Francis Chagrin: Renaissance Suite for string orchestra.

The Renaissance Suite (1969) by Francis Chagrin is a delightful piece of pastiche that demands to be heard in concert halls alongside the more popular realisations of 16^th/17^th century music by Peter Warlock and Ottorino Respighi. It is well written, melodically rewarding and gently crosses the boundary between authentic and modern-day arrangements.

Francis Chagrin (1905-72), whose real name was Alexander Paucker, was born in Bucharest, Romania on 15 November 1905. He studied music in his home country and later in France with Paul Dukas and Nadia Boulanger. In 1936 he settled in London, becoming by and large an ‘honorary’ British composer.

Chagrin made a major contribution to the film scores; there are over two hundred in his catalogue. This included music for adverts, cartoons and TV programmes. His best-known was written in 1955 for The Colditz Story, starring John Mills and Eric Portman. Despite being recalled for his film scores, Chagrin wrote a considerable body of ‘serious’ music, including two completed Symphonies, a piano concerto, a Romanian Rhapsody for Larry Adler and several chamber works. Chagrin was deeply involved with contemporary British composers and in 1943 he founded The Committee for the Promotion of New Music (which was later renamed Society for the Promotion of New Music). His musical style tended to be towards tonal music, sometimes influenced by French music. Some of his works lie in the cusp between ‘light’ or ‘serious.’ He always eschewed avant-garde procedures in his own music but was supportive of composers who followed this modernist path. Francis Chagrin died in Hampstead, London on 10 November 1972

The Renaissance Suite was composed in 1969 and displays Chagrin at his ‘light’ music best. The work is competently scored for strings, although I understand that a wind quartet can be added. The musical material of this suite features a satisfying mix of ‘early’ music in modern day arrangements of sixteenth century pieces. The sources remain anonymous. These may be recognised by experts of that musical era or they may be Chagrin’s own imitative invention. The four dances are ‘Intrada Marziale’, ‘Pavana a Gagliarda’, ‘Canzon’ and a ‘Rondo Giocosa.’ The most impressive movement is the Pavana with its teasing irregular phrases creating a subtle and sometimes moving appeal.

These pieces are similar in impact to Ottorino Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances or Peter Warlock’s ubiquitous Capriol Suite.

In 2006 Naxos issued a recording of the Renaissance Suite on the fifth volume of its English String Music series (8.557752). Gavin Sutherland conducted the Royal Ballet Sinfonia. The CD featured music by John Ireland, Pamela Harrison, Paul Lewis, Humphrey Searle (Thomas Roseingrave transcriptions), Albert Cabazon and Percy Fletcher.

Reviewing this disc for MusicWeb International (6 August 2006) Jonathan Woolf wrote that: ‘Chagrin’s 1969 Renaissance Suite adopts a peaceable compromise between Old-Worlde and interventionist trickery. It’s not as Village Green as Rubbra’s Farnaby pieces or as affectionate as Barbirolli’s Purcell arrangements. And certainly not as explicit as Beecham’s Handelian dress. But it’s discreetly scored and has a warmly textured and attractive Pavana.’

A splendidly played performance of Francis Chagrin’s Renaissance Suite has been uploaded to YouTube.   The Arcadia High School's String Orchestra I conducted by Pin Chen. One must forgive the applause between movements.

Francis Chagrin Symphony No. 1: Review in The Times.

Further to my post presenting the composer’s thoughts on his Symphony No. 1, I post a major review of the work given in The Times (17 March 1966). The work, performed at the St Pancras Festival, was part of an important concert given at the Odeon Swiss Cottage which featured not only Chagrin’s Symphony, but also Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique along with Khachaturian’s Piano Concerto.  Although the work was given its public premiere on 15 March 1956, it had been given a studio broadcast in 15 November 1963 with Stanford Robinson conducting the BBC Norther Orchestra. It is good to know that the Odeon at Swiss Cottage is still extant.

‘Francis Chagrin’s Symphony, which was broadcast about three years ago, [15 November 1963] received its first public performance at the Odeon, Swiss Cottage, on Tuesday, with the composer conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Chagrin is the most versatile of musicians and as conductor of the well-known ensemble that bears his name, he is intimately acquainted with a large variety of different styles. But as a composer he does not appear to have a personality strong enough to withstand these influences, which may explain why his symphony lacks the stamp of a marked individuality, striking the listener as the work of a typical eclectic. Indeed, there were recognizable echoes in it of Mahler, Berg and Shostakovich.

