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Track Listings
| 1. Symphony No. 7, Op. 113 - Irish NSO/Penny. |
| 2. Symphony No. 8, Op. 124 - Irish NSO/Penny. |
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unsettling works,
By
This review is from: Arnold - Symphonies Nos. 7 and 8 (Audio CD)
To those familiar with his English (etc) Dances, film music and even his earlier symphonies, the 7th Symphony (particularly) will come as a surprise: an unsettling, stridently-scored, relentless and deeply pessimistic work, that puzzles and occasionally irritates when first encountered but which begins to reveal itself on repeated hearings. The 8th seems less hard-driven, but the pessimism is still there, despite the folksy tune of its first movement and the attempt to recapture the spirit of Arnold's early symphonies in the finale.
Some knowledge of the composer's final years (which can be gained from Tony Palmer's documentary film Towards the Unknown Region) will help the listener to get to grips with these two works. It is now evident that the earlier picture of Malcolm Arnold the ebullient entertainer who captured the public imagination in the 1950s and 1960s was only half the story. These two works, plus the final (9th)symphony reveal the other Arnold, only hinted at in such places as the Lento of the 2nd Symphony and the second Cornish Dance. The Naxos recording highlights the splendid brass and woodwind of the Irish orchestra, the starring figures in Arnold's score (eg the coldness of the flutes at the start of the second movement of the 7th, and the prominence of Arnold's own instrument, the trumpet) together with the percussion (the incessant drum rythyms of the 7th's first movement): the strings are less prominent in two works that exhibit the composer's characteristically light, transparent scoring. In short, an excellent recording of two challenging works.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Revelation,
By
This review is from: Arnold - Symphonies Nos. 7 and 8 (Audio CD)
I'm afraid that I was one of the many people who dismissed Arnold as a successful composer of light music and film scores, feeling that he was out of his depth when it came to writing symphonies. On first hearing, there was something profoundly unsettling about his symphonies, which would alternate between manically cheerful melodies and utter despair. I now realise that this apparent lack of consistency was a reflection of Arnold's manic-depressive illness rather than any incompetence on the composer's part and his symphonies deserve greater critical acclaim than they initially received.The Seventh Symphony is one of his finest works. Each movement is a portrait of one of his three children, but the result is not one of domestic bliss. Indeed, this music is possibly the most powerful and agonising work Arnold ever wrote. This music isn't easy listening, but it is well-argued and utterly compelling.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling,
By
This review is from: Arnold, M.: Symphonies Nos. 7 And 8 (MP3 Download)
I heard the slow movement to the 7th symphony by accident. I couldn't get radio 1 on my car radio and instead I caught those haunting flutes opening the movement and just had to pull over to listen. What a piece of writing. Both symphonies take you on a journey through joy and dispair. The pain and hopelessness of depression are powerfully conveyed here, but it isn't all gloom. He deserved to be better known and produced a wide variety of music, but these are my favourites.
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