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Forgotten Masterpiece Friday: Cipriani Potter, Symphony No. 6 (10)
It's Forgotten Masterpiece Friday!
Philip Cipriani Hambly Potter (1792-1871), who went by the name Cipriani throughout his life, worked in what has been regarded as a "dark age" in British music. British music from between 1800 and 1880 has long been seen as staid and backward-looking, trailing trends on the European continent by two or three decades. Potter was one of the few exceptions among British composers, not only keeping up with his contemporaries on the continent but anticipating the late Romanticism of Wagner and Bruckner with some of his harmonic language. Though he was Britain's first great Romantic symphonist, he had the misfortune of working in Beethoven's shadow during his most productive years.
During his life, Potter was known mainly as a virtuoso pianist. He lived in Vienna for a time, become friends with Beethoven during his years there, and after returning to England he played the English premieres of no fewer than three of Beethoven's piano concertos. He went on to champion the piano music of Schumann and Brahms in the British Isles. His performing career was a long one; his last appearance on a concert stage was in 1871, the last year of his life, aged 78. Potter's career as a composer, however, was strangely short. He composed almost his entire catalogue by his mid-40s. Though he continued to revise his past compositions until the end of his life, after 1837 the only new music to come from his pen was a handful of short piano pieces and one march for orchestra.
Potter is believed to have completed 12 symphonies, all between 1819 and 1834, of which 9 survive. The numbering is rather confusing. Some modern sources number the surviving symphonies 1-9 in order of composition, while others use the numbers 1-12 with the lost symphonies inserted in presumed order of composition. Potter himself numbered some of his symphonies but not others, and seems to have used at least two different numbering systems. The symphony presented in this post, for example, is listed as his 6th symphony today, but Potter himself referred to it as "No. 2" and "No. 10" at different times. ("No. 2" may be because it was his second G-minor symphony; "No. 10" may be in order of last revision.)
Potter's 6th (or 10th) Symphony was completed in 1832, five years after Beethoven's death, and was probably revised in the early 1850s. Not surprisingly for its original composition date, it is very much a successor to Beethoven, with the final movement even seeming to contain some echoes of Beethoven's 7th Symphony. Where Beethoven was known for surprise modulations into distant keys, Potter takes it a step farther, with ingenious rapid-fire sequences of key changes and long periods of tonal instability that critics of his time found unsettling. In this sense, Potter was part of the bridge from Beethoven to the late Romantic era. This symphony may even have influenced Wagner directly: Wagner is known to have admired Potter and conducted this symphony in 1855 during his brief period as a full-time orchestral conductor.
Philip Cipriani Hambly Potter (1792-1871), who went by the name Cipriani throughout his life, worked in what has been regarded as a "dark age" in British music. British music from between 1800 and 1880 has long been seen as staid and backward-looking, trailing trends on the European continent by two or three decades. Potter was one of the few exceptions among British composers, not only keeping up with his contemporaries on the continent but anticipating the late Romanticism of Wagner and Bruckner with some of his harmonic language. Though he was Britain's first great Romantic symphonist, he had the misfortune of working in Beethoven's shadow during his most productive years.
During his life, Potter was known mainly as a virtuoso pianist. He lived in Vienna for a time, become friends with Beethoven during his years there, and after returning to England he played the English premieres of no fewer than three of Beethoven's piano concertos. He went on to champion the piano music of Schumann and Brahms in the British Isles. His performing career was a long one; his last appearance on a concert stage was in 1871, the last year of his life, aged 78. Potter's career as a composer, however, was strangely short. He composed almost his entire catalogue by his mid-40s. Though he continued to revise his past compositions until the end of his life, after 1837 the only new music to come from his pen was a handful of short piano pieces and one march for orchestra.
Potter is believed to have completed 12 symphonies, all between 1819 and 1834, of which 9 survive. The numbering is rather confusing. Some modern sources number the surviving symphonies 1-9 in order of composition, while others use the numbers 1-12 with the lost symphonies inserted in presumed order of composition. Potter himself numbered some of his symphonies but not others, and seems to have used at least two different numbering systems. The symphony presented in this post, for example, is listed as his 6th symphony today, but Potter himself referred to it as "No. 2" and "No. 10" at different times. ("No. 2" may be because it was his second G-minor symphony; "No. 10" may be in order of last revision.)
Potter's 6th (or 10th) Symphony was completed in 1832, five years after Beethoven's death, and was probably revised in the early 1850s. Not surprisingly for its original composition date, it is very much a successor to Beethoven, with the final movement even seeming to contain some echoes of Beethoven's 7th Symphony. Where Beethoven was known for surprise modulations into distant keys, Potter takes it a step farther, with ingenious rapid-fire sequences of key changes and long periods of tonal instability that critics of his time found unsettling. In this sense, Potter was part of the bridge from Beethoven to the late Romantic era. This symphony may even have influenced Wagner directly: Wagner is known to have admired Potter and conducted this symphony in 1855 during his brief period as a full-time orchestral conductor.