{"id":2789,"date":"2011-06-07T01:03:14","date_gmt":"2011-06-07T00:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/?p=2789"},"modified":"2011-06-07T21:22:10","modified_gmt":"2011-06-07T20:22:10","slug":"cd-review-bobby-and-hans-volume-1-the-classical-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2011\/06\/07\/cd-review-bobby-and-hans-volume-1-the-classical-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Featured CD Review- Bobby and Hans volume 1, The Classical Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Martin Anderson has a review of my upcoming release of Robert Schumann and Hans Gal’s Third Symphonies with Orchestra of the Swan at the website The Classical Review<\/a>. Also reviewed is TZ’s recording with Northern Sinfonia of Gal 1 and Schubert 6. At the time of publication, it was\/is The Classical Review’s “featured CD review.”<\/a><\/p>\n

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G\u00e1l\u2019s Third \u2013 not quite 35 minutes in length \u2013 dates from 1951-52, by which time he was a firm feature of Edinburgh\u2019s musical life. The first movement, almost a quarter-hour in length, opens with a pained\u00a0Andantino cantilena<\/em> on solo oboe which gradually expands over an increasingly emphatic bass line that never quite begins to tramp and which then gives ground to an\u00a0Allegro vigorous e passionato<\/em> which begins life as an intemperate waltz, the rest of the movement being constructed from the contrast, if not conflict, between these two elements. And just when you think the tension isn\u2019t quite enough to sustain the scale, G\u00e1l gives the argument a tightening twist to point to potential violence not far below the surface.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The nine-minute second movement is marked\u00a0Andante tranquillo e placido<\/em> and again opens with a solo oboe, slowly unravelling the slowest, calmest of dances in a kind of becalmed ecstasy.<\/strong> In the finale,\u00a0Allegro molto moderato<\/em>, the emphasis is on the last of those three words: the movement trips gently forward as a dance-rhapsody, very slowly building up a head of tension; the means, singing treble lines over steady basses, look back to Bruckner and, not quite so far, to Franz Schmidt, a colleague of G\u00e1l\u2019s in pre-Anschluss Vienna.<\/p>\n

Woods\u2019 Schumann Three seems to have taken a leaf from G\u00e1l\u2019s melodiousness. The brass writing \u2013 especially that for the horns \u2013 and the rhythms can point interpretations in a quasi-militaristic direction, so that the faster movements take on a kind of epic, crusading quality; Woods prefers to round down the corners and emphasise the lyrical writing. Whereas G\u00e1l looks back to Bruckner, the \u2018military\u2019 Schumann looks forward to him; Woods\u2019 …finds more poetry than usual, placing him more precisely in his own time: the links with Mendelssohn are thereby all the clearer<\/strong>. And all the more surprising, then, his lickety-split treatment of the last movement. I must admit that I prefer my Schumann harder-edged;\u00a0de gustibus<\/em>\u2026 A first recording shouldn\u2019t be a swan-song, but Orchestra of the Swan really does sing for Woods, in long, arching melodic lines<\/strong>, G\u00e1l\u2019s writing favouring the woodwinds especially.<\/p>\n

(Emphases added)<\/p>\n

Since the first couple of people who have seen the review have responded by asking what “de gustibus”<\/em> means, I offer the following from Wikipedia (I was lucky enough to see an appalling production of The Seagull in London a few years ago, so I looked it up then)<\/p>\n

De gustibus non est disputandum<\/strong><\/em> is a\u00a0Latin<\/a> maxim<\/a>. It means \u201cone must not dispute about tastes.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/sup>[2]<\/a><\/sup> The implication is that opinions about matters of taste are not objectively right or wrong, and hence that disagreements about matters of taste cannot be objectively resolved.<\/p>\n

This phrase is famously misquoted in Act I of\u00a0Anton Chekhov<\/a>‘s play\u00a0The Seagull<\/a><\/em>. The character Shamrayev conflates it with the phrase\u00a0de mortuis nil nisi bonum<\/a> (in the alternate form:\u00a0de mortuis, aut bene aut nihil<\/em> \u2013 “of the dead, either [speak] good or [say] nothing”), resulting in “de gustibus aut bene, aut nihil”, “Let nothing be said of taste but what is good”.[3]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Readers may be interested to know that Anderson has an exceptionally long acquaintance with the music of Hans Gal, and knew the great man personally.<\/p>\n

Though at the end of his long life (1809-1987) G\u00e1l may have feared his music had been superseded by fashion, he never had any doubts about its enduring quality and he would be pleased, but not surprised, that it is being discovered in a new age. I was fortunate enough to know him for his last few years. Shortly before his death, frustrated that no one more prominent was paying attention to him, I interviewed him, with the results you can read\u00a0here<\/a>. Of course, I wish I knew then what I knew now: my questions would have been at least a little better informed. Still, spilt milk and all that \u2013 the main thing is this further evidence of the G\u00e1l revival, with the complete piano music now available in two versions (Leon McCawley on Avie, Martin Jones on Nimbus), the four string quartets recorded by the Edinburgh Quartet on Meridian, and much more: go to\u00a0hansgal.com<\/a> and hit the \u2018Recordings\u2019 tab for more details.<\/p>\n

Finally, Anderson compares the sonic qualities of both discs<\/p>\n

Simon Fox\u2019s recordings seem geared to reflect the two different approaches: the orchestral textures chez Zehetmair are immediate
\nand sharply contrasted; Woods\u2019 are warm and rounded.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m happy, very happy, to be the warm and rounded guy.<\/p>\n