Thea Musgrave: Phoenix Rising

• Phoenix Rising
• Product_Type: ABIS_MUSIC
• Brand: VIDB1

Product description At the forefront of contemporary music for over six decades, Thea Musgrave is one of the leading composers of her generation. She has conducted many of her own pieces on both sides of the Atlantic. Her vividly imaginative and well-crafted scores resonate with audiences worldwide. Fellow composer Judith Weir has astutely ascribed Musgrave s exceptionally rich and varied catalogue of works to a capacity for constant self-renewal combined with a shrewd awareness of what is currently happening in musical style. This release features three of Musgrave s works- Phoenix Rising (1997), Loch Ness- A Post Card from Scotland (2012), and Poets in Love (2009). Each of these works is receiving here its world premiere recording. Review The longest offering is the song cycle Poets in Love. This consists of seventeen songs which are intended to be performed without a break. Musgrave selected a very wide range of poems in which the poets offer a variety of views and reflections on love. The chosen authors include Robert Burns, Goethe, Hölderlin, Rilke, Shakespeare, Shelley and Tasso. An interesting feature of the score is that with one exception each poem is set in its original language though it is permissible for the singers to use English translations if necessary, though that s not done here. So, the listener hears settings in seven languages: English, French, German, Italian, Latin, Russian and Spanish. I must congratulate Lyrita on the presentation: the poems that are not in English are printed with each line of poetry having the English translation in bold type immediately underneath, so following the texts is very easy. Eight of the songs are set as duets for the two singers and in one more, a setting of Goethe s Zeitmass for baritone, the tenor joins in, singing several times the last line of the preceding poem. The other songs are solos for one or other of the singers. The vocal lines are lyrical and expressive and I found the way in which the poems are set was convincing. Both singers do well, though purely as a matter of personal taste I found Nathan Vale s tone rather narrow. The piano parts, splendidly played by Simon Callaghan and Hiroaki Takenouchi, are full of interest and incident. Loch Ness: A Postcard from Scotland is an interesting work. The piece requires a very large orchestra, including triple woodwind, full brass and a substantial percussion section. There s a very prominent role for the orchestra s tuba though, we read in the notes, the player is seated in his/her usual position in the brass section, though the musician is directed to stand at one point. Here the featured player is Daniel Trodden, principal tuba with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. The composer says that the piece is light-hearted. That may be so, but dont expect any gimmickry. Equally, dont expect any lessening of Musgrave s compositional skill or her inventiveness as an orchestrator. Essentially, the tuba represents the Loch Ness Monster, Nessie. At the start of the work the music clearly portrays the deep, mysterious Loch and from its depths Nessie audibly rises. Once the monster is on the surface, considerable dexterity is required from the tuba player but it s noticeable also that a good deal of the writing for the instrument is songful. At 4:42 the music becomes playful in nature and this episode leads to an accompanied cadenza (about 7:00). That cadenza is abruptly halted by a series of col legno gestures by the string section you almost wonder if Nessie is being admonished. Playtime over, Nessie gradually descends back into the depths of the Loch and the piece ends quietly. I enjoyed this Postcard, not least for its highly imaginative and colourful scoring. It s a fun piece. --Musicweb-International The real prize, however, is Phoenix Rising. Once again, Musgrave writes for a large orchestra and there s a theatrical aspect to the score, especially in the treatment of the principal timpanist and a solo horn. Paul Conway explains in his notes that the timpanist represents the forces of darkness while the horn player, who we first hear playing offstage, stands for the distant voice of hope that leads to rebirth and life. Apparently, the composer was inspired by seeing a sign outside a coffee shop in Virginia depicting a phoenix rising from the ashes. The work divides into five sections and while Lyrita present the work on a single track they do indicate the time at which point each section starts, which is very helpful. The sections are Dramatic Desolate Aggressive Mysterious Peaceful. In Dramatic the music is dynamic and exciting. Musgrave uses an arresting palette of orchestral colours and she makes terrific use of drums to impel the music forward. Here, it s worth mentioning that my Seen and Heard colleague, Alan Sanders, who reviewed the 2018 Proms performance remarked on how judiciously Musgrave deploys the percussion throughout the score: This, he felt, was in contrast to the blatant way in wh