Alun Hoddinott’s Symphony No.5
(1973) was premiered at the Royal Festival Hall on 6 March 1973. The Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra was conducted by Andrew Davis. The concert also included
Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, with the soloist Shura Cherkassky.
The evening concluded with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5. Interestingly, at the
same time, the legendary keyboardist George Malcolm, was performing all five of
Rameau’s keyboard suites in the adjacent Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Max Harrison, writing in the following day’s Times (7 March 1973, p.11) felt that Hoddinott’s new symphony “does not mark any significant advance on his development.” This is hardly an issue. Further, “like a lot of his music in recent years, it seems too closely argued, the material to intensively argued.” Elaborating on this theme, Harrison suggests that some of the “incidental detail – of harmony, for instance - is interesting; yet although the linear shapes appear wide, the differences between this symphony’s loud and soft, or slow and fast, is only external.” That is, I think a way of stating that Hoddinott has devised his score using the minimum of thematic material. The critic thinks that the interest is “applied from the outside, by a mechanical increase – or decrease – of volume, rather than by the ebb and flow of musical argument.” The nub of Harrison’s argument is that the symphony has “an earthbound density of texture which scarcely ever permits the music to breathe.” Listening to this symphony fifty years later, I find no such lack of musical suffocation. Harrison’s last word, has a sting in the tail: “Andrew Davis secured from the Royal Philharmonic a performance that sounded fiercely committed, but which, under the circumstances, could not convince.”
Stephen Walsh, reviewing the concert for The Observer (11 March 1973, p.34) is equally dismissive. He notes that the work was conceived in Tuscany but felt that it “must have been written mainly in Cardiff, for, like its predecessors, it’s a gritty, uncompromising piece, prepared to graft for its effect and not much concerned with local colour.” Walsh thinks that “Hoddinott’s symmetries look all right on paper. In performance they seem a little arbitrary, and the pugnacious style of the music not quite clearly motivated.” Finally, he considers that the “work impresses as a serious symphonic essay. But it doesn’t at once inspire affection.
It is amazing what a difference five days can make. Felix Aprahamian, (Sunday Times, 11 March 1973, p.29) reflecting on that coming evening’s performance at the Cardiff Festival of Hoddinott’s Symphony No.5, had only good things to say. Presumably, he had had access to the score, and possibly attended the rehearsals. Certainly, he may have heard the work performed at the Festival Hall. He wrote, “Even if Hoddinott’s Fifth, exactly half the length of Elgar’s First, may not enjoy the same initial success, there is no need for it to be shelved after this airing, for it is a very accomplished piece.” Aprahamian notes that the “two well balanced movements show a familiar occupation with formal symmetry” where the composer “varies his textures as tellingly as his timbres [creating] a strongly visual response.” Finally, the critic hoped that it would soon be released on record. He did not have long to wait. Decca released the Symphony on LP (SXL 6606) in March 1974. It was coupled with the Concerto for Horn and Orchestra, op.65 and the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, op.21.
Malcolm Boyd reviewing the Cardiff performance of the Symphony for the Musical Times (May 1973, p.518) considered that “the main interest [of the Festival] lay in Hoddinott's recently completed Fifth Symphony…It is a colourful work, embodying some of the composer's experiences during a visit to Switzerland and Italy; but, as this second hearing showed, its imaginative orchestral textures are always at the service of a convincing musical argument. The athletic Mr Davis secured what seemed like a first-rate performance.”
Finally, I think that the Symphony is best summed up by Trevor Harvey reviewing the Decca LP SXL 6606, (The Gramophone, March 1974, p.1699) who wrote that “The idiom is both tough and lyrical; for Hoddinott is, within a modern idiom, a romantic.” This is true. Listening to the work fifty years after its premiere, I was struck by the clever balance between great intensity, soaring strings and expressive woodwind solos. Much of the quieter passages are introspective in their effect. As Harvey wrote, “The music is never sectional, music less static, but moves purposefully, so that each contrasted mood comes naturally, linking to what has gone before.”
Alun Hoddinott’s Symphony No.5
can be heard on YouTube,
in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra recording conducted by Andrew Davis.
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