Nicholas Ward - Symphonies 23 24 & 61 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Nicholas Ward - Symphonies [COMPACT DISCS] date 12/17/1996

Symphony No. 26 in D minor seems to have been written in 1768 or thereabouts and is scored for the usual Esterháza forces of pairs of oboes and French horns, bassoon, strings and cembalo. Haydn completed his Symphony No. 35 in B flat major on 1st December 1767, scoring the work for pairs of oboes and high B flat horns, bassoon, strings and cembalo. What starts light-heartedly enough assumes a graver air in the central development, where contrapuntal use of earlier thematic material introduces an element of stronger feeling, with the recapitulation marked by the ascent of the first horn to unusual heights. The E flat major slow movement is scored for strings only with music of considerable charm. The wind instruments return for the Minuet, but are excluded from the E flat Trio, with it's triplet rhythm handed from second to first violin. The symphony ends with a cheerful Finale and the tone of the whole work has led Robbins Landon to suggest that it might have been written to celebrate the return from Paris of Prince Esterházy, who had visited France in the autumn of 1767 with the presumed object of learning more about the Palace of Versailles that his own new palace at Esterháza was to imitate and rival. Symphony No.49, La Passione, was written in 1768 and is scored for pairs of oboes, French horns in F, bassoon, strings and originally cembalo. This work, in the key of F minor, belongs clearly to the dramatic mood of Sturm und Drang, although not so called until the publication in 1777 of Klinger's play of that name. Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress), a self-explanatory title, describes well enough the current literary mode of extravagant expression of emotions, partly reflected in some of the music of the period. Haydn's symphony follows the old pattern of the church sonata, opening with a slow movement. A degree of tension is generated in the following Allegro di m

The fruit of a unique collaboration between a brilliant musical polymath and one of the world's leading vocal ensembles specializing primarily in medieval and Renaissance polyphony-the composer Mehmet Ali Sanlikol and Blue Heron-Lessons from Nightingales presents the world premiere recordings of two new pieces inspired by the two principal Turkish traditions of Sufi mysticism. The Triumph (composed in 2024 for Blue Heron's twenty-fifth birthday) sets a poem by the Bektasi Sufi dervish Edip Harabi (1853-1917) in a dazzling sound world created by an ensemble of voices, bowed tanbur (long-necked lute), ney (end-blown flute), and an array of percussion, weaving together elements of Turkish songs, modes, and rhythmic cycles; Renaissance counterpoint; and the Japanese court music called Gagaku. Devran (composed in 2017) honors pluralism within Islam by setting texts by Mevlevi Sufi dervishes in a two-movement a cappella piece like a motet-a staple of Renaissance European Christian music-in which the imitative style of sixteenth-century counterpoint is the main influence, while Middle Eastern makam (mode) tradition and elements of Turkish Sufi music contribute substantially to the musical effect. A distinctly jazz-influenced harmonic palette lends it's glamorous color to both pieces. Blue Heron applies it's signature intensity, expressivity, and mastery of polyphony to Sanlikol's bewitching twenty-first century polyphony, joined in The Triumph by the virtuoso instrumentalists of Sanlikol's ensemble DuNYA.