Ek-Stasis: Dionysus, Nymphs and Satyrs

The ethos of this two-CD set is to capture the essence, nature and exploits of the Greek god Dionysus and his crew. To this end the album is sectioned into several themes associated with the divinity: seduction, pathos, illusion, metamorphosis, transcendence, instinct, catharsis, mythos, paradox, and transition. It creates an “immersive experience that guides the listener through various stages of the myth and offers a musical perspective on the story.”

Zoe Samsarelou is a Greek pianist who currently holds the post of Professor at the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki. Presently she is the Artistic Director of the International Pelion Festival held yearly in Greece. Initially she majored in archaeology and then pursued her career as a pianist. Mythology, history, and the Arts have held for her a life-long fascination. 

First up, who was Dionysus? In a nutshell, he was the god of agriculture and more importantly, wine! He also had a great interest in fertility, drama, and festivities.  His father was Zeus himself and his mother was the mortal Theban princess, Semele. In Roman mythology, Dionysus was known as Bacchus. From this cognomen we get the concept of Bacchanalian parties, which tended to descend into orgies. Admirers of Titian’s painting, Bacchus and Ariadne, in the National Gallery, will recall that he was accompanied by satyrs, maenads, and the old man Silenus, who was nearly always under the influence of the vino. On a more serious note, since the seventh century BC, Dionysus has been worshipped down the years even unto our own days. Most famous in recent years were the devotees of the Hellfire Clubs which thrived in the eighteenth century. He is associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries, Orphism and in comparative religion, Jesus Christ.

As noted above, Zoe Samsarelou has themed her recital. On the other hand, I found that the music divides into three main historical groups. Firstly, the baroque, including Rameau, Dandrieu, Couperin and Daquin. Then there are the “romantics” and “moderns” featuring Debussy, Dukas, Schmitt, Massenet, Bortkiewicz, and our own Harry Farjeon. And lastly there is a slew of Greek composers, only one of whom I know, Nikos Skalkottas. There is also a mystery man, Paul Juón. Little on the internet about him, but Grove’s Dictionary entry explains that he was a German musician of Russian birth and Swiss and German descent, who was given the nickname of the “Russian Brahms.”

Highlights for me included all the baroque works. Who can resist the vivacity of Rameau’s “take” on the Les cyclopes or François Couperin’s thoughts on the Tendresses bachiques and the Fureurs bachiques. (Why does the track listing give two different sets of dates for Dandrieu, and miss out the Jean from his forename?)

French impressionism is represented with a transcription of Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’ après-midi d’ un faune and two of his underplayed Six epigraphies antiques - No. 1 Pour invoquer Pan, dieu du vent d’été, and No.4 Pour la danseuse aux crotales. Equally delicious is Déodat de Séverac’s Les Naïades et le Faune Indiscret: it is my favourite number in this recital. (His dates in the track listing are wrong – I think those given are Gilbert Alexandre de Séverac’s who was a French 19th Century artist)

Paul Dukas’s La plainte, au loin, du faune (Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy) is hard edged and a million miles away from the ubiquitous Sorcerer. Lugubrious is a good description of Florent Schmitt’s Et Pan, au fond des bles lunaires, s’accouda from Mirages, op.70, dating from about 1920. This piece was also included in Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy.

A surprise for me was Sergei Bortkiewicz’s Valse grotesque (Satyre) from Trois Morceaux, op. 24, no. 2 written in 1922. Hints of jazz and Gershwin abound. One of my favourites on this CD is Ukrainian composer and pianist Mischa Levitzki’s dreamily romantic The Enchanted Nymph (1928).

And then there is Harry Farjeon, the Englishman abroad. We hear his attractive, if Georgian, Pictures from Greece, op.13, examining The Dryads, The Muses, The Graces amongst others.  

