Die Veroneser Elegie für Streichorchester by Walther Aeschbacher; Concerto Gioioso, Op. 33,pur flûte, cordes et piano by Pierre Ancelin; Concert No. 4 pour piano et cordes by JacquesCharpentier; Night Music for Solo Flute and Small Orchestra by Antal Dorati; Concerto perCorde, Op. 33 by Alberto Ginastera; Concerto para Orquesta de Cordas e Percussão by M.Camargo Guarnieri; Tanz-Metamorphosen für Streicher by Léon Mour ...Review by: Halsey StevensNotes, Second Series, Vol. 34, No. 2 (Dec., 1977), pp. 457-460Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/897645 .

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miniature score, and piano score; and on a manuscript piano score containing some penciled corrections and changes in Hinde? mith's hand. A complete critical apparatus is appended, this in the standard manner. Finscher has written an extensive introduc? tion, giving the historical background and circumstances of the work.

It has long been time that such care and attention should be given to Paul Hinde? mith. The fourteen years since his death have given us time to see him in his true position as one of the outstanding musicians of the first half of the century, a man who was of major influence in so many areas

of. music. With such an important project magnificently begun, as evinced in this volume, we have not only a memorial to Hindemith himself, but also a source of music from one of the great transitional periods of our past, music that reflects a time of change in techniques and aesthetics whose effects we are still absorbing. The edition has begun most auspiciously. With the kind of editorial supervision and labor represented here, it sets standards of excel- lence for other editions to emulate.

Albert Seay Colorado College

ORCHESTRAL AND BAND MUSIC

Walther Aeschbacher: Die Veroneser Elegie fiir Streichorchester. Zurich: Amadeus Verlag (Peters), 1974. [Score, 12 p., $10.00]

Pierre Ancelin: Concerto Gioioso, Op. 33, pur flute, cordes et piano. Paris: Gerard Billaudot (Presser), n.d. [Score, 94 p., $16.25]

Jacques Charpentier: Concert No. 4 pour piano et cordes. Paris: Alphonse Leduc (Presser), 1974. [Score, 27 p., $8.75]

Antal Dorati: Night Music for solo flute and small orchestra. London: J. 8c W. Chester, 1974. [Score, 54 p., $19.50]

Alberto Ginastera: Concerto per Corde, Op. 33. London: Boosey 8c Hawkes, 1974. [Score, 52 p., $23.00]

M. Camargo Guarnieri: Concerto para Orquesta de Cordas e Percussao. New York: Broude Brothers Limited, 1975. [Score, 39 p., $10.00]

Leon Mouravieff: Tanz-Meta- morphosen fiir Streicher. New York: C. F. Peters, 1974. [Score, 27 p., $10.00]

Max Pinchard: Symphonie du ver- seau?Seconde symphonie pour Or? chestre a cordes. Paris: Editions Mu? sicales Transatlantiques (Presser), 1973. [Score, 36 p., $5.50]

Bernard Rogers: Pastorale mistico for string orchestra and clarinet. New York: Columbia University Press, 1974. [Score, 7 p., and parts, $6.00; score only, $1.50]

William Walton: Sonata for string or? chestra. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. [Score, 94 p., $17.50]

Eugene Zador: Music for clarinet and strings. Zurich: Eulenburg (Peters), 1975. [Score, 47 p., $17.50]

It is hard to resist a temptation to head this review "Music for Strings, from A to Z." That might suggest, however, that the collection of scores itemized above repre? sents an exhaustive survey of possibilities, while the works themselves support no such conclusion. They constitute, rather, an om- nium-gatherum, differing widely in style and content, but by no means exploring the peripheries as one might expect. The styles range from the resolutely traditional to the tentatively experimental, touching down at various points in between.