Nevertheless, on second hearing the work seems to gain in stature. Above all, it is a true symphony both in its material and its elaboration – in other words, it grows organically and cogently. Its four movements are concise in form and their argument interesting and well sustained. While it seems to spring from a central mood of bitterness and disharmony its contrasting facets are effectively mirrored in the individual movements. All in all, a thoughtful and well-wrought work which despite its lack if an original language would repay further hearings.

The rest of the programme, Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique and the Piano Concerto by Khachaturian, was conducted by the young Israeli, Mr. Moshe Atzmon. His account of the symphony was one of the most vital we have heard in recent time – taut in rhythm, with a compelling sense of drama and an ear for Tchaikovsky’s sensuous lyrical phrase. The orchestra was on top of its form, which could not be said of its playing of the Chagrin.

Miss Pnina Salzman, the soloist in the Khachaturian work, brought to the work an accomplished technique and musically attempted to make the most of what is, with the exception of the Andante, rather blatant music.’ 

The Times 17 March 1966. 

Francis Chagrin: Symphony No. 1 (1966)

Earlier this year, I was looking at ‘symphonic anniversaries’ and discovered that Francis Chagrin’s Symphony No.1 was first heard in its present form on 15^th March 1966 – 50 years ago.  I also found a sketch of the work penned by the composer in that months Musical Events journal. I have presented this below.  

I was therefore delighted to discover Naxos has released (February 2016) Francis Chagrin’s Symphonies No.1 & 2, played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins.  I will give a brief biography of Chagrin in a future post as well as some reviews of the First Symphony.

From Musical Events:

‘I started my ‘Symphony’ almost exactly twenty years ago, or at least my first sketches date from May 1946. I am not a fast worker and need – like many of my colleagues – a deadline, a strong inventive to force me to ‘get on with it.’ The incentive was very strong, but the luxury of second and third thoughts slowed the work down in favour of immediate tasks:  commissions for films which had to be delivered urgently; or engagements to conduct concerts and visiting ballet companies; or finishing other works that did not overawe me quite so much as the ‘Symphony.’

I rarely make a master plan or a blue print and then work at it systematically. I allow the musical material to have its say. Often I feel that anything I write is there, in its final form (as indeed it is in the womb of time) and all I have to do is to bring the future back into the actual present, reverse the process and feel my way to the next step.

Without knowing yet all the details, I knew that the work was going to have two main characteristics:-

1. Each movement would have within itself a section in completely contrasting tempo: The first movement, apart from a short ‘Largo’ introduction is an ‘Allegro’ almost throughout, except for a passage that is ‘Andantino’ and illuminates a more lyrical aspect of one of the themes.

Similarly, the second movement, a ‘Largo’, has a sudden burst into a short ‘Allegro’ and then resumes its slow pace. The same happens with the third and fourth movements. In addition to the inner contrasts within each movement, the contrasts between movements is as marked as possible. The first is violent and passionate with echoes of the war; the second is slow and very lyrical and singing; the third is a ‘Presto scherzando’ that has a reflexive section and also a quasi-Viennese Waltz passage, brutally interrupted by the discordant brass: maybe the war was not yet far enough away and did not allow too long for frivolities.

2. Although each movement has its own sets of themes, the first theme of the ‘Allegro’ (first movement) appears in each of the subsequent movements in all sorts of guises, like a friend looking in. Once it is a violin solo, another time it is developed as a counterpoint either in the brass or brasses. It makes the whole work hang together without imposing its identity.

The Introduction (Largo) apart from presenting a harmonic basis for most of the work, is developed in the last movement, as are other elements.

After my first and second movements were completed in 1955, the work was interrupted further by a heart attack. But life started again and the third movement was completed in January 1959 and the last in December 1959.

Since then I have revised the work twice; the final version was finished in December 1965. This is the version that I shall be conducting on the 15^th March [1966] with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Swiss Cottage Odeon during the St. Pancras Arts Festival.

The ‘Symphony’ is dedicated to Jo Leonard, who has given me much encouragement, and to Lawrence Leonard, who played the first version through with the Morley College Orchestra.’

Francis Chagrin Musical Events March 1966

Appended to this edition of Musical Events was a list of concert works by Chagrin. These included:

Nocturne for orchestra (1956)

Prelude and Fugue for orchestra (1957)

Rumanian Fantasy for harmonica (or violin) and orchestra (c.1956)

Suite No.1: Toccata, fughetta and finale. (1957)

Elegy for string quartet (or string orchestra) (1956)

This material was available from the Mills Music Ltd rental library based in Denmark Street in London. 