The “Russian Brahms,” Paul Juón does not rely too heavily on his nickname in the nine pieces from his suite Satyre und Nymphen, op. 18. Diverse movements present “scenes in life and times” of the characters. I especially warmed to the Valse Lente: Dryaden reigen im Mondschein (The Dryads Dance in the Moonlight) and the concluding Scherzo: Nymphe fiehl! Schnell! Satyr hascht dich which can be creatively, playfully translated as “You’ve been caught, lassie!”

The Greek works are a mixed bunch. Dimitri Terzakis’s Satyr und Naïaden was written in 2005. In disjointed figurations, the composer depicts the Satyr’s attempts to seduce the Naïades, with singular failure on their behalf. It is as dry as dust. His Ein Satyrspiel (2003) has more vivacity.  From Tethys to the Mediterranean (1999) is part of Giorgos Koumendakis’s suite Mediterranean Desert. It is a dark and cheerless piece, with no relief. Certainly, no Aegean warmth. Lina Tonia’s Prelude of a lost dream (2020) “is based on constant alternations between fast movements and small melodic patterns, like a floating between two different worlds, the world of dreams and that of reality.” Definitely neo-impressionistic. Two pieces are included by Nikos Skalkottas. His compositions were influenced by the Second Viennese School’s serialism, traditional Greek music as well as the broader classical tradition. Echo, (1946) which is largely tonal, portrays the well-known myth of Echo and Narcissus. It is quite lovely, romantic, and impressionistic, especially the aquatic effects. It ends quietly as befits the tale. Skalkottas’s Procession to Acheron (1948) is totally different in mood. Depicting the flow of the river from the land of the living to Hades, the abode of Pluto himself, it is dark hued and bitter.

Nestor Taylor’s Erinyes, from Huit Clos (2017) is a short but immensely powerful toccata depicting the Furies, “the goddesses of vengeance and retribution, who also oversaw the implementation of the punishment imposed on the people by the judges of Hades.”

Dionysus and the pirates, the voyage from Ikaria to Naxos (1998) by Dimitris Marangopoulos supposedly tells the story of when “the god Dionysus, disguised as a rich, young man, was seized by pirates to be held for ransom, and the miracles that happened…” Finally, Aspasia Nasopoulou’s Krokeatis Lithos-Lakonia from Raw (not Row as in the liner notes, I think) Rocks (2017) is loud, slow and ‘pesante’. It is not something I would have chosen to conclude this long recital with. The background to the piece would seem to be more about geology than mythology.

The CD’s documentation leaves much to be desired. Most serious is the total lack of analytical or descriptive notes about the many non-Greek numbers. Equally remiss is the lack of dates for these works. I was able to look them up, so presumably the producer of the disc could have done so too. I have noted some discrepancies in titles, composer’s names, and dates above. To be sure, all the Hellenic pieces have concise programme notes which are helpful, as most of these will be unfamiliar to all but a few cognoscente.

Overall, this is a fascinating recital, that explores a wide range of music set against the background of Classical mythology. It is enthusiastically played by Zoe Samsarelou revealing considerable depth of interpretation and technical expertise. The recording is clear and bright.

The website for Divine Art sums up the CDs’ achievement: “This unique programme highlights the creativity and ingenuity of the Greek spirit and its influence on humanity for over 2,500 years.” It is a disc to savour slowly.

