As I suggested on another of your uploads - I invite listeners to compare this symphony with, for example, the Viola Concerto and the 5th Symphony. It's amazing these all come from the same composer.
PS I also recommend his magnificent Requiem which includes the complete Kaddish in Hebrew settled within the Roman Catholic format of the traditional requiem. Beautiful and haunting simultaneously.
Wow! Overpowering, uncompromising, disquieting, severe, inspired, and inspiring: a definite masterpiece! Other composers came to mind - Rautavaara, Havergal Brian, Pettersson, and Ives, yet this symphony is a most original one indeed, with marvelous orchestral effects and fascinating surprises. The explosive opening and its' aftermath (a vision of WW3?), then the alarming trumpet about 20 minutes in, then, a march like no other, then the vocal solos, all contribute to this work of a single, unified, purposeful statement. I could compare Joseph's 4th to another famous 4th, Vaughan Williams', but, although their dramatic intensity is similar, the stylistic content is so vastly different that it would be unfair to both composers to do so.
Thanks to that from UNIT, I did indeed investigate the Viola Concerto, the 5th Symphony and the Requiem. I found most of the symphony boring, to be honest. The concerto was delightful - similar idiom to the Concerto For Light Orchestra - but that Requiem is immense, utterly superb. I recommend it without qualification.
As I suggested on another of your uploads - I invite listeners to compare this symphony with, for example, the Viola Concerto and the 5th Symphony. It's amazing these all come from the same composer.
PS I also recommend his magnificent Requiem which includes the complete Kaddish in Hebrew settled within the Roman Catholic format of the traditional requiem. Beautiful and haunting simultaneously.
Many thx for the upload.
Wow! Overpowering, uncompromising, disquieting, severe, inspired, and inspiring: a definite masterpiece! Other composers came to mind - Rautavaara, Havergal Brian, Pettersson, and Ives, yet this symphony is a most original one indeed, with marvelous orchestral effects and fascinating surprises. The explosive opening and its' aftermath (a vision of WW3?), then the alarming trumpet about 20 minutes in, then, a march like no other, then the vocal solos, all contribute to this work of a single, unified, purposeful statement. I could compare Joseph's 4th to another famous 4th, Vaughan Williams', but, although their dramatic intensity is similar, the stylistic content is so vastly different that it would be unfair to both composers to do so.
Thanks to that from UNIT, I did indeed investigate the Viola Concerto, the 5th Symphony and the Requiem. I found most of the symphony boring, to be honest. The concerto was delightful - similar idiom to the Concerto For Light Orchestra - but that Requiem is immense, utterly superb. I recommend it without qualification.