Holloway: Serenade, Fantasy-Pieces & Schumann: Liederkreis

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A contemporary composer takes a 19th-century classic, Schumann's song cycle Liederkreis, and sets it in a musical frame of his own devising: a short, astringent 'Praeludium' and four extended... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Catalogue No: CDA66930
Label: Hyperion
Length: 74 minutes

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Holloway, R: Serenade in C major, Op 41

Work length24:28

$5.00

$6.25

The Nash Ensemble

I. Marcia

Track length6:11

$1.00

$1.25

II. Menuetto alla tarantella

Track length3:23

$1.00

$1.25

III. Andante

Track length5:39

$1.00

$1.25

IV. Menuetto and Trio

Track length5:33

$1.00

$1.25

V. Finale

Track length3:42

$1.00

$1.25

Holloway, R: Fantasy-Pieces on the Heine 'Liederkreis' of Schumann, Op 16

Work length1:56

$1.00

$1.25

The Nash Ensemble
Martyn Brabbins

I. Praeludium

Track length1:56

$1.00

$1.25

Schumann: Liederkreis, Op. 24

Work length21:35

$9.00

$11.25

Toby Spence (tenor), Ian Brown (piano)

I. Morgens steh' ich auf und frage

Track length0:50

$1.00

$1.25

II. Es treibt mich hin

Track length1:17

$1.00

$1.25

III. Ich wandelte unter den Bäumen

Track length3:57

$1.00

$1.25

IV. Lieb Liebchen, leg's Händchen

Track length0:39

$1.00

$1.25

V. Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden

Track length4:09

$1.00

$1.25

VI. Warte, warte, wilder Schiffmann

Track length1:55

$1.00

$1.25

VII. Berg' und Burgen schaun herunter

Track length4:17

$1.00

$1.25

VIII. Anfangs wollt' ich fast verzagen

Track length0:48

$1.00

$1.25

IX. Mit Myrthen und Rosen

Track length3:43

$1.00

$1.25

Holloway, R: Fantasy-Pieces on the Heine 'Liederkreis' of Schumann, Op 16

Work length26:03

$5.00

$6.20

The Nash Ensemble
Martyn Brabbins

II. Half asleep

Track length2:08

$1.00

$1.25

III. Adagio

Track length6:13

$1.00

$1.25

IV. Scherzo ostinato

Track length9:15

$1.50

$1.85

V. Finale: Roses, thorns and flowers

Track length8:27

$1.50

$1.85

About
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About

Robin Holloway's early musical training took place as a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral in London. He is now a lecturer at Cambridge University, where he has been since 1975. His compositions are increasingly respected and recorded, and a disc of his Second and Third Concertos for Orchestra won the 1994 Gramophone Award for Contemporary Record of the Year. Two distinct strands inform his compositional style: there is an inevitably 'modernist' stance, but this is complemented by the fruits of his study of language, style and quotation. This latter is represented here by the Fantasy-Pieces on the Heine 'Liederkreis' of Schumann. In many ways a 'sequel' to the Scenes from Schumann of 1970, the Fantasy has five instrumental movements which explore extensions, descants, reharmonizations, rhythmic shifts and the like on Schumann's original work. It also includes, after the Prelude, a 'straight' performance of Liederkreis. All in all, a fascinating juxtaposition of Romanticism and modernist tonality. The Serenade in C, for the same instrumentation as the Schubert Octet, was commissioned by The Nash Ensemble in 1978 and completed the following year. Again the work is 'derivative' and highly original at once, Holloway giving, in his own words, 'an affectionate twist to tonal common practice and light-music cliches all the way from Biedermeier Vienna to Southend Pier'.

Reviews

2010

A contemporary composer takes a 19th-century classic, Schumann's song cycle Liederkreis, and sets it in a musical frame of his own devising: a short, astringent 'Praeludium' and four extended movements, the style hovering between pure homage and what the composer calls 'phantasmagorical collage'. Certainly sufficient to cause hackles to rise! But the result, entitled Fantasy-Pieces on the Heine 'Liederkreis' of Schumann is uniquely fascinating, haunting and increasingly rewarding the more one goes back to it.
Brief though it is, the 'Praeludium' is just enough to tell the ear that the performance of Liederkreis that follows isn't going to be the whole story. Holloway picks up magically on Schumann's ending, in a short movement, 'Half asleep' (what follows is, at times, intensely dream-like).
Then come an Adagio, a Scherzo and a finale – on one level, symphonic, on another, an intricate series of references and cross-references based on Schumann's songs (not all from Liederkreis). The manner drifts between masterful irony and fleeting moments of intense self-revelation. Liederkreis remains Liederkreis, and yet something profound and (in the wider sense) modern is added.
The Serenade in C is a kind of post-modern divertimento. Scored for the same forces as Schubert's Octet, it alternates, charmingly and teasingly, between sensuous Viennese cosiness, something closer to the salon Elgar, and delightful, end-of-the-pier vulgarity – though with a more acerbic harmonic colouring from time to time. Play a short extract to a musical friend and he/she might well date it before the First World War. But nothing is ever what it seems for very long; the disruptive subtlety of Fantasy-Pieces is here too, despite the seeming holiday feeling.
Splendid performances from the Nash Ensemble – colourful, precise and sensitive to Holloway's kaleidoscopic shifts in mood. The recordings are quite excellent: the change in perspective for the Schumann songs makes perfect aural sense.

Holloway: Serenade, Fantasy-Pieces & Schumann: Liederkreis

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