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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 in 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 
