Ralph Vaughan Williams Pan’s Anniversary Britten Sinfonia, Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, William Vann (conductor) ALBCD054
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
The most substantial work on this disc of world premiere recordings is the beautiful and impressive Pan’s Anniversary, written in 1905 for a revival of Ben Jonson’s 1621 masque. As the invitation to compose the music came at short notice, Gustav Holst assisted his friend by arranging some of the dances. The whole is a medley of traditional tunes, new music by Vaughan Williams, and spoken episodes here performed by the celebrated actors Timothy and Samuel West. This fine and charming work is the highlight of the disc, very worthwhile unearthing, and given excellent interpretations by everyone involved. It is followed by three songs orchestrated and edited by Christopher Gordon. These, which include two student pieces, are lovely works, albeit with an abundance of Brahms influences (and nothing wrong with that), especially in the gorgeous To Sleep! To Sleep! Tallis’s Why Fum’th in Fight then precedes Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, which is based upon it. Here, however, the Fantasia is arranged for voices and strings: a lockdown project for the Chorus of the Royal Northern Sinfonia which to my ears completely lacks the radiance, luminosity and sonority of Vaughan Williams’s original. It is thus a slightly disappointing ending to what is otherwise a fascinating and superb disc.
Vaughan Williams Earth’s Wide Bounds Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, William Vann (conductor), Joshua Ryan (organ) ALBCD051
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
This disc opens with the magnificent and beautiful Te Deum in G. The nice, bright, animated sound from the choir gets the recording off to an excellent start. For All the Saints follows in an enthusiastic performance (albeit the vowels are occasionally slightly mangled) that reminds us what a spectacular hymn this is. Various other hymns and anthems follow, including the Communion Service in G minor with Rowan Williams as the reader. He delivers the texts beautifully, although the Kyrie exposes the less-secure voices in the choir. We also encounter some unevenness in the enunciation of He Who Would Valiant Be; the word 'pilgrim' is sometimes sung with almost Willcocks-ian cut-glass clarity, but at other points its pronunciation is more akin to standard modern every-day speech. Gripes aside, this is a very nicely presented and beautifully programmed disc. With good notes, it is an attractive release all round, especially given the inclusion of two premieres: the Communion Service and the radiant final work By the Bivouac’s Fitful Flame. This Walt Whitman setting, with origins in a work dating from 1904-1906, is surprisingly experimental but a glorious ending to a thoroughly enjoyable disc.
Ralph Vaughan Williams Folk Songs Volume 4 Mary Bevan, Nicky Spence, Roderick Williams, William Vann ALBCD045
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
The first element of this superb release that struck me was the cover image, both gorgeous and evocative. This volume of folk songs, the fourth in the series, is mostly taken up with the Fifteen Folk Songs from Newfoundland, but also includes The Jolly Plough Boy from Volume 2 of A Selection of Less-Known Folk Songs, the much-loved The Turtle Dove, The Cuckoo and the Nightingale, and the charming duet Servant Man and Husbandman from Folk Songs for Schools. As ever the notes are excellent, featuring some appropriate old photographs, and the performances are exemplary. I was surprised by how shiveringly, delightfully dark many of the Newfoundland songs are, such as The Bloody Gardener, The Cruel Mother, and the wonderful The Gypsy Laddie, with its reminiscences of The Raggle Taggle Gypsy. A wonderful disc in every way.
Ralph Vaughan Williams Serenade Tredegar Town Band, Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, William Vann ALBCD053
This is a strange collection which feels very much like a batch of odds and ends. Some of the works presented are world premiere recordings, pieces which presumably didn’t fit onto other Albion discs and so are collated here instead, but others have already appeared on previous Albion releases. The most substantial piece is David Briggs’s arrangement for organ of Serenade to Music, which to my ear completely fails to capture the radiance and beauty of the original. There are some Flourishes for trumpet and further arrangements (of Variations on Aberystwyth, The Call, and Two Herefordshire Carols), as well as the Suite for Four Hands on One Pianoforte, admirably played by Lynn Arnold and Charles Matthews, and a few folk songs. However, the only work that really captivated me was the performance by Roderick Williams and William Vann of I Will Give My Love an Apple, which is just ravishing.
Cappella Romana
Heaven and Earth Cappella Romana, 45th Parallel Universe, John Michael Boyer (conductor) CR424 SACD
The main piece on this release that will interest lovers of English music is John Tavener’s Ikon of Light, the first disc of this double-CD set. It is here given a magisterial and very reverberant recording in St Stephen’s Catholic Church in Oregon by Cappella Romana and 45th Parallel Universe under their conductor John Michael Boyer. However, much though I admire and love Tavener’s music, I found the second disc –a collaboration between six Orthodox composers setting the Psalm of the Cosmos– musically more interesting, while the performance was also more convincing and impressive.
Naxos
British Light Music Volume 5 Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Hiawatha Suite RTE Concert Orchestra, Adrian Leaper (conductor) 8.555191 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
The British Light Music Series Volume 5 features Coleridge-Taylor, a highly acclaimed composer of concert music. This disc showcases the lighter works in his repertoire and commences with the overture to his masterpiece The Song of Hiawatha of 1899 --a strong opener to the volume. It is followed by the popular and delightful Petite Suite de Concert, the Four Characteristic Waltzes, Gipsy Suite and the 'dream-poem' Romance of the Prairie Lilies. The disc ends with the Othello Suite, music written for a production of the Shakespeare play at His Majesty’s Theatre in 1909. All this beautifully crafted material is excellently played by the RTE Concert Orchestra under the assured baton of Adrian Leaper.
