Ernest John Moeran (1894-1950)

[Peter1953]

Moeran seems to me a composer who deserves a thread of his own. I think his Symphony in G minor, with the beautiful 2nd movement, and his Violin Concerto are very fine works, but so far his sombre Cello Concerto grabs me most.

Any opinions on Moeran's works? What do you like best? Who are the best performers of his orchestral music?

[Alan Howe]

Boult's performance of the Symphony is one of the classics of the gramophone...

[Sicmu]

The cello concerto is also a favorite of mine but I think I like everything by him, Handley was a champion of his music ( as of so many british composers). I like both his Deliusian side and the more robust Walton one. This thread made me realize I still don't know his Nocturne for baritone, chorus and orchestra.

[britishcomposer]

Thanks for this thread, Peter! Oh, I love Moeran dearly!!! 

But I cannot decide which piece(s) I like most - it's easier to say which appeals less to me; his Sonata for two violins for example. Critics have dismissed it as a dry run for his magnificent string trio. Yes, perhaps it's the trio I love most. He can be austere as in the mournful slow movement and exuberant as in the coda of the last. His emotional capacity is very broad indeed, I am not the first who thinks that he has a certain kinship to Tchaikovsky in that. I admire wholeheartedly his unsurpassed orchestration, perfect from the early beginnings. No less perfect are his songs and choral music. The Nocturne is one of the finest English choral works I know, do try to get hold of it, Sicmu!

Listening to the Symphony has always a cathartic effect on me. I am unwilling to explore another recording than the Handley with wich I have grown up, I fear I might be disappointed. Nevertheless, I am not uncritical about this work. Despite all it's magnificence the strong and undigested Sibelius influence always irritates me.

[edurban]

I love the Violin Concerto, but so far less gripped by the cello concerto.  Maybe the problem is that it comes fourth on the Chandos compilation and I'm always a bit worn out by the time I get to it.  Next time I'll start at the end...

David

[Latvian]

My favorite Moeran work is the Sinfonietta, especially in Boult's recording. The Symphony is magnificent, and I don't think I've heard anything by Moeran that didn't appeal to me.

[dafrieze]

Most of Moeran's music is beautiful, if often in a rather stark way, but I think his symphony is one of the real unsung masterpieces of the 20th century.

[eschiss1]

I admit I do adore very very much by him (though I need to hear a few major works of his more than the one or two times, if that, that I have, like the 2nd quartet and the Fantasy-quartet, and some others...)

[Toni]

One is Moeran's tragic life, the other the late romantic beauty of his music inspired by Irish folk music. It's almost unimaginable how that went together, or a message to the human condition: how a person endures the tensions of his fate.

The tragic life: born 1894 Spring Grove Vicarage, Heston, Middlesex, his father was an Anglo-Irish clergyman, his mother was from Norfolk. At the age of 22 Moeran suffered a war wound to the head in France during World War 1. After returning, lifelong after-effects of the head injury, the war experiences linger. Despair, alcohol orgies, wild life. An inheritance from his mother made a life without paid work possible, Moeran began to compose, researched and collected Irish folk music. After a long period of silence and following an accident in 1930, he began to compose seriously again. The Symphony in G minor, the Violin Concerto and a Cello Concerto are among his major works. In 1945, after a long acquaintance, he married the cellist Kathleen Peers Coetmore, for whom he wrote his last works, a cello concerto and a cello sonata. His marriage broke up, and he repeatedly abused alcohol. The first signs of mental illness prevented him from completing a second symphony. On a walk along the sea, he suffered a brain haemorrhage at the age of 56, fell into the water and died.

Contrast this tragic life with the beauty of his music: his late Romantic musical style is informed by his love of Ireland and its folk music, and influenced by his teacher John Ireland, by Frederick Delius and Ralph Vaughan Williams, and by his younger contemporary William Walton. Although conservative for his time, his music is full of passion, sometimes dark, but ultimately full of a longing for tranquillity and spiritual expansiveness, so that he also felt most creative composing while wandering through his landscapes.

Here you will find a listening companion to Moeran's Violin Concerto by Anthony Burton!

[eschiss1]

While it's lain fallow for quite some time, we do, of course, have an older general thread devoted to Moeran here to which this could be added rather than start a new one, arguably? (Though since that is a 12-year-old thread, I suppose one could argue either way.)

[Alan Howe]

Duly merged, Eric. Thank you for pointing this out.

[samuelellis]

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[Mark Thomas]

In what way?

[eschiss1]

Re obvious: I guess I thought so too until Self's book on Moeran convinced me to listen again?

[Mark Thomas]

I'm afraid I'm still in the dark as to what "good, often in a rather obvious way" means.