Marine – à travers les arbres is an orchestral composition by the English composer Andrew March. It was the winning piece in the inaugural Masterprize International Composing Competition held in 1998 after having been selected from 1,318 entries from over 60 countries.Pettitt, Stephen. "Taste of Things to Come – New music has no platform than Masterprize.", The Sunday Times, London, 12 April 1998. Retrieved 2 December 2019.Cowan, Rob. "The Masterprize Barbican", The Independent, London, 9 April 1998. Retrieved 1 December 2019.Umbach, Klaus. "Klänge für große Gefühle", (Seeblick – durch die Bäume), Der Spiegel, Hamburg, 13 April 1998 (in German). Retrieved 17 December 2019."This Week in London", National Public Radio, Washington, D.C, 11 April 1998. Retrieved 2 December 2019.Goldsmith, Charles. "From Mergers to Music – An Investment Banker Who Dreamed Up a Competition for New Composers", The Wall Street Journal Europe, New York, 7–8 September 2001.Church, Michael. "Knock-out competition", BBC Music Magazine, (M199711), November 1997. The impressionistic Alberge, Dalya. "Briton wins first composer contest", The Times, London, 8 April 1998. work has been performed 13 times throughout the world. McLaren, John. "Music critics’ low note", The Times, London, 6 November 2003. Retrieved 9 December 2019.

Composition

Marine – à travers les arbres was inspired by the spectacular scenery of Moulin Huet Bay in Guernsey and two of Pierre-Auguste Renoir's paintings of the same bay in 1883; Baie du Moulin Huet à travers les arbres and Marine à Guernsey. In September 1996, Andrew March made sketches of what would become his symphonic “tone pictures”, but it was only when he had knowledge of the Masterprize composing competition that he was spurred on with the compositional process.Dam, Julie K. L. " The Prize Is Right", Time, 20 April 1998. Retrieved 2 December 2019. The resultant piece has a duration of 11 minutes 48.

Reception

Marine – à travers les arbres received critical acclaim both during the Masterprize competition and in reviews of the gala final. After receiving the highest combined votes from members of the public and a jury of eminent classical musicians, the piece became the overall winning work.Christiansen, Rupert. "What about a decent waltz?", The Telegraph, London, 11 April 1998. Retrieved 19 December 2019. However, the new status of the piece was greeted with mixed reactions by music critics who felt that it was one of the weakest of the six competition pieces.Allison, John. "Review", The Times, London, 9 April 1998.

The majority of post-Masterprize reviews criticised March’s winning piece. Rob Cowan, writing in The Independent in the wake of the Masterprize final, made it clear he would not have chosen the piece as the winning work:

Sara Austin writing for the Forum of the Symphony Orchestra Institute in October 1998 pointed out that:

Publishing In 1998, Marine – à travers les arbres was published by Masterprize and sub–published by EMI Music Publishing Ltd and the piece has since been handled by the hire library of the Music Sales Group.

Recordings Marine – à travers les arbres was first recorded in 1997 by the BBC Philharmonic with conductor Philip Ellis for the semi-finals of the Masterprize Composing Competition. Between 21 and 23 December 1997, the London Symphony Orchestra recorded the work in Studio 1, Abbey Road Studios. This recording was released as the covermount CD of the March 1998 edition of the BBC Music Magazine (BBCMM67), and the same recording was subsequently released by EMI on the Debut Series (CDZ5728262) on 6 September 1998.Rozmus, James. "Dedicated composer scores Masterprize", The Guardian, London, 7 May 1998. The covermount CD of the six finalist works was one of the competition's methods for capturing the votes of the public, enabling the magazine's worldwide readership of over 200,000 to take part.

Performances The world première of Marine – à travers les arbres with given by the London Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding on Tuesday, 7 April 1998, during the Masterprize Gala Final at the Barbican Centre in London.Henken, John. "Composers’ Eyes on Masterprize", Los Angeles Times, 7 April 1998. Retrieved 6 December 2019. Later in 1998, there were further performances in Zurich and Moscow with the State Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra under conductor, Mischa Damev. As part of the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) tour of 1998, Marine – à travers les arbres received repeat performances at concerts in Düsseldorf, Gävle (Sweden) and at EXPO' 98, Lisbon. The EUYO tour culminated in September 1998 with a televised performance at The Proms under the direction of internationally renowned conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Broadcasts The first Masterprize competition reached an estimated global listenership of 100 to 150 million.Moseley, Ray. "Composing Contest Draws International Attention – And a Few Sour Notes", Chicago Tribune, p. 47, 7 April 1998. Retrieved 16 December 2019. As one of the finalist pieces and eventually the overall winner, Marine – a travers les arbres benefit from 250 airings across 40 international stations.

The first broadcast of Marine – a travers les arbres took place during BBC Radio 3’s Musical Encounters with Mark Rowlinson on 4 November 1997."Radio (Listings)", The Guardian, London, 4 November 1997. Retrieved 15 December 2019. The broadcast used the first recording made under the auspices of the European Broadcasting Union for the semifinals, and featured the BBC Philharmonic with conductor Philip Ellis.

The interest of radio stations has continued well beyond the immediate fallout of Masterprize with airplay in 2004 on WNYC-FM (New York Public Radio)New York Public Radio "A guide for music played on WNYC FM", WNYC-FM, 19 July 2004. Retrieved 16 December 2019. and Concertzender Netherlands. In August 2005, the piece featured on Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP2) as part of the series "A Geografia dos Sons" and in August 2006 and April 2007 there were broadcasts on Brazil's Rádio Cultura programme "A Seguir Harmonia" (Ask The Maestro) with João Mauricio Galindo. In November 2015, Marine – a travers les arbres was aired during the Full Works Programme on Classic FM (South Africa).Playlist "Classic FM 102.7" (South Africa), 28 November 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2019.

References

External links , European Union Youth Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy Marine – à travers les arbres, BBC Philharmonic, Philip Ellis, SoundCloud Marine – à travers les arbres, London Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Harding Marine – à travers les arbres, British Music Collection (BMIC)] Marine – à travers les arbres, Royal College of Music (RCM) Library Catalogue Marine – à travers les arbres, British Library (Sound & Moving Image Catalogue)