STANFORD: Symphonies No. 3 (“Irish”) and No. 6 (“in honour of G.F. Watts”) – Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/ David Lloyd-Jones, conductor – Naxos

Here we have the third installment of David Lloyd-Jones’s new Stanford symphonies set, and it continues the high standards set by the previous two issues, of 4 and 7, and 2 and 5. The curiosity for most outlying Stanford fans here will be the sixth symphony, “in honour of G.F. Watts,” one of the premiere artists of the age, and surprisingly edging the composer on to portions of stylistic freshness (he was arch-conservative, and considered a bit of a relic, albeit a beloved one, near the end of his career). I am referring to the almost Bruckner-sounding chorales in the slow movement, and that make a similar thematic appearance in the finale. After the echt-Schumann and Mendelssohnian feel to so much of Stanford’s music (and he was also a pre-pastoralist of the English school), to hear the soaring line of Brucknerian intensity emerging like some long lost creature of another age is quite startling. But also very effective, and showing that perhaps even the excessive traditionalism of the composer was still open to new influences, despite the cherry-picking of rather smallish acceptance, and the composer’s own rather vitriolic polemics towards the end of his life. This symphony hit on hard times after its initial showing, and that is hard to understand, for it is not ultimately greater or lesser than the others.

In fact, the more popular “Irish” Symphony, which maintained his reputation well into the 1900s, is a lesser work, earlier of course by 18 years, and despite the cheery lines of folk-like provenance that glitter throughout, to me lacks the substance of the sixth – though this is of course one man’s opinion, and I can see how it would be attractive in concert halls, especially with the songful, bittersweet Andante third movement.
Handley’s versions set the standard for many, as I said in my review of Nos. 4 and 7, the Chandos sound does not always spell success, and the Bournemouthers make a good case for their take on these works, and Naxos an even better case for capturing the proper sonics. I can easily live with this series, especially because of the price (still cheap, but going up in recent years), and wonder if anything better will come along until some really big name orchestra takes a swipe at them. Even then, no matter who it is, they will have some formidable competition from Lloyd-Jones and company.

–Steven Ritter