# SS 16.11.19 - Magnard #4



## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

A continuation of the Saturday Symphonies Tradition:

Welcome to another weekend of symphonic listening!

For your listening pleasure this weekend:*

Alberic Magnard (1865 - 1914)*

Symphony No. 4 In C-Sharp Minor, Op. 21

1. Modere Allegro
2. Vif
3. Sans lenteur et nuance
4. Anime
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Post what recording you are going to listen to giving details of Orchestra / Conductor / Chorus / Soloists etc - Enjoy!


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

Another weekend is upon us and another Symphony is up for your listening enjoyment. This weekend it's French composer Alberic Magnard's Fourth Symphony. I find Magnard's symphonies to be quite interesting so I'm glad to be hearing this one again. I hope everyone can give this one a listen.

Here's a YouTube link for those without a recording:




Michel Plasson/Orchestre du Capitale de Toulouse

I'll be listening to this one:







Thomas Sanderling/Malmo Symphony Orchestra


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

I have made my feelings about this work clear before. I feel it is the single finest symphony to have come out of France. It has a power and a sense of purity and nobility few works can match.

Plasson's is debatably the best recording out there. But I'll give the new recording under Fabrice Bollon on Naxos another spin, as it seemed a bit mild on first hearing.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Quite opportune, this - I'm in the middle of a Max Reger binge and I always wonder whether Magnard wrote the symphonies that Reger never did. The Plasson set also has for fill-ups three good orchestral works.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Plasson for me too. Mine has this cover. I like this symphony a lot but haven't played it in ages. Thanks for reminding me.


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

I'll listen to the Bollon recording here.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

View attachment 126686


I'll listen to, Sanderling.


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## Mika (Jul 24, 2009)

D Smith said:


> I'll listen to the Bollon recording here.


This one and spotify


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

D Smith said:


> I'll listen to the Bollon recording here.


Another one for this version


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

Was Magnard killed fighting the Boche that we’re invading his farm in the first weeks of WWI?


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Yep - he took a couple of pot shots at a detachment of marauding Uhlans killing at least one and they responded by burning his farmhouse, presumably with him in it.


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

I listened to the Bollans and enjoyed it so much put on the 3rd symphony too. I don't think I ever heard any Magnard before but will definitely explore his works now. Great Saturday Symphony choice.


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

elgars ghost said:


> Yep - he took a couple of pot shots at a detachment of marauding Uhlans killing at least one and they responded by burning his farmhouse, presumably with him in it.


He became a bit of a national hero for his actions in early September 1914. From Wikipedia:

In 1914, at the beginning of World War I, Magnard sent his wife and two daughters to a safe hiding place while he stayed behind to guard the estate of "Manoir de Fontaines" at Baron, Oise. When German soldiers trespassed on the property, Magnard fired at them, killing one soldier, and they fired back before setting the house on fire. It is believed that Magnard died in the fire, although his body could not be identified in the ruins. The fire destroyed all of Magnard's unpublished scores, including the orchestral score of his early opera Yolande, the orchestral score of Guercoeur (the piano reduction had been published, and the orchestral score of the second act was extant), and a more recent song cycle.

An honourable way to die.

Similarly tragic and honourable the death of Granados, who drowned refusing to leave his wife in the Channel after their boat was torpedoed outside Dieppe.


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## sbmonty (Jan 11, 2014)

Terrific so far. Great third movement.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Without getting into the question of whether Magnard was a hero or an idiot in the manner of his death, I listened to the Plasson today and will listen to the Sanderling tomorrow.

BTW his abode was something more than a humble farmhouse.


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

elgars ghost said:


> Quite opportune, this - I'm in the middle of a Max Reger binge and I always wonder whether Magnard wrote the symphonies that Reger never did.


I'm very partial to the orchestral music of both Max Reger (b. 1873) and Alberic Magnard (b. 1865) though I hadn't previously thought of stylistic resemblances between the two, if that's what you mean. It's an interesting idea; I haven't checked but there there might be a parallel with Magnard in Reger's _Four Tone Poems After Boecklin_, which were deliberately written in a more accessible idiom than some of his other works. Or maybe with Reger's _Sinfonietta_ that, eccentrically, is longer than many symphonies. Perhaps Reger's lack of symphonies may have been due to his desire to be an innovator and iconoclast, and seen as such (like Debussy and Ravel who also avoided the symphony).


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

^
^

Reger did die early, of course - maybe he would have tackled the symphony _per se_ in due course, choosing his time like Brahms before him? I wonder whether his _Sinfonietta_ was some kind of precursor.


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

Reger's Sinfonietta is a real symphony in my opinion: four movements, serious development, 50-min long give a glimpse of it. It's just that Reger wanted to be 'eccentric' by calling it Sinfonietta. He was cheating.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

A symphony worthy of hearing in any of the available recordings. A true masterpiece, and one of my personal favorite symphonies.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Interesting. I’ve listened to the Magnard (or tried to listen) twice now. It’s obviously of the highest quality with imaginative orchestration, just the right touch to avoid thickness, and plenty of good ideas.

But somehow it just doesn’t interface properly with my musical receptors! I have real problems following the musical threads and sustaining open and attentive listening. The worst part is this seems to be my fault, not the unfortunate Magnard’s!

Perhaps my debilities will be remedied in the future. I hope so.


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## cougarjuno (Jul 1, 2012)

coming in late to this one. will listen to the Naxos recording


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