contemporaries of The Mighty Handful. I absolutely adore this piece and have conducted on many occasions. What strikes me about the overture is the feeling of beginning or starting again – the very message of Easter itself. There are three themes which alternate, starting simply and building almost to a cacophony with twinkling percussion and repeated figures only to give way for beautiful solos in the violin and trombone or to even state the theme simply and reverently. The alchemic mix for me is a post-Romantic work, Russian passion, liturgical themes and a rousing finish which seems to become ever more dazzling at the end.

Andrew Staniland
Phi, Caelestis, ballet for orchestra – Styx
Andrew Staniland is a Canadian composer, described in New Yorker Magazine as “alternately beautiful and terrifying”. Phi is a collection of three one-act ballets, commissioned by the Canadian National Arts Foundation. The ballet set is entitled ‘for orchestra and electronics’ – although there are no electronics in this particular one. Each of the scores (Rex, Styx and Eden), are based on "images of humanity, technology, nature, beauty, and violence". Styx (the second) is an ancient ritual – perhaps overtones of Le Sacre du Printemps. The music is quite arresting with evil conch calls from contrabassoon and bass trombones, carried forward by pizzicato strings. Repeated brass pitches give a shimmering minimalist feel – especially with fluid and legato woodwinds ebbing and flowing over the jagged repetition. It would be amazing to see the choreography in this ballet.

Michael Kurkek
Symphony No.2: Tales from the Realm of Faerie
I stumbled across this symphony by mistake really – whilst looking for a specific recording, I discovered the American Composer Michael Kurek and the European Recording Orchestra who are based in Sofia, Bulgaria. Immediately descriptive, it’s delicate and twinkling lines beckon you into a mystical world. Wind solos are beautifully balanced in the recording. Searching lines which are stated again and again are given plenty of colour through an almost ‘Hollywood’ film score treatment. This music could work very well with many a descriptive and dramatic film.

Tõnu Kõrvits
Silent Songs: No. 3 Farewell Farwell
Tõnu Kõrvits is an Estonian composer writing music reminiscent of the Romantic and Impressionistic styles. Silent Songs (2015) is a work of three pieces for bass clarinet and orchestra where the soloist’s part is “improvisatory, lyrical and meditative”. The soloist on this recording is Meelis Vind who has a rich and sonorous low end with a lyrical and warm expression in the upper registers. The piece ends with a deep, resonant chord from the orchestra, with the soloist softly laying high harmonics to the texture in the most mesmerising way giving a rugged, earthy soundworld.

Helen Grime
Clarinet Concerto – i. With Vigour
This fascinating concerto is a maze of interesting rhythms and counterpoint. Like looking at a fine tapestry, the detail ever grows the further you look. I particularly like the hurried lines which conclude with weighted pedal notes in the solo clarinet line, expertly played by Lynsey Marsh. The busyness of the movement is crafted meticulously in the orchestration with so much detail coming forward from the Hallé Soloists. The expectation and building of tension through the graded dynamics particularly in the winds give much shape and direction to the piece.

Percy Grainger
Lincolnshire Posy ii. Horkstow Grange
Whatever your musings of Percy Grainger are, we owe a debt of gratitude to him for the amount of English Folksong which is preserved through his extraordinary corpus of works. Whilst wind players will know Lincolnshire Posy very well indeed, it deserves to be better known. This 1997 recording made with Sir Simon Rattle balances the technical demands of shifting meter whilst maintaining a beautiful warm and resonant vibrato to give it a singing quality.

Philip Glass
Études, No. 2 (arr. for Quintet by Caleb Hudson)
The music of Philip Glass is less ubiquitous than it used to be and here it needs no introduction. However, the presentation of it here by young Trumpeter Caleb Hudson is very neatly and tastefully done. Nothing Less is Hudson’s debut album and features his solo lines alongside flute, clarinet, violin and cello. I love the inventiveness of this album. Even a Corelli Sonata gets some arrangement, and it is all tweaked to perfection with stylistic interpretations Baroque whilst clearly unafraid to widen the possibilities of timbre.

Albéric Magnard
Suite d’orchestre dans le style ancien, Op.2, ii. Sarabande
One positive for streaming platforms is that music continues when a playlist has finished. Most of the time, I’m uninterested with the results but this little ditty caught my ear this month. I’ve also got to admit not previously knowing about Albéric Magnard. Born in Paris in 1865, he was an exact contemporary of Sibelius, Nielsen (to the day), Dukas and Glazunov. Magnard became a national hero in 1914 when he refused to surrender his property to German invaders and died defending it. This suite for orchestra caught my attention because of the beautiful wind playing from the Philharmonisches Orchester Freiburg, a philharmonic based in Germany. The charming and leading lines are later underpinned by string counterpoint.

