British Prom Premieres Revisited 1970 Part 5

Tim Souster: Triple Music II (BBC Commission)

Arthur Sullivan: Excerpts from The Grand Duke

Michael Tippett: The Shires Suite

Malcolm Arnold: Fantasy for Audience and Orchestra, Op 106 (World Premiere)

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Magnificat

Tim Souster’s Triple Music II was premiered at a remarkable ‘crossover’ late-night concert on Thursday 13 August 1970. It featured performances by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the rock band The Soft Machine. Works included Terry Riley’s Keyboard Studies as well pieces by Mike Ratledge and Hugh Hopper, both members of the band. For the Souster work, three conductors were required: David Atherton, Elgar Howarth, and Justin Connolly.

Triple Music II, by definition ‘exploits many things triple.  I have not heard this work. To my knowledge there is no recording. Souster has given a good (if verbose) overview: ‘Sir William Glock’s commission which resulted in Triple Music II was specifically for a work for three orchestras. This started me thinking in terms of things triple, from the general (the layout of the orchestras, their constitution, the overall form) down to the particular (the types of material, the organisation of pitch and rhythm). But the starting point for this process of particularisation was the concept of a verbal matrix which would germinate many works for different instruments, different environments, realised by many different performers, even composed by many different performers. The matrix is simply ‘Make triple music’. (Souster Webpage). The succeeding ‘programme note’ (which I will not copy) would require English, Music and Philosophy degrees to absorb.

I guess that this work will probably not be revived in our day. To be sure, there will be a recording of this work in the BBC archives. Perhaps one day someone will ‘stream it.’

Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera The Grand Duke (1896) is hardly the most popular of the series. I am a G&S enthusiast, and must confess that I have never seen it, although I have listened to it and followed the score. It was to be the duo’s fourteenth and final collaboration.

Writer Marc Shepherd has concluded that the work ‘c.’ Despite some recent revivals, I guess it is never going to achieve popularity.

At the G&S Night on Saturday 22 August 1970, the BBC Concert Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Chorus plus a galaxy of soloists presented a selection of well-loved numbers from The Pirates of Penzance, The Yeoman of the Guard, Princess Ida and The Mikado. In amongst all this music they manages to squeeze in the Overture to The Grand Duke. Two years later, a selection of five numbers from this opera were given at that years G&S Night. That’s it.

I am always surprised that Michael Tippett’s The Shires Suite has not gained traction with the composer’s fanbase. To my knowledge there is currently no complete recording of the piece in the CD catalogues.

The premiere of the complete Shires Suite written for the Leicestershire Schools Orchestra, took place at Cheltenham Town Hall on 8 July 1970. It was well received by the audience. Despite the considerable difficulties, the work was beautifully performed by choir and orchestra with the music reflecting ‘a further consolidation of Tippett’s post-Priam clarity of texture with a rediscovered lyricism which, allied to his special feeling for the setting of words, transforms what might have been an occasional piece into a significant new work.’ A recording of the 1970 Cheltenham premiere has been uploaded to YouTube.

The Shires Suite was performed the Last Night of the Proms on Saturday 12 September 1970. Along with the traditional pieces, the concert also featured music by Hector Berlioz, Alan Rawsthorne’s Piano Concerto No.2, Aaron Copland’s El Salon Mexico and the World Premiere of Malcolm Arnold’s Fantasy for Audience and Orchestra, Op 106.  This last work is purely ephemeral and is unlikely to be performed again. That said, it is fun: Prommers must have enjoyed assisting Sir Malcolm (in the stalls) realise this delightful piece of whimsy. That night’s performance can be heard on YouTube. The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus was conducted by Colin Davis. The piano soloist in the Rawsthorne was Malcolm Binns.

A studio album of Michael Tippett’s The Shires Suite was released on Unicorn Records (UNS 267) in 1981. The Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra and the Leicestershire Chorale were conducted by Peter Fletcher. Included on this LP was Douglas Young’s Virages-Region 1 with the cello solo played by Rohan de Saram and conducted by the composer. This album has not been released on CD. However, both the Tippett and the Young have been uploaded to YouTube.

Ralph Vaughan Williams’s unusual setting of Magnificat was composed in 1932. It was premiered at that year’s Three Choirs Festival in Worcester. It is an expansive setting of this New Testament Canticle, associated with Evensong.  It is important to note that RVWs Magnificat is not designed for liturgical use: it is quite definitely a concert work. The setting is scored for solo contralto, women’s chorus, and orchestra. There is a considerable contribution made by the vast array of percussion instruments which includes timpani, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, tambourine, Indian drum, glockenspiel, and celesta. The listener will be struck by the disparity between the ‘rhapsodic’ singing of the soloist and the introspection of the chorus. There is much splendid orchestration in these pages, with an important part for solo flute that is used by RVW to portray the Holy Spirit but has strong echoes of Debussy’s ‘pagan’ Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune. It was heard on Wednesday 26 August 1970 during a remarkable ‘all British’ concert. Other music heard that evening included Frederick Delius’s Brigg Fair, Edward Elgar’s ubiquitous Cello Concerto in E minor with soloist Joan Dickson, William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast and Humphrey Searle’s rarely heard Oxus, op..47.

Listeners are blessed with three excellent recordings of the Magnificat, including ones on the EMI and Hyperion labels.

Listening to this work it is hard to understand the ‘relative neglect’ of this remarkable setting. One reason put forward is the Magnificat’s relative brevity and the large scale orchestral and choral resources make it an unattractive commercial proposition.

Concluded.