ALUN HODDINOTT: The Sun, The Great Luminary of the Universe = Night Music for Orchestra; Variants for Orchestra; Sinfoniettas 1 & 3; The Sun, The Great Luminary of the Universe – London Symphony Orchestra /Norman del Mar and David Atherton/ New Philharmonia Orchestra/David Atherton – Lyrita SRCD 333, 68:43 [Distr. by Allegro] ****:
This is another Lyrita reissue from 1968, 1973 and 1976 featuring orchestral music by the Welsh composer Alun Hoddinott (1929-2008). This prolific composer wrote symphonies, sonatas, concertos, and operas in styles ranging from neo-classicism to serialism. The works here are purely abstract or inspired by literary or visual images. The outstanding characteristic of Hoddinott’s music on this disc is his imaginative use of the orchestra, particularily the large number of percussive instruments that he employs. It’s amazing how Lyrita’s reputation for great-sounding records was consistently maintained over the years. Four of these works were recorded in the legendary Kingsway Hall in London and the result is outstanding clarity, and especially deep bass.
The most attractive pieces on this disc are the two sinfoniettas. Sinfonietta No. 1 (1968) is for small orchestra in two sections – a lyrical first and a final scherzo. Sinfonietta No. 3 is a mini-symphony in three sections. A quietly disturbing moderato is followed by a creepy adagio. The conclusion is an animated scherzo. Both sinfoniettas are excellent examples of the composer’s clever orchestral talent. Hoddinott was a nocturnal composer and wrote many works about his favorite subject. The darkness in Night Music for Orchestra, is mysterious and even foreboding. The Sun, the Great Luminary of the Universe is a tone poem whose inspiration is a paragraph in James Joyce’s Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man that depicts a hypnotic vision of the last judgement. Although one can follow each line of the paragraph musically, the piece is filled with “hushed Bach recollections, apocalyptic fanfares, divided string passages of cosmic stasis and fiercely grinding dissonances,” program annotator Paul Conway writes.
The most difficult and longest (almost 25 minutes) is the Variants for Orchestra, written while the composer was in Italy and expresses in abstract and visual musical terms the vivid contrasts that Hoddinott perceived in that country. The even-numbered variants depict Italian scenes and the odd-numbered are abstracts using serial techniques. The impressionistic variants – Tocatta, Notturno and Fuga are more organic and interesting than the knotty serial ones. Performances are excellent. A disc for those interested in mid-twentieth-century English orchestral music bathed in great sound.
— Robert Moon
