25 post-war symphonies from France, Germany, The Netherlands, Britain, the United States, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Japan, Turkey and so on... Listen to the overblown "Hollywood" - like music in Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony; the spiritual mountain music in Hovhaness' Mysterious Mountain; the bell-like sonority and Buddhist chorus in Mayazumi's Nirvana Symphony; the haunting funeral voice in Kancheli's Third Symphony; the quotations and extreme alaeatoric music in Schnittke's First Symphony... and many other fascinating pieces.
1. Olivier Messiaen, Turangalila Symphony [1946-48, France]
Set in no less than ten movements, this symphony was written after World War II and is a masterpiece of the 20th-century repertory. It explores the full resources of a large orchestra and takes the listener on an almost superhuman rollercoaster of expression from the relentless and cosmic to the intimate and deeply personal. The title is derived from two Sanskrit words: Turanga signifies ‘Time’ and Lîla signifies 'Love.'
Turangalîla was the result of a commission from the Boston Symphony Orchestra by Serge Koussevitsky, who gave Messiaen the enviable instruction to ‘choose as many instruments as you desire, write a work as long as you wish, and in the style you want’. Leonard Bernstein conducted the première in Boston on 2 December 1949. Yvonne Loriod, who became the composer’s second wife in 1961, was the piano soloist, and the ondes Martenot was played by Ginette Martenot, daughter of the instrument’s inventor. The "ondes Martenot" was invented in the late 1920s and was soon picked up by a number of composers, including Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger and Edgard Varèse. The slithery sound can be ethereal, but in Turangalîla it often sings like a goddess, very much in keeping with Messiaen's philosophy of spirituality.
Turangalîla is further unified through the use of cyclic themes, a principle that links with Messiaen’s symphonic predecessors such as César Franck and Albert Roussel. The symphony reflects Messiaen’s eclecticism, incorporating Hindu and Greek rhythms, as well as birdsong. It is such a large and complex work that its completion marked a watershed in Messiaen’s creative output, stimulating new directions in his increasingly birdsong-focused works of the 1950s and beyond.
On YouTube: hr-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra) ∙ Stewart Goodyear, Klavier ∙ Cynthia Millar, Ondes Martenot ∙ Paavo Järvi, Dirigent
Set in no less than ten movements, this symphony was written after World War II and is a masterpiece of the 20th-century repertory. It explores the full resources of a large orchestra and takes the listener on an almost superhuman rollercoaster of expression from the relentless and cosmic to the intimate and deeply personal. The title is derived from two Sanskrit words: Turanga signifies ‘Time’ and Lîla signifies 'Love.'
Turangalîla was the result of a commission from the Boston Symphony Orchestra by Serge Koussevitsky, who gave Messiaen the enviable instruction to ‘choose as many instruments as you desire, write a work as long as you wish, and in the style you want’. Leonard Bernstein conducted the première in Boston on 2 December 1949. Yvonne Loriod, who became the composer’s second wife in 1961, was the piano soloist, and the ondes Martenot was played by Ginette Martenot, daughter of the instrument’s inventor. The "ondes Martenot" was invented in the late 1920s and was soon picked up by a number of composers, including Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger and Edgard Varèse. The slithery sound can be ethereal, but in Turangalîla it often sings like a goddess, very much in keeping with Messiaen's philosophy of spirituality.
Turangalîla is further unified through the use of cyclic themes, a principle that links with Messiaen’s symphonic predecessors such as César Franck and Albert Roussel. The symphony reflects Messiaen’s eclecticism, incorporating Hindu and Greek rhythms, as well as birdsong. It is such a large and complex work that its completion marked a watershed in Messiaen’s creative output, stimulating new directions in his increasingly birdsong-focused works of the 1950s and beyond.
On YouTube: hr-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra) ∙ Stewart Goodyear, Klavier ∙ Cynthia Millar, Ondes Martenot ∙ Paavo Järvi, Dirigent
2. Hans Werner Henze, Symphony No 3 (1950, Germany)
Hans Werner Henze's Symphony No. 3 was written between 1949 and 1950. It was premiered at the Donaueschingen Festival on 7 October 1951 by the South German Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hans Rosbaud. The three movements are entitled "Invocation of Apollo," "Dithyramb" (an ancient Greek hymn sung and danced in honor of Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility) and "Dance of Conjuration" (a magic incantation). It is bright and dance-like music, closely related to Henze's early success as a ballet composer - at the time when he wrote the symphony he was in fact artistic director of the Wiesbaden ballet. The titles Henze gave to the movements suggest an imaginary ballet based on Greek mythology. The first movement is lyrical and refined, with a quick and accelerating Passacaglia at its center. The second movement features the horn themes from the first which frame an Andantino section in which the harp stands in central position. The final movement is a wild and almost orgiastic dance, building up tremendous energy. There are also Jazz-elements. All the same, the symphony is full of fragile chamber textures and sensuous instrumental coloring.
[Recording listened to: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Hans Werner Henze on Brilliant]
[Tcherepnin]
3. Alexander Tcherepnin, Symphony No 3 in F sharp major Op 83 (1952)
Russian emigre composer Alexander Tcherepnin (1899-1977) grew up in St Petersburg with Glazunov and Rimsky as house visitors (his father Nikolai was also a well-known composer). After the Revolution the family moved to Tbilisi in Georgia. Tcherepnin developed his own tonality system and was much inspired by Georgian folk music. In 1921 a move to Paris resulted in his joining a group including Martinu and Tansman. He lived in China and Japan between 1934 and 1937. He married the concert pianist Lee Hsien Ming and spent the war years in Paris. In 1948 he emigrated to the USA living in Chicago and New York. His output includes three operas, four symphonies, a divertimento (which is a symphony in all but name), six piano concertos, works for ballet, and a large amount of solo piano music.
The Third Symphony is shows oriental influence no doubt attributable to Tcherpnin's years in China. It has clean romantic lines. The symphony also incorporates excerpts from several ballets written by Tcherepnin (a reminder that his father Nicolas Tcherepnin was the author of several exotic ballets of beautiful workmanship). Its dance-like writing and oriental arabesques give it a charm that his other symphonies do not have. The second movement's Stravinskian marching is clever; the great adagio is impressive; and in the powerful finale we find a touch of truly glossy splendor.
[Performance listened to: Singapore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lan Shui on BIS]
4. Dag Wiren, Symphony No 4 Op 27 (1951-52)
The Swedish composer Dag Wiren left a small, but fine oeuvre. He is especially famous for his Serenade for String Orchestra Op. 11, but he also left four symphonies (numbered 1 to 5, but the first one was withdrawn as being a student work). So the Fourth Symphony represents Wirén's third contribution to the form, arriving eight years after its predecessor, the Symphony No. 3.
