This review is a footnote
to my earlier
review of an all-Posman release
(Cyprès CYP 4616) available here
some time ago. The present release is
published by De Rode Pomp, a concert
organisation in Gent of which Lucien
Posman is a director and that, besides
setting-up interesting recitals often
including rarely heard and contemporary
works, either by Belgian or foreign
composers, has also released several
discs.
William Blake’s verse
holds something of an obsession for
Lucien Posman who has set all but one
of Blake’s Songs of Experience
and many other words by him. There are
at present about twelve Blake settings
for various vocal and instrumental combinations
: four separate settings of Songs
of Experience (voice and piano [1986
and 1988], voice, clarinet/oboe and
piano [1988] and mixed chorus [1996],
the latter available on Cyprès
CYP 4616) and eight other Blake settings,
such as the Christmas cantata Welcome
Stranger to this Place (1999),
The Book of Los (2000,
soprano, chorus, flute and piano, also
on Cyprès CYP 4616), Wheel
within Wheel (1987, soprano,
trombone and ensemble), The Book
of Thel (2001, mezzo-soprano
and ensemble) and The Mental Traveller
(2002, soprano and recorder, recently
arranged for small ensemble). The present
release includes two of these cycles
: Songs of Experience
(1988, voice and piano) and Five
Songs of Experience (1988, voice,
oboe/clarinet and piano). Songs
of Experience opens boldly with
a declamatory setting of Introduction
("Hear the voice of the
Bard!) to which Earth’s Answer
offers a more reflective and more questing
response, ending however with a question
mark. The Fly is a subdued setting
reflecting on the fragility of life.
The grim tale of Nurse’s Song
is finally offset by Ah! Sun-flower
that ends the cycle. Five Songs
of Experience is for voice,
oboe or clarinet and piano. It opens
with A Little Boy Lost sung unaccompanied
at first before the clarinet joins in
a dialogue with the voice to which the
piano adds heavy chords. My Pretty
Rose Tree is set as a slightly ironic
serenade while The Lilly functions
as a short, whimsical interlude. The
Garden of Love depicts a desolate
landscape by way of a slightly disjointed
vocal part and A Little Girl Lost
ends the cycle, again in a rather ironic
mood.
Although his music
is generally quite serious, even if
his output does actually include some
lighter pieces with witty titles, Posman
does not take himself all too seriously
and allows some touch of humour either
in his music or in the titles of his
pieces. His string quartet O!
Zon, completed in 1997, is one
such work. In fact, the title ambiguously
suggests some sort of hymn to the Sun,
for O! Zon may be read as the
equivalent of Oh! Sun (but it
may also be read as the Dutch for ‘ozone’).
The music, however, is not only quite
serious, but also – and most importantly,
I think – quite beautiful. The piece
in one single movement falling into
several linked sections roughly laid-out
in arch-form opens mysteriously (with
trills and glissandi) and then
moves forward into a livelier section
still characterised by trills and punctuated
by pizzicati. The music seamlessly
unfolds towards the climax of the piece
that dissolves into a slower, song-like
section in which Posman alludes to one
of his Blake settings (The Vagabond)
before reverting to the opening mood.
Symfonie één
(i.e. simply ‘Symphony One’) is a compact
work also in a fairly straightforward
arch-form, which may be listened to
as a short symphony held together by
some thematic material or as a tone
poem of some sort. The energetic opening
section moves along boldly, underpinned
by the muffled beating of the bass drum
which will incidentally punctuate the
music throughout the whole piece. It
leads into a short scherzo-like section
that in turn leads into the slow, nocturnal
section with a prominent part for whistler
(a rather surprising, unexpected touch,
this, but – believe me – it works marvellously).
This section has a more animated central
section before returning to the nocturnal
mood of its opening. A varied restatement
of the opening section abruptly bursts
in, briefly relaxes in a short meditative
passage before rushing the music to
a brightly assertive ending. I have
suggested that Symfonie één
might also be heard as a tone poem;
for, while listening to this colourful
piece, I could not help but imagine
the composer strolling through the streets
of Gent and reflecting both on the City’s
past (the nostalgic slow section) and
present (the bustling opening and closing
sections as well as the short Scherzo).
Well, yes, I may be wrong anyway, and
this is actually of little importance.
The important thing is that Posman’s
symphony is a jolly good piece of music
that I enjoyed enormously.
Performances and recording
are generally good, without being outstanding.
The English pronunciation of the Russian
singers is sometimes a bit unidiomatic,
without being damagingly so. The piece
for string quartet and the symphony
get excellent readings. However, as
a whole, this release offers a well-planned
and enjoyable composer’s portrait. Well
worth investigating.
Hubert Culot
St. Petersburg State Academic Capella Symphony
Orchestrad; Edward Serovd
