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Peter Racine Fricker: The Vision of Judgement and Symphony No.5
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Review | “On this showing, Peter Racine Fricker’s music is powerful and impressive, and though by no means ‘easy listening’ is also far from having the impression of being difficult or unapproachable to the extent given by many mid-20th century creations. Lyrita’s releases from its founder Richard Itter’s own recorded archive go from strength to strength, and we can but hope that these and other mighty but forgotten works will re-emerge in more frequent modern performances as a result of having their profiles raised via this medium.” Dominy Clements, musicweb-international.com Peter Racine Fricker (1920–90) achieved a fine reputation after WW II as one of the finest British composers of his generation; but his star waned, and his music is now largely forgotten. His catalog, though, encompassed more than 160 works in every genre except staged opera; and his music was regularly heard in the 50s and 60s. These are two of his finest large-scale works. In The Vision of Judgement (1957) he set portions of the epic poem Christ by the 8th Century Anglo-Saxon poet Cynewulf. It is a loud work, relying heavily on brass and percussion, with precious little lyricism to leaven an unrelenting dissonant style. Fricker’s style drew heavily from prevailing European music; it has none of the traditional English folk-derived sound that characterized Vaughan Williams or Holst. The choral style is heavily homophonic, so the powerful text comes over well. In general, though, the music sounds heavy-handed, lacking in variety and finesse. Fricker’s symphony was commissioned by the BBC orchestra in 1975–6 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Royal Festival Hall; it uses a large orchestra, including lots of percussion and a substantial part for organ (though it is not really a concerto). It is a short work, only 19 minutes, concentrated and dense in style. Here the brevity is a plus, for this is a more interesting work than The Vision of Judgement. These recordings were made privately by Richard Itter, the founder of Lyrita. Both are BBC broadcasts, the Vision from 1980, the Symphony from the 1976 premiere (monaural). The quality is quite acceptable, if not at the highest level. Readers interested in post-war British music should grab this while it is available. American Record Guide |
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