The Fourth is one of the best Swedish symphonies of the fifties, and at 17 minutes, the shortest, most concentrated of Wirén's four essays in the genre. Stylistically, it is austere and intellectual, recalling in particular the desolate Nordic tone of late-period Sibelius. Besides that, like in all Wiren's works, influence from Neo-classicism is also clearly detectable.
[Performance listened to: Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra conducted by Thomas Dausgaard on CPO]
Russian emigre composer Alexander Tcherepnin (1899-1977) grew up in St Petersburg with Glazunov and Rimsky as house visitors (his father Nikolai was also a well-known composer). After the Revolution the family moved to Tbilisi in Georgia. Tcherepnin developed his own tonality system and was much inspired by Georgian folk music. In 1921 a move to Paris resulted in his joining a group including Martinu and Tansman. He lived in China and Japan between 1934 and 1937. He married the concert pianist Lee Hsien Ming and spent the war years in Paris. In 1948 he emigrated to the USA living in Chicago and New York. His output includes three operas, four symphonies, a divertimento (which is a symphony in all but name), six piano concertos, works for ballet, and a large amount of solo piano music.
The Third Symphony is shows oriental influence no doubt attributable to Tcherpnin's years in China. It has clean romantic lines. The symphony also incorporates excerpts from several ballets written by Tcherepnin (a reminder that his father Nicolas Tcherepnin was the author of several exotic ballets of beautiful workmanship). Its dance-like writing and oriental arabesques give it a charm that his other symphonies do not have. The second movement's Stravinskian marching is clever; the great adagio is impressive; and in the powerful finale we find a touch of truly glossy splendor.
[Performance listened to: Singapore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lan Shui on BIS]
4. Dag Wiren, Symphony No 4 Op 27 (1951-52)
The Swedish composer Dag Wiren left a small, but fine oeuvre. He is especially famous for his Serenade for String Orchestra Op. 11, but he also left four symphonies (numbered 1 to 5, but the first one was withdrawn as being a student work). So the Fourth Symphony represents Wirén's third contribution to the form, arriving eight years after its predecessor, the Symphony No. 3.
The Fourth is one of the best Swedish symphonies of the fifties, and at 17 minutes, the shortest, most concentrated of Wirén's four essays in the genre. Stylistically, it is austere and intellectual, recalling in particular the desolate Nordic tone of late-period Sibelius. Besides that, like in all Wiren's works, influence from Neo-classicism is also clearly detectable.
[Performance listened to: Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra conducted by Thomas Dausgaard on CPO]
[Dag Wiren]
5. Karl Hartmann, Symphony No 6 (1953, Germany)
The German composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann studied under a number of leading musicians, including Anton Webern and Hermann Scherchen, a conductor who worked closely with the Second Viennese School. Hartmann was influenced by Bach, Mahler, Stravinsky and Hindemith, and his works incorporate expressionist ideas, jazz motifs and Hungarian idioms drawn from his love of Bartók and Kodály. Known for his anti-fascist stance, Hartmann and his family refused to subscribe to xenophobic attitudes throughout the 1920s and 30s. When war broke out, Hartmann withdrew entirely from German musical life, refusing to let his music by played; his refusal to comply with the Nazi regime resulted in his music being denigrated as ‘atonal’ and ‘degenerate.’ Hartmann completed his Symphony No. 6 in 1953, but as several of his symphonies it harks back to an older work. In this case that is “L'Œuvre” (1938) named after the eponymous novel by Émile Zola, about an artist in self-imposed isolation, a parallel with Hartmann's life during the Nazi regime. The symphony is in two movements, an adagio and a toccata variata. The adagio has an airy texture but also warm warm intense romanticism, crashing climaxes and a soaring melody line. In the finale a fugue gives way to an essay of majestic power, ongoing motion and stirring timpani attacks.
[Performance listened to: Indo Metzmacher and the Bamberger Symphoniker on EMI Classics (containing the first 6 symphonies of Hartmann)
[Hiroshima Peace Memorial]
It goes without saying that this is tragic music - the composer's personal attempt to come to terms with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. But Masao Ohki didn't directly depict the explosion of the first nuclear bomb, he based himself on a series of large paintings by a couple of painters, Iri and Toshi Maruki, the husband Iri a Japanese-style painter and the wife Toshi Western-style. They stayed in Hiroshima just after the bombing and witnessed the scene. See the website of Maruki Gallery for their impressive Hiroshima Panels. Starting in 1950, over the next 32 years they gradually worked towards completion. Masao Ohki was inspired to write his programmatic symphony after seeing the first six panels. Ohki is too subtle to "depict" the actual impact of the bomb. After starting with unsettling calm in a Prelude, the second movement is a meditation in the lowest registers of winds and strings, a solo trumpet adding a sort of cry of anguished disbelief. Perhaps the most defining feature of the tragic symphony is the sound of ghost-like, eerie strings playing high pitched notes: the images of survivors and wounded walking silently and mindlessly through the flattened landscape. The next movement depicts waves of fire, expressed by rapid chromatic runs and trills, tremolos and glissandos. In the strange and disturbing fifth section, Rainbow, Ohki depicts the black rain that suddenly poured over the survivors. The seventh section depicts a boundless atomic desert with skulls. This is a deeply felt symphony, and a dire warning for our own times.
[Performance listened to: New Japan Philharmonic, conducted by Takao Yuasa on Naxos]
[Hiroshima 2 months after the nuclear attack, October 1945]
7. Henk Badings, Symphony No 7 "Louisville Symphony" (1954, The Netherlands)
Almost unknown, Henk Badings (1907-87) was a composer of considerable substance. His Seventh Symphony, commissioned by Robert Whitney and his Louisville orchestra in 1954, is a flat-out masterpiece. There is a strong French influence (as was often the case with Dutch music in the first half of the 20th century), particularly in the theme for muted trumpet in the first movement. The music is basically tonal but also remarkably fresh in its harmonic language, and its four short movements are gorgeously scored.
The first movement starts a bit mysterious but also very powerful, and continues with a wonderful scherzo, then a delicate and lyrical third movement with highly memorable melodic development, while a dance-like finale brings it all to an effective end.
Henk Badings (1907-1987) was born in the Dutch East Indies. As his family did not approve of a career in music, he studied mining and paleontology at the Delft Polytechnical Institute, but dedicated himself completely to music from 1937. Badings was largely self-taught. Badings first musical success already dates to 1930, when he wrote his First Cello Concerto. He used unusual scales and harmonies and composed a large oeuvre, in which fourteen powerful symphonies take a central position. He also excelled in concertos and chamber music. See my survey of 20th century Dutch classical music.
