May 1, 2015

  • Falletta Completes Her Paine Cycle!

    Paine: Symphony No. 2; Oedipus Tyrannus, Poseidon and Amphitrite
    Ulster Orch./JoAnn Falletta
    Naxos 8.559748
    Total Time:  68:04
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    One of the great 19th Century American symphonies finally makes its appearance here (for the 2nd time on disc) as JoAnn Falletta brings her survey of orchestral music by John Knowles Paine (1839-1906).  The first disc introduced many to one of the composer’s great overtures and the first symphony.  Paine, part of what some refer to as the “Boston Six”, was one of those early established composers whose work was well respected in its day, but fell out of favor as American music took a more modern French turn in the new century.  I will refer readers to the early review of the first disc in this series for slightly more information on the composer.  He was responsible for establishing the first musical curriculum, at Harvard, and would go on to train many of America’s first composers.  His own background was steeped, as was most everyone’s at the time, in studies from Leipzig and German models.

    The sheer beauty of the thematic writing in his Symphony No. 2 in A, Op. 34, (1879) which bears the subtitle “In the Spring”, was certainly remarked upon in its day.  After its premiere in Boston in 1880, it became the first American orchestral work to be published.  This is one of the composer’s crowning achievements and a perfect example of grand symphonic writing in the 1870s.  There is some of the Wagnerian harmonic suggestions (perhaps not always as pronounced as in Dvorak’s early pieces and closer to what that composer had achieved in the recent Czech Suite) but Paine’s orchestration sometimes seems more akin to Beethoven in the first symphony and here he has moved more assuredly into the land of Schumann and Liszt.  Some may find this spring symphony a far more interesting work than even Schuman’s Spring symphony.  It also has some of the same delightful lightness that can be found in Brahms’ second symphony from 1877.  Certainly the way the melodies are further broken apart in the development is well done and the final bars are simply magical.  The second movement features an exciting scherzo.  Here are some great rhythmic ideas and accents that pushes the music forward.  The heartbreaking adagio follows with gorgeous writing that focuses more on the woodwinds.  Paine’s interest in motivic development is at the forefront of the symphony’s finale celebrating the “Glory of Nature.”  The final push through the grand theme is among the more glorious of many great moments in the work in this performance especially.

    The prelude Oedipus Tyrannus, Op. 35 comes from incidental music Paine wrote for a staging of the plaly in Greek at Harvard in 1880.  Most of the choruses Paine wrote have been since even more forgotten than the rest of his output, but this prelude deserves to enter more orchestra’s repertoire as it has great scene painting with Lizstian properties of thematic transformation employed as well.  The orchestration is again stellar for the period.  A concert version was performed with the Boston Symphony in 1882.  The piece begins with a Wagnerian flourish of sorts of great passionate accents and thrust.  Falletta’s performance is an interesting one that moves delicately into the first thematic statement very well.  The piece is overall very well shaped and interpreted making it a quite engaging work from the period.

    One of the great surprises of this release will certainly be the world premiere of Paine’s last orchestral work, the symphonic poem Poseidon and Amphitrite, An Ocean Fantasy, Op. 44 composed around 1888.  After an introduction, the piece bears a slight resemblance to rondo form.  The piece is a grand symphonic poem all the same perfectly in step with the times and displaying some of Paine’s great dramatic skill with more assured brass writing especially in the piece.  Delicate alternation with harp and flute also are highlights of the work.  Somehow the Ulster folks must know they are embarking on this important discovery as well as the piece is really well performed.

    As with the earlier disc, this release is simply excellently performed.  The interpretations work very well and feel much more assured than the runthroughs Mehta conducted with the New York Philharmonic for New World.  Those releases are equally essential, but these Naxos releases should do much to revisit, and hopefully rekindle, interest in our own musical heritage.  Too bad they had to be recorded with the Ulster orchestra rather than Faletta’s Buffalo group, but that is perhaps a bit of unnecessary carping because the orchestra responds beautifully to these pieces.  The winds are highlighted well and the strings bring great warmth to Paine’s melodies.  The result is a superb rendition of the symphony and excellent readings of two smaller pieces.  The recording is well-engineered with rich sound coming from the orchestra.  As with the first release, this is a must have for any serious fan of American symphonic music.