Track Listing:
CD1
Jean-François Dandrieu (c.1682-1738)
2ème Livre, 6ème Suite, La sirène (1728)
Déodat de Séverac (1872-1921)
Les Naïades et le Faune Indiscret (1908-1919? pub.1952)
Dimitri Terzakis (b.1938)
Satyr und Naïaden (2005)
Jean-François Dandrieu
2ème Livre, 6ème Suite, La bacante (1728)
Paul Dukas (1865-1935)
La plainte, au loin, du faune (Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy) (1920)
Giorgos Koumendakis (b.1959)
From Tethys to the Mediterranean (from the suite Mediterranean Desert (1999)
François Couperin (1668-1733)
Pièces de Clavecin, 23ème Ordre, Les Satyres (1730)
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (arr. Leonard Borwick) (1894, arr. 1912)
Lina Tonia (b.1985)
Prelude of a lost dream (2020)
François Couperin
Pièces de Clavecin, 4ème Ordre - Les Bacchanales – No. 1 Enjouements bachiques (1713)
Mischa Levitzki (1898-1941)
The Enchanted Nymph (1928)
Nikos Skalkottas (1904-1949)
Echo, AK77 (1946)
François Couperin
Pièces de Clavecin, 4ème Ordre - Les Bacchanales - No. 2 Tendresses bachiques (1713)
Pièces de Clavecin, 4ème Ordre - Les Bacchanales - No. 3 Fureurs bachiques (1713)
Florent Schmitt (1870-1958)
Mirages, op. 70, No.1 Et Pan, au fond des blés lunaires, s’accouda (1920-21)
Nestor Taylor (b.1963)
Erinyes (from Huit Clos) (2017)
Nikos Skalkottas
Procession to Acheron, AK79c (c.1948)

CD2
Jean Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)
Pièces de clavecin, 3ème Suite in D major: No. 8, Les cyclopes (1724)
Jules Massenet (1842-1912)
Bacchus – Le bapteme par le vin (arr. Alice Pelliot) (1908)
Sergei Bortkiewicz (1877-1952)
Trois Morceaux, op. 24, no. 2. Valse grotesque (Satyre) (1922)
Dimitri Terzakis (b.1938)
Ein Satyrspiel (2003)
Louis-Claude Daquin (1694-1772)
1ère Suite, No.7 La ronde bachique (1735)
Claude Debussy
Six épigraphies antiques, No. 1 Pour invoquer Pan, dieu du vent d’été; No.4 Pour la danseuse aux crotales (1914)
Dimitris Marangopoulos (b.1949)
Dionysus and the pirates, the voyage from Ikaria to Naxos (1998)
Harry Farjeon (1878-1948)
Pictures from Greece, op.13, (1906)
Paul Juón (1872 - 1940)
Satyre und Nymphen: 9 Miniaturen für klavier, op. 18 (?)
Aspasia Nasopoulou (b.1972)
Krokeatis Lithos-Lakonia (from Raw Rocks) (2017)
Zoe Samsarelou (piano)
rec. 27-28 April 2022. Alternative Stage – Greek National Opera, Athens
Divine Art DDX 21237

With thanks to MusicWeb International where this review was first published. 

Piano Phantoms: Ghostly Music played by Michael Lewin

I was listening to Harry Farjeon’s ‘Some Goblins and Gnomes and Things’ on this CD the other day. I realised that although I had reviewed this CD back in the summer of 2013, I had never posted it here. It deserves its place here as a remarkable and imaginative CD that includes a few gems from of British Music.

The ‘preface’ to this fascinating CD sets out the territory – ‘Amidst the endless glories and treasures of the piano repertoire, there is some music that leads a more shrouded and spectral existence- aural figures of the otherworld.’ The music presented on this disc is a ‘journey into the musical imagination of 18 composers featuring pieces that were all inspired by phantoms, goblins, ghosts and spirits.’

I have long been of the opinion that concert pianists ought to give more time and thought to pieces of music that are outwith the standard repertoire. This is especially so when the music is written by composers who are less-well known to the average piano music enthusiast. Additionally, I believe that there is an important place for pieces that are not virtuosic or particularly demanding on the pianist’s technical skill, but are nevertheless attractive and interesting works in their own right.

The present disc includes eighteen pieces of music that are either unknown or are the preserve of enthusiasts, specialists or those committed to the obscure.  A few of the composers are familiar, but most appear to haunt the fringes of the repertoire.  All of them are surprisingly good pieces of music: all of them are suitably scary. 

