NICHOLAS MAW: “Odyssey.” City of Birmingham Symphony,...

NICHOLAS MAW: “Odyssey.” City of Birmingham Symphony, conducted by Simon Rattle. EMI Classics CDS 7 54277 2 (two CDs). Described in the liner notes as “probably the longest unbroken span of orchestral music ever composed” and by Rattle as a “masterpiece,” Maw’s “Odyssey” is unquestionably very long but maybe not a masterpiece. Everything about the work, written on commissions from the London Symphony and the BBC between 1972 and 1985, is gigantic. Couched in a dense but tonal and accessible neo-Romantic idiom, the work unwinds at a glacial pace, with slow-moving thematic lines and gut-grabbing, turbulent, large-orchestra climaxes. It lasts, on this, its premiere recording, a little more than 95 minutes. There is, for all of its obvious romanticism and drama, a peculiar, static feeling to much of “Odyssey”: The epic-length themes, without either strong harmonic pull or rhythmic outlines, seem incomprehensible in their entirety and thus meandering. While one never particularly minds where one is at during any given moment in the piece--indeed, may even feel fascinated, thanks partly to the exceptional orchestration with its stunning use of timpani and high trumpets--one doesn’t feel compelled onward, or especially moved. Rattle and the Birminghamers perform with great conviction and amazing polish.