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Most backward-looking of the group is the Veroneser Elegie of Walther Aeschbacher (1901-1969). The date of composition is not indicated, nor is the significance of the title explained?whether it refers to Romeo and Juliet, to Paolo Cagliari detto Veronese, or merely to the city of Verona. The piece melds neo-Wagnerian langueurs with a scholastic fugue and other anomalies. The cause of Swiss music is not perceptibly advanced thereby.

Nor does the Concerto Gioioso of Pierre Ancelin make a strong impression. Its profile is faceless; its metronomic outer movements tick along harmlessly; and the central Larghetto sereno languishes affec- tively, but to little effect. A mildly Hun? garian aura hangs over its somewhat rhapsodic line. The writing for flute, strings, and piano is idiomatic enough, the last-named instrument being occupied most of the time in reinforcing string parts and only occasionally coming to the fore in its own character. [1971; duration 17' 30"]

Jacques Charpentier's Concert No. 4 is apparently his first one for piano, the pre? ceding three being for choir organ, guitar, and harpsichord respectively. It is an un- lovely piece in one continuous movement, bathed throughout in tritones and major sevenths. The almost unvarying use of chords which superpose perfect fourth upon augmented results in unrelieved mo- notony. The only respite is afforded by some aleatoric segments toward the end, where harmonic conjunctions are purely fortuitous. Melodic events, always chroma? tic, are not governed by any periodic serial? ism. The solo piano, most of the time, discloses no melodic function, and very often is assigned only brutal grumblings in the bottom octave or shrill outbursts at the top. Anyone who contemplates playing the piece should be warned that the notated parts are full of ambiguities, especially with regard to accidentals.

Five small genre pieces constitute Antal Dorati's Night Music, for solo flute, two horns, harp, and strings. They are conserv- ative in idiom, well-written and relatively easy to play. The novel idea of putting together five nocturnes might easily have resulted in a regrettable sameness of mood, but the pieces are sufficiently contrasting to permit such a succession here. Their titles are suggestive: Recitativo (Evening Anti- phon), Arioso (Lullaby), Capriccio (Mid-

night), Scherzo (Insects Around the Flame), and Postludio (Deep Night?Dawn). It may be of interest that only in the last movement, with its tremolando strings, its harp glissan- dos, and its Magyar-flavored flute cadenza has the composer yielded to the temptations posed by the "night music" style of Bartok. [Duration 22' ]

The Concerto for Strings appears in Alber- to Ginastera's catalogue between the operas Don Rodrigo and Bomarzo, to which it is stylistically akin. Written for the third Cara- cas Music Festival, it was first performed there 14 May 1966, by Ormandy and the Phildadelphia Orchestra. The score is dated "Berlin 1965," but an apparently earlier version was copyrighted in 1959.

It is a major work and an important contribution to the literature. The first movement uses a novel procedure. It is a set of variations by the soloists: a rhapsodic theme played by the solo first violin; a somewhat more vigorous first variation by the solo cello; a very fast one by the second violin; and two slow ones, one for solo viola, the last (returning to the character of the tema) for solo double bass?with a cadenza. The string orchestra supports and punctu- ates. In the succeeding movements there are no solos; they are headed Scherzo fan- tastico, Adagio angoscioso, and Finale furioso.

The technical demands are extensive, requiring a highly polished ensemble, but the intention is always clear. Aside from a few quarter tones, the writing is well within the limits of normal string techniques. This will be a rewarding work to play and to hear. [Duration 23' ]

Camargo Guarnieri's Concerto for Strings and Percussion is on a somewhat smaller scale. Its three movements are less de- manding in every way. The first is brusque, almost savage; both here and in the hora- like finale, the alternation of stopped and open strings?bariolage?suggests the drone of bagpipes. The middle movement, an elegy in memory of the composer's mother, is restrained and mournfully ex? pressive. In the outer movements the per? cussion instruments, timpani, and two snare drums play an important role, but they have no part in the second. The Concerto should be within the capabilities of a good college or community orchestra, and well worth performing. [Duration ca. 75']

Identification of Leon Mouravieff is not at hand. His Dance-Metamorphoses is an odd

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work, based almost entirely upon a curiosly directionless melodic line which is not un- like a perverse variant of the opening flute theme in L'Apres-midi d'unfaune. The score, with pairs of violins, violas, and cellos, looks as if it might be played by a septet, but the general doubling of lines would seem to call for at least three players to a part (six to a pair). The "metamorphoses" of the title apparently consist of a very gradual expansion of the melodic material in both interval size and over-all compass. No overt dance character has been detected. The work would be of only moderate interest to either players or listeners, and it is not easy to think of a place for it in a concert program.

