Lilburn, Judd, New Zealand Sym Orch - 3 Symphonies

Only part of the story

At first, Lilburn was mostly known outside New Zealand, on l.p.s, as the composer of a symphony #2 and an overture: Aotearoa. Gradually a couple of other slight pieces joined their ranks. On cds, Lilburn's other works have become available, including a first and a third symphony, and his music is frequently reviewed in BBC Music Magazine as well as on Amazon. As customer reviewers have pointed out, Lilburn will often remind you of Sibelius, though I'd emphasize that his own distinctive voice is plain in all three of these symphonies--no more so than in the third, which could almost be taken as a mature, confident rethinking of ideas already broached in the second symphony. (Far from being "stern," the third is often the most light-hearted of the three, the light-heartedness of confidence--sprezzatura.)

But the third is from 1961, and Lilburn lived until 2001. His original work lasted until at least 1979. With one (slighting) exception, neither Amazon nor BBC reviewers seem to know that Lilburn began writing electroacoustic music in the early sixties. Robert Hoskins, who wrote the notes for this cd of the symphonies says that they "represent the heart of [Lilburn's] creativity." Lilburn would not have agreed. He saw electronics as the best way to express what he thought needed expressing and composed little else after the third symphony. It's not listed on Amazon, but the three cd/one dvd collection on Atoll of Lilburn's truly mature (and truly distinctive) music is not difficult to find, and is well worth any effort it takes to find it. Lilburn set up the electronic music studios at the Victoria University of Wellington and already three generations of composers have worked there.

To truly know Lilburn in all his glory, you really have to have the Atoll set. The move from instrumental to electroacoustic was an aesthetically well-considered one. Here's what he said about it in 1975 in a note for a Kiwi Pacific Records album (and reprinted in the Atoll booklet), "What is it that attracts composers and students and listeners to this new medium? - perhaps a working context that allows imagination to make use of all the sounds that are part of our human listening experience. The working disciplines are quite as stringent as those required by older music, and the product can be used for wide range of human occasions. And surely, by utilising all sounds that make our audial experience, the medium is most valid for exploring our creative imaginative potential, here and now." February 28, 2007

Some other comparisons (perhaps helpful)

There are already well-done and positive reviews of this fine music, and I only add my 2 cents from the standpoint of possibly helping some potential listeners imagine the way Lilburn's music sounds. Personally, I hear less Nielson or Vaughan Williams and more Diamond, Piston and (for those of you who've heard him) the under-appreciated Finnish composer Leevi Madetoja. In other words, there's not much "English pastoralism" here, and the music is more updated and craggy (to my ears) than Nielson. Yet there is some first rate, and moving, melodic content. Tonal centers are somewhat elusive, but are certainly there, as in mid-period Piston and Diamond. Like those composers, Lilburn had the courage to write basically tonal music when quite a bit of the academic world was pretending it was dead. Yet his music is very clearly of it's time...nothing anachronistic at all about it.

I'd heard the 2nd Symphony before (and even had it on LP, but can't find it now), and it did not break through that strongly to me back then. I am guessing that James Judd and the NZSO deserved credit for handling Lilburn's music in a particularly perceptive and sympathetic way, such that we're getting the full measure of the music, which may not have been the case in the earlier performance. (Or maybe it's just my ears.) The sound is as good as Naxos gets, which is embarrassingly good when compared to some of the full-price labels. February 26, 2006

The World Needs You, Douglas Lilburn!

The music of Douglas Lilburn, the greatest of all New Zealand composers, is beginning to come out of isolation and into the world -- and it's about time. I've long been enamored of Lilburn's Second Symphony, having discovered it on WQXR-FM, then obtaining the now out-of-print CD (on Kiwi/Stradivari) with Heenan conducting the NZSO. Judd's NZSO performance is equally exciting, and the brass chorales are as overwhelming to the senses as any of the Gabrielis'. This use of brass, although not so extended, is foreshadowed in the First Symphony. The later Third Symphony is equal to the others, although it's different in tone color and Lilburn's vision has become more introspective. I recommend all three.

But it's the "brash brass" of the first two that keeps running through my head. The sheer persistence and chutzpah of Lilburn's use of brass reminds me of Nielsen's manic percussion in his Fourth Symphony. Perhaps Lilburn's music is "Nordic," as some musicologists have suggested. He is frequently compared with Sibelius, but if any Scandinavian comparison need be made it should be to Nielsen.

However, I'd like to think that this outstanding music is pure New Zealand and that Lilburn owes his vision to his homeland's mountains, valleys, and towering clouds that pattern the land between episodes of shadow and brilliant sunlight. Those of us who've seen that island nation's vastness in THE LORD OF THE RINGS now know why it can evoke such fierce and beautiful passion. August 30, 2003

Nordic Kiwi.

A few enthusiastic on-the-web reviews of this CD, and one in Fanfare magazine, were all it took for me to give the music of Douglas Lilburn, a recently-deceased (2001) New Zealand composer, a try. (At Naxos prices, what is there to lose, anyway?) It turns out that I'm glad that I did, even though, after listening to the CD numerous times, I've come to recognize minor inaccuracies in at least one of those on-line reviews (elsewhere, not here at Amazon.com). Lilburn's music turned out to be well worth my time, in more ways than one.

