To Lviv with Love: Paul Mann combines conducting in the Ukraine with investigating neglected composers for Toccata Classics, including the Swiss composer Richard Flury

Paul Mann

British conductor Paul Mann is the principal guest conductor of Lviv National Philharmonic (based in Lviv, the largest city in Western Ukraine) and has a significant discography with Toccata Classics recording undeservedly forgotten repertoire. One composer Paul has espoused is the Swiss, Richard Flury (1896-1967) and as well as recording his works for Toccata Classics, Paul will be conducting Flury’s opera A Florentine Tragedy in Switzerland during the 2024/25 season.

Paul’s relationship with Lviv National Philharmonic began with a recording in 2018. He had no history with the orchestra, didn’t know anyone there and had no knowledge of the language. Still, unexpectedly, he made a connection with an orchestra that Paul describes as young, energetic with a desire to work. Since the war, the orchestra finds itself in an impossible situation, they have no money, they cannot bring foreign conductors in and it is impossible to fly there. But Paul felt that he could do something that he would not be able to do anywhere else. So, a few times a year, he flies to Poland and then crosses the border at night, which he describes as John le Carré-ish. Whilst in Lviv, he and the musicians are subject to everything going on including nightly air raids; Paul finds himself becoming part of the life that they are trying to lead.

Lviv National Philharmonic

In such circumstances, you would think that the musicians would not be inclined to put so much of themselves into the music-making, but they do. The repertoire is similarly surprising, as Paul comments that he is finding tragic music reanimates, it brings us back to life. The musicians feel the same thing, and he has made an emotional connection with them. He finds it very inspiring, yet is horrified by the circumstances in which they have to live. He says it would be naive to think that what he does with the orchestra is anything more than a gesture, but it is one of solidarity and he can do little else.

On his last visit, they performed Sibelius’ Symphony No. 1, written in similar circumstances when Finland was occupied by Imperial Russia, and three weeks after we spoke Paul was planning a return visit when he and the orchestra would be opening their 2024/25 season on 14 September [see website], with Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2, which seemed an inevitable follow up to having performed Symphony No. 1. Both works were written in similar circumstances, yet whilst Symphony No. 1 is almost entirely dark, Symphony No. 2 is lighter. Each concert he gives in Ukraine includes a Ukrainian composer. At the last one, it was Symphony No. 2 by Yevhen Stankovych, one of the leading Ukrainian composers. The symphony was written in the 1970s and is a work of extraordinary violence and power. At the forthcoming concert, Paul will be conducting what he describes as a less demanding piece, Ukrainian Carpathian Rhapsody No.1 (1960) by Levko Kolodub (1930-2019)

He hopes to record with them, but the logistics are difficult; the orchestra is a good recording ensemble, but to do recordings everything has to come from Kyiv, which is dangerous. The orchestra has a recording coming out, made with violinist Joshua Bell and conductor Dalia Stasevska (who was born in Kyiv, before her family emigrated to Finland), they did a benefit concert earlier this year [see website, and available on Medici TV].

Paul has around 30 recordings out on Toccata Classics
(with more to come, I gather), and he describes Martin Anderson of
Toccata as having had such a positive impact on Paul’s career, involving
him in many interesting projects. In 2017, Toccata Press brought out
Chris Walton’s biography of the composer Richard Flury,
which led to the idea of getting recordings of the composer’s music.
Richard Flury’s son, in his 80s, sold everything and put the money into
recordings knowing that once he died, there would be far less chance of
the music finding a life. Richard Flury’s teachers included Ernst Kurth
and Joseph Marx in Vienna, and his music was performed by conductors
such as Felix Weingartner and Hermann Scherchen but after his death, his
reputation eroded. Paul has recorded three of Flury’s four operas for
Toccata along with all five symphonies with the BBC Symphony Orchestra,
two discs have been issued and three more are to come. He feels that to
have Flury’s music played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra shows its
stature, emphasising that it does not deserve its oblivion. Paul’s discs
also include Flury’s smaller pieces, and others have been recording
Flury’s chamber music and piano music for Toccata.

