MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... 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 for £11 postage paid World-Wide Try it on Sale or Return.

Musicweb Purchase button

 

 

Roberto GERHARD (1896-1970)
Symphony No. 4 New York (1967) [26:04]
Violin Concerto (1942-45) [34:03]*
Yfrah Neaman (violin)
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Colin Davis
rec. 1972, London. ADD
originally released in 1970 as Decca Argo ZRG701
LYRITA SRCD.274 [60.14]
Experience Classicsonline

 

The Catalan-born composer Roberto Gerhard studied piano with Granados, composition with Pedrell, then later became a pupil of Schoenberg. Following the Spanish Civil War he left Spain and moved to Paris, before permanently settling in Cambridge in 1939. Traces of Spanish rhythms and melodic fragments together with serial technique may seem an unlikely combination, yet that is indeed what we find in many of Gerhard’s major works. Amidst the clamour for more performances and recordings of mid-20th-century British music, it is perhaps forgotten that Gerhard was active at the same time in the UK. He may be regarded as a cerebral composer, his music challenging, sharp-edged and brilliant. However, it should be stressed that he also possesses that relatively rare quality of musical humour. His wonderful late astrological works - Gemini, Libra and Leo - provide ample evidence of warmth, vibrancy and a haunting beauty. It is true that there are now recordings of many of his works, but concert performances are disgracefully scarce. My first experience of Gerhard, thirty years ago, was Dorati’s excellent LP of the First Symphony – reissue on  CD greatly overdue!

The Fourth Symphony is a powerful, virtuosic one-movement work for very large orchestra. It was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic. Its various sections display the composer’s typical alternations of feverish activity and “Zen-like stasis” – to quote Paul Conway’s notes. Gerhard himself described the static passages as “action in very slow motion … the magic sense of uneventfulness”.

Colin Davis is not generally associated with cutting-edge modernism. However, he did record much Stravinsky and Tippett, and he actually gave the premiere of Gerhard 4 - with the BBC Symphony Orchestra - a couple of years before making this recording. Nonetheless, I feel that this is not Davis’s natural territory. He sounds dutiful rather than 100% committed, civilised rather than emotionally involved. There is a distinct lack of danger, that knife-edge quality which is essential if the fast, incisive and aggressive sections of the symphony are to make their full impact. I was underwhelmed by this performance, which really gives the impression of little more than a run-through.

Immediately obvious from its opening bars is the lyricism of the much earlier Violin Concerto, a work which was not premiered until 1950. Here Gerhard’s Spanish origins are also more apparent than in the symphony – and not simply in the use of castanets. The first movement includes a cadenza which gives way to a short recapitulation, then a highly original scherzo/coda. Gerhard himself sanctioned the small cut towards the end of this movement. 

The darkly romantic slow movement begins with a chorale derived from the note-row on which Schoenberg’s Fourth Quartet is based – a tribute for his 70th birthday. The mood of this haunting music is well captured by Yfrah Neaman, who, unlike Davis, was very closely associated with contemporary music. However, I have reservations about his performance generally. His tone is not the most ingratiating – in fact it is rather tart.

The entertaining, exuberant qualities of the last movement are equally well captured, with Davis seeming generally more comfortable. Here, in addition to the Spanish elements, we find quotations from La Marseillaise and a distinctly Soldier’s Tale moment near the end. This is a really fine concerto, and its neglect is simply shameful. Perhaps the terrific young Alina Ibragimova, having already explored lesser-known territory in her Hartmann and Roslavets CDs, might be persuaded to record it.

This CD may serve as an introduction to two of Gerhard’s major works, but for superior performances one needs to invest in Bamert and Charlier respectively – both on Chandos.

Philip Borg-Wheeler

see also Reviews by John France and Rob Barnett

see also The Symphonies of Roberto Gerhard by Paul Conway

 

 


 


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

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




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.