BaL 7.05.16 - Martinu: Symphony no. 6

[Bryn]

For me, THAT is how you do a BAL review. A blueprint to follow.

Quite, but surely no more than one might expect from our fellow Forum member.

[antongould]

Quite, but surely no more than one might expect from our fellow Forum member.

???? Excuse me - am I missing something/someone ... ???

[Bryn]

???? Excuse me - am I missing something/someone ... ???

Well it's a while since he last posted a message here but ...

[antongould]

Well it's a while since he last posted a message here but ...

A good while indeed .......

[Nick Armstrong]

I can sometimes think of the BBCSO as a good multipurpose orchestra but under Belohlavek they strike me as the Martinu ensemble par excellence. They simply make a wonderful noise in this recording.

I tried to get into Martinu's sound world for decades without any joy - then the Belohlavek performances were broadcast ... and instantly I was hooked! His recordings of the complete Symphonies are treasured in my collection - this BaL will be an opportunity for me to explore other recordings.

Ears on the pulse, Al and fern

Caught up with this absorbing BAL this morning: a revelation for me, I didn't know the piece (or the Martinu symphonies in general) at all ... and I can sense an enthusiasm coming on. And indeed the BBCSO/JB recording I saw no reason to disagree with the crystal-clear analysis of Mr Swain.

What a fascinating piece - that clarinet solo at the heart of the final movement really beautiful; and I found the sudden yet brilliantly integrated DSCH quotation gave me goose-bumps. Immediate exploration called for: I shall be taking a leaf out of Anton's book, and hope to feel the same:

Have listened to the winner on Apple Music very impressive IMVVHO ...

[BBMmk2]

I haven't heard this yet but I have on Spotify, right now the recording, as part of the whole cycle. In my collection, I have Neeme Jarvis's. Just beginning, and even here, this far surpasses Jarvi's(?)

[Nick Armstrong]

(?)

?

[Alison]

Ears on the pulse, Al and fern

Caught up with this absorbing BAL this morning: a revelation for me, I didn't know the piece (or the Martinu symphonies in general) at all ... and I can sense an enthusiasm coming on. And indeed the BBCSO/JB recording I saw no reason to disagree with the crystal-clear analysis of Mr Swain.

What a fascinating piece - that clarinet solo at the heart of the final movement really beautiful; and I found the sudden yet brilliantly integrated DSCH quotation gave me goose-bumps. Immediate exploration called for: I shall be taking a leaf out of Anton's book, and hope to feel the same:

And for about the price of a non discounted full price cd you can get all the other symphonies in comparably good performances (bbcso/Belohlavek). Excellent review by Sir Jonathan I thought,not just the winning selection.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Ears on the pulse, Al and fern

I dunno about Al - but I think my watch has stopped!

[jayne lee wilson]

And for about the price of a non discounted full price cd you can get all the other symphonies in comparably good performances (bbcso/Belohlavek). Excellent review by Sir Jonathan I thought,not just the winning selection.

But it isn't the best cycle though (almost none of them are, even trickier than Nielsen for one-shot choices) ... I'll try to come back on this soon after I've heard the BaL (wine, sunshine, morning coffee in bluebell wood, that brilliant Shakespeare treatment all distractin' my musical attentions...)...

The BBCSO 6th is possibly the best of his three (though the BBCSO massed strings are no match for the Czech PO, or Thomson's sonically-stunning SNO reading) but JB himself outdoes his BBCSO versions in some of his earlier, admittedly somewhat scattered, Czech Phil/Prague SO recordings (especially the 1990 No. 1, the 2009 5th) ...as for cycles, I only really consider that 2005 Japanese Neumann vintage '78 to be utterly and consistently great... (warming more & more to Valek now, up to No.4...)

Briefly - Belohlavek is often good in the more lyrical passages, less focussed or defined in dramatic dynamics or where rhythmic grip and articulation are at a premium (eg. 1st and 2nd movements of No.4, or coda of 5(i), frankly disappointing in the Barbican set....), and I'm still waiting for his earliest Martinu reading, the 4th on Panton ("brighteyed & bushytailed" - RC), to get here from The Polar Bear, BUT it will have to be a real scorcher to match Turnovsky...

(there's the letterbox now... aha! It's Belohlavek's Czech Phil 3&4 from 2003...I hope he had his blue suede shoes on for that one...)

[BBMmk2]

?

I was thinking that it be good to see what other people's thoughts were on this, Cali :)

[Richard Barrett]

Very nice to see that the virtues of Martinu are spreading further. Although I'm bound to say that his symphonies are not a document of his personal evolution as they are with many other composers - the first five were written within a span of four years (1942-46) and the 6th followed in 1953, being an outlier also in not featuring a piano in the orchestra. Those who are coming across the 6th symphony for the first time might also like to explore his five piano concerts, the concerto for violin and piano (a favourite of mine), the Double Concerto for strings, piano and timpani, the concerto for string quartet and orchestra, Toccata e due canzoni, Frescoes of Piero della Francesca, and the opera Julietta.

