Review

Reviewed Work(s): Prelude and Canzona by John Blow and Watkins Shaw;
Orchesterquartett, f major by Placidus von Camerloher and Adolf Hoffmann; Prelude and
Fugue by Francis Chagrin; Deux Images Symphoniques by Solon Michaelides; Essay for
Strings by Barry Moss; Konzert, D Major, for Flute and Strings by Johann Joachim
Quantz and Adolf Hoffmann; Three Hungarian Sketches, Op. 14 by Miklos Rozsa; Konzert,
C Major, for Two Violins and Strings by Georg Philipp Telemann and Adolf Hoffmann;
Passacaglia, Op. 1 by Anton Webern
Review by: I. K.
Source: Music & Letters, Vol. 40, No. 4 (Oct., 1959), pp. 403-404
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/730793
Accessed: 26-02-2022 16:36 UTC

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REVIEWS OF MUSIC 403

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ORCHESTRA

Blow, John, Prelude and Canzona, ed. by Watk'ns Shaw

richsen, London, 1958, 8s. 6d.)
Camerloher, Placidus von, Orchesterquartett, F majo
Hoffmann. Score. (M6seler, Wolfenbiittel, I958.)
Chagrin, Francis, Prelude and Fugue. Miniature score
London, I957, 8s. 6d.)
Michaelides, Solon, Deux Images Symphoniques. Score. (U
positeurs Hellenes, Athens, I959.)
Moss, Barry, Essayfor Strings. Score. (Novello, London, I
Quantz, Johann Joachim, Konzert, D major, for flute and st
Adolf Hoffmann. Score. (Moseler, Wolfenbiittel, I958
Rozsa, Miklos, Three Hungarian Sketches, Op. 14. M
(Eulenburg, London, I959.)
Telemann, Georg Philipp, Konzert, C major, for two viol
ed. by Adolf Hoffmann. Score. (Moseler, Wolfenbiitte
Webern, Anton, Passacaglia, Op. i. Miniature score. (Un
London, 8s. 9d.)
The short pieces by Blow, though not originally rela
effective pair. The first enlivens its conventional pomp with
chromatics, and the dance-like canzona has some qu
rhythms on its last page. The editor pays sensible regard
the period by supplying drum-parts beneath the two tr
indicating likely places for adding and subtracting oboes
when available. He has given a final semibreve in the d
says: "the drummer . . . should improvise a rhythm
A roll would be an anachronism". This sort of negative se
of it difficult to prove. More light on it would be wor
humiliation.
The vigorous chordal writing of the outer movements of Camerloher's
quartet warrants the editor's supposition that it is not a string quartet
in the classical sense. The addition of a double-bass would help, though
there is no place where the harmony makes the lower octave obligatory.
Though most of the meat goes to the violins there are several passages of
well-distributed part-writing, but the actual music, apart from some
well-placed silences, is nondescript.
Chagrin's Prelude creeps out in a very introductory manner. No one
could call the first melodic idea memorable but when it is under way it
builds itself up in a slow but ardent expansion. The harmony roughens
the romanticism to the point of stridency at the brassy climax: the heart
is worn on a frayed sleeve. The fugue subject, eschewing the traditional

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404 MUSIC AND LETTERS

tonal frame, has a striking outline, and the ear is carried along by pointed
rhythms and sequences, together with a fine recurrent countersubject.
There is a stretto so spectacular as to seem premature, but it collapses
into material from the Prelude with which the fugue renews its strength.
The style inevitably demands much in string intonation and in precise
counterpoint for the brass.
The music of Michaelides, says the preface, is inspired by Greek
antiquity, by the Byzantine tradition and by Greek musical folklore; it
presents "une union parfaite des elements techniques de l'lcole frangaise
moderne et des principes fondamentaux de la realite musicale grecque".
The resulting hotch-potch is what one might expect: quietly-moving
atmospheric music, with rustling strings, harp and wood-wind, like a less
sophisticated day-break than 'Daphnis and Chloe's', interrupted by
chorale-like chords before any really satisfying momentum can be
achieved. The second piece, 'Foire de Cacava', stirs itself to greater
vigour, but is again interrupted by a modal Lento of seeming insigni-
ficance. But the pieces are lovingly orchestrated and quite unlike the
usual fare.
Barry Moss in his 'Essay for Strings' writes well for the medium,
though rather solemnly. In the interests of consistency the music works
hard at its rather small ration of material. The style is chromatic but not
niggling, and the piece sounds well and is not afraid of the big, direct
gesture.
Quantz's concerto is bright and for the most part predictable music,
but the first entry of the flute is a surprise-a lightly accompanied Adagio
after an unremarkable bustle of some length on the strings. The realization
of the continuo is poor. Not only is the harmony weakened by unnecessary
additions of 4ths to 6 chords but some of the chords are quite wrong, as
though the hand that recorded the figures was different from the hand
that wrote the chords. A good soloist could find pleasure for himself and
us in this piece. Curiously, all three movements end with vigorous unison
'Tom comes last' cadences for the strings.
String unisons of straightforward vigour are also a feature of the first
movement of Telemann's concerto, which employs a long da capo. Just
before the return there are cadential rests which strongly suggest that
the editor ought to have proffered a cadenza. The final Vivace is one of
those vigorous diatonic pieces which are full of old tags but sound far
finer than they look. The continuo is poor again here, thudding away
with chords on each crotchet instead of pointing the main rhythms at the
changes of chord.
Little need be said of Rozsa's 'Hungarian Sketches', save that in
attractive orchestration they ring picturesque changes on popular-style
Hungarian idioms. Were it not worked so adeptly here, one would have
thought the material intractably slight and repetitious.
Webern's Op. I is scored for symphony orchestra with triple wind.
A fine irony attends its republication, for it was written in I908 before
he saw the light. Hence one supposes it useless to record the fact that it is
a fine impassioned work of convincing shape, wonderfully orchestrated
with, it goes without saying, a meticulous ear for individual sounds.
I. K.

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