Three modern British masterpieces by English Symphony Orchestra Composers-in-Association:

If you’re trying to base you decision on which country to live in on the basis of where you are most likely to hear fantastic new symphonies, you could do a lot worse than the UK.

David Matthews – Symphony No. 2
Premiered by Simon Rattle and the Philharmonia in 1982 (linked above), this work announced David Matthews to the world as the preeminent British symphonist of his generation. He’s gone from strength to strength since then

Philip Sawyers – Symphony No. 2

Composed in a single movement, Sawyers Second sits comfortably alongside its forbears like the Schoenberg First Chamber Symphony, Sibelius’ 7^th and Schumann’s Fourth. It’s about as tightly argued a piece as you’ll ever hear, a contrapuntal tour de force and full of fire.

Sir Michael Tippett – Symphony No. 2

The premiere of this work was one of the all-time great fiascos, right up there with Rachmaninoff 1, but it’s a major piece, one of Tippett’s best.

See also

John McCabe – Symphony No. 2. Wonderful! The neglect of John’s music by the British musical establishment since his death ought to be a source of grace national shame. I can’t tell you how many funding applications I’ve written in support of his music, none of which have succeeded. He’s one of the UK’s greatest composers.

Matthew Taylor – Symphony No. 2. Won him a place in the 21^st Century Symphony project. Not an ESO C-i-A, but a great friend of the ESO, and composer of the 3rd work in our 21st C Symphony Project

Malcolm Arnold – Symphony No. 2. The Arnold symphonies are a really important body of work and should be heard a lot more often. Not an ESO C-i-A, but my predecessor Vernon Handley was his greatest interpreter and most powerful advocate.

John Joubert – Symphony No. 2. A searing reflection of Joubert’s feelings about his home country of South Africa, it belies Joubert’s reputation is a ‘nice’ composer.

Three post-Mahlerian gems

There’s no question that what Beethoven started, Mahler finished. To write a symphony after Mahler was to grapple with the question of “what next after him.” Some wrote in tribute, some reacted with a new classical restraint.

Alfredo Casella – Symphony No. 2

Written while Mahler was still alive, and by an Italian, no less! But Mahler’s influence is strong in Casella, and this is a rich and wonderful work.

Franz Schmidt – Symphony No. 2
I think Schmidt’s Fourth is really his masterpiece, but his Second is gorgeous. I saw one commentator call it “Mahler without the bitterness.” That’s a bit simplistic, but if it gets you interested in listening, then that’s fine.

Hans Gál – Symphony No. 2

Without a doubt one of the great symphonies (of any number) written in the 20^th Century, and one of the greatest slow movements ever written. Written in a period of almost unimaginable personal crisis following the deaths of several members of his family, this is a work both almost unbearably personal and profoundly universal

 

Three Romantic mega masterworks by national heroes

Beloved of audiences around the world, each of these works somehow embodies something of the character of the nation, both physical and spiritual, of their respective composers.

Sibelius Symphony No. 2

Perhaps the most popular and nationalistic of his seven great symphonies, Sibelius’ Second is full of powerful evocations of the Finnish landscape. The only problem I have with Sibelius 2 is that, because most musicians learn it in youth orchestra, most musicians think it’s an ‘easy’ symphony and end up playing it badly. I’ve never conducted a satisfying performance of it, but I’m still trying!

Elgar Symphony No. 2

It’s not surprising that a work often seen as Elgar’s requiem for the British Empire was received with a muted response at its premiere. No worries, on October 31, it’s getting a new, triumphant ending with offstage brass and 600 person choir as we leave the European Union and restore the Guinea as our national currency.

Rachmaninoff – Symphony No. 2

Rachmaninoff was the composer who brought together the echt-Russian darkness and melancholy of Mussorgsky and the almost super-human craftsmanship and melodic inspiration of Tchaikovsky. If you skip the exposition repeat, or make any cuts in this beautiful, deeply moving work, it will be very hard for us to stay friends. Timpani thwack at and of first movement is okay with me.

