Living Symphonic Composers

[techniquest]

Regarding Segerstam, I've only heard symphonies 9, 12 and 151 and, fascinating as they are in their way, there's really nothing to distinguish between them. Lots of long chords, percussion and the occasional swanee whistle.
Yoshimatsu is definitely one to look out for, his music is interesting in a modern yet approachable way. He even dares to include the occasional melody!
Has anyone mentioned Kalevi Aho yet? As far as I know he has 12 symphonies under his belt including the astonishing 'Insect Symphony' (no.7) and the one for 6 percussionists and orchestra (no.11)

[Dundonnell]

I am delighted that you have mentioned Kalevi Aho(although I did list him in my orginal post). Aho is, in my opinion, one of the most impressive living symphonists and I am collecting his music on the BIS label courtesy of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and its fine conductor Osmo Vanska. BIS has assured its public that it will continue to record Aho's music with the orchestra after Vanska's departure as principal conductor. Aho has been composer-in-residence with the orchestra.

Aho has actually composed fourteen symphonies-

No.1(1969)-BIS CD-396 (coupled with the Violin Concerto)
No.2(1970/1995)-BIS CD-936 (coupled with No.7)
No.3(Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Orchestra) (1971/1973)- BIS CD-1186 (coupled with Aho's masterly orchestration of
        Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death)
No.4 (1972-73) -BIS CD-1066 (coupled with the Chinese Songs)
No.5 (1975-76)- Ondine ODE-765-2 (coupled with No.7)- BIS is looking for a 'bigger' orchestra to record Nos. 5 and 6
No.6(1979-80)- not yet recorded
No.7 Insect Symphony' (1988)- BIS CD-936(coupled with No.2) and Ondine ODE-765-2(coupled with No.5)
No.8 for organ and orchestra(1993)- BIS CD-646
No.9 for trombone and orchestra(1993-94)- BIS CD-706(coupled with the Cello Concerto)
No. 10 (1996)- BIS CD-856
No. 11 for six percussionists and orchestra(1997-98)- BIS CD-1336 (coupled with the Symphonic Dances)
No.12 'Luosto Symphony' for orchestra, chamber orchestra, soprano and tenor(2002-03)-shortly to be released by BIS
No. 13 (2003)- not yet recorded
No.14 'Rituals' for darabuka, djembe, gongs and orchestra(2007)-not yet recorded

There are also several other concertos, including his magnificent Clarinet Concerto(coupled by BIS with the Nielsen and played by Martin Frost), the Tuba and Contrabassoon concerti(also coupled on BIS).

Aho is, to my mind, always exciting, frequently splendidly grand and expressively powerful within an idiom which is modern but by no means difficult to follow. The Adagio of Symphony No.10 is one of the greatest symphonic Adagios by a living composer. Aho is a more challenging composer than, say Rautavaara, but I think ultimately a deeper thinker. I also find his monumentalism less self-pityingly depressing than, say, Pettersson!

I am sure that he has other admirers on this site!

[Dundonnell]

Don't forget John Pickard (*1963), with four symphonies under his belt. He has also written some fine orchestral pieces. BIS has released a CD, which is Editor's Choice in the June 2008 issue of Gramophone.

http://www.johnpickard.co.uk/index.html

I have just finished reading the review of the BIS CD in this month's BBC Music Magazine written by Calum(Malcolm) MacDonald. It is a real 'rave review'!
He describes 'Channel Firing' as "one of the finest British works of the 1990s", talks about Pickard in relation to william Mathias, Robert Simpson and havergal Brian, uses phrases like "awesome final climax", "master of the orchestra", "Holstian quality of vision".

WHY have I missed out on this composer and this disc? I now find that it was discussed in the "Recordings you are Considering" and "What are you listening too?" threads. I wish that I had time to delve more deeply into other parts of this Forum!!(Seems as if I spend long enough on it as it is )

Anyway, sounds just up my street Must order it at once!

[Dundonnell]

Received my copy of the recent BIS release of music by John Pickard this morning. (Bought it for only £6.75 via Amazon Marketplace and it arrived the day after I ordered it. That's good service )

Certainly lives up to expectations!!

"The Flight of Icarus" is a real orchestral showpiece. A kind of modern version of the Saint-Saens Symphonic Poem "Phaeton" and from the same stable(joke) as the Christopher Rouse work of the same name. " The Spindle of Necessity" for trombone, strings and percussion is a bit more difficult to come to terms with but clearly a showpiece for Christian Lindberg's skills on the trombone. But the prize for me if "Channel Firing"-a minor modern masterpiece with its echoes of Wagner and Havergal Brian. What a superb dramatic and grand climax!!

Fantastic to hear a young(ish) modern composer who can write such splendid music

I sincerely hope that BIS or another company like Chandos will record more Pickard! He appears to have written four symphonies, a Piano Concerto and a big(50 minute) Oratorio "Agamennon's Tomb". His string quartets have been highly praised.

His website- http://www.johnpickard.co.uk/index.html - is well worth a look as Jezetha suggested in an earlier post.

Love to hear more Pickard!

[Lethevich]

Hehe, strange coincidence, I heard Icarus earlier today for the first time and it is brilliant. According to his homepage, there is another all-orchestral BIS disc in the works. It seems that his first two symphonies are early works, but the third looks interesting.

[Dundonnell]

Hehe, strange coincidence, I heard Icarus earlier today for the first time and it is brilliant. According to his homepage, there is another all-orchestral BIS disc in the works. It seems that his first two symphonies are early works, but the third looks interesting.