Alfred Reed
In Memoriam
You’ll have to excuse the Japanese title on this one unless of course you speak Japanese! Alfred Reed was a stalwart supporter of the wind orchestra / band / ensemble. His music is however often overlooked by wind aficionados as being a little too didactic in tone. But whatever your thoughts on Reed’s music, the catalogue of works for winds is undeniable and there are, to my mind, some real gems and this is one of them. Written in 1972, it was to serve as a memorial piece ‘for the fallen’. What is particularly impressive is the sense of phrase building. This piece is nearly 10 minutes long with the passion surging and waning like waves of grief. The passion surges to a near climax but it is ushered away, only for it to return ever more powerful and determined. This year has sadly seen the passing of my clarinet teacher Charles Hine. It’s been 20 years since I graduated but a memory of Charles leading this piece on stage feels as fresh today as it did all those years ago. Charles knew how to build those wonderful phrases and the ‘big moment’ showed something of himself on stage – a man fully committed and engaged in this wonderful music. Charles – this one is for you.

Kenneth Fuchs
Eventide
This wonderful concerto for cor-anglais has many facets so do listen to the conclusion of this interesting work. Starting perhaps innocuously, the cor-anglais weaves a line like a bee around a flower – delicate and beautiful with a charming sense of legato. The music continues with a little more angst and with ever more colour from the orchestra. The solo line becomes more intricate, introducing more articulated figures. In the centre of the piece, we hear mulitphonics. They feel uncomfortable to start with but the narrative and sensitive accompaniment from the London Symphony Orchestra under Timothy Jones keeps us well on track with soothing sighs reminiscent of Copland. After a faster section, the smoothness is recapitulated and now makes more sense. The cor-anglais playing from Thomas Stacy is persuasive, managing to fuse outstandingly beautiful lyricism with more contemporary effects whilst keeping the narrative on track.

Dani Howard
Trombone Concerto i. Realisation
This concerto caught my attention for two reasons. Firstly, you don’t get to hear many trombone concertos and secondly, the language here was so inviting! An assured voice from the outset, this ‘curtain-raiser’ movement sparkles like a gem, propelled forward by a driving rhythm. Neat woodwind interjections add further excitement and intrigue. This introduction is closely followed by sensitive and expressive playing from Peter Moore who seamlessly moves from floating lyricism to cleanly articulated passages – across such a large register too – wonderful!

Hans Zimmer
Interstellar – Mountains
Perhaps a little detour into film music – why not! Hans Zimmer needs no introduction but perhaps the detail within this particular film score does. The film is science fiction, set in a dystopian future where humanity will be doomed. A group of astronauts travel through a wormhole near Saturn in search of a new home for humankind. Time is very important in the film which is very cleverly portrayed in the music. When the team arrive on Miller (the water planet), this track is played. A prominent feature of the track is a constant ticking. Perhaps not heard by the naked ear, only 48 clock ticks are heard in 60 seconds – because every hour on Miller is seven years on earth. This means each clock tick is in fact a whole day passing on Earth. Of course, the music is given the blockbuster Zimmer treatment but another fascinating and prominent feature of this is the pipe organ. Played by the wizard of the pipe organ Roger Sayer, there is short video on YouTube talking about the recording of the part in the Temple Church, London. Just feel the power of the organ when it is played in all its splendid glory at 2:03! If you are on social media, you may have come across the young and very talented Anna Lapwood who loves to feature Interstellar in her programmes. If you haven’t seen the film – do so this Easter weekend!

Myroslav Skoryk
The High Pass
Having visited Ukraine in 2021 (you may be interested in a short 8-minute video I made two years ago), the war continues to break my heart. I follow the news closely, but the British media reports are fewer now that we have just seen the two-year anniversary last month. So as we turn to my last piece this month just take a moment to consider – this simple yet beautiful melody was recorded by the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra. The orchestra’s website is still live, but their concert section is blank. Nothing. If the members of the orchestra are still alive, they will most likely be displaced as this port city had taken a battering from Russian airstrikes in 2022. This piece feels all the more poignant right now. Composer Skoryk holds the title of People’s Artist of Ukraine and is one of his country’s most celebrated composers. It was this very piece which propelled him to the forefront of Ukrainian music. This recording on Naxos was made live at the Philharmonic Hall in Odessa as part of Skoryk’s 75th anniversary concerts. Skoryk died in 2020, aged 81.