![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.eso.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Philip-Sawyers-with-violin-e1541533376270.jpg\")
Philip Sawyers (1951- ) is patently a composer\u00a0of no small gifts. His Symphony 3 (2015)\u00a0begins in a ruminative mood, its lengthy opening\u00a0theme well developed in fluent counterpoint.\u00a0A double-dotted figure gives relief, followed\u00a0by an almost capricious woodwind\u00a0theme. Sawyers develops his material with\u00a0unusual skill and purpose, working it up to the\u00a0utmost rhetorical power. His processes are\u00a0always audible, reminding me of the times\u00a0when modern music still made sense to an\u00a0attentive listener. A Brucknerian theme with\u00a0the leap of an octave opens up II. The oboe\u00a0takes a phrase from this for further elaboration.\u00a0A thoughtful woodwind theme gets varied,\u00a0its melodic strands playing out into an agitated\u00a0passage. The end of the movement has a\u00a0feeling of reconciliation worthy of the Mahler\u00a010th.<\/p>\n
You could describe the scherzo as the calm between two storms. Most of it could be a\u00a0modernized style galant. Its ambiguity\u00a0between pulses of two and three is done with\u00a0no end of charm. There\u2019s a touch of self-parody\u00a0before the end when the lower brass tries to\u00a0navigate the charming music. IV follows attacca.\u00a0Its theme is 12-tone, but with perceptible\u00a0tonal loyalties. The excellent notes by both the\u00a0composer and conductor elaborate on how\u00a0Sawyers bridges this gap. A fugal development\u00a0leads to optimistically ascending chord progressions.\u00a0It\u2019s great to hear harmony that actually\u00a0moves a piece along, instead of what\u00a0sounds like random pitches under a random\u00a0string of notes posing as a theme. Near the end\u00a0a chorale adds an upbeat climax, the symphony\u00a0ending on a resonant G natural. The\u00a0orchestration of the music is superb. Its\u00a0inevitability makes me guess that Sawyers\u00a0simultaneously conceives of line and color.\u00a0Terrific music like this renews my faith in the\u00a0symphony as a genre<\/p>\n