Wilson: Symphonies 3 & 4
Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Rory MacDonald
Linn 616
Total Time:  73:20
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Though born in Colorado, the composer Thomas Wilson (1927-2001) is most considered a great Scottish composer, his family having returned to Scotland when he was quite young.  He would go on to become a major influence in the development of Scottish music throughout the 20^th Century serving as an inspiration to music in the country and gaining the epithet, the father of Scottish music.”  His style includes explorations of serial technique, expressionism and other atonal forms as well as flirtations with aleatoric writing.  Much of his early work was withdrawn with his primary compositions after the mid-1950s being the ones that garnered attention.  His work would be championed by Alexander Gibson, James Loughran, and Bryden Thomson though very little of it has been committed to disc as of yet.  Wilson would complete five symphonies.  The first, conducted by Colin Davis in 1957, was subsequently withdrawn such that the remaining four are thus his main essays in this genre.  The current release features performances of the third and fourth as well as a smaller orchestral work in a very generous program.

The Symphony No. 4 was commissioned by two local District Councils to commemorate the 500^th anniversary of the town of Paisley.  The work’s subtitle, “Passeleth Tapestry”, is taken from the 12^th-Century form of the name.  It marks the beginning of the Abbey’s founding there during the period when the Stewarts rose to power.  Each section explores the historical epochs and their defining characteristics.  There are four sections the first of which opens with a four-note motive derived from the town’s name.  They will serve as the unifying concept that flows through the work.  A carillon is referenced in an opening fanfare that then moves into a more reflective section with the Stewart fanfares eventually fading away.  The era of Protestant conflict comes into the foreground of the second movement which references the psalm tune “Martyrs”.  References to the earlier music also help provide a thread that moves through this section as well.  More propulsive rhythms move us into the “Machine Age” of the 19^th Century in the third section.  The work concludes with a section that pulls these threads together weaving them into a more positive finale looking into the future.  Wilson’s music is quite accessible within these more modal-like harmonies where dissonance is on the fringes of atonality.  The music certainly encapsulates a modernist style with the gestures being more in the Neo-Romantic realm.  Others will also certainly note an almost filmic narrative quality.  A little Bartok can be discerned as an integrated style with a Berg-like approach to the way more jagged lines are harmonized.  The piece is brilliantly orchestrated with an assured and full command of the way these ideas are transferred across the ensemble.  Some truly intense tremolo sections are one of many highlights.  The final bars include a stunningly beautiful flute idea before the opening fanfares return as we also reflect musically on what has occurred in the piece as ideas and textures are revisited.

Wilson’s Symphony No. 3 (1979) is a rather brief work cast in five continuous segments.  Its underlying program recalls a similar one undertaken in Sir Michael Tippett’s fourth symphony from 1977 in its exploration of life from birth through life’s struggles and a rebirth of sorts (whereas Tippett’s work far more experimental, explores birth to death themes).  Here, Wilson invites the audience to explore the materials as they are introduced and challenges the listener to hear how they move through various textures until they become fully formed at the end and a solo violin suggests this new birth is the beginning of the same process.  The ideas feel aleatoric and the sound more experimentally and contemporary as different threads float out of the orchestra.  It does indeed feel like an “awakening” of sorts.  There are closer dissonances and swirls that eventually move us into smaller repeated motives that help provide an aural connection.  Also notable here is that Wilson incorporates the piano as an integral instrument that presents material and interacts with the orchestra.  Not quite circular in terms of form, but certainly a work that asks the listener to join the journey Wilson takes here.  The music moves through this sort of ethereal beginning through moments of more lyrical beauty toward utter chaos.  The piece was commissioned by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra who performed it under Sir Alexander Gibson.

The Carillon (1990) is not quite the length of the symphonies, but is yet another substantial orchestral work.  This was another commission to write a work for the RSNO and its then music director, Bryden Thomson.  It was to celebrate the opening of their new concert hall.  The piece thus celebrates the city of Glasgow and connects this to the bells in the city that historically have been used to announce significant events.  As in the fourth symphony, Wilson uses pitches derived from the town’s name here to set up a four-note motive that will unify the work.  He explores the history of the city from its Victorian era, the depression of the 1930s, a beautiful nocturnal and quite magical moment, and the regeneration of the post-WWII era.  Here, as in the other pieces, one is struck by the sheer magnitude of the orchestral writing that really fully explores the large orchestra.  Wilson’s use of motivic development provides that important aural link in this work as well that helps maintain interest as his variations and swirls of texture and dramatic writing.

Wilson’s music is part of that line of great symphonic music from the United Kingdom.  There is a thread here that connects to Britten and Arnold and Tippett as well, but it is still unique which will be the most striking aspect for those coming to his music for the first time.  One can hope that other of his music will find its way to disc as well.  It is impressive music and the RSNO certainly understands this and provides detailed performances that are filled with a great energy.  The release comes highly recommended for anyone interested in late 20^th Century music.