Let us hope that Naxos or perhaps Dutton Epoch may be persuaded to record some more of Francis Chagrin’s music. 

Francis Chagrin: Overture from ‘Helter Skelter’

I remember a school-friend coming into the music department at my grammar school one morning and announcing that Francis Chagrin was dead. Now I must confess that I had not heard of the composer nor was I sure if ‘it’ was a male Francis or female Frances. However I was soon appraised that Chagrin’s great claim to fame was that he wrote the music to the Colditz Story. Later investigations have revealed that he composed three symphonies, a piano concerto and a great deal of other music. Unfortunately I have never heard the ‘symphonic’ works and I guess that few people have. It is difficult to deduce the value of a composer’s ‘serious’ music from the present overture. However, even the most cursory hearing of Helter Skelter reveals a composer who delighted in fine melodies, superb orchestration and interesting harmonies. This piece is quite definitely a crowd puller and I have often wondered why it does not feature in concert programmes as a ‘curtain raiser.’ It would surely be a great ‘Last Night’ favourite.

Helter Skelter was a comedy film produced in 1949. It starred David Tomlinson, Mervyn Johns and Carol Marsh. However there were cameo roles for a large number of actors including Dennis Price, Jon Pertwee, Esma Cannon, ‘Professor’ Jimmy Edwards, Terry Thomas and Richard Hearne. Hearne played a character called Professor Pastry- a persona he was to make famous on children’s TV in the nineteen-sixties. The film was directed by Ralph Thomas – who was later to make such films as Doctor in Clover, Carry On Cruising, and the cult film Percy.
The present film’s rather weak plot involves a police detective who becomes involved with a socialite and heiress. Furthermore this ‘femme fatale’ has an attack of the hiccups which is only cured after a romp at the BBC’s Broadcasting House in Langham Place. It does conveniently explain the overture’s subtitle of The Girl with the Hiccups.

Francis Chagrin (1905-72), whose real name was Alexander Paucke, was born in Romania. He studied music in his home country and in France. In 1936 he settled in London becoming by and large an ‘honorary’ British composer. Philip Scowcroft, in an article on the composer on MusicWeb International notes that during the Second World War Chagrin worked for the BBC's French service “which may account for the large number of settings of French traditional songs among his output”. Although Chagrin wrote ‘serious’ music, he made a major contribution to the film score genre; there are over two hundred in his catalogue.

Over the years, Chagrin adapted a number of film scores for the concert hall these included the Four Orchestral Episodes (from The Intruder) and the Yugoslav Sketches (from The Bridge). These are actually quite serious works and are in total contrast to Greyfriars Bobby with its Scottish flavour and the riotous Helter Skelter.

The overture from Helter Skelter opens with a short, dramatic four-bar phrase that quickly builds up to a crescendo. This is immediately followed by a ‘swaggering, energetic’ theme. This allegretto scherzando is a fine example of a well-orchestrated piece of ‘light music.’ It is well described as displaying a ‘hiccupping rhythm’ and a certain ‘slapstick quality.’ It is a fine musical description of a fairground. Soon the allegretto leads into a romantic mood: a theme worthy of Richard Strauss slowly emerges. Surely Chagrin must have had Der Rosenkavalier in his mind at this point. Yet even this music has a touch of humour provided by sardonic comments from the woodwind. The music becomes passionate before a brass fanfare leads into a modern sounding ‘allegro section’ that is rumbustious in character. A flute solo leads to an attempt at reprising the opening theme. However, the romantic Straussian tune twice manages to delay the proceedings. Eventually the ‘swaggering music finally re-establishes and leads the overture to a rousing coda – complete with ‘dance band style’ muted brass, wa-wa effects and trombone glissandi. Yet, in the final bars the music calms down and the coda is cheeky rather than decisive. The whole work gives the impression of a flamboyant, high-spirited romp tinged with an essential love interest.

The early reviews of the Overture were hardly encouraging. B. W. G. R., the critic in Music and Letters (Volume 32 No.4 October 1951), was certainly less than complimentary. He mused as to “whether ‘comedy overture’ is a suitable title for Francis Chagrin's composition,” and decided that it largely “depends upon one's interpretation of the word ‘comedy’”. He considered that the music was “banal both in its content and in its scoring (two-octave glissandos for horns, ‘wa-wa’ directions for trombones and so on)” He concluded by suggesting that “perhaps it is not intended for the concert platform”.

