I am glad to return to the music of Salvador Brotons after the
elapse of eight years wince I
reviewed a disc of his concertos in 2005. This
Barcelona-born composer counts Antoni Ros-Marba (conducting) and Xavier
Montsalvatge (composition) among his teachers. The liner-note by Brotons
himself tells us that he has written more than 125 works. His list of music
director appointments includes Vancouver, Valles and Balearic Islands while
his guest conducting roster is wide indeed and international.
There are at least five symphonies of which the Fifth,
Mundus
Noster was written in 2010. The first of the four movements
Power,
Poverty, Ambition immediately declares Brotons a symphonist with its
clarity of expression both vertically and horizontally and its melodious
brilliance. Think in terms of the Malcolm Arnold of the symphonies with
enriching tributaries from Lambert, the dynamic virility of William Schuman
and a slightly acetic edge from Alban Berg.
Meditation - Hypocrisy
follows. How can one portray such things through music? Best to take the
music at its heard value and not agonise over the titles. This music is
subdued, fantastic, soloistic and dazzling cleanly expressed. The third
movement is
Meditation 2 - Violence. It recalls Panufnik in its quiet
determined progress with an at first sweetly shaped solo violin theme
unfolding at a leisurely pace over a trembling bed of strings. It's a very
touching effect with an irresistible melancholia at play as there is in
Lambert's
Music for Orchestra. I mentioned Panufnik but
Brotons’ emotional plot progresses at a faster pace than those adopted
by the Polish-English composer. True to the parallel the quiet
violins’ dominated episode is succeeded by a percussion-heavy 'shock
assault'. This gives way to a sort of elegiac pavane for the brass (5.06)
which surrenders to a final percussion expostulation. The last movement is
titled
Depressive Lament, Hope, Elevation and Excelling. Gaunt brass
contrast with violins describing curves of swaying tonality. This is the
aural equivalent of an image swaying in and out of focus. I heard a similar
effect recently in the solo line in the Swedish composer Tobias
Broström’s Trumpet Concerto (Håkan Hardenberger, BBCNoW,
Cardiff, Oct 2013). This episode paves the path for a very touching theme
for the strings. This inhabits a melodic world similar to the Mahler
Adagietto and Arnold's own Fifth Symphony. It's a quality tune most
beautifully spun and orchestrated. The effect is seraphic indeed, complete
with delicate harp underpinning. The gleaming world reminded me also of
Silvestrov’s Symphony No. 5 though presented without such dense
orchestrational extravagance. The final pages include gruff reminders of the
more negative moods referenced in the earlier movements as if to remind the
listener that victory is not a facile win. It is fascinating again to
discover a composer who can express himself freshly through a familiar idiom
and form.
The three movement and twenty minute Oboe Concerto is also in an
easily assimilable idiom with Arnold and Lambert again being style
parallels. I would also mention the Fauré of the
Pavane and of
Pelléas et Mélisande. There’s a slow-pulsed
hypnotic and also terpsichorean overture most tenderly shaped by soloist
Javier Arnal Gonzalez. Then comes a dreamy
Berceuse - Fauré to
the fore - and a flightily balletic and sparky
Tarantella.
Like the other pieces here the Four Pieces for String Orchestra date
from 2010 and play for 16 minutes. The
Elegy is suffused with gloom
and this allows the harmony to drift into dissonance. At times it recall
Tod und Verklärung. The
Humoresque is faintly
Bartókian - dissonant and spiky. The
Nocturne, by contrast, is
more melodic, a companion to the equally mellifluous theme in the finale of
Brotons’ Fifth Symphony. The final
Dance exudes
desperation and athleticism like similar writing in the Waxman and Herrmann
serenades for string orchestra.
The playing of the Orquestra Simfonica de Baleares Ciutat de Palma
is admirable - their principal conductor is Brotons so they will know each
other very well.
More Brotons would be welcome. Meantime do not allow this Naxos CD
to disappear into the label’s hugely rewarding and massive schedule.
It is easy for releases such as this to sink from view. Amid a continual
landslide of CDs it deserves your attention and will reward you strongly.
What do the other Brotons symphonies and concertos sound like? I’d
like to know.
Rob Barnett
