Elizabeth Maconchy: Overture, Proud Thames (1953) Part III: The Recording

In 1972 Lyrita Records issued an LP (SRCS 57) featuring Elizabeth Maconchy’s Overture: Proud Thames. It was a premiere recording. Included on this compilation album was Geoffrey Bush’s Music for Orchestra (1967), Lennox Berkeley’s Symphony No.3 (1969) and William Alwyn’s Four [of Six] Elizabethan Dances (1956-7).  The London Philharmonic Orchestra was conducted by Vernon Handley with Berkeley and Alwyn directing their own pieces.

  

The Gramophone (October 1972) reported rather churlishly that Proud Thames ‘doesn’t amount to much.’ Despite this, Trevor Harvey (TH) felt that the entire album was ‘a thoroughly intriguing, and varied, record of music, very well recorded indeed.’

The Hi-Fi Stereo Review (December 1974) reviewed the American version of this LP (Musical Heritage Society MHS 1672. It gave an overall rating of: ‘Performance-Authoritative and Recording-Good.’  The LP is deemed to be excellent value for the Berkeley and Bush alone. The former is a ‘powerfully wrought’ Symphony and Geoffrey Bush’s Music for Orchestra could well have been called a symphony but is more like a concerto for orchestra.  The other two works are ‘easy to take, if not especially memorable.’ As Maconchy was not well-known to an American audience, the reviewer reminds listeners that she was known primarily for her chamber music [hardly fair] and that she had won the London County Council prize for her ‘Coronation’ overture. It was deemed to have ‘a fine title, but the six-minute work itself is rather undistinguished, except perhaps as an example of Maconchy’s craftmanship as an orchestrator.’ The reviewer was a little more enthusiastic about William Alwyn’s Elizabethan Dances, with good orchestration combined with ‘more imagination and a bit of charm.’

In 2007, Lyrita re-released Proud Thames on CD (SRCD 288). This all-Maconchy programme also included the Symphony for double string orchestra (1952), the Serenata Concertante for violin and orchestra (1962) and Music for Strings (1983).  

Tempo (January 2008) presented a detailed review of this CD by Guy Rickards. He considered that ‘Proud Thames is a compact, concise tone-poem inspired by the river of London and Oxford…’ Vernon Handley gives this work a ‘taut account…’

Rob Barnett MusicWeb International (7 June 2007) suggested the Overture ‘is bright-eyed and magical. Like Smetana's Vltava it traces the Thames from bubbling source to the Capital. It's a work of singing and sighing beguilement and of regal nobility.’  Another MusicWeb review was presented by Hubert Culot (7 November 2007). He wrote that: ‘The earliest work here is the overture Proud Thames composed in 1952, some sort of English Vltava, although “the Thames is shorter by many hundreds of miles than the Vltava” (Hugo Cole). The music is simple, direct and colourfully scored. A very fine concert opener all-too-rarely heard.’

I also reviewed this CD for MusicWeb (7 July 2007): ‘As I write this review, I am high above the Thames near Blackwall Reach – and the memory of her musical tone poem, for such it is, on this misty summer’s day makes for poignant thought. Proud Thames is one of those works that should be in the repertoire, along with Malcolm Arnold’s The Smoke and John Ireland’s London Overture; the reality is that it will probably only receive an occasional airing - if that. It would have made a terrific ‘Last Night’ opener.’

It is a splendid thing that at the 2019 BBC Promenade Concerts Proud Thames is at finally making a last-night appearance, not as an opener, but in the second half, sandwiched between Percy Grainger’s Marching Song of Democracy and Harold Arlen’s ‘Over the Rainbow’ from The Wizard of Oz.’ It has not been heard at the Proms before.