Edward MacDowell - Suites Nos. 1 & 2; Hamlet & Ophelia (Takuo Yuasa)

Information

Composer: Edward MacDowell

• (01) Suite No. 1, Op. 42
• (06) Suite No. 2, Op. 48, "Indian"
• (11) Hamlet & Ophelia, Op. 22

Ulster Orchestra

Takuo Yuasa, conductor

Date: 2001

Label: Naxos

https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.559075

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Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 8

I’ll say one thing: Naxos gives great notes. Reacting against Dvorák’s suggestion that American composers look to Negro Spirituals and other ethnic music for inspiration, Edward MacDowell retorted:

“Purely national music has no place in art. What Negro melodies have to do with Americanism still remains a mystery to me. Why cover a beautiful thought with the badge of slavery rather than with the stern but at least manly and free rudeness of the North American Indian…? What we must arrive at is the youthful optimistic vitality and the undaunted tenacity of spirit that characterizes the American Man.”

So speaks the true voice of the oppressor. Really, a nicer guy never got run over by a horse-drawn cab. Still, this little extract teaches us two useful lessons. First, what a composer says about music in general doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with what he actually writes. After all, “youthful optimistic vitality” and “undaunted tenacity of spirit” are about the last qualities that come to mind when listening to the pieces on this disc–more like faux Mendelssohn with a Liszt spritzer. Second, the fact that a composer may not be particularly agreeable, or even especially intelligent, doesn’t detract from the purely musical value of his output (if any, of course).

MacDowell’s two suites for orchestra have waited a long time to appear on CD, and the fact that they may not be all that audacious or exciting does not detract from their considerable charm, attractive fund of melody, and apt scoring. Takuo Yuasa and the Ulster Orchestra lavish genuine care on these pieces, playing with real dedication and more than enough sympathy to justify the composer’s pride in the Indian Suite’s “Dirge” as one of his finest achievements. The Second Suite is, in fact, a very substantial work that does not deserve its obscurity. And yet we have to wonder just what a composer whose music was approvingly described in his own lifetime as “agreeably free of the fevers of sex” could make of Hamlet & Ophelia; and whatever the music’s qualities, let us just say that it fully lives up (if that’s the word) to MacDowell’s chaste reputation. As noted, Naxos’ documentation is exceptional, and the sound fine.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday

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Edward MacDowell (December 18, 1860 – January 23, 1908) was an American composer and pianist of the Romantic period, and was also a noted teacher of the piano. He was best known for his second piano concerto and his piano suites Woodland Sketches, Sea Pieces and New England Idylls. Woodland Sketches includes his most popular short piece, "To a Wild Rose". After his death, MacDowell was considered as a great, internationally known American composer. However, as the twentieth century progressed, his fame was eclipsed by such American composers as Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, and Roy Harris.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_MacDowell

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Takuo Yuasa (born 1949) is a Japanese conductor. Yuasa was born in Osaka, Japan, where he studied piano, cello, flute, and clarinet. He later studied in the US at the University of Cincinnati, at the Hochschule in Vienna with Hans Swarowsky, with Igor Markevitch in France, and with Franco Ferrara in Siena. Yuasa later became assistant to Lovro von Matačić, working with him in Monte Carlo, Milan, and Vienna. He frequently conducts the major orchestras in Poland, Japan and the UK, as well as orchestras throughout Europe and Far East. Yuasa has a successful recording career as an exclusive Naxos artist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takuo_Yuasa

https://www.naxos.com/person/Takuo_Yuasa/32186.htm

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