Coincidence indeed

Thanks for the info' about the further planned disc! I had missed that on the homepage. The Piano Concerto, "Sea-Change" and a newly commissioned work....excellent! The first two sound good from the programme notes! And, yes, I agree, the Third Symphony does sound-at least-interesting

Think I shall let Mr. Pickard know how much I enjoyed the disc

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

As I wrote a few months ago, I know John Pickard slightly from the 1980s. He studied composition with Louis Andriessen, then, at the Koninklijke Conservatorium in The Hague. I put a plea in the Havergal Brian Society Newsletter for more cassettes with recordings of Brian symphonies, as I was famished... JP was one those to respond (he was and still is a member of the HBS). He sent me, among other things, the Ole Schmidt 'Gothic', accompanied by a letter I still have where he enthused about the sight of 'six pair of cymbals being clashed simultaneously!'

I have heard his Second Symphony, which is very intense, with a rather Baxian opening (iirc). The work as a whole felt like a cross between, yes, Bax, Brian and Jón Leifs (the volcanic Icelandic composer...)

I met JP in 1987 in Birmingham, at an amateur performance of Havergal Brian's Third Symphony, where he helped out with the timpani...

[not edward]

I just finished listening to Pickard's Flight of Icarus thanks to Lethe, and it's certainly an interesting piece. I get the impression that at this stage his his musical language had yet to completely settle down (in this work, I hear obvious echoes of, amongst others, Bax, Brian, Adams, Copland and, in particular, Sibelius, more than I hear an individual voice). I'll be interested to see how he has developed since this piece: if in his mid-20s he could show a lot of craftsmanship and ability to whip up considerable orchestral fervour, I imagine the 18 years since will have shown significant technical and expressive advances.

[Dundonnell]

I just finished listening to Pickard's Flight of Icarus thanks to Lethe, and it's certainly an interesting piece. I get the impression that at this stage his his musical language had yet to completely settle down (in this work, I hear obvious echoes of, amongst others, Bax, Brian, Adams, Copland and, in particular, Sibelius, more than I hear an individual voice). I'll be interested to see how he has developed since this piece: if in his mid-20s he could show a lot of craftsmanship and ability to whip up considerable orchestral fervour, I imagine the 18 years since will have shown significant technical and expressive advances.

On Pickard's website there is a section on 'Reviews'. This includes both positive AND negative reviews of 'Flight of Icarus'. That must be a first for a website devoted to and, obviously, approved by the composer!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I must admit that when I heard The Flight of Icarus and the Second Symphony more than ten years ago I thought they had all the gestures I like but not yet the substance. It will be interesting to see, now that I have downloaded the BIS-CD, whether I was wrong then and whether John Pickard has matured since then and evolved his own style.

[Maestro267]

I have to add to this. It's a really fascinating thread. Since it was started, quite a few changes have been made to the list. To name a few:

Peter Maxwell Davies has written Ninth and Tenth Symphonies, Penderecki has an Eighth (but still no 6th), Kalevi Aho has a Fifteenth, and James MacMillan's Fourth was premiered last Monday. Sadly also, a few names have passed away, including Arnell, McCabe, Dutilleux, Henze, Gorecki and Tishchenko.

[Karl Henning]

What's your opinion of James M^acMillan?

[Cato]

Hehe, strange coincidence, I heard Icarus earlier today for the first time and it is brilliant. According to his homepage, there is another all-orchestral BIS disc in the works. It seems that his first two symphonies are early works, but the third looks interesting.

"Icarus" reminded me of another composer, whose first symphony involves a section called Requiem for Icarus: Lera Auerbach.

https://www.youtube.com/v/rpRr-tTEpfw

[(poco) Sforzando]

the Ole Schmidt 'Gothic', accompanied by a letter I still have where he enthused about the sight of 'six pair of cymbals being clashed simultaneously!'

Do you think five might have been sufficient?

[Maestro267]

What's your opinion of James M^acMillan?

Fantastic composer! I've heard a few of his recent world premieres at the Proms, and I have two discs of his music, including Veni, Veni Emmanuel and The Birds of Rhiannon. I definitely want to get the St. John Passion at some point, and A Scotch Bestiary.

[Karl Henning]

He was here in Boston for the performance of the Passion, very nice chap.

[San Antone]

I haven't gone back over the previous pages, but has John Corigliano been mentioned?  He's written three symphonies, and as far as I know is still among the living.

[lescamil]

What's your opinion of James M^acMillan?

One of my favorite composers today. He composes very direct, moving music while resorting to a rather large toolbox of influences, but while never "selling out." His fourth symphony was just premiered at the Proms. I thought it was a decent work, although it was not my favorite piece that I have heard by him.

I haven't gone back over the previous pages, but has John Corigliano been mentioned?  He's written three symphonies, and as far as I know is still among the living.

Very much so among the living. I saw him speak not too many years ago, and he did not appear to be of the 75 or so years that he is. He looked in better shape than most 40 year olds I know. Let's hope we get a few more symphonies from him in the (hopefully lots of) time he has left.

[San Antone]

Very much so among the living. I saw him speak not too many years ago, and he did not appear to be of the 75 or so years that he is. He looked in better shape than most 40 year olds I know. Let's hope we get a few more symphonies from him in the (hopefully lots of) time he has left.

I saw in the OP that his named appeared, but credited with only 2 symphonies.  His work from 2005, Circus Maximus for large wind orchestra, is subtitled "Symphony No. 3".  Good to hear he is still active.

[Maestro267]

Interesting that Corligliano's 2nd and 3rd Symphonies are scored for string and wind orchestras respectively. Odds on the Fourth being scored for a percussion ensemble?