A good place to begin an exploration of this disc is with ‘The Goblins’ Wedding Procession at Vossevangen’ by Edvard Grieg. This rarely heard piece from the even rarer set of ‘17 Norwegian Dances’ is a revelation. I guess that for every thousand listeners who have heard ‘Wedding Day at Troldhaugen’ only one or two will know the present nuptial piece.  It is based on old folk-songs, but is given a late romantic turn of pianism. There is even a ‘bluesy’ feel to this tune.

Walter Niemann is a German composer who has so far eluded me. Seemingly he wrote a wealth of music for the piano. ‘The Ghosts: Night on the Fleet’ is an impressionistic piece that was first published in the Hamburg Suite. It is an impressively well-constructed work. 

I was bowled over by Carl Tausig’s ‘The Ghost Ship’ which originally saw light of day as an orchestral tone poem. This is a complex, pianistically involved piece that tests the player’s technique. It is hardly surprising that Tausig is regarded by many as Franz Liszt’s greatest pupil: alas he died tragically young.  Another virtuosic piece is by the Russian Sergei Lyapunov, ‘Round of Phantoms’. Once again Liszt would appear to be the technical model. The work is part of the composer’s Etude’s which Michael Lewin suggests are one of the most significant set of studies ever written. It is no surprise to read that the music anticipated Ravel’s ‘Scarbo’. Another Russian has contributed a wayward piece called ‘Wood Goblin’. This is one of Nikolai Medtner’s Fairy Tales, Op.34 written in 1916. The story of this particular chap is given in the liner notes and bears perusal.

The ‘Goblin’s Dance’ by Dvorak is a little less hectic that some of the other manifestations in this collection. There is a good balance between the extrovert and the reflective. Maybe this goblin has a heart of gold – some of the time…

There are a few treats for the British music enthusiast with works by Eugene Goossens, John Vallier, Harry Farjeon (born Hohokus, New Jersey) and Edgar Bainton. The low registers of Goossens’ ‘A Ghost Story’ from his ‘popular’ suite Kaleidoscope leads to an impressive climax only for the ‘ghost’ to slip back into the ‘underworld.’  Vallier’s ‘The Ghosts of Restormel’ is slightly brighter, with an eclectic mix of trumpet calls, Scottish folk-tunes and eerie chords: it is a fine impression of a haunted Cornish castle.  I am an advocate of the piano music of Harry Farjeon. Many of his miniatures are in the gift of amateurs. He also contributed a fine Piano Sonata and there are tantalisingly impressive reports of his Piano Concerto. The present piece, ‘Some Goblins and Gnomes and Things’ comes from his charmingly titled The Three Cornered Kingdom Suite.  Edgar Bainton’s rollicking ‘Goblin Dance’ is a rare indulgence. It is derived from a suite called From Faery (1912). The liner notes are correct in suggesting that this goblin is ‘active and mischievous.’

American composers are well-represented too.  The composer/pianist Julie Rivé-King’s outgoing ‘March of the Goblins’ was composed in 1879 and is characterised by musical wit and light-heartedness. It is one of those tunes that appears well-known to the listener, but one that they cannot quite place.  Another good example is by the ‘first African-American woman to be recognized as a serious composer’ Florence Price.  He short, quicksilver ‘The Goblin and the Mosquito’ is an impressive study in glissandi and fractured melodies. William Bolcom has contributed a ‘Graceful Ghost Rag’ which is the first of three numbers in a little suite. It is good example of ragtime, but unlike Scott Joplin tends to disintegrate slightly. It is a million miles away from his more cerebral and ‘spiky’ music. The ‘American Indianist’ Carlos Troyer has contributed a lively ‘Ghost Dance of Zunis’. This music is meant reflect rituals and traditions of the Zuni tribe in New Mexico. Whatever the intellectual foundation of this music, it is an aggressive, almost Bartokian romp.

The short ‘Night Music of the Mountain Goblin’ by the Finnish composer Heino Kaski is more of a ‘scamper’ than anything diabolic. Ferdinand Hiller’s ‘Dance of the Phantoms’ is more of an etude that a tone poem. Good virtuosic stuff.