[Performance listened to: Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by David Porcelijn on CPO]
8. Ahmed Adnan Saygun, Symphony No 1 Op 29 (1954)
Ahmed Adnan Saygun (1907-91) wasn’t only Turkey’s preeminent composer of “classical” music; he was a major figure in 20th century music. Saygun was a master of neo-classical form and a superb writer for orchestra. Colorful and atmospheric, Saygun's First Symphony is tradition-based in terms of western symphonic design while sympathetically integrating the Turkish heritage, creating a satisfying synthesis rich in pulsating rhythm and languorous melody. Saygun’s vivid orchestration plays a significant part in achieving an alluring aural tapestry
His melodic style clearly derives from the folk music of his homeland, but Saygun employs elements that permit him to expand his harmonic vocabulary rather then emphasizing primitive or merely nationalistic traits.
The First Symphony requires small orchestral forces but never sounds inhibited because of the fresh way that Saygun uses his carefully chosen instruments, with particularly bold writing for horns and solo woodwinds. The heart of the work is the haunting second-movement Adagio, austere but also very expressive.
[Performance listened to: Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz conducted by Ari Rasilainen on CPO]
Almost unknown, Henk Badings (1907-87) was a composer of considerable substance. His Seventh Symphony, commissioned by Robert Whitney and his Louisville orchestra in 1954, is a flat-out masterpiece. There is a strong French influence (as was often the case with Dutch music in the first half of the 20th century), particularly in the theme for muted trumpet in the first movement. The music is basically tonal but also remarkably fresh in its harmonic language, and its four short movements are gorgeously scored.
The first movement starts a bit mysterious but also very powerful, and continues with a wonderful scherzo, then a delicate and lyrical third movement with highly memorable melodic development, while a dance-like finale brings it all to an effective end.
Henk Badings (1907-1987) was born in the Dutch East Indies. As his family did not approve of a career in music, he studied mining and paleontology at the Delft Polytechnical Institute, but dedicated himself completely to music from 1937. Badings was largely self-taught. Badings first musical success already dates to 1930, when he wrote his First Cello Concerto. He used unusual scales and harmonies and composed a large oeuvre, in which fourteen powerful symphonies take a central position. He also excelled in concertos and chamber music. See my survey of 20th century Dutch classical music.
[Performance listened to: Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by David Porcelijn on CPO]
8. Ahmed Adnan Saygun, Symphony No 1 Op 29 (1954)
Ahmed Adnan Saygun (1907-91) wasn’t only Turkey’s preeminent composer of “classical” music; he was a major figure in 20th century music. Saygun was a master of neo-classical form and a superb writer for orchestra. Colorful and atmospheric, Saygun's First Symphony is tradition-based in terms of western symphonic design while sympathetically integrating the Turkish heritage, creating a satisfying synthesis rich in pulsating rhythm and languorous melody. Saygun’s vivid orchestration plays a significant part in achieving an alluring aural tapestry
His melodic style clearly derives from the folk music of his homeland, but Saygun employs elements that permit him to expand his harmonic vocabulary rather then emphasizing primitive or merely nationalistic traits.
The First Symphony requires small orchestral forces but never sounds inhibited because of the fresh way that Saygun uses his carefully chosen instruments, with particularly bold writing for horns and solo woodwinds. The heart of the work is the haunting second-movement Adagio, austere but also very expressive.
[Performance listened to: Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz conducted by Ari Rasilainen on CPO]
9. Walter Piston, Symphony No 6 (1955, United States)
The Sixth Symphony is regarded as the summit of Piston's symphonic achievement.
Piston composed the symphony to mark the 75th Anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. There is a particular Frenchness, an Impressionistic quality, to much of the Sixth Symphony, a reminder of the composer's years of study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger.
The work is in four movements. The first movement is written in the classical sonata form. It begins with a broad theme modestly presented by strings and woodwind. Descending scales of the harps lead us to a lyrical second theme that develops through a rich and varied orchestration. The second movement is a brief but witty Scherzo. The main theme is energetic, full of irregular rhythms and percussive effects. The third slow movement is a rondo based on two themes. The main theme is firstly presented by a somber solo of the cello, which later passes to other instruments. The second theme is widely lyrical, featuring a bright solo of the flute. In the finale, which gives the illusion of lightness and transparency, one hears echoes of jazz influence in its syncopated forms. It's based on two themes without following the sonata form. A brilliant coda closes the bright and optimistic work.
[Performance listened to: Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin on BMG Classics]
[Alan Hovhaness in the 1970s]
10. Hovhaness, Symphony No. 2 "Mysterious Mountain" op. 132 (1955, United States)
This symphony was a commission by conductor Leopold Stokowski and the Houston Symphony; it was premiered live on NBC television in October 1955. The symphony is composed in three movements and blends elements of Western hymns, pentatonicism, and polyphonicism reminiscent of Renaissance music. The music is composed in the Eastern church scale systems, a style Hovhaness used most of the time. In part 1, the main melody consists of a hymn, part 2 is a double fugue and part 3 goes back to the hymn, which is interrupted by a thirteen-count raga and then closes with the hymn. It remains one of Hovhaness's most popular works. "Mountains are symbols, like pyramids, of man's attempt to know God," said the composer. His spiritual purpose is expressed in the modal writing of the Andante outer movements, with overtones of Vaughan Williams' pastoral style as well as of Thomas Tallis, framing a central fugue characteristically smooth in its lines. The finale culminates in a chorale leading to a grandiose conclusion.
[Performance listened to: Seattle Symphony conducted by Gerald Schwartz on Delos]
This symphony was a commission by conductor Leopold Stokowski and the Houston Symphony; it was premiered live on NBC television in October 1955. The symphony is composed in three movements and blends elements of Western hymns, pentatonicism, and polyphonicism reminiscent of Renaissance music. The music is composed in the Eastern church scale systems, a style Hovhaness used most of the time. In part 1, the main melody consists of a hymn, part 2 is a double fugue and part 3 goes back to the hymn, which is interrupted by a thirteen-count raga and then closes with the hymn. It remains one of Hovhaness's most popular works. "Mountains are symbols, like pyramids, of man's attempt to know God," said the composer. His spiritual purpose is expressed in the modal writing of the Andante outer movements, with overtones of Vaughan Williams' pastoral style as well as of Thomas Tallis, framing a central fugue characteristically smooth in its lines. The finale culminates in a chorale leading to a grandiose conclusion.
