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Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Christopher Gunning - Symphonies Nos. 2, 10 & 12 (Kenneth Woods)


Information

Composer: Christopher Gunning
  • (01) Symphony No. 10
  • (02) Symphony No. 2
  • (05) Symphony No. 12

BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Kenneth Woods, conductor

Date: 2019
Label: Signum Classics
https://signumrecords.com/product/christopher-gunning-symphonies-2-10-12/SIGCD593/

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Review

Numerous composers have secured their reputation through scores for film and television, subsequently to attempt music for the concert hall in what proves to be an act of crass self-deception. Not so Christopher Gunning (b1944), whose 13 symphonies, numerous concertos and sundry orchestral pieces are as meticulously wrought as they are powerfully conceived.

From its obliquely Mahlerian start, the Tenth Symphony (2016) proceeds as a tautly argued single movement that takes in passages of contrasting lyricism and incisiveness; an understated if cumulative momentum sustained through to a plangent return of the opening music then a deftly Sibelian close. The Second Symphony (2002) evidently caused Gunning some trouble, but this is scarcely apparent over three movements that focus on ominous agitation, rapt contemplation and tense affirmation, the piano’s insinuating presence typical of orchestration as resourceful as is Gunning’s take on Classical formal archetypes. The composer considers his Twelfth Symphony (2018) one of relative relaxation, though this arguably undersells a first movement whose often ominous expectancy is countered by the suffused eloquence of its successor as it progresses towards an ending the more cathartic for its underlying tranquillity.

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales leave nothing to be desired, Kenneth Woods taking time out from his estimable 21st Century Symphony Project – which has already produced major compositions by Philip Sawyers (10/17), David Matthews (7/19) and Matthew Taylor – to deliver readings of audible conviction and insight. Cordially recommended, with the hope that Gunning’s Eighth, Ninth, Eleventh and Thirteenth Symphonies will themselves soon be recorded.

-- Richard Whitehouse, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2020/Mar/Gunning_sys_SIGCD593.html
https://www.amazon.com/Symphonies-BBC-National-Orchestra-Wales/dp/B07YTDCX92

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Christopher Gunning (born 5 August 1944) is an English composer of concert works and music for films and television. Gunning was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where his tutors included Edmund Rubbra and Richard Rodney Bennett. His film and TV compositions have received many awards, including the 2007 BAFTA Award for Best Film Music for La Vie en Rose. He also composed the music for nearly all of the Poirot TV films starring David Suchet. In addition to television and film scores, Gunning has now completed 12 symphonies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Gunning

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Kenneth Woods (born 1968) is an American-born, UK-resident conductor, composer and cellist,. Woods studied conducting at the University of Cincinnati with Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman, Jorma Panula and Gerhard Samuel. He was music director of the Grande Ronde Symphony from 1999 to 2002, and the Oregon East Symphony from 2000-9. In 2009, Woods was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestra of the Swan. In 2013, he became the third Principal Conductor of the English Symphony/String Orchestra (the orchestra performs under both names), succeeding Vernon Handley.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Woods
https://kennethwoods.net/

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  2. Dear Ronald, Sorry for sending an irrelevant message but I can't access the comments on Musique classique.Track 8 of Breton's string quartets (Naxos) is incomplete and stops at 3.56 instead of 8.46. Could you please check. Thanks in advance.

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