Just to show that I listen to, and enjoy, music that is not British. I recently reviewed this excellent CD of music by one of the United States great composers. As I noted at the conclusion of my review, 'this is an exciting and desirable retrospective of Irving Fine’s orchestral music.' It was first published on MusicWeb International.
I was delighted by this exciting
new CD from the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Apart from the Symphony, I
have not consciously heard these works before: Irving Fine is, I guess, little
known in the United Kingdom. He was one
of the Boston Six Group of composers which included Arthur Berger, Leonard
Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Lucas Foss and Harold Shapero. Fine’s music was
neo-classical, neo-romantic and latterly serial in its style. All his works are
approachable and all are written with fine craftsmanship and an excellent
understanding of orchestration. He is often regarded as one of ‘the great
American composers of the twentieth century.’
Some brief biographical notes
about the composer may be of interest. Irving Gifford Fine was born in Boston
Massachusetts on 3 December 1914. After an education at Boston and Winthrop, he
gained his B.A. and M.A. degrees from Harvard University. Fine’s musical education included composition
with Edward Burlinghame Hall, Walter Piston and conducting with Serge
Koussevitzky. There was a period in Paris as one of Nadia Boulanger many
protégés. Fine joined the Music Faculty
at Harvard in 1939 as Assistant Professor. Subsequently, he occupied many posts
in musical education, including Tanglewood and Brandeis University.
Fine’s musical catalogue is not
extensive: he has contributed a number of important chamber works, songs and
choruses as well as the orchestral music presented on this disc. Copland has
suggested that he belongs to the ‘American Stravinsky School’, although the
influence of Hindemith is also prevalent. Irving Fine died in Boston on 23
August 1962.
The Toccata Concertante was
Fine’s first completed orchestral work. It dates from 1947. The composer wrote
that he wished to ‘to capture the “fanfare-like character” of concerted Baroque
music as displayed in certain professional toccatas of the 16th and
17th century’. In fact, this
neo-classical work is more likely to remind the listener of Stravinsky rather
than ‘Back to Bach’. There is also a
definite ‘American’ feel to this music, without it ever descending into a
parody of ‘jazz. Contemporary critics defined the
work as ‘deftly constructed’, ‘well proportioned’ ‘logically constructed’ and
sparkling. It is an approachable piece that succeeds in its attempt to
‘modernize’ the Baroque toccata. However, from my point of view, it lacks just
a wee bit of ‘edge’. The work was dedicated to the
composer’s wife Verna. It was premiered by Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston
Symphony Orchestra in 1948.
In 1951 Fine wrote his Notturno
for strings and harp which is a decidedly romantic work. It is written in three
movements: Lento, Animato and Adagio.
The work is not ‘concerted’ with the harp being used to provide instrumental
colouring rather than as a soloist.
The publisher’s programme notes
suggest that this reflects the composer’s ‘own blend of styles of Chopin,
Mozart and Stravinsky.’ Once again I feel that the Russian is the strongest
influence. There is much warmth and
lyricism in this work, although I feel that the neo-classical element is not as
absent as commentators have suggested. The string writing is masterly,
especially in the short ‘animato’.
Leonard Bernstein wrote of Fine’s
Serious Song: A Lament for String Orchestra ‘it’s my favourite work of his…this
is rich, sensitive, emotional music.’
Fine himself suggested that this work was ‘essentially an extended aria
for string orchestra.’ I am not sure what the composer is ‘lamenting’ or what
the unwritten text described, but this a powerful work is at once passionate,
tender and invoking considerable grief.
This haunting works does reach some serenity and closure on the final
bars.
Blue Tower (1959) had its origins as a ‘University Marching Song:
The Blue and the White’. This short work is bright, full of fun and a sheer
pleasure to listen to. Think ‘Malcom Arnold meets Sousa’ and the listener will
not go far wrong. This should be in the Classic FM Top 100 as a matter of
course. It is a great place to start an exploration of Irving Fine’s orchestra
music.
In 1959-60 Fine orchestrated four
of his unpublished piano pieces and presented them as Diversions for
orchestra. Once again Bernstein summed
these pieces up well: ‘In these four pieces we can behold a personality, tender
without being coy, witty without being vulgar, appealing without being banal,
and utterly sweet without ever being cloying…’
The first of the four movements
is a ‘Little Toccata’ which allows Stravinsky to attend a hoe-down. The
‘Flamingo Polka’ and the final ‘Red Queen’s Gavotte’ were originally part of
incidental music for a production of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. The wistful third movement was inspired by the
composer’s family poodle Koko. There is nothing serious in these charming pieces:
the clue to their success is in the work’s title.
The Symphony (1962) was Irving
Fine’s largest work: it was also to be his last. The composer conducted a private
performance of this work at Tanglewood just days before he died. The key to
understanding this symphony is to see it as being composed using serial
techniques, but fused with Fine’s neo-classicism (and occasionally, his
romanticism). It does not strike the
listener as being serial at all: the composer manages to hide his technical
scaffolding.
Interestingly, the composer recalled that he ‘…was
applying the last finishing touches to the orchestration on February 20, 1962, nervously watching the television, set out of
the corner of one eye when the news of Colonel Glenn's return from outer space
was announced.’
The symphony is is three movements. It opens with a typically
lyrical ‘Intrada’ displaying ‘…choreographic action in which characters enter,
depart, and reappear…altered and in different groupings.’ This is followed by a
dancing, ‘brassy’ Capriccio which is effectively a ‘scherzo’ with the
traditional trio replaced by a series of ‘episodes’. The symphony concludes
with a much grittier and hard-won ‘Ode’ which is dramatic and dissonant but
resolves itself into a hugely positive epilogue.
The symphony was composed for large orchestra with piano,
celesta and harp. It was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and
received its first public performance under Charles Munch on 23 March 1962.
Aaron Copland described the work
as ‘…strongly dramatic, almost operatic in gesture, with a restless and
somewhat strained atmosphere that is part of its essential quality.’ He also
suggested that in this work Fine was ‘…reaching out toward new and more
adventurous experiences.’
This is a great symphony that
should be at the heart of the American symphonic repertoire. It should be given
an airing in Europe as well. It is a masterpiece.
The liner notes by Nicholas
Alexander Brown are excellent and include good descriptions of each work, a
brief notes about the composer, the Project and the conductor Gil Rose. I noted above that I have not heard most of
this music before, but my impression is that they are enthusiastically and
sympathetically performed. All in all, this is an exciting and desirable
retrospective of Irving Fine’s orchestral music.
Irving FINE (1914-1962)
Toccata concertante (1947)
Notturno for strings and harp (1951)
Serious Song, a lament for string orchestra (1955)
Blue Towers (1959)
Diversions for orchestra (1960)
Symphony (1962)
Boston Modern Orchestra Project/Gil Rose
BMOP Sound 1041
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