The other Alpine Symphony

[RichardB]

For my first encounter with the 4th I went for Sanderling, since I thought it was likely to be at least well recorded.

I think it's a beautifully shaped and orchestrated piece, maybe more so than Sanderling gives it credit for; harmonically and texturally it often seems strangely related to Mahler sometimes (rather than Bruckner which I don't think it resembles at all). I found the slow movement the most memorable of the four. I'm not sure I would associate the finale with any image in particular although the way it winds down at the end rather than in a more traditional way is quite attractive. But the whole piece lets itself down a bit for me in its material being a bit dry and forgettable, which is a shame. Thanks for the recommendation though, Jayne, I think I'll be listening to the other symphonies before too long.

[Goon525]

I didn’t form much of an image - it just seemed symphonic, perhaps with the exception of the last few minutes where you could (perhaps prompted by Jayne) imagine reaching an Alpine peak. But I didn’t feel an Alpine journey along the way. I don’t sense much Bruckner, either, but the beginning of the slow movement did sound quite Mahlerian. I didn’t personally think that movement quite sustained the interest, and certainly stopped sounding like Mahler after the first couple of minutes.

[jayne lee wilson]

As I've described in detail on the Magnard Composers' thread, it took me a while - several hearings of the three extant cycles at the time (Bollon was the fourth) - to really crack these works, to reach the point where growing familiarity with ideas and movements becomes love; with such elusive music, that precious need to listen again...

So what kept me going?
As ever (after similar experiences some years before with Roussel and Martinu) I guess I just found some inner spark to kindle, an impulse to return and seek further. That four-times traversal of the 2nd Symphony's 1st movement described above was the crucial moment, the landmark beyond which I had to progress...that unforgettable, soaring 2nd theme!

I recognise that not all listeners will want to visit a strange or unrewarding musical land repeatedly, or even need to, to feel that they never need return. But for me this has been precisely the type of listening that has proved the most rewarding.

So the only problem with Roussel or Magnard now is the brevity of their catalogues....

***
A shame that the glorious-sounding BBCSSO/Ossonce is on Hyperion (though the Dryad set is good value)....
Hearing their 4th tonight I noted again how much more flowing and varied the expression is compared to the rather stiff (and in earlier works, unsmiling) T-Sanderling. The latter achieves some grandeur, but is a little too studiedly neutral elsewhere. And as a devoted BIS fan, perhaps I wouldn't call this their finest sonic moment; I suspect the Malmo Orchestra didn't find the instinctive feel for the idiom.

But I'll give it another go; I've been playing CD though DSD conversion recently and if that doesn't bring Malmo to life, nothing will...

Well, it didn't improve things much; only pointed up how uninspired, stiff and 4-square Sanderling is in the finale, episodic and lacking the essential flow-through. Even the alpine-climax itself isn't that impressive, compared to the gloriously open and opulent Ossonce, the Hyperion sound offering one of the Great Moments in Romantic Music.

So a shame there isn't more enthusiasm here; otherwise I would just say - to hear the Magnard 4th at its considerable best, just go and get it...
(Hyperion's note is excellent, pointing up the many cyclic cross-references....

https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W2958_67040

[ahinton]

So the only problem with Roussel or Magnard now is the brevity of their catalogues...

Indeed so - Magnard especially; I know of no work of his that does not repay repeated listenings and why it's not far better known and widely performed than appears still to be the case remains a mystery. Among that distinguished handful of French composers born between Debussy and Ravel, Magnard certainly holds his own, along with such luminaries as Roussel, Kœchlin and, perhaps above all, Schmitt, none of whom is as well represented in the concert hall as is deserved...

[Dave2002]

I wonder if Magnard ever forgave his parents for naming him after an evil gnome.

... and an angel!

[jayne lee wilson]

... and an angel!

There was a Saint Alberic too....."Magnard" means "strong and powerful", used in French as a nickname for a strong, powerful male...

https://www.nameslist.org/surname/Magnard

There are certainly powerful, and angelic, melodies, plentifully, in Magnard's music.... though wickedness or demonicism is perhaps in shorter supply...
He tends toward vigorous bucolics instead...(and very weirdly too, in the strange scherzo/trio of No.4...)...

[Serial_Apologist]

There was a Saint Alberic too....."Magnard" means "strong and powerful", used in French as a nickname for a strong, powerful male...

https://www.nameslist.org/surname/Magnard

There are certainly powerful, and angelic, melodies, plentifully, in Magnard's music.... though wickedness or demonicism is perhaps in shorter supply...
He tends toward vigorous bucolics instead...(and very weirdly too, in the strange scherzo/trio of No.4...)...

Must try to find some time to listen to these, having only heard No 3, I think it was, in a broadcast taped by my father back in the early 1970s. It had an austere modal plainchanty opening, repeated right at the end, if my memory serves me. The main other composer I was reminded of was actually Borodin; but Russian influences were quite in the order of things in French music of the time.

[jayne lee wilson]

Must try to find some time to listen to these, having only heard No 3, I think it was, in a broadcast taped by my father back in the early 1970s. It had an austere modal plainchanty opening, repeated right at the end, if my memory serves me. The main other composer I was reminded of was actually Borodin; but Russian influences were quite in the order of things in French music of the time.

The cyclic references and altered recurrences go much further in Magnard than in the Franck D Minor, say.

So that chorale-style intro to the 3rd recurs at the end of both outer movements, but in the finale, a head-over-heels 1st theme is alternated with another mysterious, gentle chorale, bringing the initial idea to mind. In Symphonies 2 and 3, the soaring lyricism of the "official" 2nd subject (Magnard sometimes has three in his very fluid sonata-forms) becomes a motto theme through the whole piece...
The melody in No.2 at that point is especially haunting...then a varied version comes back as the trio....and so on...

As I keep saying, they take some getting to know, but when you do....
Incidentally (or not!) Naxos added a 3rd disc from Bollon of the Symphonic Poems etc., so those 3 albums constitute a very good capsule collection of Magnard.