{"id":9123,"date":"2020-08-14T11:48:02","date_gmt":"2020-08-14T10:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/?p=9123"},"modified":"2020-08-14T11:48:02","modified_gmt":"2020-08-14T10:48:02","slug":"cd-review-gramophone-magazine-on-philip-sawyers-symphony-no-4-and-hommage-to-kandinsky-bbc-national-orchestra-of-wales-nimbus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2020\/08\/14\/cd-review-gramophone-magazine-on-philip-sawyers-symphony-no-4-and-hommage-to-kandinsky-bbc-national-orchestra-of-wales-nimbus\/","title":{"rendered":"CD Review &#8211; Gramophone Magazine on Philip Sawyers Symphony No. 4 and Hommage to Kandinsky, BBC National Orchestra of Wales (NIMBUS)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Gramophone-logo.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-9124\" src=\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Gramophone-logo-744x108.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"744\" height=\"108\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Gramophone-logo-744x108.png 744w, https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Gramophone-logo-420x61.png 420w, https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Gramophone-logo-768x111.png 768w, https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Gramophone-logo-600x87.png 600w, https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Gramophone-logo.png 952w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 744px) 100vw, 744px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sawyers Symphony No 4. Hommage to Kandinsky BBC National Orchestra of Wales \/ Kenneth Woods Nimbus Alliance F NI6405 (65\u2019 \u2022 DDD)<\/p>\n<div class=\"woocommerce \"><ul class=\"products columns-4\">\n<li class=\"product type-product post-9007 status-publish first instock product_cat-cds has-post-thumbnail shipping-taxable purchasable product-type-simple\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/product\/philip-sawyers-symphony-no-4-hommage-to-kandinsky-nimbus\/\" class=\"woocommerce-LoopProduct-link woocommerce-loop-product__link\"><span class=\"et_shop_image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/NI6405_cover-web-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-woocommerce_thumbnail size-woocommerce_thumbnail\" alt=\"Philip Sawyers - Symphony No. 4, Hommage to Kandinsky (NIMBUS)\" \/><span class=\"et_overlay\"><\/span><\/span><h2 class=\"woocommerce-loop-product__title\">Philip Sawyers &#8211; Symphony No. 4, Hommage to Kandinsky (NIMBUS)<\/h2><div class=\"star-rating\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Rated 5.00 out of 5\"><span style=\"width:100%\">Rated <strong class=\"rating\">5.00<\/strong> out of 5<\/span><\/div>\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>Like all great symphonists, Philip Sawyers approaches symphonic form from a different direction in each work. Nos 1 (2004; 2\/11) and 3 (2015; 10\/17 and my selection for Critics\u2019 Choice that year) followed the four standard movements \u2013 though with vastly different expressive trajectories \u2013 while the Second was a shorter, compelling single-movement design (2008; 10\/14). The eagerly awaited Fourth (2018) is in three, structured not unlike Bruckner\u2019s Ninth (or even Harold Truscott\u2019s solitary Symphony): a highly dramatic opening Moderato in B flat followed by a fleet-footed Presto scherzo in F which reworks \u2013 even reinvents \u2013 material from the first span, and a sombre but ultimately luminous and serene concluding Adagio in D minor, again with thematic cross-connections to the preceding movements (and some other Sawyers scores). Just as vital to the musical and expressive flow, however, is his orchestration, beautifully realised here by the BBC NOW and Sawyers\u2019s champion, Kenneth Woods.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9030\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/composition-iv-kandinsky.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9030\" class=\"wp-image-9030\" src=\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/composition-iv-kandinsky-744x471.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"316\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/composition-iv-kandinsky-744x471.jpg 744w, https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/composition-iv-kandinsky-1200x759.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/composition-iv-kandinsky-420x266.jpg 420w, https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/composition-iv-kandinsky-768x486.jpg 768w, https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/composition-iv-kandinsky-1536x972.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/composition-iv-kandinsky-600x380.jpg 600w, https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/composition-iv-kandinsky.jpg 1650w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-9030\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kandinsky&#8217;s &#8220;Composition IV&#8221; first &#8216;heard&#8217; in bar 5 of the piece<\/p><\/div>\n<p>One of the works alluded to in the Symphony\u2019s finale is the symphonic poem Hommage to Kandinsky (2014), dedicated to David Lockington, who commissioned and recorded the First Symphony. Hommage to Kandinsky is a terrifically vivid and, again, brilliantly orchestrated score, a response to Sawyers\u2019s late-burgeoning appreciation of Kandinsky\u2019s paintings \u2013 some of which, of course, bear musical titles. While the focus is on Kandinsky\u2019s art as a whole, the composer acknowledges that the artist\u2019s Composition IV (1911) provided the initial impetus. The performance is again wonderfully realised, the orchestra relishing the many opportunities to shine. Praise, too, for the technical engineering by Simon Fox-G\u00e1l.<\/p>\n<p>Guy Rickards<\/p>\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\/2020\/08\/14\/cd-review-gramophone-magazine-on-philip-sawyers-symphony-no-4-and-hommage-to-kandinsky-bbc-national-orchestra-of-wales-nimbus\/\" send=\"false\" layout=\"box_count\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"true\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sawyers Symphony No 4. Hommage to Kandinsky BBC National Orchestra of Wales \/ Kenneth Woods Nimbus Alliance F NI6405 (65\u2019 \u2022 DDD) Like all great symphonists, Philip Sawyers approaches symphonic form from a different direction in each work. Nos 1 (2004; 2\/11) and 3 (2015; 10\/17 and my selection for Critics\u2019 Choice that year) followed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8992,"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":[661,1288,1289,1064,1186,1184,62,112],"class_list":["post-9123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsandreviews","tag-bbc-national-orchestra-of-wales","tag-bbc-now","tag-kandinsky","tag-mahler","tag-nimbus","tag-philip-sawyers","tag-symphony","tag-tone-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9123","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=9123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9125,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9123\/revisions\/9125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}