 

Three Fiery Breakout Pieces

For these composers, their second essay in the genre of the symphony didn’t just mark a step forward from their first, but an explosion of audacity and originality that can still startle today.

Copland – Short Symphony (2^nd Symphony)

One of Copland’s most enduringly modern scores, it’s tangle rhythmic language makes the Rite of Spring look like Three Blind Mice.

Prokofiev – Symphony No. 2

After his charming but mild-mannered Classical Symphony, Prokofiev’s Second Symphony showed the world the insanity and mayhem boiling up inside him. It’s still a piece that sounds shocking to many listeners and seems to baffle many critics, who seem to dismiss it as simply ‘noisy.’ I listen to this piece in a state of shock and awe – it just seems to be exploding with energy and invention. A work of incredible genius and originality.

Beethoven Symphony No. 2
Many historians think of Beethoven’s 3^rd Symphony as his great leap into modernity, but his Second is one of his wildest and most adventurous works, crowned by what must be his most outrageous and exciting Finale.

 

Three unrelated symphonies I couldn’t leave off this list.

Because not everything in life fits into a category

Walter Piston – Symphony No. 2
A very fine candidate for “the Great American Symphony” and it certainly has the most beautiful slow movement of any American symphony.

Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 2

The only think Bruckner 2 has going against it is that he went on to write so many great symphonies after it. Also, the Third, which is, in my opinion, not quite as good, exists in so many muddled versions and editions that most folks assume the Second must also be a bit of a quagmire. It’s not, and it’s a piece that can be played very successfully by small and medium-sized orchestras.

Albéric Magnard – Symphony No. 2

Let’s face it, you can’t leave a man who died taking on the German army single handed off any list. All four of his symphonies are well worth listening to.

And:

Christopher Rouse – Symphony No. 2. 

We lost Chris, who was at the time of his death our greatest living American Composer, this week. His Sixth Symphony awaits its premiere, but it’s not at all unlikely that history will come to view him as the greatest symphonist America has produced. His Second was the first of his symphonies I heard.

The Three Greatest Second Symphonies

Any of these three works could legitimately lay claim to the throne of “Greatest Second Symphony” depending on your criteria.

The most perfect
Brahms – Symphony No. 2

Brahms 2 is a perfect piece. Richly imagined, melodically super-abundant, intellectually rigorous, emotionally wide-ranging. Of all the second symphonies ever written, this is the one in which form and material are most perfectly aligned

 

The most emotional
Mahler- Symphony No. 2

I can’t think of any piece of music in any genre as moving, as emotional, as spiritual as Mahler 2. It’s not Mahler’s most perfect work, not his most personal work, not his most innovative work, but it is the one which brings performers and listners together in a kind of ecstatic spiritual union unlike any piece of music I’ve ever encountered.

 

The richest, the deepest and the most human
Schumann – Symphony No. 2

Longtime Vftp readers won’t be surprised to see this piece here. Given that most symphonies are ‘absolute music’ written in a purely musical form, it’s often hard to safely describe what they are about. For a variety of reasons, it’s not hard to see that Schumann 2 is a piece about pain, love and music, and I can’t think of any work of art which explores these aspects of the human experience so profoundly. As a piece of musical craft, this is a work like no other – Schumann’s working of his material is so lucid, so imaginative and so deep that even after 25 years conducting it and studying it, I feel like I could spend months on just really understanding the first 30 bars.

On any given day, I would happily make the case for any of these three works as the greatest of all second symphonies, but since my beloved Bobby Schumann is the composer who seems most underrated of all, it only seems fair that I take every chance to champion his as the greatest.

On the other hand, it’s not actually his second symphony, so let’s give the prize to Mahler this year. Come to MahlerFest XXXIII and see what you think!

 

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Let me know your thoughts. Perhaps you’ll inspire me to have…. second thoughts.