This CD continues the 90th
birthday celebrations of Thea Musgrave, (27th May 1928) who is one
of the most remarkable of living British composers. Although hailing originally
from Barnton, Edinburgh, she has spent much of her working career based in the
United States. This disc presents two
orchestral works and a song-cycle for tenor, baritone and piano (four hands).
Phoenix Rising for orchestra is one of my ‘great’ discoveries in
2018. This tour de force was composed some 21 years ago in 1997. It was
commissioned by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Musgrave has explained that the
original intention was to present an ‘extended single movement progressing from
dark to light.’ The form of the score took its final shape after she had seen a
‘phoenix’ sign outside a coffee shop in Virginia, USA. It was this concept of
‘the phoenix rising from the ashes as the promise of hope and rebirth’ that
provided the main impetus of the work.
There are six sections to this
piece: Dramatic/violent, Desolate, Aggressive, Mysterious, Peaceful and a short
coda.
I felt that this composition is a
bit like a ‘concerto for orchestra.’ For example, there is an ongoing struggle
between the timpanist unsurprisingly representing ‘stormy’ violence and
destructive forces and the French horn promising hope. The middle section of this work begins with a
wonderful moment with two harps followed by a magical integration of pitched
percussion (marimba, vibraphone, xylophone and glockenspiel). This is surely
the Phoenix being reborn from the flames.
After this renaissance, the music glows with romantic sounds, before
closing with a gentle coda.
What impressed me most with Phoenix Rising was the orchestration. It
is a masterclass in the creation of a score that shines with luminosity and
shudders with dark aggression.
If Phoenix Rising is a ‘concerto for orchestra’ the delightful Loch Ness: A Postcard from Scotland can
be regarded as a ‘concertino’ for tuba.
I guess that some critics present at the work’s premiere (during the
Proms on 5 August 2012) had not read the composer’s words suggesting that this
is ‘a light-hearted work.’ Certainly, it is an enjoyable piece that develops an
almost cinematographic programme. Early one morning, Nessie emerges from the
depths of the Loch which is shrouded in Highlan’ mist. As this clears, s/he
plays in the ‘sparkling sun’ musically painted by trumpets – and then an old
Caledonian melody is heard. Alas. the day is soon over and the monster (if
monster it is) dives back into the depths of the loch. There is a big
orchestral splash followed by an evening breeze rippling the dark waters.
There are precious few ‘tuba
concertos’: Vaughan Williams’ being the most familiar. The present work is an
ideally crafted ‘concertante’ piece demanding a large orchestra and idiomatic playing
from the tuba soloist, who takes his normal seat and not that of a soloist at
the front. Clearly, Musgrave has decided
that Nessie sings with a ‘basso-profundo’ voice rather than ‘contralto.’ But is
works. It is a splendidly orchestrated work.
In fact, this is an attractive ‘post-card’ to her native land from the United States. It deserves to be popular.
I found Poets in Love: a song cycle for tenor, baritone and piano (four
hands) (2009) quite a difficult work to get my head around. It is not so much
the ‘sound’ of the music, but the concept of having the songs presented in
differing forms – duets and solos – and sometime overlapping.
The idea is that the seventeen
songs present a variety of ‘views’ on the nature of love. The conceit that has
typically been used is that the tenor is the romantic protagonist with the
baritone takes as more ‘realistic and cynical’ view of love. This may be a bit
clichéd.
Musgrave has collected her texts
from a wide range of poets including (but not limited to) Afansay Fet, William Shakespeare, Friedrich Hölderlin,
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Rainer Maria Rilke, Francis William Bourdillon,
James Boswell, Torquato Tasso, Robert Burns and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Several
different languages are used, although ‘workable’ translations have been
presented in the score where Russian is not in the gift of the soloists.
As the liner notes explain, these
songs reflect a wide variety of emotion: from the ‘warmly romantic to the cold
and cynical, the rapturous and stormy to the pensive and philosophical, the
jaunty and light-hearted to the sad and mournful.’
The songs are split into four
groups for the sake of the CD track-listing, although I understand that they
are to be performed without a break.
Stylistically, there is nothing
particularly challenging here. Occasionally, the piano accompaniment calls
forth something innovative (played on the strings inside) and then suddenly
this is replaced by piano writing reminiscent of Schubert. There is some
splendid ‘falsetto’ singing too.
Perhaps it is the eclectic nature
of the texts and the songs themselves that I struggle with. All that said,
these complex and often beautiful songs are well sung by Nathan Vale (tenor),
Simon Wallfisch (baritone) with accompaniment by Simon Callaghan and Hiroaki
Takenouchi.
Poets in Love was premiered at Dickinson College, Pennsylvania on 4
March 2010.
The liner notes by Paul Conway
are excellent. They are divided into a discussion of the composer and followed
by a detailed programme note about each work. The texts of Poets in Love are given in full, with translations where
appropriate. There are no biographical details of the performers.
This is a great addition to the
relatively sparse number of CDs devoted to Musgrave’s music. At present, there
are about 30 discs featuring her music (many featuring several composers). It
is a splendid 90th birthday gift to this eminent composer.
Track Listing:
Thea MUSGRAVE (b.1928)
Phoenix Rising for orchestra (1997)
Loch Ness: A Postcard from Scotland (2012)
Poets in Love: A song cycle for tenor, baritone and piano
(four hands) (2009)
Daniel Trodden (tuba, Loch Ness), BBC National Orchestra of
Wales/William Boughton
Nathan Vale (tenor), Simon Wallfisch (baritone), Simon
Callaghan (piano primo), Hiroaki Takenouchi (piano secondo)
Rec. Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff 4-5 January 2018, Wyastone
Concert Hall, Monmouth 7-8 March 2018 (Poets in Love)
LYRITA SRCD 372
With thanks to MusicWeb International where this review was
first published.
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