The first performance of a new
symphony is always an extremely important event in a composer’s career. On 28
September 2019 Adam Pound’s Symphony No.2 was premiered at a remarkable concert
in Great St Mary’s Church, Cambridge. The programme began with Johannes
Brahms’s Hungarian Dances nos. 1 and 3, followed by Franz Schubert’s
Symphony No.8 in B minor (Unfinished). After the interval Chloe Hanslip was the
soloist in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K216.
The concert concluded with Pounds new Symphony. The Academy of Great St. Mary’s was conducted by the
composer. For the record, Adam Pounds’
Symphony No.1 was premiered some 34 years previously on 29th November 1985 at the Walthamstow
Assembly Hall.
The Symphony No.2 was completed
in July 2019. It is written in four relatively short movements and scored for a
standard orchestra with the addition of a saxophone and piano.
The work opens with a vibrant
‘allegro’ which the programme notes state deals with the hustle and bustle of
urban life. Pounds presents this metropolitan ‘environment’ by writing highly
rhymical music that is brassy and strident. Yet, this is ‘edgy’ rather than
threatening. The tension barely eases for a second, although there is a slight
repose about a third of the way through the movement. Rather unusually, this
movement closes quietly, but uneasily, clearly in preparation for the sultry
‘Nocturne.’
This second movement is both
the emotional heart of this Symphony as well as its musical highlight. As the
title implies, this music meditates on ‘night-time’ in the city. Pounds has
introduced a moody and sometimes groovy saxophone, heard alongside music that
nods back to Ralph Vaughan Williams’s ‘London’ Symphony. The composer writes
that this ‘nocturne’ is not ‘a calm depiction of night’ in a Chopin-esque sense,
but a picture of a city in the wee small hours. I think that it reflects the
mixed emotions of an individual ‘on the streets’ not necessarily homeless, but
with nowhere to go. It is not scary. Nothing bad happens, it is just a picture
of temporary desolation and loneliness. The ‘sleazy’ sounds of the saxophone
are designed to highlight this feeling of emptiness. Adam Pounds has told me
that he “really saw the saxophone solo as our ‘lone character’, the
addition of the trumpet (harmon mute) and the piano, are probably a nod back to
when I frequented a local jazz club and when I was working (still a student)
for Crescendo jazz magazine based in Wardour street.”
After a short pause the third
movement ‘scherzo’ begins. This is like the opening ‘allegro’ insofar as it is
full of drive and impetus. Again, I hear distinct echoes of RVW. Pounds makes good uses of an ‘antiphonal’
exchange between the brass and woodwind. The central ‘trio’ of this scherzo is
a ‘brutal war march’ rather than a traditionally more relaxed theme. After the
march, the music returns to calmer waters. A short woodwind cadenza brings this
movement to a close.
The finale opens with a regal
fanfare. This is ceremonial music with an edge. Soon the strings are scurrying
around, echoing the opening material. Brass comes to the fore here. The
original fanfare returns, which the Pounds explains includes a conspectus of
themes derived from the entire Symphony. The work comes to a dynamic but not
overwhelming close.
Adam Pounds states that the
inspiration for his Symphony No.2 came as a result of moving to the centre of
Cambridge after living in the countryside. He claims that this new urban
environment and the ‘faster pace of life’ was ‘stimulating’ and resulted in
‘more compositional focus.’ I can see where he is coming from, but for me the
music does not conjure up Cambridge. The ‘Nocturne’ is more Hudson River, New
York than the banks of the Cam and much of the rest of the work would seem to
evoke the pomp, circumstance and pizzazz of London rather than an ancient
University town.
The basic stylistic parameter
of this work is that it is written in an approachable musical vernacular with several
lyrical passages balancing more aggressive and dissonant music. If the listener is hunting musical
comparisons, composers as diverse as William Walton, Arnold Cooke, Malcolm
Arnold are alluded to in these pages. It is not an insult to the composer to
suggest that there is much of the ‘Cheltenham’ school of symphonic writing
about this work: it is technically well-written and approachable by all but the
most musically conservative listeners. The orchestration is splendid, with effective
use of the brass and the woodwind sections. The saxophone is an inspired touch.
My only complaint is that the Symphony is a little too short. There is much
excellent musical material in this work: I feel that some of it could have been
developed at greater length.
The final rehearsal of Adam
Pounds’s Symphony No.2 was recorded and has been uploaded to the composer’s
YouTube Channel. I understand that it is
the composer’s hope that a definitive performance of the work will be released
on CD in the future.
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