Customer Reviews

George Templeton Strong

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Like his friend and supporter Edward McDowell, George Templeton Strong is nominally an American composer, having studied in Europe and absorbed the mid-nineteenth-century musical idiom of Europe to such a degree that any musical, or extramusical, references to America in Strong's work are almost accidental. Unlike McDowell, Strong apparently did not cotton to the American musical scene, and though he worked briefly at the New England Conservatory under McDowell's tutelage in the 1890s, Strong returned to Europe for the remainder of his long life. (He died in 1948.)

As the other reviewer on this page notes, "Ondine," the most important work on the disc, is very much in the Liszt-Wagner camp, some of the folksy, Rhineland-inspired music of "Ondine" recalling Wagner's "Flying Dutchman." Though the conductor Adriano, in his interesting and very detailed notes to this recording, mentions echoes as well of Dvorak, I find more of a parallel to early Strauss and even to Zdenek Fibich, who was working on his First Symphony while Strong was penning "Ondine." I doubt Strong would have been conversant with the work of either of these composers; it's just that they were clearly drawing from the same musical trough. Oh, and then the slower, more dramatic passages at the start and close do recall Tchaikovsky of the early tone poems. So we have a thoroughly Germanized musical language in "Ondine," which is not to take away from the work's attractiveness. Its drama is heartfelt and well sustained, the folk music depicting Ondine's Rhine journey, pretty and diverting. "Ondine" certainly deserves the advocacy that Adriano gives it on this disc.

That can be said as well of the three orchestral suites taken from Strong's piano music. In fact, while none of the suites makes as strong an impression overall as does "Ondine," individual movements are arresting, especially the spooky second movement of the first Suite ("The Cemetery - Sarabande of the Dead") and, best of all I think, the "Oriental Procession" last movement of the Third Suite, which Adriano had to complete since the subtly effective orchestration was left in rough sketch at Strong's death. Strangely enough, the most American-sounding music here comes in the First Suite's last movement called "In the Inn," a loopy portrayal of merrymaking at a roadside inn that has more of Charles Ives than of the Liszt of, say, the "Mephisto Waltz"--which Strong probably envisioned as its antecedent--in it.

Some movements from the suites were premiered by Ernest Ansermet in the early 1940s, when Strong's music would have seemed like time-capsule gleanings. However, this Naxos recording is apparently the first appearance of the three suites on disc. Again, thanks are due, since the music is worth knowing.

Adriano and his forces clearly believe in this music, and it shows in performances that are respectful in the best sense, faithfully recreating the sound world Strong imagined. There is a slightly rough-and-ready quality to some of the playing (especially that of the winds and horns), but this probably adds to the zest of the proceedings. And the studio recording, though I would have preferred a bit more bloom, is certainly detailed and forceful. In all, a happy addition to the catalog.

George Templeton Strong's music, on the basis of this CD, is very much worthy of revival. The tone poem Ondine contains very good thematic material vividly arranged. One definitely can discover what Ernest Ansermet saw in this music. There definitely are plenty of Romantic tone poems on symphony programs which are no more representative and fulfilling that this would be. Indeed, given the overall success of Naxos's American Classics CDs, I'm surprised at how little impact they have had on symphony programmers in this country, with the possible exceptions of Marin Alsop and Jo Ann Falletta. The Sketches are delightful character pieces, exquisitely orchestrated. One has Bizet and perhaps Faure in mind. The performances seem excellent, with some solid playing by the first chairs. And the sound engineering is very good, just slightly cramped in the tuttis. I also have Adriano's recording of Sintram, but on the whole this CD seems a better introduction to Strong's music

On the strength of the earlier issue of 'Sintram', Strong's second symphony, I obtained this CD to see if my very favorable impression would stand up. It does, although the works here are not quite as strong as the symphony.