The further that Paul got into Flury’s music the value it seemed to accrue, and Paul describes him as a composer with one eye looking forward and one eye looking back, part of his soul lay in Viennese popular music and Paul comments that the music seems torn between Johann and Richard Strauss, between traditionalist and modernism, a tension that gives his music interest and which can be seen from his operas. Having made many recordings of Flury’s music, Paul hoped that these would encourage live performances. The opera company in Flury’s home town, Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn, Switzerland, contacted Paul about performing Flury’s A Florentine Tragedy there, which means that Paul will be conducting the work in the very theatre where the premiere took place in 1928, and the work has not been staged since.

Flury’s opera is based on the Oscar Wilde drama that Zemlinsky used for his opera of the same name. As it is a one-act piece, Paul needed a companion piece and a friend at Bavarian State Opera suggested that since A Florentine Tragedy is a tragedy about betrayal and jealousy, pair it with a comedy about infidelity. So, Paul is pairing Flury’s opera with Ravel’s L’heure Espagnole, there are inevitable dissimilarities in the musical languages but Paul feels it makes a nicely dramatic pairing. He is looking forward to getting to see Flury’s opera in the flesh, rather than in the studio, and he finds it heartening that the company is doing around 15 performances in Solothurn and Biel, from 26 April to 27 May 2025.

The majority of his recordings for Toccata have been names that are unknown or lesser known and Paul enjoys this sort of musical archaeology. He comments that whilst he loves doing the standard repertoire, it is valuable to be able to find a way to do something that no-one else is doing. It is nice to say that if I didn’t do that, no-one else would. Paul has recorded three volumes of orchestral music by the contemporary British composer Derek Scott (described on the Toccata website as having an international reputation as a leading historian of the British music hall and other forms of light entertainment but he is an outstanding composer in his own right), with another volume to come. Other names include David Hackbridge Johnson (born 1963), Arnold Griller (born 1937), Mischa Spoliansky (1898-1985), and Henry Cotter Nixon (1842-1907)

Paul describes these composers as ones who have been either unjustly neglected or haven’t managed to drum up support for their music, yet the quality on offer is incredible. When doing the recordings, you end up with something that really would not have happened otherwise, rather than yet another Brahms cycle (though he admits to being an avid consumer of recordings and would be the first to jump at a new Brahms cycle if he thought it interesting). There is so much more that needs recording, so much of value, that it is worth devoting time to it and bringing it to life.

Paul also works as an editor for music publishers, so when recording music he works on the text, making the parts and score as accurate as possible. Paul finds that a lot of pieces existed in manuscript form yet were so full of errors that you wonder what they originally sounded like. Putting such errors right is an enormous task, but a very important one. With unknown pieces, this is a particular responsibility. Paul admits that though he is not a composer, he always wanted to be, and now this task makes him one by proxy as he takes responsibility for other texts, knowing when to intervene and when not. To a certain extent, this is tabletop work, but in the real world, he also learns how such corrections can change the sound. Also, if the material they are playing from is detailed and thought about, players respond well and commit themselves.

Paul Mann (Photo: Sara Porter Photography)

When we spoke, Paul was planning a return to Latvia to record a fourth volume of Derek Scott’s music with the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, before heading off to Lviv to open the new season there. In the pipeline is a disc of music by Cedric Thorpe Davie (1913-1983), whose Diversions on a theme of Thomas Arne were played at the Last Night of the Proms in 1979, but Paul can find no subsequent performances of Thorpe Davie’s music! Paul has been editing the scores of his symphony, Diversions and an overture (which Paul describes as William Walton-ish) for the recording. When researching Thorpe Davie’s music, Paul visited the Scottish Music Centre in Glasgow and found enough material for three discs. Another composer whose music Paul will be recording is Gerard Schurmann (1924-2020), a Dutch-born British composer and conductor whose music is well represented in the catalogue, but Paul has been working with his widow on three hitherto unrecorded pieces.