Day 60
1 March 2017: Rubbra –
Symphony No. 2 (1937)
Having been something
of a late starter as a symphonist, writing his first at the age of 35, Edmund
Rubbra produced his second symphony within a year of its predecessor. His first
four symphonies were composed in a six-year period, and are considered to be
connected – each apparently a reaction to the previous one. This work is a huge
exercise in counterpoint and interweaving melodic lines: something that always
fascinated Rubbra. There are no chords as such, other than those that occur as a
result of the orchestral lines coinciding at any point in time, and the
tonality is underpinned by pedal basses.
Rubbra's undoubted
skill as a composer is laid bare for all to see in this symphony, and it was this that led
him to be revered in his own lifetime. As an indication of the esteem in which
he, and this work in particular, was held, the great conductor Sir Adrian Boult
chose this symphony as one of his Desert
Island Discs when he appeared on the show in 1979 to mark his 90th
birthday. That it should now be virtually unknown is a travesty, and once again
I find myself wondering how a composer can drop off the radar so quickly after
his death.
Day 61
2 March 2017:
Shostakovich – Symphony No. 5 (1937)
Written in the same
year as Rubbra's second symphony, featured yesterday, Dmitri Shostakovich's
fifth symphony is a very different beast. This is one of the giants of the
symphonic repertoire, not just for its music, which is truly magnificent, but
also for its historic and cultural significance. As mentioned on 6 February
when I featured it, Shostakovich was forced to withdraw his fourth symphony in
the face of mounting criticism from the Stalinist regime. His response was this
symphony, referred to in an article allegedly written by Shostakovich a few
days before the premiere as 'a Soviet artist’s creative response to justified
criticism'.
It is an extraordinary
achievement. With the very real threat of being sent to a Gulag labour camp
hanging over him, Shostakovich could have played safe and written some
ultra-patriotic hymn in praise of Socialism. Instead he changed very little.
The themes are more tonal, the piece as a whole avoids the extreme dissonance
of the fourth, and the triumphal ending provides an unmistakable tone of
optimism. It is, however, a 'response' on the composer's terms, which satisfied
both the ruling party and his own sense of integrity. The positive ending can
be taken two ways: it is, superficially, a rejoicing climax, but a quote
attributed to Shostakovich is more telling – 'The rejoicing is forced ... it's
as if someone were beating you with a stick and saying, "Your business is
rejoicing, your business is rejoicing", and you rise, shaky, and go
marching off, muttering, "Our business is rejoicing, our business is
rejoicing"'. It received a 30-minute ovation at its first performance, and
is rightly considered one of the greatest artistic achievements of the 20th
century.
Day 62
3 March 2017: Haydn –
Symphony No. 45, 'Farewell' (1772)
Having written 104
symphonies, it's a small blessing that Josef Haydn chose to give many of them
nicknames, drawing attention to their USP, as it were. Number 45 is probably
the outstanding example, thanks to an ingenious idea that turns a regular
classical period symphony into a piece of music theatre. During an extended
coda appended to the end of the finale, the members of the orchestra are
instructed to leave the stage and snuff out the candle on their music stand – or,
nowadays, switch of their desk light. I doubt modern Health & Safety
regulations would sanction a stage full of candles in such close proximity to
paper scores. The order of departure is specified in the score – first oboe,
second horn, bassoon, second oboe etc. – until at the end only two violins
remain.
The idea apparently
came during a stay at Haydn's patron Prince Nikolaus Esterházy's summer palace,
during which the musicians had been required to stay longer than they'd
expected. With the orchestra pleading to return to their families, Haydn
decided to convey this message to the Prince via the symphony. Gimmicks aside,
it is a very fine work, and like its predecessor the Trauer symphony, featured on 4 February, it dates from Haydn's Sturm und Drang (storm and stress)
period. In some ways, having such a light-hearted ending to an otherwise quite
serious symphony is a tiny bit incongruous. Would it be quite so well-known
without it, however?
Day 63
4 March 2017: Britten
– Sinfonia da Requiem (1940)
Sinfonia da Requiem is
the most conventional of Benjamin Britten's four symphonies, and certainly the
most frequently performed. It also helped make Britten's name as one of the
country's leading composers as it led directly to the commissioning of his
opera Peter Grimes. It did, however, have a quite inauspicious genesis. The
Japanese government commissioned the work to celebrate the 2,600th anniversary
of the Empire of Japan. The details of the commission were late in arriving,
leaving Britten with little choice but to submit the piece he was working on at
the time. When the Japanese received it, they took exception to the symphony's
use of movement titles taken from Christian liturgy, and felt the work was too
gloomy for a celebratory occasion. Britten was accused by the brother of the
Japanese prime minister of 'insulting a friendly power'.
Although Britten, with
the help of his friend WH Auden, replied in carefully worded terms to defend
his work, Japan soon afterwards became an enemy power following the attack on
Pearl Harbour. The diplomatic incident the work nearly caused has long been consigned
to history and the symphony is now well-established. It's a great piece, and one
of my personal favourites. It also must have been a favourite of the 70s rock
band ELO, who used the first movement as an intro to their Out Of The Blue tour
shows in 1978, accompanying their impressive-for-the-time spaceship stage
taking off and landing. I find the passage of darkness to light, from the
ominous rising figure that opens the work to the soaring strings in the major
key ending, to be genuinely uplifting.
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