{"id":6306,"date":"2014-08-12T19:10:45","date_gmt":"2014-08-12T18:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/?p=6306"},"modified":"2014-08-12T19:20:44","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T18:20:44","slug":"cd-review-classical-source-on-philip-sawyers-orchestral-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2014\/08\/12\/cd-review-classical-source-on-philip-sawyers-orchestral-music\/","title":{"rendered":"CD Review- Classical Source on Philip Sawyers, Orchestral Music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new review from Robert Matthew-Walker at Classical Source. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.classicalsource.com\/db_control\/db_cd_review.php?id=12181\" target=\"_blank\">Read the whole thing here<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"woocommerce \"><ul class=\"products columns-4\">\n<li class=\"product type-product post-6300 status-publish first instock product_cat-cds product_tag-nimbus-records product_tag-orchestra-of-the-swan-2 product_tag-philip-sawyers has-post-thumbnail shipping-taxable purchasable product-type-simple\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/product\/philip-sawyers-symphony-no-2-cello-concerto-concertante-for-violin-piano-and-strings\/\" class=\"woocommerce-LoopProduct-link woocommerce-loop-product__link\"><span class=\"et_shop_image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Sawyers-CD-cover-300x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-woocommerce_thumbnail size-woocommerce_thumbnail\" alt=\"Philip Sawyers- Symphony no. 2, Cello Concerto, Concertante for Violin, Piano and Strings\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Sawyers-CD-cover-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Sawyers-CD-cover-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><span class=\"et_overlay\"><\/span><\/span><h2 class=\"woocommerce-loop-product__title\">Philip Sawyers- Symphony no. 2, Cello Concerto, Concertante for Violin, Piano and Strings<\/h2>\n\t<span class=\"price\"><span class=\"woocommerce-Price-amount amount\"><bdi><span class=\"woocommerce-Price-currencySymbol\">&pound;<\/span>12.00<\/bdi><\/span><\/span>\n<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A short sample follows<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">with regard to Sawyers\u2019s compositions: they speak naturally, seriously, but by no means doggedly; his music is emotionally direct and always involving the intelligent listener. This is the kind of music for which many people have been secretly hoping for years. The First Symphony (commissioned by the Grand Rapids Symphony for its 75th-anniversary) is a superb work, in four movements, wonderfully orchestrated, sensitive, powerful and memorable. We\u2019ll come to the Second Symphony in a moment, but on this current disc I began with the Concertante (2006), the shortest work here at eleven minutes and calling for the fewest number of players. It is a magnificent composition, in the line of a single-movement three-sectioned combination of emotional power and relaxation, drama and contemplation, superbly expressed within an underlying and unifying pulse. The music is immediately intriguing and concerned entirely with development. The preparation for the central slower section is wonderfully achieved, growing quietly (and wholly organically) from the previous concluding bars, it builds to a genuine and powerful climax before morphing into the faster third section \u2013 a true \u2018coming together\u2019 of the material.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Not the least important aspect of this release is the excellent booklet note by Kenneth Woods, who writes apropos of this work: \u201c[it is]a wonderful example of a work written somewhat \u2018to order\u2019 which still manages to encapsulate all that is so compelling and rewarding about his music &#8230; I love the way in which a work that could have ended up \u2018modest\u2019 in all the wrong ways packs such a powerful emotional punch.\u201d Having been deeply impressed with Sawyers\u2019s First Symphony, I ought not to have been surprised by the sheer fearlessness and directness of expression of the Second (2008), the work of a musician who is communicative, intelligent and unfailingly musical at all times within a very wide expressive range. There are no miscalculations in this work: it is a genuine Symphony, such as Sibelius, Nielsen, Schoenberg and Shostakovich would instantly have recognised, and in no sense is it \u2018old-fashioned\u2019 \u2013 the concept of \u2018fashion\u2019 in music is as unacceptable to Sawyers as it was to those earlier masters. Power, strength and expressive range are here a-plenty, and the continuous flow of the music is gripping, travelling this way and that, but at all times utterly well-paced. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect is that it is written for exactly the same-sized orchestra that Beethoven calls for in his Seventh Symphony, eminently playable, lying under the fingers and totally rewarding.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Sawyers\u2019s Cello Concerto (2010) was written for Maja Bogdanovic, and is also eminently serious and immensely impressive. From the first bars, the listener\u2019s attention is gripped as one follows the argument, growing from the beautiful initial theme; the second movement is further proof of this composer\u2019s quality \u2013 it is contemplative, but possessing a genuine sense of inner momentum: this is not one idea following another, but revealing a flow such as one finds in the slow movements of Brahms\u2019s larger structures. It leads to a central faster section full of \u201canger and tension\u201d (as Woods well says) but handled with complete assurance as the music returns to the mood of the opening, subsumed and at peace. The somewhat unpredictable finale sheds fresh light on this composer\u2019s outlook: \u201cI\u2019ve come to absolutely love it\u201d, says Woods \u2013 and one hopes that many more will share the experience.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">The performances are totally committed and the recording quality is really fine. This is the kind of music that gives one hope for the future of our art.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2014\/08\/12\/cd-review-classical-source-on-philip-sawyers-orchestral-music\/\" send=\"false\" layout=\"box_count\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"true\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new review from Robert Matthew-Walker at Classical Source. Read the whole thing here &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; A short sample follows with regard to Sawyers\u2019s compositions: they speak naturally, seriously, but by no means doggedly; his music is emotionally direct and always involving the intelligent listener. This is the kind of music for which many [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsandreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6306"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6315,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6306\/revisions\/6315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}