SearchsearchUseruser

Maxwell Davies / Panufnik: Symphonies No. 10 - Butter / Pappano

Maxwell Davies / Panufnik: Symphonies No. 10 - Butter / Pappano

LSO Live  LSO 0767

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical - Orchestral


Sir Peter Maxwell Davies: Symphony No. 10
Sir Andrzej Panufnik: Symphony No. 10

Markus Butter
London Symphony Chorus
London Symphony Orchestra
Sir Antonio Pappano


LSO Live presents the world premiere recording of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies architectural Tenth Symphony, alongside Sir Andrzej Panufnik’s Symphony No 10. This release showcases two of the twentieth century’s most iconic symphonic composers, paired together here by their tenth symphonies.

Support this site by purchasing from these vendors using the paid links below.
As an Amazon Associate HRAudio.net earns from qualifying purchases.

bol.com
 
jpc
Presto

 

Add to your wish list | library

 

1 of 1 recommend this, would you recommend it?  yes | no

All
show
Reviews (1)
show
hide

Review by Graham Williams - September 1, 2015

A coupling of two composer's 10th Symphonies must be something a rare if not unique event on disc, but although the two works on this SACD present worthwhile challenges to the listener it would be fair to say that neither is easily assimilated in just a few hearings. Both were recorded live at Barbican concerts (February and October 2014) in DSD 128fs by Classic Sound and include stereo and 5.1 multi-channel mixes.

Sir Peter Maxwell Davis composed his 10th Symphony subtitled 'Alla ricerca di Borromini' in the period following his diagnosis with leukaemia and whilst undergoing the trauma of his subsequent chemotherapy treatment. It is an ambitious work scored for a large orchestra, chorus and a baritone soloist – here the fine Austrian baritone Markus Butter.

The life of the Italian baroque architect Francesco Borromini (1599-1677), whose work Maxwell Davies had admired since his student days studying in Rome, provides the Symphony's subject matter. The Symphony is in four distinct parts. Parts 1 and 3 are purely instrumental and suggest, in musical terms, the building of an architectural edifice such as a church . Maxwell Davies uses a rich orchestral palette with great skill, and though the music is unremittingly dark in character as is to be expected from a work concerned with mortality, yet it is the antithesis of Mahler's more overtly emotional farewell to life. Part 3 continues the construction idea but in a more energetic vein and with the addition of gamelan-like tuned percussion.

Parts 2 and 4 set a variety of texts beginning with an anonymous sonnet contemptuously criticising Borromini's work that is superbly delivered by the fine LSO Chorus directed by Simon Halsey. Borromini's own description of his practical solution to the placing of musicians in the Oratorio dei Fillipini is forcefully sung by Markus Butter with outstandingly clear diction. The Symphony's final Part opens with a choral setting of 'A Se Stesso' by Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) – a bleak reflection on the emptiness of human existence – while Borromini's description of his own attempted suicide is again sung by Markus Butter with harrowing intensity.

Sir Antonio Pappano and his committed forces give what must surely be regarded as a definitive performances of this complex work and though the clear Barbican acoustic is not a problem here one can still imagine the impression this work would make in a church or a venue with greater ambience and warmth.

Panufnik's succinct 10th Symphony was written between 1988 and 1990 and is dedicated to Sir Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra who commissioned it in celebration of the orchestra’s centenary. Like a number of Panufnik's works the design of this symphony is influenced by what the composer describes as “the beauty and mystic forces of geometry” Though in one continuous movement lasting around sixteen minutes it falls into four distinct sections marked - Largo, Allegro moderato, Presto and Adagio. Opening arrestingly with brass fanfares interspersed with huge tam-tam crashes the music subsides into a more meditative section on the strings. The anxious and at times angry quality of the music seems evident, but following a climax the final section is more consoling with its sustained string chords reminiscent of Gorecki or Pärt.

Pappano's incisive conducting is impressive while the LSO certainly provide the virtuosity demanded by Panufnik in this bracing piece.

Both works can be recommended for adventurous collectors.

Copyright © 2015 Graham Williams and HRAudio.net

Performance:

Sonics (Stereo):

Sonics (Multichannel):

stars stars stars