March 15, 2010

  • Review: Schuman's 8th Symphony (Naxos)

     

    Schuman: Symphony No. 8/Night Journey/ Ives-Variations on ‘America’
    Seattle Symphony conducted by Gerard Schwarz
    Naxos 8.559651
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Back in the 1990s, Delos enticed us all with the expectation of a complete cycle of William Schuman’s symphonies.  Gerard Schwarz’s work with the Seattle Symphony on a Hanson cycle in warm sound made the prospect of his Schuman approach quite interesting.  A release of the third and fifth was as far as they got until Naxos revived the project of which this is the crowning and final achievement of this five-disc cycle.  Schuman’s music wavers between astringency and accessibility and this disc allows for a bit of both sides of this great American composer.

    The CD opens with an intense and near perfect performance of Schuman’s Symphony No. 8 from 1962.  Schuman eschews traditional orchestral melodic writing instead creating an almost overwhelming study in orchestration, texture, and tempo acceleration.  The piece has a distant cousin in the composer’s monumental fourth string quartet from 1950 whose elements are further explored and extended in this piece.  The first movement is a study in dissonance and very close harmony that opens with a slow pulse that Schwarz allows time to flow into the silence with amazing power.  As the movement builds in temporal intensity, the intervallic proportions begin to alter slightly and are almost pulled apart by the increased tempo.  The movement essentially segues into an arch-like central slow movement with a faster central section.  Here longer string lines ebb and flow in an angular idea that along the way is harmonized with extended chordal structures.  Once again the music tries very hard to push its way faster into the center but is reigned in to its breaking point.  Schwarz manages to create shape to Schuman’s seemingly disjointed lines here and the engineers have managed to capture the different instrumental groupings so that they can be easily heard in the overall texture.  The third and final movement moves at a “Presto” tempo but aurally the effect of static motion still occurs.  Skittish strings and brass alternate along with some truly fascinating pitched percussion work always referring back to those clashes of slow dissonance from the opening movement.  Dissonance seemed to take over the first movement, but here tempo rules insistently driving to the close with the orchestra seeming to want to veer out of control.  The winds get a chance to show off here for the first time winding their way around a small pitch level in fits and starts that gradually builds throughout the orchestra in a textural crescendo. 

    There is but one other recording of this symphony made by Leonard Bernstein back closer to the works premiere.  The recording is available with Schuman’s 3rd and 5th symphonies and is worthwhile listening, but Schwarz’s new recording will be the one to beat if ever one decides to record this work again.  Both performances are quite similar in their timings with Schwarz getting the better of a warmer acoustic and improved digital sound.  Though playing to 32 minutes, the symphony is easily one of the composer’s finest pieces.

    Bridging the gap between later-century symphonic writing and the post-Americana movement of the 1930s and 1940s is Night Journey.  Written for Martha Graham in 1947, the first of four ballets he would compose for her company, Night Journey is perhaps the most familiar and played.  The story takes the point of view of Jocasta, the lover and mother of Oedipus.  It is both a seminal piece of American Ballet and a defining piece of music in Schuman’s career that allows us to see the fruition of his style in this miniature orchestral form.  There are intriguing melodic ideas that spin out endlessly with an almost melancholic turn in the music.  The scoring is quite intimate and introspective.  Most fascinating for fans of other ballets commissioned by Graham is the overall shape the music takes.  Consider comparing this to the more familiar Americana stories scored by Copland and there is a general dramatic structure that begins to emerge.  Again, one is always amazed at the way Schuman can manipulate his orchestral textures so effortlessly.

    There have been a few recordings of this work that come and go in the catalogue.  The most recent was a Koch release from 1991 that featured additional ballets by Menotti and Hindemith also written for Graham.  That version of Night Journey ran to nearly 30 minutes under the direction of Andrew Schenk.  Both appear to have chosen a 15-instrument version of the score which Schuman prepared in 1981 for smaller ensembles which removes extra repeats and bridges necessary for stage production. 

    Finally, the disc closes with perhaps one of Schuman’s most popular arrangements from 1964, Ives’ “Variations on ‘America’.”  The piece was premiered at a New York Philharmonic Concert conducted by Andre Kostelanetz and had rarely flagged in popularity.  It makes for a delightful and ear-relaxing encore to a quite satisfying performance.  (This performance originally appeared on a Delos release of Schuman’s music with these same forces.)

    No fan of American music will want to be without this quintessential series of music by one of our great composers of the 20th century.