Day 26: Nielsen Symphony no.3

Day 26: Nielsen Symphony no.3

Carl Nielsen was a Danish composer who was born in 1865, just a year after Richard Strauss. He was quite a prolific composer, writing 6 symphonies, various concertos [ok, concerti if one must be pedantic!], many orchestral and ensemble works, a couple of operas, and lots of hymns.

His early influences were composers like Grieg and Brahms, although as his career progressed his music became more modern in outlook.

The third symphony is called Sinfonia Espansiva, and was described by Nielsen himself in a programme note:

“The symphony expresses – namely in the first movement - a strong tension which in the second movement  … has been completely eradicated by idyllic calm. Towards the end of this movement two human voices sing on the vowel a, as though to bring about a sort of flegmatically paradisal mood.”

“The third movement is something that cannot really be characterised in that both good and evil make themselves felt without a real outcome. The finale … is straightforward: a hymn to work and the healthy enjoyment of daily life. Not a pathetic celebration of life but a sort of general joy in being able to participate in the work of daily living and to see activity and capability unfold all around us.”

My recording was of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Myng-Whun Chung.

Day 14: Brahms Symphony no. 4

Day 14: Brahms Symphony no. 4

Yet another one I studied for music A level: Beginning to wonder if I did any studying for the others! Haven’t listened to this in absolutely ages, but it all came flooding back as soon as I heard the opening notes! This is just such fantastic stuff! It’s rousing, emotional, evocative, and tuneful!

Apparently, Brahms delayed writing any symphonies until quite late in his career for fear that he wouldn’t measure up well against classical composers like Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart. Well, perhaps if he hadn’t waited so long he might have been able to create more; his music is great stuff and 4 symphonies really isn’t enough! That’s my opinion, anyway!

It’s divided into the fairly typical four movements and is scored for the standard orchestra of the time, which now includes trombones – three of them to be precise! The final movement is a bit of an innovation in that he takes a theme by Bach (possibly from the Cantata no.150) and creates numerous variations, done in a passacaglia, a sort of ostinato, but slightly different in that the theme doesn’t only appear in the bass parts. You really do have to listen to it to understand what I mean; I’m not good with words!

Anyway, the recording I listened to was of the Berlin Phil (ooops, again!) conducted by Karajan!

Day 13: Ives, Holiday Symphony

Day 13: Ives, Holiday Symphony

In the absence of any Schoenberg in my CD collection, I thought I’d dust of my Charles Ives CD. Probably not the most common thing to find in a collection, but it goes back to my university days when we studied American music – Spirituals to Bob Dylan through Ives and Copeland and jazz!

The full title of this particular piece is A Symphony: New England Holidays, and my recording was made by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. This is an interesting work: to me it’s typical of the 20^th century avant-garde movement – mostly cacophonous, seemingly disorganised and written for a huge range of instruments, including a set of bells, and a Jews harp.

In amongst all the dissonance, I could recognise quite a lot of familiar tunes, each being played against  another, for example, Battle Hymn of the Republic and Yankee Doodle. Apparently, it took Ives nearly 16 years to write the complete symphony! Although it is a symphony, each movement can also be played as a standalone piece of music.

Just in case you are thinking of giving this a go, I should warn you it does take a bit of getting used to!

Day 6: Beethoven Pastoral Symphony

Day 6: Beethoven Symphony no. 6, The Pastoral

What a perfect day to be listening to Beethoven’s 6^th symphony – The Pastoral! Fabulous sunshine interrupted by rain storms!

This is significant because this symphony was really the first of its type. Although Beethoven is a classical composer, he pushed the boundaries of classical music, so this symphony has 5 movements, unlike a more traditional classical symphony that would have 3 or 4. Also, this is one of the first pieces of music that isn’t just music to listen to: This symphony tells a story, the story of a day in the countryside.

Beethoven actually gave some indication of the story behind the music in the directions for each movement:

1^st movement - Awakening of cheerful feelings upon arrival in the country

2^nd movement – Scene at the brook

3^rd movement - Happy gathering of country folk

4^th movement – Thunderstorm and storm

5^th movement - Shepherds' song; cheerful and thankful feelings after the storm

This really is the first example of what we now call programme music. And, it’s so lovely! You can really hear the countryside in the melodies and you really feel you want to rush indoors when you hear the approaching storm! This stuff makes you want to listen to it carefully; definitely not background music!

I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for a Beethoven symphony as when I was a child we had a black boxed set of the complete symphonies on vinyl - The Klemperer ones (with Otto, I think he was conducting the Berlin Phil) which were regularly on the turntable. The version I listened to today was the von Karajan (Herbert, conductor of the Berlin Phil!) interpretation, which is also rather good!

Just out of interest, Klemperer also did a fantastic recording of Mozart 38.

Look out for the final recording of this week and recommendations for listening based on this week's pieces!

Day 5: Symphony 38, Mozart

Day 5: 24 April 2012, Mozart Symphony no.38 in D, The Prague


How refreshing it is to listen to Mozart! My plan of
listening to Radio 4 on the way into work and a CD on the way home is actually having benefits: I still know a bit about what’s going on in the world, and my stress levels are not soaring whilst I’m driving amongst maniacs!!

I find Mozart just so easy to listen to. It does all the right things. If you don’t know the tune, you can hum it anyway. It’s kinda predictable but never boring. The cadences almost always resolve as you’d expect them to. The music often follows a standard format. There is always a distinct beginning, middle and end, and the end is usually heralded and obvious!

The Prague symphony was not the first of Mozart’s symphonies that I became familiar with. Like a lot of people I was first introduced to 40, but my liking for that was quoshed when I went to a performance of the Prague in a little church somewhere in Newport, with my piano teacher and a group of her piano students. The BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra were playing, but I’ve no idea what else they played as I was so transfixed by the Mozart!

I was particularly struck by the way the tune moved from one section of the orchestra to another, and generally by how it all fitted together so well. It’s a fairly typical example of a classical symphony, having 3 movements – fast-slow-fast – each being in sonata form. Some of the themes are just sublime.

The particular CD I listened to today was a recording of the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, and also included symphonies no.40 and 32. It was bought in WHSmith in the days when they used to have fantastic sales of CDs and you could pick up a real bargain – like this one, for £1.99!