Anderson: Book of Hours [CD]

Julian Anderson (b.1947) has not been hyped, but has emeged as a composer of bold, brilliant scores. I purchased this disc as it is the last featured item in "1001 Classical Recordings to Hear Before You Die", and I believe that there is life in the long western tradition of art music. Anderson's music sustains this belief for me. I will listen repeatedly to this CD of colourful, rich and melodic music. Don't expect to whistle or hum any tunes while you work, but meolody is an important aspect of this composer's art, along with an acute ear for colour. The headline piece, Book of Hours, is the longest and uses live electronics as a colouring device. The other pieces, apart from four luminous choral items, use conventional orchestral forces, but in imaginative and virtuosic ways. Just listen. Don't worry about where the music is going. The ear is bewitched. Many years ago I read a review of a Ligeti recording which called it "high class fantasy for all the family", and so it is with this music. The review also said that, while you might want to acquire your umpteenth version of Beethoven's ninth, the one of the Ligeti would sustain you. The same with Anderson. The informative and non-technical notes are helpful.

This is an astounding recording. How did NMC manage to achieve such balanced sound recordings from a series of disparate live performances? Often live recordings have the excitement of live music making but problems with balance and sound quality. Amazingly, that isn't an issue here. The performances are at different locations with differing ensembles. Add to that you get almost 80 minutes of music.
Anyone familiar with Julian Anderson's work from his one other recording, "Alhambra Fantasy" will be appreciate his colourful orchestral style, rhythmic and harmonic complexity, clarity and a tonality built up from small melodic cells. What is more explicit than in the earlier work is his admiration for the music of spectralist composers such as Tristan Murail, one of his teachers; and Gerard Grisey. There is more use of micro tonality as a way to extend harmonic relationships. This is immediately apparent in the first work on this disc, "Eden". This work sets out to evoke a kind of arcadia and uses micro tonality to push the boundaries of consonant harmonies. This is a short, gentle and reflective piece.

"Imagin'd Corners" is another quite short work that builds up interesting harmonies using the natural harmonics of the horn soloists whilst using antiphonal effects by placing the soloists around the corners of the concert hall. This still works effectively on disc though it's a piece that you'd want to hear in concert.

The "Four American Choruses" are indeed luminous, as the other reviewer suggested and are harmonically and tonally the least demanding for listeners perhaps but are not lightweight pieces, lasting around 18 minutes. It is as long as the Symphony that follows.

When Anderson describes how the opening of the symphony is inspired by a Finnish painting depicting the waters trickling beneath the ice as spring slowly melts the ice, you might expect at least some stylistic references to Sibelius but you'd be hard put to find them. The music is in one movement with distinct sections but there the similarities to Sibelius end, with a number of strong dissonant climaxes before the work's conclusion.

"The Book of Hours" is the title work and the longest at nearly 25 minutes over two movements of roughly equal length. How the combination of orchestral and electronic music is so convincingly combined in this recording is a wonder. It is the weightiest piece on the disc and perhaps the most immediately attractive. Both movements begin with a short scale motif before developing into something far more complex. The introduction of electronic material in both movements is used to reflect the medieval source of inspiration for the piece, driving the music into dreamlike, even nightmarish passages.

The second movement begins with the same scale motif over the crackle and hiss of an LP recording before launching into more animated music and then the most extended electronic section that sounds positively lurid, followed by the echoes of medieval dancing.

The Book of Hours displays all the orchestral virtuosity to be found in Anderson's other work again with the use again of micro tonality and of the instruments natural harmonics. The intervention of electronic music is powerful and in no way gimmicky. This is probably the piece that listeners will come back to most often and this live performance was, apparently, a sensation with its audience.

There are two recordings of Anderson's orchestral works. The other won a gramophone award but this one is even better. Anderson's music is nothing like that of compatriot and contemporary, Thomas Ades, but rest assured, these are major works. Five stars are not enough for this recording; excellent music, definitive performances and extraordinary recording - how did NMC do that?

This is attractive music. I like waking up to it! It is imaginative and different and, if you choose to listen, repays you some stimulating music. Or, if you prefer, it can be in the background and it won't disturb you too much ... not through being "noisy and ugly" or through being "irritating and fiddly". I don't think it is music of great profundity or import, though. Comparisons to Grisey's music, for example, are telling. Grisey makes you take note and takes you to a different place (literally move you) but Anderson cannot do this.