Peter Boyer (b. 1970)
Curtain Raiser (2017 arr. 2020)
Balance of Power (2019)
Fanfare for Tomorrow (2021)
Rolling River (Sketches on “Shenandoah”) (2014)
Elegy (2021)
In the Cause of the Free (2017)
Radiance (2021)
Fanfare, Hymn and Finale (2018, arr. 2020)
London Symphony Orchestra/Peter Boyer
rec. 2022, Henry Wood Hall, London, UK
NAXOS 8.559915 [59]
Peter Boyer’s First Symphony and other orchestral works have been recorded by Naxos, and favourably reviewed on MusicWeb International. I have not heard that disk, but the sentiment of the review expresses much of what I have experienced when I listened to this very enjoyable effort.
I think that for many people who do not listen to classical music (sadly, the great majority of the population) the only acquaintance with the playing of a large orchestra is watching a film. Long gone are the days when the BBC had a very popular classical music slot every week on BBC 1; I am thinking of Andre Previn’s Music Night. I would expect the same situation in the USA. So, consider an American composer whose works are popular – and Boyer’s works are performed repeatedly. We should not be surprised that he there are elements of film music in his orchestral style. For example, Ellis Island: The Dream of America has received over 250 performances and has been televised by the Public Broadcasting Service.
Boyer’s booklet notes say that in one of his commissioned works, Rolling River, the request was for something “sweeping and cinematic”. In nearly all of the music here, I detect a kind of “open-air” quality in the orchestral sound, which I also sometimes hear in Copland’s more popular works. There is an aspect of Boyer’s orchestration I have noted in the work of other popular American composers, and at least one British composer: a tendency to cap virtually every climax with cymbals, not to mention pianissimo cymbals almost ubiquitous elsewhere.
The surest ear-worm is the aforementioned Rolling River, an orchestral setting of the beautiful Shenandoah. Boyer’s woodwind orchestration nicely suggests a flowing, rippling river, whilst the infinitely memorable main tune is carried by an opening clarinet statement followed by the strings. I have played it repeatedly, and I love it!
The main work on the disc is Balance of Power, a commission to honour the 95th birthday of Dr. Henry Kissinger. The composer met Dr. and Mrs Kissinger to discuss the piece, and the request came through strongly: the work should not be “too abstract”, and possibly be a “humorous symphony”. Well, it is not a humorous symphony, but the dedicatee must have enjoyed it, because it is easy on the ear, colourfully orchestrated, and at times memorable. That is especially true in the first movement A Sense of History, where the main them is presented on the horn and taken up by the rest of the orchestra, with woodwind arabesques ornamenting it. I have hugely enjoyed it, and the same sentiment applies to the succeeding two movements.
The Cause of the Free is a commemoration of the Veterans Day and the signing of the armistice at the end of World War I. To quote Boyer’s booklet notes, “the work features a solo trumpet in a kind of soliloquy on the subject matter” and the “principal trumpet of the LSO played this solo with remarkable beauty and eloquence”. It is indeed a very nice short work, and so are all the other pieces here, although perhaps inevitably a sense of similarity creeps in if one listens to the disc a whole. Sampled selectively, the works are very enjoyable, and have given me much pleasure.
As might be expected, the LSO play splendidly, in what I suspect are performances sight-read for the first time. The recording is just fine. The booklet notes are interesting and informative.
Jim Westhead