[Performance listened to: Seattle Symphony conducted by Gerald Schwartz on Delos]
On YouTube: Bob Cole Conservatory Symphony, Johannes Müller-Stosch conductor:
11. Weinberg, Symphony No 4 in A minor Op 61 (1957, rev. 1961, Soviet Union)
Mieczysław Weinberg (Moishei Vainberg, 1919 - 1996) in 1939 fled his Polish homeland for the Nazis (who murdered most of his family), and came to the Soviet Union where he would remain for the rest of his life. – first Minsk, then Tashkent, and finally Moscow. He was befriended by Shostakovitch, who was enthusiastic about his music, and who intervened when Weinberg was arrested in 1953 for being an "enemy of the people." Stylistically, Weinberg's music is often similar to Shostakovitch's. Weinberg's Jewish heritage also plays a prominent role. Weinberg left a huge body of work: 22 symphonies, 17 string quartets, 8 violin sonatas, 6 cello sonatas, 6 piano sonatas, film music and 7 operas. Weinberg is sometimes ranked as the third great Soviet composer, after Shostakovitch and Prokofiev. Like his string quartets (see my article in the series "Best String Quartets, Part 5"), his symphonies can be divided into quiet but bleak music and music that is rhythmically driven.
A strong motoric drive is certainly present in his Fourth Symphony. There are four movements; Weinberg removed the subtitles during revision, but these are "toccata," "serenata," "intermezzo" and "rondo finale." In the first movement (sonata form) the main theme is presented above a rhythmically intense string accompaniment. The slightly melancholy serenade starts with a gentle waltz theme. The third movement sets out with a horn theme which builds up to a climax. In the rondo finale we find mazurka-like dance themes and quotations from folk music. The symphony ends with an ecstatic chase towards a brilliant conclusion.
[Performance listened to: Kirill Kondrashin with Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra on Olympia (with violin concerto)]
12. Matthijs Vermeulen, Symphony No. 6 "Les Minutes Heureuses" [1956-58, The Netherlands]
Vermeulen's musical style, besides being atonal and contrapuntal, was in the first place based on the technique of polymelodicism, the simultaneous combination of several melodic lines. Frequently Vermeulen spins long melismas into continuous melodies, in a free rhythm of flowing lines. Vermeulen saw this multi-voiced, polymelodic way of composition in a political light: for him it was the true expression of freedom, all individuals being able to freely express and develop themselves, without infringing upon the freedom of others to do the same. Vermeulen's music is filled with vitality and power, often leading to an obsessive, march-like propulsion.
The Sixth Symphony carries the subtitle "Les Minutes Heureuses," after a poem by Baudelaire, "I know the art of evoking happy minutes." On top of that, the symphony has been composed on the notes la do re, or L'adore, "the adored one." Adoration is the basis of being human and also of music. The arc the music follows is both a crescendo and a spiral. The three movements are played without interruption. The calm first movement ends with an apotheosis of la-do-re in the brass. The second movement is an Andante amoroso with a beautiful melody in the cor anglais, interspersed with brass and percussion fanfares. The last movement is fast and is propulsed upwards towards a big climax.
See my survey of 20th century Dutch classical music.
[Performance listened to: Residentie Orchestra of The Hague conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky on Chandos]
13. Toshiro Mayuzumi, Symphony Nirvana (1958, Japan)
Toshiro Mayuzumi (1929-1997) is one of the most important Japanese composers, enjoying an international reputation in the period after World War II. In the mid-1950s Mayuzumi was inspired by the sounds of bells from Buddhist temples in the ancient city of Kyoto. He recorded bell sounds and analyzed the structures of their complex overtones, using newly acquired technology. He then transferred the analyzed sounds to a symphony orchestra with sextuple winds and combined the orchestra with a male chorus singing a Buddhist priests’ chant-like "Shomyo". Drawing on elements of Stravinsky, Messiaen and Webern, he finally completed his Nirvana Symphony in 1958. It was performed in Berlin and New York, as well as in Japan.
The sonorous bell sounds and chanting have a hypnotic quality, and these are helped by percussive sounds on the vibraphone, tubular chimes, tam-tam and piano. The singers enter at the beginning of the second movement. Japanese Buddhist monk chanting is a phenomenal aural experience, producing harmonies encountered nowhere else. By the way, these are not real shomyo sutra chantings (of which recordings also exist) - even far from it - , but Mayazumi's approximations of them in classical music.
Next follow alternating movements for instruments (bell sonorities) and male chorus with the last movement depicting the passage into nirvana. After a tumultuous preceding passage, the chorus enters quietly with a gently melodic upward-rising phrase - and slowly the symphony comes to a majestic conclusion amid a carilloning cacophony.
This symphony is a real experience, different from anything you have heard before!
[Performance listened to: Yuzo Toyama and NHK Symphony Orchestra with Japan Chorus Union on Philips]
14. Henri Dutilleux, Symphony No. 2 "Le Double" (1959, France)
This symphony was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation for the 75th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It is written in the style of a concerto grosso for an orchestra and a second group comprising an oboe, a clarinet, a bassoon, a trumpet, a trombone, two violins, a viola, a cello, a harpsichord, a celesta, and timpani. The work consists of back and forth between the two instrumental groups. A difference with the traditional concerto grosso is that the smaller ensemble acts as a mirror or ghost of the larger one, sometimes playing similar or complementary lines, sometimes contrasting ones. There are three movements: Animato, ma misterioso; Andantino sostenuto; Allegro fuocoso - Calmato. Henri Dutilleux’s perfectionism resulted in a distinctive and individual musical language of rare poetry and invention. The interplay of stereophonic and polyrhythmic effects and jazzy brass writing forms, in the composer’s own words, "a musical play of mirrors and of contrasting colors."
Henri Dutilleux (1916 - 2013) wrote symphonic works, concertos for cello and violin, chamber music and ballet music. Although his personal contacts with such colleagues as André Jolivet, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc and Georges Auric broadened his horizons, he never belonged to any particular group.
On YouTube: Orchestre de Paris conducted by Bertrand Billy:
Eduard Tubin (1905-1982) was born in Estonia and studied at the Tartu Higher Music School under the guidance of the famous Estonian composer Heino Eller. Following the Soviet occupation of Estonia in 1944, Tubin fled to Stockholm with his wife and sons. He remained in Sweden and became a Swedish citizen in 1961, although on occasion he did visit Estonia. He was offered work at the historical Drottningholm Palace Theatre restoring old operas. This left him time to devote himself to his own composition. Here he wrote most of his greatest works, including two operas, symphonies 5–10, a second concerto for violin, one concerto for double-bass and one for balalaika, a piano concertino, much piano and violin music, choir and solo songs etc. Towards the end of his life, Tubin slowly began to gain recognition, particularly after the conductor Neeme Järvi, also an Estonian, escaped to the United States in 1980. In his early works, Tubin often used Estonian folk music, but at the end of the 1940s a change took place in Tubin's style: the music became harmonically more astringent and shifted to a less nationalistic and more international style.
