MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


Buy through MusicWeb £14.50/15.00/15.80 postage paid.
You may prefer to pay by Sterling cheque or Euro notes to avoid PayPal. Contact for details

Musicweb Purchase button

Joaquim HOMS (1906–2003)
Orchestral Music Volume 2
Simfonia breu (1972)a [12:15]
Invenció (1964)b [9:58]
Derivacions (1990)c [9:40]
Díptic (1973)d [19:03]
Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya; Eiji Ouea, Antoni Ros Marbàb, Franz-Paul Deckerc, Sian Edwardsd
rec. (live) L’Auditori, Barcelona, February 2004 (Simfonia breu), January 2005 (Invenciò), February 2002 (Derivacions) and January 2006 (Díptic)
COLUMNA MUSICA 1CM0168 [52:33]





Volume 1 (1CM0169) of this Columna Musica series was reviewed here some time ago. That consisted mostly of orchestral versions of works for piano; the exception was the impressive Biofonia (1982). Volume 2 on the other hand offers purely orchestral works composed between 1964 and 1990:. the years of Homs’ full maturity.

The earliest work here is Invenció completed in 1964, by which time Homs had fully mastered his own personal approach to twelve-tone writing. The title aptly suggests an orchestral study. A slow, dark-hued, rather ominous introduction leads into the main section of the work, alternating quickly changing moods with shortened re-statements of the introduction. This concise work is packed with invention, and brilliantly demonstrates Homs’ orchestral mastery.

The somewhat later Simfonia breu ("Short Symphony") is not unlike Invenció. Invenció might – to a certain extent – be considered a try-out for the symphony. The Symphony opens with an arresting, rather dissonant gesture followed by some brief melodic fragments that spell out the basic material which is to be more fully developed. The music unfolds in a quick succession of highly contrasted textures, with considerable tension and some highly charged, explosive episodes of great strength. The generally short melodic fragments eventually coalesce in a grand climax played by the entire string section; and, after a silent bar, the tension is finally released in the beautiful, ethereal coda. As in much of Homs’ mature works, the music is rather austere, often rather dissonant, but never at the expense of strong expression. Simfonia breu is a concise, compact work packed with incidents and arresting orchestral textures, sometimes bringing Roberto Gerhard’s mature music to mind.

Homs composed several works in the form of diptychs. Just think of Díptic I for harpsichord or piano (1975) and Díptic (for Frederic Mompou) also for piano. Then there’s Dos Soliloquis (1973), another diptych in all but name, that also exists in different instrumental versions, including one for orchestra recorded in Volume 1. Finally we come to the Díptic per orquestra recorded here. The first panel Boires ("Mists") is a beautifully impressionistic tone poem (one may think of Debussy’s Nuages, at least superficially), and clearly a rarity in Homs’ output. The second panel Gradacions stands in full contrast to its predecessor. The music now moves at greater speed, almost capriciously so, although it is tightly knit in spite of the apparent improvisatory character of much of the music. This is clearly a substantial work.

Derivacions, one of his last orchestral scores, is based on the last movement of Nou apunts ("Nine Sketches"), a piano suite composed in 1925. As in the other panels of his final orchestral triptych - although each work may be played separately - Homs deals with various aspects of memory, artistic and personal. He briefly quotes from several of his earlier works. I hasten to say that one need not to know these early works to appreciate the music; it speaks for itself. What comes clearly through, is that Homs is in full command of his aims and means which results in a greater freedom in handling of his twelve-tone technique and in some greater expressive warmth. In this, Homs’ mature orchestral works are often quite close to those of his near-contemporary Dallapiccola, in that the music is considerably warmer and strongly expressive while remaining as strictly organised as before.

These excellent, strongly committed performances were recorded live between 2002 and 2006, with some not-too-obtrusive audience noises. The sound is quite fine.

With the recent Naxos release that I reviewed recently (Naxos 8.570306), Volume 1 is to my mind the best possible introduction to Homs’ highly personal sound-world, in that the four works span some forty years of his busy composing life. Volume 2 offers four substantial works from the composer’s mature years and these clearly demonstrate that Homs was an important and entirely personal composer. I hope that Volume 3 will soon follow, for there are still a few substantial works that await recording, such as Homenatge a Webern and Memoràlia. At the risk of repeating myself, I will say (again!) that Homs’ music is definitely too good to be ignored.

Hubert Culot

 


 

 

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.