This piece goes back a long way with me. When I was a teenager I had a Saturday job in a record shop, which as was normal in those days was relatively well-stocked with classical music as well as the ubiquitous popular fare (and there were three other establishments in Swansea about which the same could be said - imagine!). One of my colleagues, who worked in the hifi department of the same shop, was I guess the first real classical music enthusiast I ever met, he seemed ancient but I guess he was younger than I am now. While he didn't really see eye to eye with my enthusiasm for Stockhausen, the only time he tried to influence my musical tastes was by lending me an LP of the Munch recording of Martinu's 6th (combined with Memorial to Lidice, which I fell in love with. I don't think any modern recording has equalled it in terms of performance, which is a great shame.

[Nick Armstrong]

I was thinking that it be good to see what other people's thoughts were on this, Cali :)

[jayne lee wilson]

An excellent essay by Jon Swain, presented with such tape-splicing precision it was hard to quibble with a single point. But excerpts are one thing, complete performances quite another, and despite his qualms about a lack of expressive nuance in Thomson's reading, I think anyone who heard the whole of that recording would be impressed enough with it to buy it immediately. It may not always have the intensity or poetic phrasing of Neumann, Munch or the latest Belohlavek, but it has a Haitinkesque clarity and clear-headed drama, with a recording which catches the strings' suppleness, warmth and attack, the winds' primary colours, with inner orchestral voices marvellously precise; the rhythms are all there but never overemphasised, the fullness and overwhelming dynamic weight matched by a lovely, airy mid-hall balance. The music is laid bare, with no overt moulding of a phrase, or individuality of interpretation. But the transparency and openness (even in the biggest climaxes) are, like virtue, their own reward. The only problem may be its sheer power - perhaps difficult for some systems, rooms or ears to contain or cope with.

But really, the true problem is the deification of any given recording, however worthily vaunted. Jarvi's original releases on BIS were compared to - Neumann LPs. The field was sparse. So with Belohlavek/BBCSO: it was clear that some reviewers had heard little of Martinu in their recent listening pasts, or ever become truly familiar with the works themselves. Part of their excitement was in the discovery (or rediscovery) of the music. (With, of course, honourable and obvious exceptions like RC, whose very careful review of the BBCSO/JB set did introduce Valek into the mix, and very fascinating his cycle is. Shame about the edit JS highlighted in the 6th itself of course: oh, I've still got THAT to look forward to... but given the articulacy of VV's 2 and 3, and most especially his very original 4th (at a slow tempo which shouldn't work, but does), I should find it bearable, or at least character-forming). I was caught up in the BB-Belohlavek dance myself, and keenly - but became disenchanted with the lack of Pace, Rhythm and Timing (yes, our old audio friend the PRAT factor) which I need more of, to fully enjoy this composer, than Belohlavek is often prepared to give. (Loci classici - No.4 (i & ii), No.1 (ii) etc.)

But to return to specifics, especially about the last few minutes of the work which JS lingered upon - where I really hear things differently would be with the 1978 Neumann I keep referencing. For me, at this point the reading really does match, or even surpass, the Munch/BSO for manic desperation and tragic impact. At around 7'40 into the last movement, baleful, fateful brass fanfares cut across the motoric uneasiness below, and with Neumann this is a thing of terror and beauty, lacerating to the ear and soul, with a sheer violence unmatched in any other performance I've heard. Despite relatively subdued brasses here, the BBCSO hold up well; their more expressively moulded melodic lines, slightly warmer sonority, Belohlavek's more thoughtful, considered feel in quieter passages, have their own merits - and rewards. But there is not the intensity of Neumann's Czech Phil, the drama on the sheer-cliff threshold of the night, or the final bleakness in the coda, where Neumann is an Asrael, barely reconciled in the last chords (perhaps very aptly, with 6 movements yet to come... vide infra). Belohlavek allows some tonal warmth, some voices of consolation. The chilly resonances of the Prague acoustic only enhance (or perhaps encouraged) Neumann's expressive choices - the sharper attack, drive and dynamic impact, evident throughout.

All this of course, is dependent on your hearing of the Japanese Neumann remaster... so otherwise (or anywise) - YMMV.

***
It's a shame that the Fantaisies Symphoniques should always be grouped with the other 5 symphonies as, despite the selfquotations and references back (back, all the way to No.1) it has closer ties to the succeeding works, Frescoes of Piero della Francesca and The Parables. Both in 3 movements again, all sharing those surreal orchestral colouristic effects and continuously transformed thematic material, they constitute a trilogy with the Fantaisies (whose number 6 the composer later dropped from the title). Even more fluidly organic in their formal evolutions than the Fantasies, The Fresques are illuminated by a more hopeful, even radiant, mood; somewhat akin to Suk's return-to-ilfe of the Summer's Tale, after Asrael. The Parables, more abstract and reflective at first, then light-filled and playful, conclude with a wild, celestial joy. The rhythmic vivacity, the range of moods and orchestral colours, is remarkable.

Inferno-Purgatorio-Paradiso perhaps. Or Symphonies 6, 7 and 8.
The Parables has perhaps the least memorable ideas, but when did angels ever get the best tunes?

Unless, of course, they're called Asrael...

[BBMmk2]

JLW. Where would we be without you! Thanks ever so for your most illuminating post, regarding the aforementioned!