This slowly developing cycle of the Schuman symphonies has been
one of the undoubted highlights of the Naxos American Classics
series. Initiated by the Delos label
back in the early 1990s (following on from their earlier successful traversals
of the Hanson and Diamond Symphonies using the same performers) it is greatly
to the credit of Naxos that they took up the baton when Delos faltered. It is
to be hoped that they will be able to record the first two symphonies in the
cycle - Schuman withdrew them - and then we will be able to consider them as
an organic whole. Certainly when the performances are as authoritative and assured
as here the listener is able to be drawn powerfully into Schuman’s sound-world.
The disc opens with the craggy and austere
Symphony No.6 of 1948
. Excellent
liner-notes written by Joseph W Polisi - one of Schuman’s successors as
president of The Juilliard School and author of an extended biography of the
composer - underline the fact that for contemporary audiences this was not an
easy listen. Written in one continuous 29 minute movement (although this does
in turn divide into six distinct sections) this is absolute music. There seems
to be no underlying programme or message. What I particularly enjoy - and am
recognising to be a Schuman compositional fingerprint - is the way he juxtaposes
instrumental groups against each other in both timbral, rhythmic and tonal opposition.
It has the musical effect of tectonic plates grinding over and against each other.
I also like the way Schuman splinters and fragments rhythms. He avoids syncopation
in a jazz-influenced way but instead throws accents and rhythmic groups across
and around barlines in a way that disrupts the predictability of the basic pulse.
The absolute prerequisite for this to work well is the security of the playing.
The Seattle Orchestra has Schuman’s style thoroughly absorbed now. The
strings are able to produce the cold intensity of the music perfectly. Likewise
the low brass in particular are adept at voicing the chorale-like passages he
often writes to perfection. Schwarz was a fine trumpeter himself so no surprise
he takes particular delight in the (literally) brilliant brass writing. There
is an aggressive and violent nature to this music that is disturbing yet compelling
- the offsetting of opposing forces is an abiding impression. One group or motif
gains temporary ascendancy but is then overwhelmed by a succeeding group. I particularly
like the passage around 12:20 where complex contrapuntal lines in the strings
and woodwind like some out of kilter poly-rhythmic fugue vie for dominance until
the slowest moving violin chorale achieves some kind of unquiet peace. The jagged
violence of the writing from 20:00 on is viscerally exciting with a side-drummer
hurling rimshots at the massed orchestra ranged against him - listen for some
brilliant tuba writing that is as muscular as it is unexpected. What was greeted
in 1949 with incomprehension and positive disdain now emerges as one of the major
20
th Century American Symphonies. My comparative version here is from
the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra on Koch coupled with Roy Harris’
7th Symphony. This
is a good version too although not nearly so well recorded and the New Zealand
strings do not achieve the sub-zero chill I allude to above. Generally the complex
syncopation which dominates the faster passages of the score does not sound quite
as secure in New Zealand as in Seattle. Interestingly the Kiwi side-drummer does
not use rim-shots as in Seattle but not having access to a score I have no idea
who is following the score more closely - all I would say is the rim-shots are
more dramatic!
The piece that follows -
Prayer in Time of War - was quite unknown to
me. At fifteen minutes it is a substantial work in its own right. Although it
emerges and ultimately ends in quiet and slow reflection the piece moves through
a wide range of emotion. Polisi explains that it was written as the composer’s
response to being rejected when he tried to enlist once America entered World
War II in 1941 and he neatly characterises the work as encapsulating moods ranging
from sombre, heroic, soulful yet ultimately solemn. The mournful lamenting horn-call
over a gently pulsing string pedal early in the work is profoundly beautiful
and superbly played here. Likewise the oboe solo which answers it [track 2 3:20
and following]. Again the brilliant brass writing is superbly executed - listen
to how perfectly the trombones and horns voice their chords at 6:30. Although
I have no other versions to compare this against I find it hard to believe it
could find a finer exponent than here - this is a major work that transcends
any sense of the occasional - a prayer for all times and all wars.
The disc is completed by Schuman’s best known and most performed work -
the
New England Triptych. I like Schuman’s terse comment quoted
here, “I didn’t write the piece to make it a success, it just happened
to turn out to be successful”. Naxos already have one rather fine version
of this in their locker - as a coupling to the superb violin concerto performed
by José Serebrier and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra on Naxos 8.559083
(see
review)
- but it is such a fun work, apologies to Mr Schuman if I like it
more
than
I’m
meant to! What is so interesting coming to this work after the seriousness of
the two earlier ones is just how consistently Schuman applied his compositional
principles across the broad spectrum of works he produced. So we hear again the
juxtaposition of material and instrumental groups, the writing for instrumental “choirs” and
the sense of music written in opposition to itself. The more I hear Schuman the
more I like it and perhaps he wasn’t being curmudgeonly after all in the
above quote! This is a beautifully performed version, perhaps not my absolute
favourite - I rather liked the wildness of Sedares with the Phoenix Symphony
Orchestra on Koch - but very fine indeed in its own terms.
A quick word about the engineering; remember that there is an eighteen year span
in the recording between the Symphony and the Triptych. Also worth noting that
Delos was in 1990 regarded as an absolute premium label producing some of the
best engineered digital recordings. Hats off to Naxos then for producing recordings
every bit the equal of the earlier tracks. This is one of the finest sounding
Naxos discs of recent years doing the music and the performers full justice.
There is an extraordinary continuity too in the actual sound the orchestra produces
- presumably there must have been quite a change in personnel over those eighteen
years but the sound of the Seattle orchestra has remained remarkably consistent.
Much credit for this must reside too with Gerard Schwarz whose vision of Schuman
(and many other American composers too) is a model of care, musicality and passion.
As already mentioned Joseph Polisi’s notes are a delight to read - full
of musical detail balanced with personal insight - it makes me want to read his
recent biography on the composer. Given the range of styles presented here I
would say that this could act as a good entry point into the sound-world of William
Schuman - hugely rewarding music performed with missionary zeal in demonstration
quality sound.
Nick Barnard
see also review by Rob Barnett
William Schuman review
index
Seattle Symphony/Gerard Schwarz 
