Smith - Symphony in A minor

Rec.:London Mozart Players

    This is a symphony I was thinking of doing for the week of symphonies by women composers, so I'm doing it now, because I clearly didn't get to it then. Alice Mary Smith was an English composer in the mid-1800's and wrote a couple symphonies, in addition to many other works. This work doesn't have the tonally ambiguous nature or overly dramatic tones of the Romantic, but it rather seems like an extension and refinement of Classical music.

    The clarity of the themes is one thing that strikes me as Classical in nature with this symphony. They are almost always the foreground and unobscured. In many hands this would get dull rather quickly, but her orchestration, while conventional, is very skillful and precise, which keeps the straightforward presentation of ideas from getting dull. That might actually be a good description of the work overall, mediocre ideas saved by excellent craftwork (not kraftwerk, though). And I do appreciate some good craft displayed in addition to artistry.

    This is another one of those symphonies that remind us not to draw stylistic lines in the sand with respect to date. I feel like we tell a narrative in the Romantic era about how complexity builds up until Brahms decided to look back to the simplicity of the Classical era to inform his music, but the more I listen to composers that are off the beaten path, it seems like that tradition never really died during the Romantic. We all just love Beethoven so much that we are more concerned with the development of music in his footsteps, but it seems like plenty of composers were happy to keep developing in a more conservative style during this era as well and that their music is equally interesting. Well maybe not to Beethoven's... that guys music is legit I hear, but certainly to some other Romantics. I'd rather listen to this again than Schubert 1 again.