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Kyle Gann on music after the fact

Smyth: Early, Late, and Best

December 23, 2015 by Kyle Gann

Smyth-coverI’ve found what I think is the best available music by Ethel Smyth: this recording of her Serenade in D (1890) and Double Concerto for Violin and Horn (1927). (Pardon the generic suffragette image on the CD cover, kind of a cheap shot.) Curiously, the Serenade marked her debut in the London music world, and the Double Concerto was one of her last works as she succumbed to deafness. Her Mass is magnificent, but liturgical works don’t leave as much room for personality. The Serenade is melodious and varied enough that I’d rather hear it than Brahms’s two works in that genre. The Double Concerto is remarkably delicate and memorable, and rather Holstian – though she was Holst’s senior by 16 years – and a stronger and better thought-out work than Holst’s Double Violin Concerto, to name an obvious comparison piece. Although I like that too. Holst and Walton have long been my favorite English composers, and Smyth now officially joins them. She deserves far more attention than she gets.

 

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Comments

  1. Paul A. Epstein says

    December 23, 2015 at 4:28 pm

    Interesting. Odaline was briefly a student of mine at Tulane ca. 1968. A very nice person and, as I recall, a talented composer.

  2. Andrew says

    December 23, 2015 at 7:58 pm

    That Mass of hers is a goldmine of grad exit exam material.
    So, what do you think of Bax?

    KG replies: I give him a big chance every few years, have even bought some scores, and he never makes much of an impression on me, positive or negative. Am I missing something?

  3. Susan Scheid says

    December 23, 2015 at 9:23 pm

    Kyle, is that the one that was in the Oblong bins? I keep thinking back to flipping through those bins with you after our lunch with such affection. It’s an experience so rare these days, as most everything has moved out of stores and online. I really miss that sort of companionable sharing of possible “finds.”

    KG replies: Yes. I enjoyed the Elgar once too, but it’s a little hard to get room for uninterrupted listening experiences during the holidays. I played Smyth in my car, which is the acid test.

    • Susan Scheid says

      December 24, 2015 at 12:52 pm

      I’m pleased to report that I found the Smyth CD on Spotify (speaking of 21st C approaches!) and enjoyed an initial listen, though I share with you the problem of getting time for uninterrupted listening during the holidays.

  4. Doug Skinner says

    December 24, 2015 at 8:56 am

    I also like her second ‘cello sonata, which is full of tasty surprises. I don’t know the first, but I see it’s on YouTube, so I’ll have to listen. (I may as well mention, between parentheses, that I’m particularly partial to the ‘cello because I played it in my youth.)

    KG replies: Here I go, forgetting to check YouTube and using the word *available* as though the corporate world still controlled everything. I can’t be dragged into the 21st century.

Trackbacks

  1. » Blog Archive » Monday Link Round Up: December 28, 2015 says:
    December 28, 2015 at 10:20 am

    […] Kyle Gann at Postclassic shared his thoughts on the music of Ethel Smyth – and what he believes to be the best recording of her work (thus far). […]

Kyle Gann

Just as Harry Partch called himself a "philosophic music man seduced into carpentry," I'm a composer seduced into musicology... Read More…

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