BBC Recordings of Clyne Orchestral Works

courtesy of Morahan Arts & Media

About two month’s ago Avie Records released Mythologies, an anthology of five orchestral compositions by Anna Clyne, born in London in 1980 and now part of the current crop of Brooklyn-based composers. The album begins with the world premiere recording of “Masquerade,” which was composed in 2013. The remaining four works are “This Midnight Hour” (2015), “The Seamstress” (completed in 2015), “Night Ferry” (2012), and “<<rewind<<“ (completed in 2006). The performances are by the BBC Symphony Orchestra with four different conductors: Marin Alsop (“Masquerade”), Sakari Oramo (“The Midnight Hour” and “The Seamstress”), Andrew Litton (“Night Ferry”), and André de Ridder (“<<rewind<<“).

I have been aware of Clyne’s music since February of 2012, when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), led by Music Director Riccardo Muti, performed the West Coast premiere of “Night Ferry” in Davies Symphony Hall. At that time I referred to the composition as “dark night of the soul” music and felt that, in spite of its rhetorical intensity, the piece went on longer than I would have wished. However, when CSO released its digital download recording of “Night Ferry” in August of 2014, I found that my “first contact” experience allowed for a more satisfying “second impression.” As a result, at my most recent encounter with Clyne this past April, when I streamed the DSO (Detroit Symphony Orchestra) Replay performance of her “Three Sisters” mandolin concerto with soloist Avi Avital and conductor Nicholas McGegan, I found that I could more readily accept Clyne’s work in my “comfort zone.”

On this new album the high levels of energy and intense rhetorical dispositions tend to pervade all five selections. Thus, whatever the appealing virtues of each composition may be, the album as a whole runs the risk of serving up too much of a good thing. The same can be said for the written descriptions of each piece that Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim provided for the booklet. In other words the accumulation of a decade’s worth of orchestral composition coupled with “deep-dive” descriptive accounts may ultimately result in more than mind can process in a single sitting. Thus, while there is much to be gained from listening to these pieces, listening to each one of them independently of the others may make for a more satisfying experience.