The Eight Symphony was written at Handen near Stockholm and first played in February 1967 at Estonia Hall in Talinn by the Talinn Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Neeme Jarvi. The first movement starts in a melancholy mood. The violins play a short theme which returns in the next movements. The second movement is in rondo form. Dancing music in the strings leads to a great climax. The third movement is built like an ostinato whose theme is first heard in the horns. The fourth movement starts with loud brass chords, like a choral. At the end the whole orchestra sounds like the roaring of giant waves.
[Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Neeme Jarvi]
16. Allan Pettersson, Symphony No 7 (1966-67, Sweden)
Allan Pettersson (1911-1980) is considered one of the 20th century's most important Swedish composers. He has been described as one of the last great symphonists. His music can hardly be confused with other 20th-century works. In the final decade of his life, his 16 symphonies (typically one-movement works) developed a dedicated following, particularly in Germany and Sweden.
Pettersson studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music's conservatory. For more than a decade, he was a violist in the Stockholm Concert Society; after retiring he devoted himself exclusively to composition. Later in his life, he experienced rheumatoid arthritis and was often hospitalized.
“The Seventh is known for its easily recognizable and constantly repeated motifs, its high-pitched, whistling flute cantilenas, a brutality which nevertheless finally ends in salvation, and its heavenly writing for the strings,” as Stig Jacobsson writes in the liner notes. The symphony is almost entirely built upon an incessant, short, obsessive 2-note motif played mostly by the trombones and tuba. What is fascinating is how Pettersson can sustain this for almost an hour by building on it with stoic patience and brilliant writing - bleak, dark and beautiful all at the same time.
On YouTube: Norrköping Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christian Lindberg:
17. Giya Kancheli, Symphony No 3 (1970, Soviet Union / Georgia)
Giya Kancheli (1935 - 2019) was a Georgian composer. Even in his early childhood it was clear that he had an aptitude for music, but it was only in his twenties that he decided to make music his profession. He studied at Tbilisi University until 1958 (where he also received his degree) and at the Tbilisi Conservatory from 1959 to 1963; later (1970) he would return there as a teacher. After the breakup of the Soviet Union he went to Berlin, and then settled for the rest of his life in Antwerp - he was house composer of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders. In his own country he earned his living for a number of years by writing of theater and film music. After he moved to the West, his fame was such that he could support himself through composition, and his work was taken up by many famous names. In his early compositions the Georgian folk music has a great influence but influences of Béla Bartók are also audible; later this Bartokian influence diminishes, but the spiritual influence of Georgia on his music remains undiminished and even increases. His chief achievement was his cycle of seven symphonies, of which the numbers 3 to 6 are considered as the best.
The Third Symphony of 1970 is haunting and atmospheric, beginning and ending with a human voice - a fragment of Georgian funeral chant, prayerfully intoned by a solo tenor voice, singing with a weird, disembodied timbre. This returns at various junctures, like an emblem of humanity in a hostile environment. There is also the strange sound of the string players letting their fingers glide along their fingerboards without playing, which produces an unearthly effect. Brass passages are at first abrupt and aggressive, but later become more like a chorale.
[Performance listened to: State Symphony Orchestra of Georgia, conducted by Dzansug Kakhidze, soloist Gamlet Gonashvili]
18. Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No 15 Op. 141 (1971, Soviet Union)
Among all Shostakovich works, I have a special fondness for his 15th and last symphony, because it is completely free from bombas (together with his sarcastic 9th). The clicking and ticking in the symphony is in my view used ironically by Shostakovitch to conjure up his stay in hospital around the time he wrote this work, attached to various monitors and electronic devices.
Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 15 during 1971 while staying at the spa town of Repino. It is his last completed symphony. The symphony is notable for its many musical quotations, from Gioacchino Rossini, Richard Wagner, Mikhail Glinka, but also from Shostakovich himself. From Rossini he quotes a section from the Overture Wilhelm Tell. Richard Wagner is featured with the weeping music from Siegfried and a leitmotif from Tristan and Isolde. A number of times he quotes from his own Fourth Symphony. The composer is on record of having stated that the first movement describes childhood - just a toy store with a cloudless sky above. Elsewhere he has said that the work is based on motifs of Chekhov... "a large part of Fifteenth has to do with The Black Monk, although it is a completely independent work."
As in his 14th symphony, the composer does not use the full complement of the symphony orchestra. Each time there is a soloist or group of soloists. The premiere of the 15th symphony was given in Moscow, by the Soviet Radio Orchestra conducted by the composer's son, Maksim Shostakovich.
On YouTube played by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by
Bernard Haitink:
19. Alfred Schnittke, Symphony No 1 (1972-74, Soviet Union)
The First Symphony of the Russian composer Alfred Schnittke was written between 1969 and 1974. Scored for a very large orchestra, the symphony is recognized as one of Schnittke's most extreme essays in aleatoric music: from the outset the piece is loud, brash and chaotic, and it imports motifs from all parts of the Western classical tradition.
Schnittke includes a choreography for the musicians, and in a manner similar to Haydn's Farewell Symphony, they leave and re-enter the stage at points marked in the score. The second movement opens with a faux-Baroque rondo which is soon usurped by a Mahlerian intervention on clarinet. This too is soon eclipsed by a sleazy percussive theme. There are also direct quotations from Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto, Johann Strauss Jr's 'Vienna Woods' waltz, and Chopin's Second Piano Sonata - amongst many others. Often the material collides in a manner similar to Charles Ives' music, but as the critic Alex Ross notes, taken to a much greater extreme.
Alfred Schnittke (1934–1998) was of Jewish-German descent. His early music shows the strong influence of Dmitri Shostakovich. Schnittke and his music were often viewed suspiciously by the Soviet bureaucracy. His First Symphony was effectively banned by the Composers' Union. In the 1980s, Schnittke's music began to become more widely known abroad, thanks in part to the work of émigré Soviet artists such as the violinists Gidon Kremer and Mark Lubotsky, the cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, but also by the conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky. Despite constant illness, Schnittke produced a large amount of music. In 1990, Schnittke left the Soviet Union and settled in Hamburg, Germany. His health was very poor, however, after he had suffered several strokes. As his health deteriorated from the late 1980s, Schnittke started to abandon much of the extroversion of his earlier polystylism and retreated into a more withdrawn, bleak style.
[Performance listened to: Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leif Segerstam on BIS]
[Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Neeme Jarvi]
16. Allan Pettersson, Symphony No 7 (1966-67, Sweden)
Allan Pettersson (1911-1980) is considered one of the 20th century's most important Swedish composers. He has been described as one of the last great symphonists. His music can hardly be confused with other 20th-century works. In the final decade of his life, his 16 symphonies (typically one-movement works) developed a dedicated following, particularly in Germany and Sweden.