Max Pinchard is another composer who eludes identification. His Symphony of Aquarius, the second symphony he has writ? ten, reveals a somewhat heterogeneous harmonic style and a very square-cut sense of rhythm. Its four movements?Prelude, Danse, Lamento, Final?are oddly assorted, hardly adding up to a symphony. Cast frequently in a polytonality that seems lack? ing in conviction, it does not stake out any strong melodic claims to compensate for its lack of tonal polarity. Its models, which it resembles only slightly, appear to be the Milhaud of the Fourth Symphony and the Honegger of the Third. [1963; duration ca. 23'-24']

The Pastorale Mistico by the late Bernard Rogers is a wispy piece for string orchestra to which is added, a few bars before the end, an Ad lib. (lontano) part for clarinet. Athematic?practically speaking?and be? ginning pp, it achieves in just under five minutes a single /// climax and diminishes to pppp at the end. Harmonically impres- sionistic, orchestrally subtle and sensitive, it has the air of an inner movement to a set of contrasting pieces; by itself it falls short of complete conviction.

William Walton made his first appearance on the international scene (Salzburg, In? ternational Society for Contemporary Music Festival, 1923) with a string quartet which survives only in Osbert Sitwell's hi- larious account. Twenty-four years later he wrote the Quartet in A minor, the only one now existent, and after another twenty-four years he returned to this and produced an "adapted" version, now called Sonata for String Orchestra. In this version it has be? come a staple with Neville Marriner's

various chamber orchestras. Arthur Hutchings has described the

"poignantly pessimistic lyricism" of Wal- ton's music, and the first movement of the Sonata may deserve the appellation. Em? phasis on the viola, both solo and tutti, tends to darken the sonorities and lend an air of melancholy to the themes. It is effective to present the first complex entirely in the solo instruments, muted, introducing the orchestra only in a re-exposition. Ambling melodies give way to a brusque fugato in the course of development. Lines are dou- bled at the octave, and textures are other- wise amplified or enriched, transforming the Quartet into an idiomatic work for string orchestra.

The remaining movements are a brittle scherzo, familiar in spirit from Walton's First Symphony and other works; a relaxed Lento, emphasizing the violas throughout; and a rondo-like finale which juxtaposes sharp ejaculations with lyrical episodes in a movement with much contrast. All con- sidered, the Sonata is a useful work to have available, and will no doubt be frequently played. [Duration 25']

One must become used to saying "the late Eugene Zador"; long a figure on the Hollywood scene, he died there in April 1977 at the age of 82. Besides his numerous film scores, he left a vast number of "serious" works, many for orchestra, in a mildly modern style, often with Hungarian or gipsy accents. As with other hyper-fe- cund composers, the level of interest fluc- tuates, and one often wishes there had been more reflection and less speed in the process of creation.

So with the Music for Clarinet and Strings: one may acknowledge the skill with which the work has been put together without admiring its glibness. The total impression is that of an irresistible urge to compose, coupled with a lack of sober consideration, of self-debate. It is as if first choices, once made, were last choices as well. In music as in the other arts, the premier coup is very often the deja vu.

Zador's Music for Clarinet and Strings is eminently practical for its performing forces, making no unusual demands. This is one of the virtues of his writing; he is a twentieth-century composer whose music can be played acceptably by reasonably talented amateurs. The only problem likely to arise in rehearsal is the many changes

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of tempo in this work: it tends to become compartmented, without perceptible rhythmic equivalents from section to sec? tion. Neverthless it would no doubt be pleasant to play. Perhaps one should not ask more of this unpretentious piece.

