Dedicated to Alan Rawsthorne,
Hoddinott’s Second Symphony was first
performed in 1962 at the Cheltenham
Festival by the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
It is a ‘large’ work (in terms of ambition,
not duration), opening with a sprawling
Adagio. Essentially Romantic at heart,
with a powerful sense of the isolated
gesture, this Adagio moves slowly but
inevitably to climaxes that can only
be described as granitic. It is up to
a nimble scherzo to provide contrast
and with the LSO on commanding form,
this is certainly fleet-of-foot, with
more than a hint of devilry about it.
This movement is hugely entertaining,
the rhythmic alternations giving the
music its propulsive drive. Interestingly,
the finale is also a Scherzo and Trio
(framed by Introduction and Coda); but
it is the Molto Adagio that forms the
still, but emotionally powerful centre
of the work. Norman Del Mar presents
its impassioned melodies unapologetically.
The Third Symphony
(a Hallé commission) again begins
with an Adagio, this one if anything
even more serious of intent than the
parallel movement in Symphony No. 2.
Hoddinott calls for an expanded percussion
section, in keeping with the work’s
extended orchestrational palette. The
percussion come into their own in the
delightful, spiky Scherzo, a movement
that works itself up so much it seems
to exhaust itself.
Some of that fizz spills
over, though, into the Allegro that
launches the Symphony’s second part,
full of intensely jagged motifs and
lines. Hoddinott writes music of great
delicacy, also. The Symphony No. 3 is
a glittering jewel of a piece (in my
humble opinion the best work on this
disc) and David Atherton’s superb ear
ensures it glistens fully here.
It was the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra that commissioned the Fifth
Symphony (1972 – the works on this disc
proceed in four-year intervals). The
work was sketched while the composer
was holidaying in Switzerland and Italy
(a Welsh Années de pèlerinage?)
and it is true that a certain Italianate
lyricism informs the score. The composer
even writes, ‘… it would perhaps be
not too fanciful to detect here and
there in the score the presence of alpine
horns, cattle bells, and Tuscan mists’,
and how right he is. The RPO hit top
form here, capturing the aura of often
vibrant nostalgia perfectly. More challenging,
possibly, than either of the other two
symphonies here, the Fifth repays repeated
hearings.
The recordings are
superb, with excellent remastering by
Simon Gibson. Lyrita hold their hands
up to a technical fault in the master
tape of Symphony No. 2 (irregular background
noise on the left channel in the first
movement at c5’55 – definitely
an edit-point - to 8’33), but the sweep
of Hoddinott’s invention more than carries
the music through.
On the strength of
the present offering, Hoddinott the
symphonist demands attention.
Colin Clarke
The
Lyrita catalogue
abLondon Symphony Orchestra/aNorman
Del Mar, bDavid Atherton; cRoyal
Philharmonic Orchestra/Andrew Davis. 