Pettersson studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music's conservatory. For more than a decade, he was a violist in the Stockholm Concert Society; after retiring he devoted himself exclusively to composition. Later in his life, he experienced rheumatoid arthritis and was often hospitalized.
“The Seventh is known for its easily recognizable and constantly repeated motifs, its high-pitched, whistling flute cantilenas, a brutality which nevertheless finally ends in salvation, and its heavenly writing for the strings,” as Stig Jacobsson writes in the liner notes. The symphony is almost entirely built upon an incessant, short, obsessive 2-note motif played mostly by the trombones and tuba. What is fascinating is how Pettersson can sustain this for almost an hour by building on it with stoic patience and brilliant writing - bleak, dark and beautiful all at the same time.
On YouTube: Norrköping Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christian Lindberg:
17. Giya Kancheli, Symphony No 3 (1970, Soviet Union / Georgia)
Giya Kancheli (1935 - 2019) was a Georgian composer. Even in his early childhood it was clear that he had an aptitude for music, but it was only in his twenties that he decided to make music his profession. He studied at Tbilisi University until 1958 (where he also received his degree) and at the Tbilisi Conservatory from 1959 to 1963; later (1970) he would return there as a teacher. After the breakup of the Soviet Union he went to Berlin, and then settled for the rest of his life in Antwerp - he was house composer of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders. In his own country he earned his living for a number of years by writing of theater and film music. After he moved to the West, his fame was such that he could support himself through composition, and his work was taken up by many famous names. In his early compositions the Georgian folk music has a great influence but influences of Béla Bartók are also audible; later this Bartokian influence diminishes, but the spiritual influence of Georgia on his music remains undiminished and even increases. His chief achievement was his cycle of seven symphonies, of which the numbers 3 to 6 are considered as the best.
The Third Symphony of 1970 is haunting and atmospheric, beginning and ending with a human voice - a fragment of Georgian funeral chant, prayerfully intoned by a solo tenor voice, singing with a weird, disembodied timbre. This returns at various junctures, like an emblem of humanity in a hostile environment. There is also the strange sound of the string players letting their fingers glide along their fingerboards without playing, which produces an unearthly effect. Brass passages are at first abrupt and aggressive, but later become more like a chorale.
[Performance listened to: State Symphony Orchestra of Georgia, conducted by Dzansug Kakhidze, soloist Gamlet Gonashvili]
18. Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No 15 Op. 141 (1971, Soviet Union)
Among all Shostakovich works, I have a special fondness for his 15th and last symphony, because it is completely free from bombas (together with his sarcastic 9th). The clicking and ticking in the symphony is in my view used ironically by Shostakovitch to conjure up his stay in hospital around the time he wrote this work, attached to various monitors and electronic devices.
Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 15 during 1971 while staying at the spa town of Repino. It is his last completed symphony. The symphony is notable for its many musical quotations, from Gioacchino Rossini, Richard Wagner, Mikhail Glinka, but also from Shostakovich himself. From Rossini he quotes a section from the Overture Wilhelm Tell. Richard Wagner is featured with the weeping music from Siegfried and a leitmotif from Tristan and Isolde. A number of times he quotes from his own Fourth Symphony. The composer is on record of having stated that the first movement describes childhood - just a toy store with a cloudless sky above. Elsewhere he has said that the work is based on motifs of Chekhov... "a large part of Fifteenth has to do with The Black Monk, although it is a completely independent work."
As in his 14th symphony, the composer does not use the full complement of the symphony orchestra. Each time there is a soloist or group of soloists. The premiere of the 15th symphony was given in Moscow, by the Soviet Radio Orchestra conducted by the composer's son, Maksim Shostakovich.
On YouTube played by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by
Bernard Haitink:
19. Alfred Schnittke, Symphony No 1 (1972-74, Soviet Union)
The First Symphony of the Russian composer Alfred Schnittke was written between 1969 and 1974. Scored for a very large orchestra, the symphony is recognized as one of Schnittke's most extreme essays in aleatoric music: from the outset the piece is loud, brash and chaotic, and it imports motifs from all parts of the Western classical tradition.
Schnittke includes a choreography for the musicians, and in a manner similar to Haydn's Farewell Symphony, they leave and re-enter the stage at points marked in the score. The second movement opens with a faux-Baroque rondo which is soon usurped by a Mahlerian intervention on clarinet. This too is soon eclipsed by a sleazy percussive theme. There are also direct quotations from Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto, Johann Strauss Jr's 'Vienna Woods' waltz, and Chopin's Second Piano Sonata - amongst many others. Often the material collides in a manner similar to Charles Ives' music, but as the critic Alex Ross notes, taken to a much greater extreme.
Alfred Schnittke (1934–1998) was of Jewish-German descent. His early music shows the strong influence of Dmitri Shostakovich. Schnittke and his music were often viewed suspiciously by the Soviet bureaucracy. His First Symphony was effectively banned by the Composers' Union. In the 1980s, Schnittke's music began to become more widely known abroad, thanks in part to the work of émigré Soviet artists such as the violinists Gidon Kremer and Mark Lubotsky, the cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, but also by the conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky. Despite constant illness, Schnittke produced a large amount of music. In 1990, Schnittke left the Soviet Union and settled in Hamburg, Germany. His health was very poor, however, after he had suffered several strokes. As his health deteriorated from the late 1980s, Schnittke started to abandon much of the extroversion of his earlier polystylism and retreated into a more withdrawn, bleak style.
[Performance listened to: Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leif Segerstam on BIS]
[William Alwyn]
20. William Alwyn, Symphony No 5 "Hydriotaphia" [1973, Britain]
Alwyn's Fifth Symphony, written for the 1973 Norwich Triennial Festival, has a literary inspiration, being dedicated "to the immortal memory of Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682)". Each of its sections carries a quotation from Browne's great elegy on death, "Hydrotaphia: Urn Burial, or a Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns lately found in Norfolk." The orchestration, powerful and pungent, is reminiscent of Schoenberg and Berg. Although not a serial composition, the entire work grows from a single motive of only five notes worked out on similar lines.
Although in one long movement, there are distinct sections that correspond to the traditional symphonic layout. I [Introduction] "Life is a pure flame, and we all live by an invisible sun within us". The main theme is tossed around the orchestra with great abandon. II [Slow Movement] "But these are sad and sepulchral pitchers, which have no joyful voices: silently expressing old mortality, the ruins of forgotten time". A hiatus is broken by the foreboding sounds of bells, harp, and muted-string harmonics. III [Scherzo] "Simplicity flies away, and iniquity comes at long strides upon us". The quiet is shattered by a shocking shriek from the winds; the air is filled with self-destructive energy. IV [Finale] "Man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave". The symphony ends with a solemn conclusion in which the theme blossoms into an impassioned threnody of hypnotic, grave beauty, before finally coming to rest in ambivalent serenity.
