Live in Concert - June 1st. Moeran's 2nd symphony

[Serial_Apologist]

I just logged in to post how much I particularly enjoyed the works new to me and to comment on such good sound from the BBC, but it appears I'll need to get my coat.

If this concert is available on iPlayer I must have a listen then. What was the Delius piece played? No mention of it in RT.

[Suffolkcoastal]

Over the Hills and Far Away, perhaps that is where it should have stayed!

[Serial_Apologist]

Over the Hills and Far Away, perhaps that is where it should have stayed!

[pilamenon]

I beg to differ. It may be the ambience, as I found the same happening during the Moeran, but the sound was IMO card boxed, not having that ethereal sound which IMO is essential in this type of Delian music. Over the Hills and Faraway needs a Debussyan approach of impressionistic orchestral colouring, which -at least in the broadcast- was absent.

Perhaps listening on a transistor in the kitchen whilst cooking is not the best basis for commenting on these issues.

[bluestateprommer]

Managed to hear this concert on iPlayer barely before the deadline. It came off as something of a curate's egg of a concert, but given that I'll never hear that repertoire on this side of the pond, I welcomed the chance to catch it. Interesting that no one commented on Parry's Jerusalem as the opener, especially as the orchestration was evidently Parry's own. It definitely sounded much plainer than the Elgar that everyone is used to from The Last Night, which fits with comments on the old board. However, given the cathedral setting, the plainer orchestration may have been more appropriate. It also unwittingly points out why, in spite of all the best efforts of HRH The Prince of Wales to promote Parry, Parry will probably never attain wide popularity beyond Jerusalem and the Songs of Farewell. The differences in handling the orchestra for the same tune say it all, Parry vs. Elgar, in Jerusalem, CHHP's own "once in a lifetime" tune. But it was nice to hear the audience participation sing-along; no idea if the program invited the audience to sing.

Likewise, the RVW Fantasy came off as a curiosity worth hearing once, rather ramshackle in nature to me, with what seemed like a lot of paragraphs and stops for breathing in between. Good performances of the Ireland, and the Delius after the intermission (oops, interval). I too was generally underwhelmed with the Moeran, via Martin Yates' realization of the sketches. It's pleasant enough to listen to, and kudos to MY for all his efforts.

[secondfiddle]

All praise to Martin Yates for a commendable effort, but I don’t think he should have done it, especially since the sketches number only about half the number of bars of the finished work (if I correctly remember what was said in the interval talk). While there were some beautiful moments, as a whole it did not work for me. It seemed rather repetitious – a good composer uses his best tunes sparingly! – and too many moments seemed familiar, as if borrowed from other works. I don’t think such an effort does a good service to the composer. The ‘symphony’ comes a very poor fourth or fifth compared with the splendid violin concerto and I feel sure that, had Moeran completed the symphony, we would have a much stronger work. But we are not to know. What should be mandatory in these cases is that the listener should first be played the sketches in either orchestrated version or in piano score so he can judge for himself what is the composer’s and what is not and then get an idea how much has been reconstructed. This could be done as a radio workshop (as years ago was done with Deryck Cooke's realisation of Mahler's Tenth Symphony), an opportunity missed on this occasion with the interval talk giving little idea to the listener whether what was being played as example was Moeran’s or Yates’. I might add that I think Yates’s orchestration of John Ireland’s Sarnia sequence (issued on the same CD as the Moeran ‘completion’) is totally misguided. Why should such a marvellous piano work need orchestrating? The orchestral version sounds totally unlike John Ireland.

[Bax-of-Delights]

For those who weren't able to make it to Dorchester in June there is another chance to sample Moeran's 2nd symphony live in Brighton in December:

http://www.brightondome.org/events/Brighton-Philharmonic-Orchestra/4879

I shall be there.

[BBMmk2]

For those who weren't able to make it to Dorchester in June there is another chance to sample Moeran's 2nd symphony live in Brighton in December:

http://www.brightondome.org/events/Brighton-Philharmonic-Orchestra/4879

I shall be there.

That programme looks one of the better ones that this orchestra does! I might be tempted!