Search - Malcolm Arnold, Andrew Penny, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland :: Arnold: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8

A new favorite

NotATameLion | Michigan | 09/19/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A little over a year ago, I knew almost nothing about Malcolm Arnold or his music. Then I encountered Naxos' CD of Arnold's symphonic dances. I was very impressed. Since Naxos really doesn't take too much of a bite out of your wallet, I moved on to Andrew Penny's recordings of his Symphonies. I am officially in awe. This music places Arnold and his music right up there with Mahler and Vaughan Williams (it doesn't really get any higher) in my own Imaginary Musical Hall of Fame. These two later symphonies, the 7th and 8th, are full of invention and fire. All that is great about the best 20th century music is rolled into these two monuments of sound. The Seventh, which is dedicated to the composer's children, is a fantasia of quite varied musical styles woven together by a master's hand. This is what Mahler's music might have been had he lived in the British Isles during the 20th century (though I doubt even Mahler would have been this bold). Everything from ragtime (Shostakovichesque) to flat-out Celtic music finds its home somewhere in the 7th.In contrast, the Eighth features some of the best writing for trumpet that I have ever heard (Arnold is himself a trumpet player). The Eighth has also been called the most Irish of his symphonies. Yet what struck me most was the Stravinsky-like woodwind music that highlights the piece.Both of these pieces could easily have dissolved into something much less than the sum of their parts. They do not. This, to me, bespeaks the hand of an able conductor and a responsive orchestra. Andrew Penny and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland deserve a lot of credit for this wonderful disc as well as the impressive nature of the cycle as a whole.I highly recommend this disc."