Stanford Symphony No 5; Irish Rhapsody No 4
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Charles Villiers Stanford
Label: Chandos
Magazine Review Date: 7/1988
Media Format: Vinyl
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: ABRD1277
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Symphony No. 5 in D, '(L')Allegro ed il penseroso' |
Charles Villiers Stanford, Composer
Charles Villiers Stanford, Composer Ulster Orchestra Vernon Handley, Conductor |
| Irish Rhapsody No. 4 |
Charles Villiers Stanford, Composer
Charles Villiers Stanford, Composer Ulster Orchestra Vernon Handley, Conductor |
Composer or Director: Charles Villiers Stanford
Label: Chandos
Magazine Review Date: 7/1988
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 62
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CHAN8581
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Symphony No. 5 in D, '(L')Allegro ed il penseroso' |
Charles Villiers Stanford, Composer
Charles Villiers Stanford, Composer Ulster Orchestra Vernon Handley, Conductor |
| Irish Rhapsody No. 4 |
Charles Villiers Stanford, Composer
Charles Villiers Stanford, Composer Ulster Orchestra Vernon Handley, Conductor |
Composer or Director: Charles Villiers Stanford
Label: Chandos
Magazine Review Date: 7/1988
Media Format: Cassette
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: ABTD1277
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Symphony No. 5 in D, '(L')Allegro ed il penseroso' |
Charles Villiers Stanford, Composer
Charles Villiers Stanford, Composer Ulster Orchestra Vernon Handley, Conductor |
| Irish Rhapsody No. 4 |
Charles Villiers Stanford, Composer
Charles Villiers Stanford, Composer Ulster Orchestra Vernon Handley, Conductor |
Author: Michael Oliver
Milton inconsiderately failed to follow up L'allegro and Il penseroso with another couple of poems called Il collerico and Il flemmatico, is tough luck on composers of Miltonesque symphonies in four movements. Stanford's solution is not to alternate melancholic and sanguine but to have pairs of movements illustrating different aspects of the same humour. He can scarcely avoid, therefore, beginning with two scherzos (and the first movement, despite being cast in sonata form and equipped with a portentous introduction is a scherzo in all but name) but there is nothing in Milton's genial view of melancholia that required him to complete his symphony with two mournful elegies. The result is a characteristic suite rather than a symphony, but a very entertaining one.
The first movement, obliged by the work's title to be a full-dress symphonic allegro, is the weakest: its two principal ideas are resourcefully worked out but they are of rather similar (and not very characterful) cast. Still, the music is given a semblance of weight by recurrences of the introduction's bold brass gestures, and once Stanford has done his duty by sonata form he can indulge himself in picturesque tone-painting to his heart's content and ours, the rest of the symphony is a marked improvement. The scherzo proper charmingly alternates poetic hunting calls and a robust neasant minuet, rather Dvorakian in flavour. A brief trio provides just the right degree of contrast of pace (and an opportunity for Stanford to demonstrate that he can write fugues, too) and there is a beautifully delicate, quiet coda. The slow movement evokes Melancholy's ''majestic train and sable stole'' with a solemnly rich string melody that builds to an effectively broad climax before the entrancing woodland nocturne with nightingales that forms the movement's middle section. This episode, too, has a fine lyrical theme; a pity that Stanford decided to build that to a heavy climax as well, thus robbing the return of his first melody of some of its thunder. The finale is all pomp and ceremony, with a grandly striding main tune and occasional pages that Bruckner and Elgar would not have despised (they would have labelled them feierlich and nobilmente respectively). Stanford's fondness for very fuli scoring leads him to an over-stuffed climax or two here also, but how effectively he introduces the organ: not a massive onslaught in the manner of Saint-Saens (with whose Third Symphony this would make an attractive concert coupling, by the way) but a quiet evocation of Milton's ''studious cloister'' and ''storied windows...casting a dim religious light''.
The Fourth Irish Rhapsody used to be called ''The Ulster''. It is a poetic evocation of misty Lough Neagh, based on free and beautiful variants of a folk-song that is second cousin to The last rose of summer. There are fierce martial episodes, as well, and a grandiose climax based on a third, chorale-like theme. Like the symphony it is well worth revival, and it is very finely played, the trumpets and horns of the Ulster Orchestra responding with enthusiasm to Stanford's weakness for the brass section. The recording catches the acoustic of the Ulster Hall quite admirably. Nicholas Braithwaite's account of the Irish Rhapsody on Lyrita is fine, too (though not quite so immediately recorded); its less generous but interesting coupling is Bantock's opulently Straussian Overture to a Greek tragedy.'
The first movement, obliged by the work's title to be a full-dress symphonic allegro, is the weakest: its two principal ideas are resourcefully worked out but they are of rather similar (and not very characterful) cast. Still, the music is given a semblance of weight by recurrences of the introduction's bold brass gestures, and once Stanford has done his duty by sonata form he can indulge himself in picturesque tone-painting to his heart's content and ours, the rest of the symphony is a marked improvement. The scherzo proper charmingly alternates poetic hunting calls and a robust neasant minuet, rather Dvorakian in flavour. A brief trio provides just the right degree of contrast of pace (and an opportunity for Stanford to demonstrate that he can write fugues, too) and there is a beautifully delicate, quiet coda. The slow movement evokes Melancholy's ''majestic train and sable stole'' with a solemnly rich string melody that builds to an effectively broad climax before the entrancing woodland nocturne with nightingales that forms the movement's middle section. This episode, too, has a fine lyrical theme; a pity that Stanford decided to build that to a heavy climax as well, thus robbing the return of his first melody of some of its thunder. The finale is all pomp and ceremony, with a grandly striding main tune and occasional pages that Bruckner and Elgar would not have despised (they would have labelled them feierlich and nobilmente respectively). Stanford's fondness for very fuli scoring leads him to an over-stuffed climax or two here also, but how effectively he introduces the organ: not a massive onslaught in the manner of Saint-Saens (with whose Third Symphony this would make an attractive concert coupling, by the way) but a quiet evocation of Milton's ''studious cloister'' and ''storied windows...casting a dim religious light''.
The Fourth Irish Rhapsody used to be called ''The Ulster''. It is a poetic evocation of misty Lough Neagh, based on free and beautiful variants of a folk-song that is second cousin to The last rose of summer. There are fierce martial episodes, as well, and a grandiose climax based on a third, chorale-like theme. Like the symphony it is well worth revival, and it is very finely played, the trumpets and horns of the Ulster Orchestra responding with enthusiasm to Stanford's weakness for the brass section. The recording catches the acoustic of the Ulster Hall quite admirably. Nicholas Braithwaite's account of the Irish Rhapsody on Lyrita is fine, too (though not quite so immediately recorded); its less generous but interesting coupling is Bantock's opulently Straussian Overture to a Greek tragedy.'
Stanford Symphony No 5; Irish Rhapsody No 4
Stanford Symphony No 5; Irish Rhapsody No 4
Stanford Symphony No 5; Irish Rhapsody No 4
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