A few months later the Musical Times (Volume 93 March 1952) could report that: Helter- Skelter, a comedy overture by Francis Chagrin, opened the concert given by Sir Adrian Boult and the London Philharmonic Orchestra on 16 January, the programme continuing with Elgar's Falstaff and Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony”. But then he hits hard: “Mr. Chagrin has been salvaging his scrap: the basis of the overture is the music he wrote some years ago for the hardly successful British film, Helter-Skelter. After a sombre beginning, the overture settles down into routine jollification (an odd bang here, and odd ' wrong' note there) with sentimental interludes; the music never becomes memorable”.

Yet some fifty-four years later critics are more understanding and more generous in their estimation of this work. Hubert Culot, writing a review of the Chandos disc of Chagrin’s music for MusicWeb International, stated that “this light-hearted overture opens the present generous survey in high spirits. The music really lives up to its title, its highly contrasted tunes ‘colliding’ with each other in a most joyful and refreshing way.” Interestingly, Culot wonders if he is “...alone in hearing echoes of Enescu’s Rumanian Rhapsodies in this piece?” Whatever the case, he concludes by suggesting that this Overture is really a “fine concert opener that should have become popular”. (August 2005)

The score of the Overture from Helter Skelter was first published in 1951 by Augener. A miniature score is also available. The recording history is difficult to pin down. There is a reference to an early ‘record’ of the ‘Spring Song’ and the ‘End titles’ played by the London Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Muir Mathieson. This was issued on a 78 r.p.m. disc, serial number FM74 although it may refer to the studio’s own recording as opposed to something of public release. Lyrita issued a performance by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Braithwaite in 1976. It was re-released on CD in 2007. In 2005 Chandos released a fine conspectus of Francis Chagrin’s music, which includes Helter Skelter.

I note that there although there are currently two versions of the Helter Skelter Overture currently available in the CD catalogues, there is not currently a DVD of the film itself. It is perhaps fair to suggest that this is a case of the music long outliving the film.

Helter Skelter is presently available on two CDs:- CHANDOS CHAN 10323 and LYRITA SRCD.318

Francis Chagrin: Aquarelles (Portraits of Five Children)

I remember a school friend of mine coming into the music room at Coatbridge High School way back in 1972. He announced that Francis Chagrin was dead. Now I must confess that I was not sure who he was talking about – whether it was a lady Frances or a male Francis! However John soon explained to me that it was a man and that his great claim to fame was having written the film score to The Colditz Story, which at that time was all the rage. I guess I never thought about Chagrin again until I bought the Lyrita lollipop disc and discovered the Overture: Helter Skelter. However over the years I have heard comparatively little of his music – there is a Renaissance Suite and the Chandos release of selected film music. But what of the three Symphonies, the chamber works or the songs? Virtually nothing. It is a field worth exploring.

The latest release from Dutton, 'British Light Music Premieres: Volume 5', introduces most listeners to a delightful work from this composer’s pen – the five Aquarelles. I guess that most folk, even enthusiasts of British Music, will be unaware of this piece.

The programme notes point out that the work had its genesis as a series of piano pieces. It was composed in 1950. In 1952 it was published in two versions – solo piano and the present edition for string orchestra. Apparently Chagrin had three children in mind- most likely including his own sons, Nicolas and Julian. However the composer felt that listeners may want to hear characteristics of their own children, so he added three more miniatures…

Aquarelles is a collection of five contrasting miniatures – the shortest lasting a mere thirty-six seconds. However, the mood of these pieces is actually quite diverse.

The work opens with a forward little ‘prelude’, which harks back to the 18th century. However there is a bite to the harmony which ensures that it does not become pastiche. Serious matters are considered in the ‘andantino’ which is actually quite moving: not quite Dolly’s Funeral, but definitely deeper thoughts than should occupy a child at play. I love the ‘allegretto’ – it is certainly not ‘childish’ yet it conjures up for me a walk in Regents Park with a ‘special friend.’ Perhaps the gorgeous ‘andante con espressione’ is the heart of this work; a simply delightful tune surely encourages all adults to look wistfully back at their past or to eye fondly their grandchildren and hope for the them the very best that life can offer. The last movement is a kind of ‘jig’ that banishes most, if not all reflection.

Naturally for such a work there is little in the way of criticism in the musical press. However the July edition of the Musical Times did a short note on this score when it was published in 1952. “Modern music is often beyond the powers of the average pianist…[They]…supply a need here, and might well be included in a school concert, by older pupils. There is nothing startling or brilliant in these pieces, but they indicate a composer with a sense of imagination, and they has the delicate elusive quality of a watercolour.”

Francis Chagrin’s Aquarelles can be heard on Dutton CDLX 7209