Samuel ADLER (b.1928)
Symphony No. 6 [26:14]
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra [24:02]
Drifting on Winds and Currents [8:47]
Maximilian Hornung (cello)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra/José Serebrier
rec. Royal Scottish National Orchestra Centre, Glasgow, 17-20 November 2015
LINN CKD545 [59:00]
The symphony has seen a pretty dramatic revival in its fortunes
during the last half century. Beyond the 296 (and counting) symphonies by
Leif Segerstam, who stands not only as today’s most prolific symphonist
but almost certainly the most prolific of all time, it seems that symphonies
are now being produced with remarkable fecundity. But numerical quantity is
no measure of musical quality, and with so few of Segerstam’s symphonies
currently available on CD, few of us have any way of knowing how good (or
otherwise) they are. On the other hand, the sixth symphony of Samuel Adler,
performed and recorded here for the first time, is clearly a work of considerable
and sustained musical worth.
An introductory note by Robert Beaser (a friend of the composer who attended
the recording sessions at the RSNO’s Glasgow home) accuses critics of
lumping American music into “a series of isms” and, since Samuel
Adler does not fall into any one of these, overlooking his work. I’m
a critic and I have to confess to never once having thought of American music
as a series of isms; more than that I have a long and enduring admiration
for the craftsmanship of Adler’s music. And while it would be churlish
to point out that Adler is, by birth, German (he emigrated to the USA in 1939
at the age of 11), he certainly stands at the forefront of that group of composers
(not restricted to the USA) who work within established classical models.
His output includes four oratorios, five operas, ten string quartets, fourteen
concertos for various solo instruments and six symphonies.
Completed in 1985 Adler’s Sixth Symphony is a taut and closely argued
three-movement work lasting some 25 minutes and scored for a conventional
symphony orchestra. The work is primarily involved in energy, and Adler in
his own note suggests it was inspired “by the idea of feeling the energy
of our time”. It certainly gets a hugely energetic performance from
the Royal Scottish National Orchestra here, who press purposefully through
its virtuoso demands helmed with unerringly sharp focus by José Serebrier.
It’s a splendid orchestral tour de force which showcases every section
of a very fine orchestra indeed in a vivid recording.
All is not remorseless energy and high-octane tension on the disc, however,
and the Cello Concerto, dating from 1995, certainly opens on a note of tranquil
reflection. It continues to unfold in a gracefully spacious manner, ratcheting
up tension in small stages and often using the solo instrument to add a layer
of calm introspection to proceedings. Maximilian Hornung understands this
music and captures the frequent and often disarming changes of moods. Adler
writes that “a concerto to me is a dialogue between soloist and orchestra”,
and he is as good as his word here in a work where the conversational interplay
is very much to the fore. The third of the four movements (labelled in Adler’s
characteristically fulsome English-language movement titles “Slowly
and declamatory, feeling very free”) takes the form of an accompanied
cadenza in which the solo cello is joined by a variety of instruments which
mirror the various colours the soloist creates. It is this highly intelligent
use of orchestral colour which is perhaps Adler’s most distinctive quality.
That aspect of his writing is well displayed in the concluding item on the
disc, a nine-minute orchestral piece carrying a title derived from the poetry
of Louise Glück. Written in memory of the wife of one of the patrons of the
Las Vegas Symphony Orchestra, who gave the first performance in 2010, Drifting
on Winds and Currents is intellectually impressive but aesthetically
unmemorable. This is something which does, it has to be said, inform much
of Adler’s writing, and perhaps it is this, rather than any absence
of “ism”, which accounts for the lack of enthusiasm so many critics
show for his music.
Marc Rochester
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