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One of two sons, Peter
Mennin was born Mennini. His elder brother
Louis retained the final i but his two
symphonies (1960 and 1963) have so far
failed to capture the imagination. Mennin’s
own nine symphonies have done relatively
well and all except the first two have
been recorded. His reputation rests
a step down from the hallowed symphonist
threesome: Schuman, Piston and Harris.
The Fifth Symphony starts with the same
sort of grittily determined tag that
launches Harris’s Fifth (also on First
Edition). The first of the four movements
is energetically propulsive. For contrast
the following Canto (a typical title
and mood for Mennin) proceeds in meditative
calm with violins sweetly singing and
surging - almost Finzian in their restful
confidence. At one time the Fifth was
the symphony was the one you were most
likely to encounter in the record shop.
It was on a Mercury LP (SRI 75020) in
a good if rather boxily recorded version
conducted by Howard Hanson. In fact
the taut heroic-tragic horn writing
ion the outer movements sometimes sounds
like a Hanson symphony! This Louisville
version certainly carries off the spatial
illusion of a hall but the treble does
sound constricted - tart rather than
sweet. The work was premiered by the
Dallas Symphony Orchestra conducted
by Walter Hendl. This recording conducted
by Whitney is in mono.
The Cello Concerto
is from six years after the Fifth. This
was recorded by Janos Starker and is
in stereo although oddly enough this
does not have quite the same openness
that you find in the 1960 recording
though both were made in the same hall,
the Macauley Theater. Mester had taken
over by 1969 when these sessions took
place. The work itself is more subdued
and ochre-toned, sombre although darkly
brilliant and tautly rhythmic in the
finale. How come we never hear the Violin
Concerto written in the same year as
the Fifth Symphony?
The Sixth Symphony
takes us back to mono but this time
was recorded at the Columbia Auditorium
in Louisville. It was commissioned by
the Louisville Orchestra. This time
the 30-year old composer starts the
three movement work with a dense and
profound Maestoso - slow rather
than rhythmically sprung. It is extremely
serious and grand in the impliedly catastrophic
idiom of Vaughan Williams’ Job,
Fourth and Sixth symphonies. The slow
movement is again a calm centre but
this time troubled again - in touch
with the doom limned in by the first
movement. Even the final Allegro
Vivace is irradiated with a darkling
tension. It crackles with an atmosphere
like that found in the finale of Walton’s
Second Symphony. This is an unremittingly
serious statement - exciting yes but
never relaxing - perhaps reflective
of the Cold War.
The flanking symphonies
(3 - Mitropoulos and 7 - Martinon) can
be heard in archive recordings on a
superb CRI disc - deleted but probably
trackable down on e-bay and Berkshire.
It’s a fine recording with the Piano
Concerto astonishingly played by John
Ogdon. That disc is well worth adding
to this one. They have a certain aesthetic
symmetry.
The excellent work-notes
are by Frank Oteri and the composer
and are wonderfully complemented by
a striking portrait of Mennin at the
piano and Whitney standing.
A superb addition to
the Mennin discography. Wonderful to
have the dedicatees’ version of the
Sixth and Starker’s pioneering recording.
In fact I think these are all first
recordings. The Fifth predates the Hanson-Mercury
version. It is however up against the
1990s recorded Albany CD (TROY 260)
of the same two symphonies coupled with
Moby Dick and the Fantasia.
Of course that is a fully digital version
in stereo while this is in mono so far
the symphonies are concerned. David
Alan Miller does not make life easy
for us. His recordings have a similar
tensile strength to those of Whitney.
However you would then have to forego
Starker’s version of the Cello Concerto
- to date the only version. Serious
Menninists must get this First Edition
recording. If you insist on the last
word in recorded sound then go for the
Albany.
Rob Barnett
Janos Starker, cello 