British Light Music Volume 8 Trevor Duncan 20th Century Express Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Penny (conductor) 8.555192
Volume 8 of the British Light Music series presents music by Trevor Duncan and opens in joyful and uplifting fashion with the gem 20th Century Express. Equally charming and delightful are the following works, in particular A Little Suite, while pieces such as The Girl from Corsica, St Boniface Down, and Meadow Mist display Duncan's romantic and wistful side. There are Mediterranean influences in the extremely evocative Wine Festival and La Torrida. The excellent performances from the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Penny make this disc a pleasure to listen to.
British Light Music Volume 9 Robert Farnon The Westminster Waltz Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Adrian Leaper (conductor) 8.574323 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Highly enjoyable, original and inventive music by Canadian-born Robert Farnon is featured on Volume 9 of the British Light Music series, which contains favourites such as Portrait of a Flirt, the luscious and melancholic A La Claire Fontaine, Jumping Bean, The Colditz March, Derby Day, and Westminster Waltz. This is a lovely disc, full of music written by a composer with a great facility for melody and rhythm, confidence, and sureness of touch. It is given sparkling performances by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra and Adrian Leaper.
British Light Music Volume 11 Ron Goodwin Drake 400 Suite New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Ron Goodwin (conductor) 8.555193
Volume 11 of the British Light Music Series shines a spotlight on Ron Goodwin, perhaps best known for his film scores. It therefore opens appropriately with the main title theme for 633 Squadron. The most substantial works are the Drake 400 Suite, commissioned for the Drake 400 Commemorative Festival and comprising seven evocative movements, and TheNew Zealand Suite, which depicts various aspects of and places in a country that Goodwin regularly visited. Probably the most exciting work here (if not, however, terribly subtle!) is the Arabian Celebration commissioned by the BBC Arabic Service, and the disc concludes with the main theme from Lancelot and Guinevere. There are good performances from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under the composer's direction, but I’m not convinced that the music can measure up to some of the other works included in this series. British Light Music Volume 13Archibald Joyce Caravan SuiteRTE Concert Orchestra, Andrew Penny (conductor)8.555218 Archibald Joyce is the subject of Volume 14 of the British Light Music Series. The music is pleasant and charming enough, but rather on the repetitive, unsubtle, and uninspired side compared with some of the series' other featured composers such as Coates, Coleridge-Taylor, or German. Joyce’s best-known work Dreaming opens the disc, which also contains a foray into musical theatre with excerpts from Toto, the evocative Caravan Suite of 1926 (the most substantial and interesting work here), and a number of other dances and miniatures.
British Light Music Volume 14 Albert William Ketelbey Bells Across the Meadows Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra Adrian Leaper (conductor)8.555175
Albert Ketelbey is the focus of Volume 14 of the British Light Music Series, which opens with his charming and deeply evocative In a Monastery Garden, complete with chanting and toy-effect birdsong – the latter is the only element that, to modern ears, is too twee and detracts from an otherwise lovely piece. The following The Adventurers offers a complete change in mood, as expressive of its title as the preceding work. Also included is the delightful miniature The Clock and Dresden Figures, and the most substantial work on the collection, Suite Romantique. Towards the end of the disc an atmosphere of sentimental romanticism sets in with works such as In the Moonlight,Bells Across the Meadows, and The Phantom Melody. Ketelbey’s most famous piece, In a Persian Market, concludes the disc on an exotic note. Performances are good throughout.
Edward German The Seasons RTE Concert Orchestra, Andrew Penny (conductor) 8.555219
The Richard III overture opens a disc of music by Edward German. Written for the 1889 production of the Shakespeare play at the Globe Theatre, where German was then music director, it is a weighty and impressive piece. The following Theme and Six Diversions owed its existence to Elgar’s suggestion that German compose an orchestral work based on King Canute’s reaction to monks chanting at Ely Abbey. The disc concludes with the symphonic suite The Seasons, composed for the Norwich Festival of 1899. It is a substantial work of just under forty minutes, with charming and appropriate scenes representing the different seasons. The whole collection is given an excellent, vivid performance by the RTE Concert Orchestra under the direction of Andrew Penny.
Pieta is a setting of the Stabat Mater, alongside texts from Anna Akhmatova’s Requiem, the conflicting emotions of which inspired Richard Blackford to reinterpret the traditional Stabat Mater texts to portray Mary’s sentiments in a different light. It is therefore a very individual and personal take, with music that is often fast-paced and at times angrier than many Stabat Mater settings. It is, however, gorgeously lyrical. Full of rhythmic drive, deeply felt and radiant, it is here given a superb performance by the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, Bournemouth Symphony Youth Chorus, and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Gavin Carr, with Jennifer Johnston as the mezzo-soprano soloist, Stephen Gadd as the baritone, and Amy Dickinson on soprano saxophone. The disc ends with the six-and-a-half-minute Canticle of Winter, inspired by the final stanza of Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Set for solo saxophone (Dickinson again) and string orchestra (the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Strings), it is a highly evocative and truly lovely work.
Retrospective
Flanagan and Allen Underneath the Arches – Their 27 Finest RTR 4066
This lovely set brings together twenty-seven of Flanagan and Allen’s best loved songs, with restored and remastered sound. The notes include full recording details for each song, along with an interesting essay on the duo and their work. The material will be familiar to lovers of this genre, and my only quibble is the programming, which puts a large batch of very similar sounding tracks together at the start of the disc, rather than varying them with other songs of different tempi and moods. Otherwise, this is wonderfully uplifting music on a well-presented disc.--Em Marshall-Luck