Despite Lilburn's having studied in England with Ralph Vaughan Williams, there is not very much in these three symphonies to suggest an obvious connection, except through very careful listening (and, clearly, a knowledge of Vaughan Williams's works). Even then, the connection is subtle and fleeting for the most part, and only truly evident in the two earlier symphonies. Elsewhere in these works, parallels to other 20th-century composers can be made, most obviously - and particularly in the two earlier works - to Jean Sibelius, Sir William Walton, Howard Hanson and Carl Nielsen (hence the "Nordic Kiwi" reference in the brief description at the top).

Lilburn's three-movement First Symphony (1949) comes across as - despite his New Zealand origins - unabashedly Nordic in its "sound." The first movement is very Sibelius-like, with its building up of the work from small motivic cells, using harmonic and instrumental-color touches (woodwind pairs in thirds, for example) that remind one of the great Finn. The more brilliant parts of the movement also suggest Walton, particularly his Symphony No. 1. Several minutes into this first movement, there is a clarinet figure which reminds one of Nielsen, but then, immediately after, the thought of Sibelius returns stronger than ever. There is even a hint of very late Sibelius, say, his "Tapiola," in the movement's occasional moments of bleakness.The second movement opens in a Vaughan Williams-like pastoral mood to start, following which the alternation among Hanson, Sibelius and Nielsen seems to again dominate. The third movement again brings Vaughan Williams or Walton, as well as Sibelius, to mind. There is a brass theme reminiscent of Walton's "Crown Imperial," followed by more work reminiscent of RVW, along the lines of his "Folk Song Suite" or, perhaps, portions of his London Symphony or the more pastoral Third and Fifth Symphonies. This final movement closes in a manner that is very much Hanson-like in its neoromantic richness; it is almost a ringer for the closing moments of Hanson's own Romantic (2nd) Symphony.

Much the same can be said for the four-movement Second Symphony (1951), in terms of allusions to these aforementioned composers. But the third-movement Lento invests this later work in depth of emotional intensity (reminiscent of the Largo movement of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony) not experienced in the earlier work. Overall, it is the more engaging (and more fully-developed) work of the two.

The Third Symphony (1961) represents a dramatic change in compositional aesthetic from the two earlier works from the previous decade. It is definitely sterner stuff: much more chromatic and stretching the limits of tonality almost to the edge of atonality, and with little evidence of the Nordic sound of the two earlier works. In fact, the allusions are more to William Schuman or, perhaps, Paul Hindemith, with some suggestion of Serge Prokofiev in the "Vivace" section and Béla Bartók, as in his Concerto for Orchestra, in the "Andante" section. Despite its 14-minute terseness (in one movement that Lilburn divides into five connected sections), it is a richer and more rewarding (if more challenging) work than the earlier two symphonies.

Admittedly, my comments appear to describe these Lilburn symphonies as "rich in borrowed eclecticism." But, if you enjoy the works of any of the composers who seem to be alluded to in these works, you're likely to enjoy this album. The first two works will not challenge you greatly, perhaps, and Lilburn's voice is hardly what I'd characterize as "truly original," but they are tuneful and totally tonal in a way that today's neoromantic composers seem unable to achieve. Worth a listen on those grounds alone.

The recording is fine; perhaps a slight bit on the congested side when listened to on speakers but seemingly clearer when heard on wide-range headphones. The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra acquits itself very well in these works (as one expects it should).

The booklet notes are largely a waste, consisting of only the barest biographical materials and little of musicological merit, especially considering that for many this will be their first experience with Lilburn's music.. Anyone able to make the "Nordic" connections that I (and other reviewers) have made, with little trouble at all, will be frustrated by the fact that the notes say little about Lilburn's music and its possible influences and inspirations beyond the fact that he studied with Vaughan Williams.

A recent news article on Klaus Heymann, the founder/owner of Naxos, states that he lives in New Zealand and no longer oversees the Naxos operation with the same day-to-day attention to detail that he earlier did, in establishing the label's reputation.

And it shows. To me, it seems as if he had little if any direct role in championing this release; it doesn't have his characteristic "fingerprints" for notational detail and scholarship. (By contrast, the Naxos booklet notes for the recent "critical edition" recordings of the Charles Ives 2nd and 3rd Symphonies, by Kenneth Schermerhorn and James Sinclair respectively, are models of musicological clarity and comprehensiveness.) As a result, I feel as if I can give this release only four stars, despite the novelty of the music, as well as its performance, being reasonably meritorious.

Bob Zeidler April 27, 2003

Highly Interesting Symphonies

I had not heard of Douglas Lillburn before the release of this disc. I became interested after reading reviews of this disc. His symphonies are highly interesting and although there may not be a melody that you remember, his musical ideas make great listening. Lillburn was from New Zealand and studied music in England, most notably with Ralph Vaughan Williams. His music has been compared to Sibelius and Vaughan Williams but, for me, there is a lot of Walton in his approach to orchestration. One review I read suggested that the Third Symphony was a bit difficult and abrasive at first hearing but I did not find this to be the case.

The Second Symphony was inspired by Lillburn's love of nature. In this symphony he sonically gives his impressions of the landscape of New Zealand that is especially expressive. The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra play the symphonies beautifully, and the recording is superb. I highly recommend this disc of very approachable modern music. September 19, 2002

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