Although it isn't compulsory to observe the quotations, they do illuminate the music. The first and third sections contrast the vitality of innocent youth with the decay that follows, as life's iniquities take their toll. The second and fourth contrast the pointless futility of it all with death as part of life's inevitable pattern. The work’s strength lies in its brevity, for Alwyn concentrates his ideas in a total time-span of just around a quarter of an hour.
[Performance listened to: London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Richard Hickox]
[Thomas Browne, statue in Norwich city centre]
21. Henryk Mikolaj Górecki, Symphony No. 3, Op. 36, "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" (1976, Poland)
The 3rd Symphony is the most successful work of the Polish composer Henryk Mikołaj Górecki (1933-2010) - it made him something of a cult composer. Górecki composed the work, which he dedicated to his wife, in 1976 as a commission for Südwestfunk Baden-Baden. It was premiered in Royan (France) on April 4, 1977, by the Symphony Orchestra of Südwestfunk Baden-Baden conducted by Ernest Bour; the soprano solo was sung by Stefania Woytowicz.
The symphony for soprano and orchestra consists of three slow movements, building gradually up to their respective climaxes until the voice enters in a steady flow. The three movements are based on three Polish texts. The first movement is a Marian lament: Mary weeps for her crucified son. The text is preserved in a manuscript from the monastery of Heiligkreuz on the Kahler Berg, which can be dated to the second half of the 15th century. The text of the second movement is a prayer found on the wall of a cell in the basement of the Gestapo headquarters in Zakopane. The text of the third movement is an Upper Silesian folk song from the time of the Polish uprisings, in which a mother laments her dead son. The orchestration, which at first glance seems quite strong, is deceptive, for the strings determine most of the musical action.
Gorecki's music, like that of Part and others, came like a breath of fresh air after the continuous battering by dissonance and non-music during the postwar avant-garde period. Gorecki moved away from dissonance to consonance, away from harshness to harmony. In the 1970's he also underwent the influence of the American minimalist movement and fused all these ideas into his unique voice.
On YouTube: Youth Orchestra of South Tirol, Stefano Ferrario, Conductor; Viktorija Miškūnaité, Soprano.
22. Per Nørgård, Symphony No 4 "Indian Rose Garden and Chinese Witch's Lake" (1981, Denmark)
Per Nørgård is considered by many to be the most prominent Danish composer after Carl Nielsen. Though his style has varied considerably throughout his career, his music has often included repeatedly evolving melodies in the vein of Jean Sibelius, and a perspicuous focus on lyricism.
The Fourth Symphony was inspired by the works (20.000 pages of prose, poetry and pictures) of Adolf Wölfli (1864-1930), a Swiss artist who was one of the first artists to be associated with "Art Brut" or "outsider art." In 1895, he would be confined to the Waldau Clinic, a psychiatric hospital in Bern where he would live out the rest of his life. In the institution, Wölfli made numerous drawings, which were complex, intricate and intense. They worked to the very edges of the page with detailed borders in a manifestation of Wölfli's "horror vacui." His images also incorporated an idiosyncratic musical notation. This notation seemed to start as a purely decorative affair but later developed into real composition which Wölfli would play on a paper trumpet. In 1912 Wölfli ordered paints and paper for a planned ´Musikbüchlein´, which was to be published in 1920 under the title “Indischer Roosen-Gaarten und Chineesischer Hexensee”. The work was never completed, and Per Nørgård took it upon himself to realize Wölfli’s idea in his Fourth Symphony.
Just as Wölfli composed pictures of the world containg many smaller worlds, so the symphony employs very brief motifs (such as the call of the robin in the first movement) which yield new meanings as the work progresses. From the notes to the Chandos production by Jorgen I Jensen: "The tonal universe is transparent, lucid, but also strangely alien or exotic. In the rapid, rhythmical second movement we hear characteristic displaced rhythms which may suddenly come out with a higly folk-like, dance-like tune. The birdcall from the first movement concludes the work."
[Performance listened to: Danish National Radio Sympkony Orchestra conducted by Leif Segerstam on Chandos]
[Adolf Wölfli, Musiknotation 1930]
23. Witold Lutoslawski, Symphony No 4 (1992, Poland)
Witold Lutosławski is one of Poland's best-known composers. Lutosławski grew up in a musical family. He received private piano and violin lessons at an early age, then regular music theory lessons at the Warsaw State Conservatory. Parallel to his musical education, Lutosławski pursued studies in mathematics and the natural sciences. In music and mathematics he found many similarities, which were not without consequences for his compositional career. Lutoslawski wrote music for piano, string quartet, chamber ensembles and symphony orchestra, among which four symphonies.
Lutosławski completed his Symphony No. 4 on August 22, 1992. It took two years to write what would turn out to be his last symphony - he died on February 7, 1994. The symphony was written at the request of the Los Angeles Philharmonic with sponsorship from Betty Freeman. Accordingly, that orchestra gave the premiere on February 5, 1993, conducted by the composer himself. It is a symphony in one continuous movement embodying two sections: a preparatory section and a development section with an epilogue. The two movements relate to one another to create a single, overarching musical experience. The main theme of the symphony can be heard in the first bars of the work, which lingers around the tone E. The symphony contains aleatoric passages.
On YouTube: Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Jacek Kaspszyk - conductor:
24. Einojuhani Rautavaara, Symphony No 7 "Angel of Light" (1994, Finland)
The Finnish composer Rautavaara (1928-2016) absorbed a variety of influences to create a characteristically warm musical language. He was a pupil of Merikanto in Helsinki and of Persichetti at the Juilliard School in New York before pursuing further study in Germany. Composed in 1994, the Seventh Symphony, subtitled ”Angel of Light," was commissioned by the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra and first performed on the occasion of the orchestra’s 25th anniversary in 1995.
The seventh symphony completes Rautavaara's 'Angels Series' which includes the orchestral work Angels and Visitations (1978) and the double bass concerto Angel of Dusk (1980). The composer has however made clear that the reference to angels in the title should not be construed in a programmatic way; rather it functions as an archetype in the spiritual sense, radiating a purely musical energy. The association originated in the composer's encounter with Rilke's Duino's Elegies.
The symphony consists of four movements. The first movement opens with a hazy strings background, glockenspiel and vibraphone chiming chromatically-inflected motifs, before an elegiac melody emerges on violins and violas. Brass and woodwind cap the main climax, then solo winds pensively elaborate aspects of the theme as the music pursues its unhurried course. Molto Allegro, a scherzo starting with a breezily ironic idea on wind and xylophone. Come un sogno (Like a dream), the expressive heart of the work, based on a chorale-like melody in the violins, woodwind and horn responding in a warmly pastoral environment. The last movement, Pesante, opening with a commanding brass fanfare, but after the main climax the music vanishes mysteriously.
