Christopher Gunning: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4; Oboe Concerto

Gunning (Artist), Verity Gunning (Artist), Andras (Artist), Rpo (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 26, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Chandos
• ASIN: B0024JQNI8
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #345,966 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Fanfare, Jerry Dubins, Nov/Dec 2009

Several years ago, when I announced to a friend that I had decided to visit Belgium, his somewhat bemused response was, "Whatever for?" Before anyone raises objections over a perceived slight to our good friends and allies, the Belgians, let me say that I found Belgium to be a beautiful country, filled with gracious people, an abundance of the most mouth-watering pastries and sweets, and incredibly rich in music and art history. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit, however, that none of this was my original motive for going. No, at the time, I'd become addicted to Agatha Christie's Poirot, the Belgian detective played to such mincingly fastidious perfection by British actor David Suchet. There was no way I could have known at the time that one day I'd be reviewing a recording of works by Christopher Gunning (b. 1944), the British composer who wrote the award-winning music for the Poirot TV series.

To the extent that Gunning has heretofore been known to classical music audiences, it was likely for his Saxophone Concerto, recorded by John Harle and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and for his Symphony No. 1 and Piano Concerto, currently available on the Albany label. Otherwise, Gunning's mainstay has been his work in film and television, for which he's won a number of awards, including a BAFTA Best Film Music award for his score to La Vie en Rose. Among his teachers at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama were Edmund Rubbra, James Gibb, and Richard Rodney Bennett.

Unless a composer is writing for an experimental or underground film, the chances are his music is going to be "approachable," a common code word certain critics use to mean something more listenable than avant-garde effluvium for the ears. And when composers who have earned their livelihoods and reputations in the film industry turn to the writing of scores to be performed in classical music venues, there's an equally good chance they will rely on the same formulas in the concert hall that earned them success in their works for the screen.

So it is with Christopher Gunning. His Symphony No. 3 is, in a way, a personal diary of the year 2005 in which it was written. According to the composer's note, it was a troubled and trying year marked by the serious illness of his wife and his own nearly fatal heart condition. His response, as has been the case with others in similar circumstances, was a combination of complex and conflicting emotions: fear and anger on the one hand, and on the other, a calming acceptance that comes with drawing closer to nature. These conflicts and contrasts are effectively set forth in a large orchestral essay--a one-movement symphony in five sections--that develops its material from a succession of dissonant chords that opens the work. The music is postmodern, which is to say non-specifically tonal, melodically disjunct, and rhythmically irregular, but not to a point in any of these areas where it loses coherence, becomes inchoate, or degenerates into a series of random-sounding pitches punctuated by equally random-sounding silences. Klangfarbe ("sound color") is neither a new concept in music nor the exclusive province of postmodern composers; (Debussy, Messiaen, Boulez, and Ligeti all made use of it) but as tends to be the case in many works written in the last dozen years or so, sound effects achieved by combining instruments in unusual ways has become as expected a technique as was the mastery of counterpoint in an earlier age. No less so is this the case for Gunning, whose score is painted with fresh and vivid orchestral colors. Still, there is nothing cinematic about this Symphony; one would not mistake it for a film soundtrack. It has a life of its own, and a very interesting one at that, one that repays repeated hearings.

The Concerto for Oboe and String Orchestra, written a year earlier in 2004, is a more conventional work, both in form and content. In a traditional three-movement layout, (fast-slow-fast) the piece is actually quite melodic, even lyrical, and lovingly fashioned for Gunning's oboe-playing daughter.

If the Third Symphony was a diary of the year 2005, its successor, the Symphony No. 4, is a diary of 2007, the year in which Gunning's wife made a miraculous recovery and the composer's heart condition stabilized. In his own words, Gunning wanted to "write something that would express a sense of triumph over adversity. Consequently, this work is more direct and tonal than its predecessor." Many of the same techniques of the earlier work are in evidence, but now in service to a much kinder, gentler, and optimistic sounding music. Of the three works on this disc, the Symphony No. 4 could be the closest surrogate for a successful film score.

With Gunning leading the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and daughter Verity playing oboe in the Concerto, these performances have to be as close to definitive as any ever come. Add to that Chandos's wide-stage, resonant, and impactful sound, and you have a most compelling recording. From the mouth of one who is generally unappreciative of modern music to the ears of those who are likeminded, I can easily recommend this disc. You will find Gunning both "approachable" and enjoyable.

Fanfare, Paul A. Snook, Nov/Dec 2009

It is relatively uncommon for a composer who has spent quite a few years writing prize-winning scores for film and TV--with a specialty in low-grade horror vehicles at that--to begin compiling a substantial body of symphonic works that already comprises four symphonies and a number of concertos. Yet that is a fair description of the career of Englishman Christopher Gunning (b. 1944), whose concert music, as well as his conducting skills--are imposingly highlighted on this Chandos release.

With such impeccable credentials as studies with Edmund Rubbra and Richard Rodney Bennett behind him, it's no wonder Gunning wanted to break free of the background-scoring ghetto. In addition to a gorgeous Thames Rhapsody for sax and orchestra issued on one of the Dutton British Light Music collections, a few years ago Albany released a disc including his Piano Concerto, a tone poem Storm, and a very compelling First Symphony. As he revealed in that initial encounter, Gunning has an inherent fondness for single-movement forms in which a simple germinal motif becomes the springboard for an organically conceived series of carefully judged and modulated developments and transformations. This kind of "continuous metamorphosis" exemplified by masters such as Janáček, Saeverud, Holmboe, Tippett, and our own Roy Harris gives the musical line and argument a powerful dramatic lift and momentum, and Gunning's two symphonies hereby adhere to this dynamic. Both are around 25 minutes in duration and fall into five loosely demarcated sections, and both make for absorbing listening that is not unrelated to the composer's cinematic expertise.

The Third Symphony, written in 2005, grew out of a difficult period in the composer's life and was also inspired in part by his love of the Welsh countryside (which, incidentally, is vividly depicted by two stunning booklet photographs). While the Fourth Symphony of 2007 reflects a limited victory over personal problems, neither work is obviously programmatic; in fact, they both make more emotional and structural sense as formal explorations of striking musical ideas.

Between these two dramatically cogent works is a somewhat more conventional but nonetheless very appealing Oboe Concerto of 2004, written for the composer's daughter Verity, who plays here with a marvelously controlled but still expressive fluency. The composer himself conducts the Royal Philharmonic in interpretations that must be considered definitive, and Chandos endows the whole enterprise in its customary aural splendor.

While he continues to make his living in films, on the basis of this program, Gunning shows the potential for making a major contribution to the future of British music, and this release makes it well worth your while getting to know who he is right now.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Delicious Smorgasbord, July 18, 2010

By 

Christina B. Conroy "Music Lover" (NYC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Christopher Gunning: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4; Oboe Concerto (Audio CD)

Like a great voice actor, film composer Christopher Gunning masterfully composes in the personalities of his on-screen characters. This extraordinary recording reveals Gunning's own voice. It is a pleasure. His richly orchestrated, multi-textured music is riveted with emotions. Sometimes they are overwhelmingly painful. At other times, the music is amusingly playful, making the entire listening experience a delicious smorgasbord for the ear and the soul.

Oboe soloist Varity Gunning is a major talent, beautifully articulating her father's music. Since I wrote a novel about a daughter playing her father's music, I feel a special fondness for this extaordinary relationship. I always write while listening to emotional music and am delighted to have this delicious CD in my library.

One Man's Music

Christina Britton Conroy: Author of ONE MAN'S MUSIC