Halsey Stevens University of Southern California

Lennox Berkeley: Sinfonia concer? tante for oboe and chamber orchestra, op. 84. London: J. 8c W. Chester (Mag? namusic-Baton, Inc, St. Louis, agent), 1976. [Study score, 79 p., $15.50]

Wolfgang Fortner: Aulodie, Musik fiir Oboe and Orchester, Neufassung 1966 (Schott Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts). Mainz: B. Schott's Sohne (European American Music Publishers), 1976. [Study score, 88p., no price given]

Helmut Fackler: Introduktion und Rondo giocctfo fiir Oboe and Zupfor? chester. Wilhelmshaven: Heinrichsho? fen (Peters), 1975. [Score, 19 p., $9.00]

The oboe?favored by many concerto writers in the baroque era, some in the classic era, and few in the romantic era?has in the twentieth century been the object of renewed interest as a solo instrument. Certain recent virtuoso players have natu- rally played a role in this development, among them the Englishwoman Janet Craxton, for whom Lennox Berkeley's Sin? fonia Concertante was written in 1973, and more notably the Swiss Heinz Holliger, who premiered the revised version of Wolfgang Fortner's Aulodie in 1966. These two works are similar in several respects: both are the products of state-supported institutions (the British Broadcasting Corporation and the West German Radio); both are some twenty-five minutes in duration; and both show the easy hand of the well seasoned composer (Messrs. Berkeley and Fortner were born in the first decade of this centu- ry).

The Berkeley is neo-classical in sound (with graceful melodies, lively rhythmic contrasts, and not- but near-tonal harmon- ies) and shape (a suite of five movements, marked Lento, Allegro Vivace, Aria? Adagio, Canzonetta?Andantino, and Allegro). Piano and timpani are added to

the eighteenth-century orchestra of strings, and flutes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, and trumpets in pairs?all with something audible to do. The cadenza for the solo instrument in the last movement of Berke- ley's Sinfonia Concertante exemplifies aspects of the composer's language in this piece: tightly-knit repetitive patterns, smooth lines broken by occasional jagged leaps, idiomatic instrumental writing (here exploiting the unique color changes achieved on the oboe by the close juxtaposition of lines using the regular and harmonic fingerings).

The passages for the unaccompanied oboe in the Fortner work are perhaps equally indicative of the language of his Aulodie: seemingly disjointed intervallic patterns (minor ninths, major sevenths, tritones) given linear direction on the one hand by express?and expressive?devices of rhythm, dynamics, and articulation; and on the other hand by the player's fantasy, in moments of controlled improvisation. The work as a whole?post Webern in harmonic idiom, contrapuntally intricate, and not systematically twelve-tone?is structured in two large sections: (I) Intro? duction?Allegro?Epilogue; (II) and Ca? price?Interlude?Variations (the fourth of which is marked "In commemoration and admiration of our century's greatest master of the variation, Anton von We? bern").

The orchestra called for here is a large and unusual one: trios of horns, trumpets, and trombones; one tuba; timpani and assorted George-Crumb-like percussion instruments; guitar; celesta; harp; piano; and strings. The absence of orchestral winds places the oboe, as a timbre, at stage center. Aulodie requires an orchestra of a strictly professional calibre. Of these there are many. The solo part requires the magical technique of a Heinz Holliger. Of these there are few.

Helmut Fackler's Introduktion und Rondo giocoso is mentioned strictly as a curiosity: here is a piece?full of humor, but ama- teurish in its repetitiveness?designed spe- cifically for the oboist who finds himself in the company of two mandolins, one mandola (of which "mandolin" is the di- minutive form), one guitar, and one double bass?a "Zupforchester." Of these (I leave the antecedent vague) there are few indeed.

Peter Bloom Smith College

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