I enjoyed the short ‘Spirit Dance’ by Franz Schubert, re-presented by that prolific but now largely forgotten pianist Stephen Heller. The original was a song to a text by Freidrich von Matthison.  Lewin suggests that the words are like a cross between Edgar Allan Poe and a modern-day horror movie. The ‘Spirit Dance’ is characterised by sudden mood changes.

The final (and longest) piece is the ‘Ghost Variations’ by Robert Schumann. It is a little known piece in spite of it being the composer’s last completed piano work written at a time when he was about to be admitted to the asylum at Bonn-Endenich.  The Variations were based on visions of things hideous and wonderful that the composer was experiencing.  The ‘theme’ is particularly beautiful and surely owes little to demons. The mood of each succeeding variation is that of an introverted spirituality rather than anything ghoulish or sinister. It is as if the composer knew that he had reached the end of his life. This is a beautiful and affecting work that demands to be better known in the recital rooms.

Michael Lewin is an American pianist who has made a huge reputation for himself. He has a ‘commanding’ repertoire of some 40 piano concertos from pot-boilers such as George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue through Rach. 1 & 2 to Loeffler’s stunning Pagan Poem and David Kocsis’ Piano Concerto: For the New Millennium (1999) which was written for the pianist. Lewin has made a considerable contribution to recorded music. There are wide ranging editions of music by Charles Tomlinson Griffes and Scarlatti on Naxos, interesting recitals of Gottschalk and William Bolcom on Centaur and CDs of Russians music and Franz Liszt.

This is a beautifully contrived CD. The liner notes are excellent, giving as much information about these invariably attractive pieces and their not-so-well-known composers.  I was impressed by the vibrant sound quality of this recording.  Michael Lewin’s playing is flawless. There is no sense of condescension apparent in any of these pieces – even those that the ‘high-brow’ may regard as less-than-worthy of a concert pianist. Each number is given a concentrated, well wrought performance that reveals the composer’s picturesque, creepy and at times macabre musical imagery.

This is a fabulous (in more ways than one) new release from Sono Luminus that explores a wide range of musical achievement from a number of talented composers. It is a CD that will be of interest to all those who are young at heart and who relate to goblins, ghouls and things of the night. This disc is a delight for anyone who has enjoyed Saint-Saens’ Danse Macabre and has wondered is there is any more ‘scary’ music in the repertoire.

Track Listings:

Walter NIEMANN (1876-1953)  Ghosts: Night on the Fleet
Sergei LYAPUNOV (1859-1924) Round of Phantoms
Edvard GRIEG (1843-1907) The Goblins’ Wedding Procession at Vossevangen
Carl TAUSIG (1841-1871) The Ghost Ship, Op. 1b
Nikolai MEDTNER  (1880-1951) Wood Goblin
Antonin DVOŘÁK (1841-1904) Goblins’ Dance
Eugène GOOSSENS (1893-1962) A Ghost Story
Carlos TROYER (1837-1920) Ghost Dance of the Zunis   
Heino KASKI (1885-1957) Night Music of the Mountain Goblin
John VALLIER (1920-1991) -The Ghosts of Restormel  
William BOLCOM (b.1938) Graceful Ghost Rag 
Harry FARJEON (1878-1948) Some Goblins and Gnomes and Things
Florence PRICE  (1887-1953) The Goblin and the Mosquito 
Edgar BAINTON  (1880-1956) Goblin Dance
Ferdinand HILLER  (1811-1885)The Dance of the Phantoms
Julie RIVÉ-KING  (1855-1937) March of the Goblins 
Franz SCHUBERT(1797-1828)/ Stephen HELLER (1813-1888) Spirit Dance

Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856) Ghost Variations

Michael Lewin (piano)

Rec. Sono Luminus, Boyce, Virginia July 19-21, 2012

Sono Luminus DSL-92168

With thanks to MusicWeb International where this review was first published.

