Richard Arnell - Symphonies Nos.4 & 5

Richard ARNELL (1917-2009)

Symphony No.4, Op.52 (1948)

Symphony No.5, Op.77 (1955-77)

Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Martin Yates

Recorded: Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow, 19-20 May 2007

Review:

I’d heard extremely positive things about Richard Arnell’s Fifth Symphony and this splendidly gutsy performance by Martin Yates and the RSNO explains why. Written in London between 1955 and 1957 and revised seven years later, it’s an enormously sincere, patiently argued statement, full of rhetorical grandeur and unapologetically epic in countenance. Its centrepiece comprises a memorable conflation of slow movement and scherzo which is flanked in turn by two imposing Andantes, the second of which builds impressively to a jubilant peroration. One could easily imagine the piece going down a treat at the Proms, where it would make a refreshing alternative to, say, a Mahler or Shostakovich symphony.

The Fourth is more concise and no less involving. Begun in New York in the spring of 1948 and finished in London that July, it was premiered in a BBC studio broadcast under Charles Groves and soon taken up by dedicatee Leon Barzin, Barbirolli (with the Hallé at the 1949 Cheltenham Festival) and Beecham. Its subsequent, almost wholesale neglect is hard to fathom, such is the communicative fervour of those arching lyrical lines in the eloquent central Andante con moto in particular (try from 6'36" onwards). Nor is there an ounce of flab in the substantial first movement or enviably terse finale.

As in the Fifth, Yates and a fired-up RSNO give their all, and the sound is immensely full-blooded to boot, though the comparatively unflattering acoustic of Glasgow’s Henry Wood Hall imparts a touch of steeliness when the decibels rise. No matter; if you enjoyed Naxos’s recent Alwyn cycle, chances are you’ll feel right at home here too.

Andrew Achenbach (Gramophone)