Remembering Irving FIne

By Joel Mandelbaum, Composer & Former Student of Irving FIne

 

"From time to time, though very rarely, I kept a diary of my thoughts.  One of those times was the Summer of 1962, the year Irving Fine died.  I have recently been rummaging through my long forgotten notes and found the following, which I thought might be of interest to you. It is my entry of August 26, 1962." 

 

     "The general subject of why men create works of art has been put at the center of my attention these last two days by the terrible news of the death of Irving Fine and my grappling for means of expressing my deep regret in a condolence letter to Mrs. Fine.  The thought fixed itself on me: does the fact that he left music behind, including some very beautiful music, make easier, should it make easier, the bereavement of those he left behind?  It would seem to me that the answer is 'yes' and a strong 'yes'  at that.  Through the works of a great composer, his powers to sustain and console can permeate the hearts of total strangers even to his epoch, let alone his person.  Should they not fill the hearts of his intimates?  And since the sense of sustaining another human being is the deepest joy in life, and the fear of leaving most bereft the very creatures closest to oneself the greatest horror of death, is not, whether acknowledged or unacknowledged, the desire to immortalize one's power to console, the greatest single factor behind the impulse to create works of art?"

 

Classical Lost and Found reviews Irving Fine: Complete Orchestral Works

Classical Lost and Found Full Review

 

June 30, 2015 — "The overall instrumental timbre is natural sounding with pleasing highs and a lifelike midrange. Fine's elegant scoring engenders a lean bass end that remains clean throughout. The many instrumental solos are well captured and highlighted in all three play modes with the string tone even more convincing on the SACD tracks. This release is another addition to BMOP/sound's growing catalog of demonstration quality discs."

 

 

MusicWeb International reviews Irving Fine: Complete Orchestral Works

MusicWeb International Full Review

 

June 17, 2015 — "I was delighted by this exciting new CD from the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Apart from the Symphony, I have not consciously heard these works before: Irving Fine is, I guess, little known in the United Kingdom. He was one of the Boston Six group of composers which included Arthur Berger, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Lucas Foss and Harold Shapero. Fine’s music was neo-classical, neo-romantic and latterly serial in its style. All his works are approachable and all are written with fine craftsmanship and an excellent understanding of orchestration."

 

 

Commentary/CD Reviews: Recent Symphonic Recordings From Boston Orchestras

The Arts Fuse Full Review

 

May 19, 2015 — "Curious, isn’t it, that the last really great symphony…was Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements, date 1945, exactly coincident with the end of World War Two? It is as though that apocalyptic bomb had demolished not only Hiroshima but, as a side effect, the whole tonal symphonic concept as well. And so for the last thirty years we have had no real symphonic history."

 

 

Classical Playlist: Tchaikovsky, Leonard Bernstein and More

The New York Times Full Review

 

April 15, 2015 — ... Irving Fine, Complete Orchestral Works Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose, conductor BMOP Sound 1041 "Last year, the centennial of the birth of the American composer Irving Fine, brought some overdue attention to this significant and influential figure. Now there is an essential and rewarding new recording of Fine’s complete orchestra works, performed with expertise, zest and style by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project conducted by Gil Rose."

 

 

Audiophile Audition reviews Irving Fine: Complete Orchestral Works

Audiophile Audition Full Review

 

March 25, 2015 — This disc is a most welcome retrospective of American composer Irving Fine, who died in 1962. Fine was a member of the so-called “Boston Six” or “Boston School.” Other members of the Boston School included Arthur Berger, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss, and Harold Shapero.

 

 

WebMusic International reviews Irving Fine: Complete Orchestral Works

MusicWeb International Full Review

 

March 2, 2015 — To the list of those such as Toccata who fill the gaps of neglected music, I’m happy to add the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Some of their releases have been too avant-garde for me, but there’s nothing about these recordings of the music of Irving Fine to scare the horses. In fact much of the music is as direct in its appeal as fellow American composers Aaron Copland – Fine’s older contemporary – and Leonard Bernstein.

 

 

Irving Fine’s Complete Orchestral Music, a vital addition to his discography

New Music Buff Full Review

 

February 15, 2015 — Irving Gifford Fine (1914-1962) was an American composer. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Fine studied with Walter Piston at Harvard earning Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. He studied conducting with Serge Koussevitsky and composition with Nadia Boulanger. At the time of his death at age 47 he completed only a handful of works for orchestra, chorus and various chamber ensemble and solo works. But what he lacked in quantity did not lack in quality. The Irving Fine Society maintains a very useful web page which can be found here.

 

 

Irving Fine Featured on HuffPost Blog

Nicholas Alexander Brown, March 3, 2015

 

EXCERPT: "Fine's legacy goes way beyond that first festival, though it serves as a tangible product of Fine's work on behalf the artistic community in Boston and the United States. In the Brandeis music department Fine cultivated a strong curriculum in musicology and composition that has produced some of the leading figures in art music (composers Peter Lieberson, Steven Mackey and Scott Wheeler). His leadership of the School of Creative Arts created a training ground for many entertainment icons like playwright and TV writer Theresa Rebeck (Smash), actress Debra Messing (Will & Grace, Smash), Friends co-creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman, Tony Goldwyn of Scandal, president emeritus of The Kennedy Center Michael Kaiser, and actress Loretta Devine of Dreamgirls and Grey's Anatomy."