4.0 out of 5 stars
A synaesthetic trial, March 31, 2010
This review is from: Colours (Audio CD)
I own the previous edition of this collective work, in which is not added the piece "Jade" from Vic Lewis. As in the CD inlay is said, the work was rehearsed and released in a few days, and this speaks so much about mastery of Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in its craft.
When we begin to listen this "suite" (united under concept of colour depiction), we find out a very personal impressions from each composer. Maybe one can say: "Oh, this depiction doesn't describe really this colour". Surely, it's due to the different synaesthesies of every person. But it is an option for all of us.
For example, you listen to "Ochre", from Malcolm Williamson, and you immediately can imagine the majestuosity of autumn, when summer just leaved, and ochre leaves make their appearance. A brief intermezzo in A-flat points a bit of melancholy (assigned to woodwinds) before the return to the tonic C-major.
Or you feel the darkness in "Black", from David Morgan. You can feel the "absence of colour" even in the "lack of tonality", however low strings and woodwinds begin their "grave song" with and extended C. The desperation and grief appears all over the piece. A crescendo-decrescendo of percussion ends that darkness.
Other pieces have much more clear references, For example, "Green" is a pastorale which begins with a viola-flute-harp trio. You can sit down in the English countryside in a sunny day (or evening) and even bring a picnic, while children laugh and run around and herd bleats far away. Or "Sienna", which uses a Napolitan tarantella (and in the central part, an intermezzo which CD-inlay describes as "Verdian"). And, of course, "Red", which is not only a "tribute to Shostakovich", but also a recall to the "climate" of 1st movement of "Leningrad Symphony" from the Russian composer. The presence of brass is absolute, which corresponds to a "military piece". Note that this piece is written in G major tonality, the same as "Mars", from Holst's "The Planets".
"Azure" is an only-strings piece, like a "Concerto grosso", with a "trio" played by soli string instruments. It's a melancholic piece, but it's not the impression I'd get from this colour (of course, it's only my opinion).
"Yellow" is, in my opinion, the less achieved piece. We can blame it to the fact that all suite was played and released practically without rehearsals (how to find time to rehearse "in a few days"?). The first Adagio is good, but the Allegro section there are moments of non-coordinated tempi (between strings and brass).
"Jade" is a little precious piece, which makes me think about a delicate Chinese jar. The orchestration is light and really achieved. But there are not pentatonic scales, as happens in Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde", then the reference is only the assignment to a colour.
"Mauve" is a piece composed by Robert Farnon over the alternance of major and minor moods. It tooks a bit of melancholy we've already heard in "Green" and "Azure" (similar orchestration, but no soli strings). And we'll note a progression from A major/minor to C major.
Finally, "Grey" is a gentle piece from American composer Randy Edelman. I think it depicts the simplicity of "all these little things", a life out of public focus. You can imagine yourself far away from the stress of city life. This is what I think the composer tried to describe (or at least the impression that this music produces me).
The CD is completed with excerpts from "Russian Suite" and a "Romance for Violin". "Steppes" points to Aleksandr Porfirievich Borodin and his famous composition "In the steppes of Central Asia" (you can hear high and extended notes in high strings, samely as Borodin) and "Klin" is a recall from Tchaikovsky and his "pathos". This composer lived a few years at Klin, where now rises the Tchaikovsky Museum.
The "Romance for Violin" is set for a solo string quartet, but it seems not so a "Romance" but an "Elegy", which reminds me (a little) the slow movements of Shostakovich quartets (composer largely admired by Lewis).
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