My last post presented a short
overview of Charles Villiers Stanford’s Symphony No.1 in B flat major. Adding
to this, I print a review of the first performance at Crystal Palace in a copy
of The Graphic for Saturday, March
15, 1879. It is worthy of reprinting here with a few annotations.
The concert, which was conducted
by Sir Augustus Manns (1825-1907) included a ‘souped up’ version of Franz
Schubert’s Fantasia in C, with orchestral ‘adjuncts and other improvements’ by
Franz Liszt. Miss Marie Krebs was the soloist in this work that would have
astounded no one more that Schubert himself!
The same soloist gave an
excellent performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Rondo Capriccioso in E minor: the
reviewer certainly felt that this was far more preferable that the Liszt
concoction.
Other works included an aria from
Handel’s Siroe (Cyrus), King of Persia and a duet from The Flying Dutchman. The singers were
Miss Emma Thursby and Sir George Henschel. Included in this long concert were
Weber’s Overture: Der Freishütz and
Rossini’s Guillaume Tell.
'At Saturday’s [8 March 1879] concert there was
something new, in the form of an English work of pretension –a Symphony in B
flat major, by Mr C. Villiers Stanford, organist of Trinity College, Cambridge.
Although as yet comparatively unknown to fame, Mr Stanford has won the respect
of amateurs and musicians of note, while at Cambridge, his own vantage-ground,
he enjoys high consideration. The Laureate [1] especially confided to him the
task of composing the lyrics and incidental orchestral music [2] for Queen
Mary, when that poetical drama, or dramatic poem, was to be produced at the
Lyceum, and an overture written for the Gloucester Festival, [3] which was
frequently performed at Sydenham, again brought him under the ordeal of public
opinion. The Symphony given on Saturday, though it has no claim to be regarded
as an exceptional production, is, in the present dearth of original works of
the kind, decidedly of more that genuine merit, and as such made a
corresponding effect upon its hearers. The second movement - a scherzo in the
rhythm of a German slow waltz, or Ländler, with two trios-one presto in
two-four, the other moderato, in three-four measure-seemed most to please that
is if applause may be accepted as criterion.
The entire symphony, however, is
clearly the effort of a musician who looks after his art from a serious point
of view, and thus, if for no other reason, would be creditable to its author.
The performance, under Mr Manns, was in all respects satisfactory.'
The Graphic for Saturday, March 15, 1879
Notes:
[1] Alfred, Lord Tennyson
(1809-1892) wrote the drama Queen Mary
in 1875. It was what was regarded as a ‘chronicle’ play. It presents the
vicissitudes of the queen’s life relating to the principal persons of the
Court, the Church and the Parliament of her time.
2] Stanford wrote several
important works based on the works of Tennyson including The Revenge, Op.24, Merlin
and the Gleam, Op.172, and music for his play Beckett.
Charles Porte wrote that ‘the
incidental music to Queen Mary was written at the request of Tennyson himself,
who was a friend and admirer of Stanford. He backed up the composer's request
for more room for the orchestra of the producing theatre, and offered to pay
for the two rows of stalls that would have had to have been removed. The
management refused to consider the music or musicians to this extent, however,
and so Stanford had a taste of the difficulties of musical composers with
business men.’
[3] Festival Overture, 1877.
First heard at the ‘Three Choirs Festival’ in Gloucester, 1877
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