Ernest John Moeran - Symphony; Sinfonietta (David Lloyd-Jones)

Information

Composer: Ernest John Moeran

• (01) Symphony in G minor
• (05) Sinfonietta

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
David Lloyd-Jones, conductor

Date: 2002
Label: Naxos
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.555837

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Review

Enthusiastic and sprightly performances of some immensely appealing repertoire

Some 13 years in gestation and finally completed in 1937‚ Moeran’s Symphony in G minoris a gorgeous score. Strongly indebted to Sibelius and Elgar‚ it is full of ravishing nature music in its evocation of the wild Atlantic seaboard of County Kerry in south west Ireland which the composer so adored. Of the four commercial recordings preceding this Naxos newcomer‚ Sir Adrian Boult (on his long­deleted Lyrita account with the New Philharmonia) holds the work together with the surest grip‚ but even he has to yield to Leslie Heward in terms of sheer dedication‚ elemental fire and pantheistic atmosphere (the latter’s wondrous 1942 world première recording with the Hallé remains a true classic of the gramophone).

David Lloyd­Jones presides over a spirited‚ shapely and enjoyable account of a work whose epic dimensions require a firm hand on the tiller. Just occasionally‚ as in the first movement’s second subject (one of the sweetest inspirations in all British music – and most pliantly and poignantly attended to here)‚ I hankered after a greater body and breadth of tone than the hard­working Bournemouth strings can muster. Otherwise‚ Lloyd­Jones directs with his customary sensitivity and purposeful snap; the exhilarating sweep and gale­tossed turbulence of the finale is well conveyed in wide­ranging sound.

Another of Moeran’s favourite landscapes‚ the rolling hills of the Welsh Marches in and around Kington‚ provided the inspiration for the Sinfonietta. Completed in 1944 and premièred by Barbirolli and the BBC SO the following year‚ it is concise and full of engaging lyricism and vitality. A very fetching performance‚ too‚ save for a couple of tiny faults: I don’t hear the double­basses’ crunchy thirds just after fig 11 in the opening Allegro con brio (from around 2'10"); and there’s a curious departure from the score towards the end of the middle movement’s Andantino fourth variation‚ where the oboe’s brief bitonal phrase at four bars after fig 45 (track 10‚ 1'27") is delivered by the clarinet instead and transposed down a whole tone (Norman Del Mar‚ on his lithe 1986 Chandos recording with the Bournemouth Sinfonietta‚ sticks to what’s written).

The odd niggle apart‚ then‚ this is a very welcome issue ‚ but just how much longer do we have to wait before Lyrita restore Boult’s masterly performances of this very same pairing?

-- Gramophone

More reviews:
BBC Music Magazine  PERFORMANCE: **** / SOUND: ****
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 8 / SOUND QUALITY: 8
MusicWeb International  BARGAIN OF THE MONTH
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Oct02/Ernest_John_MOERAN.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Oct02/Moeran_symphony.htm
http://www.classical.net/~music/recs/reviews/n/nxs55837a.php
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2002/oct/11/classicalmusicandopera.artsfeatures5
https://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.555837&languageid=EN
https://www.amazon.com/Moeran-Symphony-G-Minor-Sinfonietta/dp/B00006GO46
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Moeran-Symphony-G-Minor-Sinfonietta/dp/B00006GO46

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Ernest John Moeran (31 December 1894 – 1 December 1950) was an English composer. He studied piano and composition at the Royal College of Music with Charles Villiers Stanford and, after the war, with John Ireland. Moeran came late in the canon of last major British composers heavily influenced by folk-song. By Moeran's time, this style was already seen as somewhat dated and he never made a big breakthrough as a composer despite the success of his Symphony (1934–1937), generally regarded as his masterpiece. Recently, there has been more interest in and many recordings of Moeran's works.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_John_Moeran

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David Lloyd-Jones (born 19 November 1934 in London) is a British conductor. Lloyd-Jones studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, and started his career in 1959 as a répétiteur at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In 1978, Lloyd-Jones founded and became the first Music Director of Opera North, forming its orchestra, the English Northern Philharmonia (now the Orchestra of Opera North), of which he became Artistic Director. In the recording studio, Lloyd-Jones has specialised in British and Russian music, often for Hyperion and Naxos. He is also an editor and translator, especially of Russian operas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lloyd-Jones_(conductor)

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