Not Homer But Still An Odyssey

A very impressive piece of late 20th century British music, the 96 minute orchestral piece Odyssey by Nicholas Maw. This release is on two cd's, there's also a smaller scale piece, Dance Scenes. The recording of Odyssey is a live recording by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Simon Rattle and funded by the Arts Council. Dance Scenes is performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Daniel Harding. It is a striking piece that would make a change to be programmed in the concert hall instead of something like Britten's Sea Interludes, it did remind me slightly of Britten, if not that piece. Odyssey is an altogther different kind of beast and stands as a very important work. It gets a fine performance from Rattle who is at home with this kind of repertoire. It is one of the longest unbroken spans of orchestral music ever produced and works on that scale bring comparisons with Mahler or Bruckner and it is the latter that probably is most closely associated. There's nothing derivative though and harsher dissonances creep in at intervals through the piece. Despite the title Odyssey, there's nothing outwardly programmatic about the work, it's sections being called Intoduction, Part 1, Part 2 etc. A work that deserves to be much more widely known but the length must make it difficult to accomodate both as a recording venture and in concert. As a composer, Maw now seems more appreciated in the US where he now lives, than back home in Britain.