Search - Independent Opera :: Maconchy: The Sofa; The Departure

NEWW MUSIC BUT NOT HARD ON THE EARS

RALPH P. GRAY | New york, NY United States | 03/27/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Acknowledgment: I am cribbing from the liner notes.

Let me introduce Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-94). Started composing at 6; entered Royal College of Music at 16; among teachers she impressed was Vaughan Williams. Later in Prague she met Josef Suk; Erwin Schulhoff (the fine Czech composer later to die in a concentration camp) conducted her piano concertino. Sir Henry Wood premiered her THE LAND at a 1930 Promenade Concert. Maconchy received numerous commissions and was performed in many places. She wrote all forms of music except opera until 1956 (THE SOFA; - THE DEPARTURE came a bit later). - Sexism kept her repute down but seems not to have discouraged her. However, British opera before PETER GRIMES was generally not valued.



V'n Wms inspired her to write THE SOFA, for which she chose his wife as librettist. Maconchy's music had become fashionably dissonant but now she parodied Beethoven, Puccini, Johann Strauss, etc.,and Offenbach gestured in the wings. - She used a very small orchestra, with piano, in this satire that staged carefree bedding by the young.



THE DEPARTURE, also employing a small orchestra, is serious stuff. It starts with a funeral and deals with the feelings of people close to the departed Julia. The liner notes suggest this qu'n: what underlies mourning? Basically our fantasies about our experiences?



When I first heard this CD I was not greatly impressed but I did find spots I liked. Repeated hearings much increased my enjoyment. There really are tunes although I remember none. (Maybe because my att'n often wanders - not only here.) I like the orchestral writing a lot - sparse, inventive. The singing is good and often fine. Each opera lasts about 1/2 hour.



The music is nothing to be afraid of (I say to those averse to modern stuff) but it requires a willingness to let what we are used to not determine our receptivity - admittedly a difficult, maybe impossible thing to achieve totally, but absolute success is not needed or maybe not even a wise thing to aim for.



Why 4 stars only? Frankly because I don't thrill to the music as I do, say, to PETER GRIMES. But I DO like it and find it often intriguing."