Moeran: Sinfonietta, Symphony in G Minor & Overture for a Masque

Album review

Nearly as fine an English symphony as was composed in the '30s -- and that list includes Walton's First, Vaughan Williams' Fourth, and Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem -- E.J. Moeran's G minor Symphony, premiered in 1937, is almost but not quite a four-movement masterpiece. As driven as Walton, as poetic as Vaughan Williams, and as dramatic as Britten, Moeran's symphony is a thoroughly gripping work that succeeds expressively and formally but crucially lacks a distinctive compositional profile. Even in this brilliantly played and masterfully conducted 1968 recording with Adrian Boult leading the New Philharmonia, Moeran's symphony, though superbly composed, sounds oddly empty. Too often, one hears Sibelius in the scoring, Vaughan Williams in the developments, and Walton in the ostinatos. Too often, one senses Moeran's striving to achieve more than he is capable of -- movements seem to go nowhere, climaxes seem to hang in the air, and the finale's six-chord cadence is wholly unconvincing. Better are Moeran's three-movement Sinfonietta and his Overture for a Masque from 1944. Lighter works with cleaner scoring and more straightforward structures, the works under Boult and the London Philharmonic are sparkling and sprightly charmers. Warmly but cleanly recorded in stereo by Lyrita, this disc is for dedicated fans of English modernist orchestral music only.
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