Orchestral delights from Switzerland

by Graham Rickson | Saturday, 17 February 2018
Diethelm: Symphonic Works Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Rainer Held (Guild)
Swiss composers? There's Honegger, and Frank Martin... add to that list one
Caspar Diethelm (1926-1997), a prolific musical polymath and teacher who also
dabbled in politics, botany and mineralogy. Somehow he found the time
to compose, and this three-disc set collects four of his eight symphonies
alongside other orchestral works.
Encountering unfamiliar composers can be a fraught business: there's the worry
that their neglect might be deserved. The Lucerne-born Diethelm doesn't fall into this category; the opening minutes of his extended suite Saturnalia are winning, and should engage anyone listening with open ears. This 1982 work is a sequence of seven dance movements, composed as a breather after Diethelm’s weightier Symphony No. 5. Think of Saturnalia as a suite extracted from an imaginary ballet score. Me, I was beguiled by the characterful wind writing (especially in the third section’s funeral march), and the sheer oddness of the thing, with a sombre description of a death mask followed by a relentlessly upbeat finale. Occasionally you're reminded of Nielsen or Sibelius, but Diethelm does have a distinct style. The earliest of the symphonies was completed in 1964, the clean lines showing the influence of his teacher Hindemith. Symphony No. 3 followed six years later, its harmonic and textural clarity an attempt to channel the spirit of late Haydn. The first movement’s lolloping ländler recalls Mahler, the finale’s ticking quavers surely a nod to Prokofiev.
Diethelm gave his next symphony the subtitle “Homage to Joseph Haydn”. This irascible and unpredictable work is enormously enjoyable: I’d happily pay to hear it live. Its successor, described as a "Mandala for Large Orchestra", is very different,

It deserves to be listened to at high volume. Your neighbours will applaud
   
a large-scale work which was intended “to serve as an aid to meditation, to experience a flowing archetypal quaternity that takes shape from a call from inside oneself.” Hmm. Not sure what that means, and the sheer amount of musical incident would surely distract anyone using the symphony as a mindfulness aid. This is an entertaining if weighty piece, with a magical coda. As an extra, there's Diethelm’s Symphonic Prologue, its clean lines an attempt to mimic the “precise and austere contours” of a woodcut. Performances are consistently good, Rainer Held securing excellent playing from an on-form Royal Scottish National Orchestra. You’ve met Martinů and got to know Kabeláč. Now's the time to discover Diethelm.

(Quelle: http://www.theartsdesk.com/classical-music/classical-cds-weekly-diethelm-grieg-tippett)