Harry Farjeon; ‘Tarantella’ for piano solo - a mystery.

One of the best-known pieces (if such is not an exaggeration) of Harry Farjeon’s (1878-1958) music is the ‘Tarantella’ for piano. This was made popular by the great Eileen Joyce in the late nineteen-thirties. However, there is a problem. The work does not appear to feature in the Farjeon’s 'catalogue'. I cannot find reference to it on WorldCat, the Royal Academy of Music or the British Library catalogues. Christopher Howell has suggested that ‘it does not correspond to any known piece.’

There are few references to the work in the musical press, however there is a short review of the Parlophone record release in The British Musician, November 1937:- ‘Cyril Scott’s ‘Lotus Land’ and ‘Danse Negre’ (popular pieces a quarter of a century back), along with a tarantella by Harry Farjeon, are played by Eileen Joyce with delightful dexterity of touch and brilliance of tone, the latter in ‘Lotus Land’ softening properly into the richly sensuous.  The Farjeon seems more of a descriptive piece, more even a dramatic one, than a tarantella, it is all very entertaining’.  Certainly the piece does not exemplify a typical ‘Tarantella’ with the rapid 6/8 figuration.

The Musical Times (May 1937) notes that it had a first performance on the ‘wireless’ and suggested that the work had ‘a welcome, sly, sentimental move or two, in fin-de-la-guerre phraseology.’

Listening to this music suggests the style of Bartok and Prokofiev rather than the ‘gentle, but civilised inventiveness’ attributed by Philip Scowcroft to Farjeon’s style.  There is little music recorded by Farjeon to compare the ‘Tarantella’ with, however many of his piano scores suggest a far more conservative style suited to ‘gifted amateurs’ than the present piece would suggest.  Christopher Howell has noted that by the 1930s Farjeon had begun to show ‘an inclination towards mild modernism.’ The present work exemplifies – almost parodies -this genre.

It is probable that this piece was especially composed for Eileen Joyce. It may have been misattributed, but that is doubtful as she appeared to play it at recitals on a regular basis.  The fact is that she counted Farjeon as amongst her closest of friends, so it is likely to have been given to her as a keepsake, perhaps to act as a pendant to the Shostakovich’s Three Fantastic Dances (1922) which were in her repertoire at around this time.

The National Library of Australia has a listing of the Parlophone recording made by Joyce on 14 May 1937 in London. It was released as E11391.

Fortunately this 78 rpm record has been re-mastered and released as a part of the superlative boxed set from APR Records – ‘Eileen Joyce: The Complete Parlophone and Columbia Solo Recordings 1933-1945’.  The ‘Tarantella’ is available on YouTube. 

Harry Farjeon: Idyll for Oboe & Orchestra

The British musical world is full of music that I have never heard. Alas, it is often the case that I probably never will hear much of it. In the depths of winter, on 7 January 1926, a short Idyll for Oboe & Orchestra by the largely forgotten composer Harry Farjeon was performed at Bournemouth. The soloist was Leon Goossens.

I quote the composer’s programme note as one of the few references to this work to have survived. The two places he mentions, Chanctonbury and Amberley, are forever associated with John Ireland – the Legend and the piano piece Amberley Wild Brooks respectively. It would be good to have Farjeon’s work available for comparison. How did he interpret, musically, this strange and fascinating part of the English Landscape?

'This little work is the outcome of a day on the Sussex Downs: one day among many passed in the high altitudes between Chanctonbury and Amberley and the still less frequented hinterland that lies below and to the south of this country. There are two main themes and an episode of some importance to the design. Four bars of introduction herald the principal subject, given to the solo instrument and accompanied by bassoons. The music is somewhat wistful in character, but brightens at the the episode, which leads to the second main theme, a melody in thirds supported by a figure of dropping fifths of which a good deal of use is afterward made.  This second theme combines with the episode to workup to the climax, after which a return is made to the first subject (shortened). The coda contains a semi-recitative passage for oboe, and the work concludes with a reference to the introductory bars. H.F.'

