Stanford - Symphony No.1; Irish Rhapsody No.2

Charles Villers STANFORD (1852-1924)
 
Symphony No.1 in B flat major

Irish Rhapsody No.2 in F minor Op.84 "The Lament for the son od Ossian"

ULSTER ORCHESTRA

VERNON HANDLEY (Conductor)

CHARLES VILLERS STANFORD (1852-1924)

Another lost Victorian Classic

Sir Charles Villiers-Stanford is not well known today, but a century ago he was in his prime as one of the best known and most respected Irish composers of the Victorian Era. While his choral works have endured, intertwined as they are with the Church of England, his orchestral works have been heard by few. So it is with this first recording of his First Symphony. If the liner notes are to be believed, this is the piece's first recording, I paid more for it (disregarding inflation) than the composer received for it, and I have already listened to it more times than it was played in the composer's lifetime. Which is all a shame.Critics, particularly early in this century, have derided Stanford as a clone of Brahms, yet this work was created for a competition in the same years as Brahms' own First Symphony. Certainly parts of this work sound "Brahmsian," but I believe that this is more a case of common inspiration (Schumann) than mimicry.
Best of the first symphony are the last two movements. The third is a lovely andante with a neat little fugue embedded. The fourth is a rollicking corker in which Stanford's own musical voice is most clearly heard, jigging, jumping and spinning through a Celtic musical landscape to a conclusion which Dvorak could have written. The included second Irish Rhapsody pays homage to Brahms "Hungarian Rhapsodies" in its beginning notes, but then follows it's own path through the folk tunes with are the hallmark of a ethnic rhapsody. I am certain that Stanford had Brahms' footsteps in sight when he wrote this piece. Stanford's First is not the best of his seven symphonies, but Handley does as good a job as he does with the others in the Chandos Stanford cycle, and I find myself listening again and again.