Beethoven • Steven Stucky Beethoven: Symphony No. 6; Steven Stucky: Silent Spring Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/Manfred Honeck Reference FR-747 (CD/SACD) 56:02 mins
Manfred Honeck’s speedy tempo for the first movement of the Beethoven isn’t always complemented by sharp articulation, and changes of tempo conspire to rob the music of pulse and momentum. But things improve in the complex textures of the Andante, where flexibility is more in keeping with the flowing brook, and the bird calls are finely characterised. The energy in the Peasants’ Merrymaking and Storm is fiercely controlled, and the final Thanksgiving, if also on the fast side, moves steadily towards its conclusion, with colourful sonorities and a balanced texture.
Stucky’s Silent Spring was commissioned by the Pittsburgh SO for the 50th anniversary of the publication of Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking environmental book. A tone poem in four linked sections, it moves from the depths of ‘The Sea Around Us’, through the desolate majesty of ‘The Lost Wood’, to the manic scherzo ‘Rivers of Death’. The musical language has tonal roots, and there’s a powerful melodic sense weaving its way through the piece, but it’s not always a comfortable listen: the countryside that Beethoven knew is compromised by pollution, and the chorus of birds and insects in the final section is slowly snuffed out. A committed performance caught live, like the Beethoven.
Martin Cotton
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