Bryan Kelly: Left Bank Suite (c.1965)

The Left Bank Suite was composed during the 1960s after Bryan Kelly (b.1934) had been studying with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. He had already learnt most of his compositional craft from Gordon Jacob and Herbert Howells at the Royal College of Music. The liner notes of the only CD recording of this work explains that the Suite is a “light-hearted attempt to paint some of the scenes of this quarter of Paris.” It seems that when Kelly was a student there it was "still a place for writers and artists to congregate, and where a cheap meal could be had at one of the several bistros dotted around.”

The opening Prelude is a lively musical portrait of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, a district in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. During the 1940s and 1950s it was at the centre of the existentialist movement associated with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. Many cafes were popular with the intellectuals, such as Les Deux Magots, Café de Flore, and Café Procope. They are still there. During Kelly’s time in Paris, the literary set was waning, but jazz was becoming more popular. The second movement depicts the Jardin du Luxembourg in the same area. These gardens have a playground for children and a large carousel. Kelly’s take on this features a very Parisian waltz complete with the out-of-tune sound of a fairground organ in the middle section. The most sophisticated movement is the Intermezzo: The Seine. Romantic to the core, it evokes a kind of Gene Kelly/Leslie Caron rendezvous by night. Initially heard on solo flute, the main theme builds to a full orchestral climax. The finale looks to the above-mentioned Café de Flore for a rumbustious finish. There are certainly nods here to Malcolm Arnold.

The Left Bank Suite was issued on the Heritage Label in 2015 (HTGCD 285). It can be heard on the Bryan Kelly playlist on YouTube, here. The Royal Ballet Sinfonia is conducted by Barry Wordsworth. Other works on this disc include the Epitaph for Peace, Concertante Dances, Globe Theatre Suite, A Christmas Celebration, Tango for strings and Nativity Scenes.

Reviewing this CD for The Gramophone (March 2015, p.15), Andrew Achenbach considers that “Happy memories of this French sojourn bubble up to the surface in the disarmingly tuneful and deftly sculpted Left Bank Suite, a 1960s commission for the BBC Concert Orchestra and the effervescent curtain-raiser on this generous Heritage survey.”