Brincken Symphony No.4 (2014-5)

[Alan Howe]

I was wondering whether anyone had spotted this:
https://toccataclassics.com/product/alexander-brincken-orchestral-music-volume-one/

[Alan Howe]

...the slow movement must be one of the most beautiful in all contemporary music.

[Mark Thomas]

I have only so far sampled the work at the Toccata site and downloaded the recording, but I've been greatly impressed by what I've heard and am looking forward to hearing the whole work.

[hyperdanny]

I went through the whole piece, and for sure there's a lot of very beautiful music, not to mention a sophisticated technique and orchestration.
But it's a little exhausting and long winded, especially considering that I find thAT expressive mood is a little samey, not very varied at all.
Especially the finale's material (the weaker movement IMHO) does not quite support the length.
(and , full disclosure, i am a lifelong Philip Glass fan, repetitions do not bore me at all) .
With a bit of judicious pruning this could be a minor masterpiece.
Or maybe i just need repeated listenings,
I'll buy it, anyway.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks for that assessment. At 53.33 the Symphony is indeed long, but I've ordered it all the same...

[Mark Thomas]

I've just this morning listened to both the Symphony and its companion piece on this recording, the Capriccio for piano & small orchestra.

The former is a really powerful, often beautiful and finely crafted work. It's a piece which is definitely of this century, there's not a whiff of 19th century pastiche, but is nonetheless harmonically and melodically fully in the romantic tradition. Hyperdanny quite rightly points out the use of Glass-like repetition and, like him, that's fine with me. The strongest movements, IMHO, are the middle ones - the lengthy Adagio is a contemplative, heartfelt work and the Scherzo is properly forceful and varied. I thought both outer movements would benefit from some editing, but they still held my interest and overall the work supports its length better than many modern works.

The Capriccio, although earlier, is in a more "advanced" style which is outside the scope of the forum I think. That said, I found it lively, inventive and of real merit. The composer himself delivers an absolutely fizzing solo part.

[Alan Howe]

Mark's right. The Symphony isn't backward-looking, say, à la Schmidt-Kowalski, but fully of today. It demonstrates that 'the Tradition' isn't dead at all - it's just waiting to be refreshed and re-ignited...

[hyperdanny]

I fully agree that the two middle movements are the best: they are quite stunning.
The first movement is very good, I like the way it grows gradually but potently from a rather subdued opening.
The problem for me (at least on first listen) was the finale, which I found overlong for the material.
above all,  I could not hear in it the push forward, sense of the end of the journey, the "finality", if you want.
But maybe by that time I was not focused enough anymore, listening conditions were not optimal.
A more concentrated re-listen is in order. After Christmas I will buy the cd.

[matesic]

The 20-year-old Brincken wouldn't have made it into this forum! For information's sake;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvQB147Ejis

[Alan Howe]

No, quite. Thank goodness he's moved on...

[semloh]

Yes, indeed! Hard to believe that it's the same composer.
The symphony is a delight.