[Performance listened to: Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Hannu Koivula on Naxos]
The Finnish composer Rautavaara (1928-2016) absorbed a variety of influences to create a characteristically warm musical language. He was a pupil of Merikanto in Helsinki and of Persichetti at the Juilliard School in New York before pursuing further study in Germany. Composed in 1994, the Seventh Symphony, subtitled ”Angel of Light," was commissioned by the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra and first performed on the occasion of the orchestra’s 25th anniversary in 1995.
The seventh symphony completes Rautavaara's 'Angels Series' which includes the orchestral work Angels and Visitations (1978) and the double bass concerto Angel of Dusk (1980). The composer has however made clear that the reference to angels in the title should not be construed in a programmatic way; rather it functions as an archetype in the spiritual sense, radiating a purely musical energy. The association originated in the composer's encounter with Rilke's Duino's Elegies.
The symphony consists of four movements. The first movement opens with a hazy strings background, glockenspiel and vibraphone chiming chromatically-inflected motifs, before an elegiac melody emerges on violins and violas. Brass and woodwind cap the main climax, then solo winds pensively elaborate aspects of the theme as the music pursues its unhurried course. Molto Allegro, a scherzo starting with a breezily ironic idea on wind and xylophone. Come un sogno (Like a dream), the expressive heart of the work, based on a chorale-like melody in the violins, woodwind and horn responding in a warmly pastoral environment. The last movement, Pesante, opening with a commanding brass fanfare, but after the main climax the music vanishes mysteriously.
[Performance listened to: Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Hannu Koivula on Naxos]
[Rautavaara]
25. Aulis Sallinen, Symphony No 7 Op 71 “The Dreams of Gandalf” (1995-1996, Finland)
This symphony arose out of music intended for a ballet based on The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, which was abandoned due to copyright difficulties, so Sallinen used the music for this symphony (in 2001, the symphony with other music by Sallinen was turned into the ballet "The Hobbit" after all, choreographed by Marjo Kuusela and produced at the Finnish National Opera. Gandalf is a wizard and the leader of the Fellowship of the Ring. The symphony does not actually depict the events in the novel; rather it transfers the literary atmosphere and poetry into musical expression. As Sallinen remarked, "Elements have crept into the musical content from other sources as well: for instance from the Provencal one-man flute-and-drum galoubet-tambourin music and two melodies from the medieval Finnish song collection Piae Cantiones." Although it seems more a symphonic poem than a well-structured symphony, it is energetic and impulsive music, full of captivating tunes cloaked in magical orchestration.
The music of Aulis Sallinen (born 1935) has been variously described as "remorselessly harsh", a "beautifully crafted amalgam of several 20th-century styles", and "neo-romantic". Sallinen studied at the Sibelius Academy, where his teachers included Joonas Kokkonen. He has had works commissioned by the Kronos Quartet, and has also written seven operas, eight symphonies, concertos for violin, cello, flute, horn, and English horn, as well as several chamber works. He won the Nordic Council Music Prize in 1978 for his opera "Ratsumies" (The Horseman).
[Performance listened to: Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz conducted by Ari Rasilainen on CPO]
[Philip Glass, 1993]
26. Philip Glass, Symphony No. 4 "Heroes" (1996)
A symphony based on the album "Heroes" by David Bowie. Within pop music, it is occasionally the case that musicians borrow from classical music; the other way around is less common. Glass already did it in his first symphony, Low Symphony, by using music by David Bowie and Brian Eno. With his fourth symphony he borrowed again, this time from the album "Heroes." Glass also wrote the symphony for ballet performances by the choreographer Twyla Tharp. As Glass himself has said, "I set Heroes as a six movement work, each movement based on a theme from the album, with an overall dramatic structure that would be suitable for dance. The result was a symphonic ballet - a transformation of the original themes combined with new material of my own and presented in a new dramatic form."
Philip Glass reworked six out of the ten tracks from David Bowie’s Heroes album into orchestral pieces that function both as independent entities and integral symphonic components: "Heroes," "Abdulmajid," "Sense of doubt," "Sons of the silent age," "Neuköln," and "V2 Schneider." It isn’t necessary to know the original Heroes in order to appreciate how Glass manipulates the essentially simplistic melodic content by way of striking harmonic juxtapositions, unpredictable rhythmic variations and a very clear orchestration. It takes some effort to recognize the typical music of Glass, but also the music of Bowie and Eno is well hidden. "Heroes" has a drive that is also present in the first movement. Bowie's voice is interpreted by the trumpets, but barely rises above the music. Part two has an exotic rhythm and scale as its basis, as the title suggests. Part 3 passes without pause into part 4. Real Glass can only be heard in part 6 with the infinite chord sequences and the descending note sequence from the middle to the bass register.
[Performance listened to: American Composers Orchestra, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies on Point Music]
All photos in this article via Wikimedia Commons.
A symphony based on the album "Heroes" by David Bowie. Within pop music, it is occasionally the case that musicians borrow from classical music; the other way around is less common. Glass already did it in his first symphony, Low Symphony, by using music by David Bowie and Brian Eno. With his fourth symphony he borrowed again, this time from the album "Heroes." Glass also wrote the symphony for ballet performances by the choreographer Twyla Tharp. As Glass himself has said, "I set Heroes as a six movement work, each movement based on a theme from the album, with an overall dramatic structure that would be suitable for dance. The result was a symphonic ballet - a transformation of the original themes combined with new material of my own and presented in a new dramatic form."
Philip Glass reworked six out of the ten tracks from David Bowie’s Heroes album into orchestral pieces that function both as independent entities and integral symphonic components: "Heroes," "Abdulmajid," "Sense of doubt," "Sons of the silent age," "Neuköln," and "V2 Schneider." It isn’t necessary to know the original Heroes in order to appreciate how Glass manipulates the essentially simplistic melodic content by way of striking harmonic juxtapositions, unpredictable rhythmic variations and a very clear orchestration. It takes some effort to recognize the typical music of Glass, but also the music of Bowie and Eno is well hidden. "Heroes" has a drive that is also present in the first movement. Bowie's voice is interpreted by the trumpets, but barely rises above the music. Part two has an exotic rhythm and scale as its basis, as the title suggests. Part 3 passes without pause into part 4. Real Glass can only be heard in part 6 with the infinite chord sequences and the descending note sequence from the middle to the bass register.
[Performance listened to: American Composers Orchestra, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies on Point Music]
All photos in this article via Wikimedia Commons.
Best Symphonies from the Twentieth Century, Part One
Best Symphonies from the Twentieth Century, Part Two
Best Symphonies from the Twentieth Century, Part Three