Gabriele Dupont: Complete Symphonic Works
Royal Liege Philharmonic Orch./Patrick Davin
Fuga Libra 751
Total Time:  57:58
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

For even the most talented of composers, life can sometimes grasp away success for any number of reasons sending them into the dustbins of history.  Rediscovering some of this music is often a wonderful way to expand one’s understanding of music and sometimes add a new favorite to music from a specific period of time.  Nothing is more true than the variety of composers who were creating at the beginning of the 20^th Century.  Caught between the end of Romanticism and the many new shifts in Modernism, individual voices struggled to find their way.  Gabriele Dupont (1878 – 1914) can be numbered among the composers whose music has been largely forgotten.  He was a student of Massenet and so would follow along the trajectory of composers such as Vierne and Widor, the Grand French Romantic tradition.  His music was also influenced by Italian verismo which informs his first successful work, La Cabrera which won first prize in the Sonzogno competition in 1904.  Four more operas, and a host of pieces would follow.  Unfortunately, Dupont contracted tuberculosis in 1901 which would have a significant impact on his abilities, though he did manage to receive a “second prize” for a work he entered for the coveted Prix de Rome.  His death in August, 1914, was overshadowed by WWI and went unnoticed.  As one might suspect, his chamber music and piano pieces were among the first of his works to begin to appear on programs.  The three pieces on this new release, recorded last September, are the extent of his symphonic work, composed in the first decade of the new century, and receive their premiere recordings here.

One of the many hallmarks of the early 20^th Century is the exploration of the expanded orchestra through new arrangements of piano and other music.  The first work here, Les Heures dolentes, is just such a creation derived from a piano cycle composed between 1903-1905.   Dupont orchestrated four of the fourteen pieces which were subsequently performed in 1906 by a concert organized by Edouard Colonne.  The music explores the inner struggle of death and illness, something a bit darker than the Impressionists might consider.  After a slightly dark romantic opening, the music soon shifts to a somewhat Impressionistic style with harp and muted strings in crystalline textures.  The thematic thread has a sense of melancholy about it and the lower regions of the orchestra respond to it with a sense of darkness trying to squash the hope.  The melodic line sometimes has the shape of Puccini.  One can hear how Dupont’s style is a new melding of the likes of Debussy and even Chabrier and Charpentier.  Modern listeners will find his style has an almost film-like narrative quality.  Dupont though explores the darker realms of the orchestra as he moves his thematic threads through unique colors.  The second movement, Des enfants jouent dans le jardin, is a delightful piece with orchestration reminiscent of Chabrier.  This is a more brilliant orchestral style, no less dramatic.  The third movement is a little less engaging.  It serves as a relaxation though before the heavily dramatic finale which ebbs away.  While the themes of the work may not standout memorably, the journey is certainly well worth the effort.

The designation poeme symphonique gives us a clue to the philosophy and musical aesthetic Dupont is exploring in Jour d’ete (1899).  This early work is constructed in three movements and is in a more Romantic style a la Massenet or Chabrier, the latter’s joyful style seems to burst through in the opening bars especially.  Here is some really remarkable writing for winds and an assured command of brass and string writing as well.  The piece is filled with a sense of joy and energy.  It is most likely that the piece is the best example of the composer’s own unique style.  The music is actually quite engaging and invites the listener through a slight program which certainly is influenced by Impressionism, but the music does not explore that aesthetic.  It also seems to avoid more Wagnerian excesses harmonically being a decidedly perfect example of turn of the century French orchestral music.  The central movement has a is part of the musical settings of the outdoors.  Finally, we move into a movement with the title “Nocturne”, but this is again not of the Impressionist style, though the orchestration sometimes seems to hint at it a bit.  It is more a depiction of nighttime frolics.

Edouard Colonne commissioned Le Chant de la Destine (1907) shortly after the success of the piano transcription work that opened this disc.  A more episodic piece, one also hears Dupont taking a look at the approaches of Strauss and Liszt with his application of leitmotivs as one unifying factor.  As such, the music has a more Germanic quality, reminiscent perhaps of Franck.  It is another great representation of a composer exploring his technique on the way to a mature style, one which unfortunately never had a chance to develop due to his untimely death.  No less than Edgar Varese though felt this was an important work, programming it several times in concert including upon his debut with the New Symphony Orchestra of New York in 1919.  Upon its premiere, Dupont’s work was part of a program that featured Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole and the Grieg piano concerto.  It certainly would have been a contrast that would hold its own against two pieces which would become standard repertoire works.  Perhaps on a deeper level, the work’s inner struggle is also that of its composer attempting to grow through the changing musical milieu towards works that would garner both critical acclaim and audience appreciation.

The Liege orchestra certainly creates committed performances of these pieces.  No doubt this is aided by the many ways Dupont’s music features beautiful solo writing and moves almost cinematically through its narratives.  The shifts in tone from Impressionistic to Romantic qualities are handled well here as the ensemble must get a sense of the many swirls of styles that are swirling about these pieces as Dupont’s own style emerges.  Sometimes the music of Resphigi comes to mind as the pieces move along, though here it is the way the music is orchestrated that provides the difference.  There is just so much to explore in Dupont’s orchestral writing that makes this an important release.  The performances are engaging and draw the listener in to this rare music that hopefully will now begin to see the light of day.