The most impressive (and much the earliest, from 1885) piece on this disc is the opener, the symphonic poem 'Ondine', based on the familiar legend of the water nymph who longs for a human soul and which has been set to music by a number of other composers including Dvorak, in his lovable opera, 'Rusalka.' The piece opens with two chords that are precisely those - same key, same instrumentation, slightly different rhythm - that open Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. I thought to myself, 'that's peculiar', until I realized the composer wrote these notes _before_ the better-known piece was written. There's a similar place in the Second Symphony that seems to be copying the main theme and galumphing rhythm of Dukas's 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice', but it, too, was written before the Dukas. It makes you wonder if the better-known composers had known Strong's works.

'Ondine' is written in a language very much in the Liszt/Wagner school, with strong undercurrents of Tchaikovsky, and is a tone poem that tells the story in a fairly linear fashion; one could fashion a narrative ballet from this music, although as far as I know that has never been done.

The three Suites, subtitles 'From a Sketchbook', and none lasting more than fifteen minutes, are late orchestrations of piano duets written in the 1890s. Strong was a very talented painter; indeed, some of his watercolors grace the covers of these Naxos CDs. And these pieces were inspired by some of these paintings. They are slight pieces but neatly imagined. I particularly liked 'Jack the Giant Killer' from the third suite.

The performances and recorded sound are excellent.

When I bought the first disc I was under the impression that Strong was the same George Templeton Strong who wrote a well-known diary from the Civil War years, but it dawned on me, finally, that the composer was too young to have written that book. It turns out that it was his father whose diary I'd read. The father's two volumes on music [ed. Vera Brodsky Lawrence; UChicago Press] are worth chasing down; he was writing about musical life in New York in the mid-19th century.

George Templeton Strong (1856-1948) is another fringe figure championed by Naxos in their American Classics series. His music isn't particularly original, nor are there any masterpieces here, but it is really enjoyable, atmospheric and well worth hearing. Strong was himself an admirer and friend of Wagner and Liszt and later a strong supporter of Richard Strauss and Glazunov (among others), but negative to Stravinsky. The style is thus unsurprisingly an eclectic form of late-romanticism - atmospheric and effective, often inventive and imaginatively scored, but conservative and somewhat anonymous.

Ondine is a relatively early work, composed in 1882-1883, but revised in 1939, and is heavily indebted to Liszt with over the top drama and some spectactular orchestral effects (especially effective brass writing). The tone poem contains many nice touches, but overall it is too episodic and the thematic material is honestly too weak to sustain it. Still it is worth hearing once.

From a Notebook of Skethces started out as piano duets written in the 1890s, but were orchestrated and revised late in the composer's life with an added tinge of wistfulness and graced by water-coloristic instrumental touches. Elgar's The Wand of Youth certainly comes to mind, and Strong's Notebooks should appeal to everyone with a soft spot for those Elgar suites. The pieces are mostly simple and one-dimensional, but Strong's scoring and skills as a miniaturist are convincing, and the various atmospheres and moods depicted are beautifully and effectively realized, from the delicacy of the pastoral opening Eclogue to the boisterous revelry of `In the Inn - Nghtwatch' (effectively contrasted with a musical depiction of the quiet outside the inn). Both of the first two suites are in this respect similar, charming, atmospheric, effectively scored and with few pieces outstaying their welcome. The pieces of third suite are inspired by various children's stories. `Jack the Giant-Killer' moves effectively from the drowsy, bucolic opening to a faux-heroic music depicting the fierce battle between Jack and the giant. `The Dreams of Cinderella' is a mysterious and - indeed - dreamlike and very interesting work with imaginative use of dissonances and the final `Oriental Procession' is a subtly colored and rather stirring piece.

Throughout the Moscow Symphony Orchestra plays with spirit and flair under Adriano and the few rough edges doesn't impinge on the rather innocent pleasure of these works. Indeed, this is a very charming programme, well worth seeking out especially, again, for those who enjoy Elgar's Wand of Youth suites but, really, to those who appreciate late romantic watercolor-painted music in general.