I was taken to task the other day for using a technical term that one of my readers did not understand. So a brief word about the above mentioned ‘episode.’ An episode is a ‘secondary section’ of a piece of music in which the principal themes are not overtly present. A good example would be the ‘subordinate’ sections of a classical rondo. Sometimes an episode can have material derived from elements of the principal themes.

I was unable to find any reference to this work having been published in either World Cat, COPAC or the catalogue of the Royal Academy of Music (where much of their alumni’s music is stored). So I guess that it is yet another example of a work that has remained in manuscript and has possibly disappeared without trace. 

Harry Farjeon: A Swan Song for piano

I recently posted a review of Harry Farjeon’s (1878-1949) Hans Anderson Suite on these pages. A day or so later someone pointed out to me that he was much better known for his piano pieces rather than those for orchestra. This is correct: Farjeon was certainly more successful in writing small-scale works rather than exploring the larger forms – however a piano concerto does survive along with an Idyll for oboe and orchestra and the St. Dominic Mass. In addition there are two operettas and an opera, four string quartets and a number of songs.

Much of his music explored the imaginative and sometime ‘faux’ innocent genre that was popular during the Edwardian era – possibly due to the influence of his sister Eleanor and their childhood adventures. Alas there are no recordings of his music currently available on CD – at least not in the catalogues. It appears that he has been entirely erased from the collective musical memory –like Leo Livens, Greville Cooke and Montague Ewing.
On YouTube there is an absolutely beautiful performance of the composer’s A Swan Song by Daniel Kasparian. As of yet I do not have the music for this piece – but even on a first hearing this is a heart-achingly beautiful piece of music that has instantly acceded to my list of Desert Island Discs. In its melancholic mood, the composer has moved a long way from some of his more picturesque titles such as ‘About the fairy who dances’ and the ‘Bumpkin Dance.’ This is a truly lovely piece of music that ought to challenge enthusiasts of British Music to explore Farjeon’s opus in more detail.

Harry Farjeon: Hans Christian Anderson Suite

I often come across clippings of reviews of pieces that are tantalizing: I would love to hear these works and wonder if they will ever be revived. With the case of Harry Farjeon, it is not only this Suite that needs reappraisal, but the entire repertoire of the composer himself. However, one can but hope the score of the Hans Christian Anderson Suite turns up one day and some enterprising conductor chooses to give it an airing.

'THE Westminster Orchestral Society (London) performed on March 21 a new orchestra suite Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales [1] by Harry Farjeon, a son of the novelist. Mr Farjeon, who is quite a young fellow, has carried everything before him in the schools, where he has learned pretty well all they can teach him. His ‘Hans Andersen suite reveals gifts of melody and of humour which cannot be taught. The latter is, perhaps, the rarest of all qualities in a musician.
The promise given in the operette, 'Floretta’[2] played last year at St George’s Hall was redeemed by the performance of the young composer’s orchestral suite in which the spirit of four of Andersen’s tales – ‘The Little Tin Soldier,’ ‘The Nightingale,’ ‘The Mermaid,’ and ‘Big Klaus and Little Klaus’ –is felicitously illustrated in music.
The quaint touch with which ‘The Little Tin Soldier’ positively made me laugh, and it is not many musicians who can do that. Mr. Farjeon knows how to be funny in music, and his suite shows that he also has a pretty fancy. His ‘Hans Andersen’ ought to be popular, and ambitious, will find it neither too unpretentious nor too magisterial a work for them to grapple with.'
New York Times 29 April 1900

Notes:
[1] I believe that the score was never published. The manuscript may be gathering dust in an archive somewhere![2] Floretta : Opera in Two Acts / Libretto by Eleanor Farjeon ; First performance at St. George's Hall, on Monday July 17th 1899 produced by Mr G. H. Betjemann