Sir Charles Villiers Stanford: Complete Music for Piano Solo Volume 2 Part I

It would be easy for listeners to dismiss this edition of the complete piano music of Charles Villiers Stanford as a conceit.  Here is a composer who is writing sub-Brahms, Schumann, and occasionally Wagner, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. At this time, Debussy and Scriabin, in Europe and Cyril Scott, William Baines and John Ireland in the United Kingdom were in the vanguard of pianism. The ‘insidious’ influence of jazz had arrived from the USA and was beginning to influence musicians in Europe. In 1909 Arnold Schoenberg issued his atonal (but beautiful) Three Piano Pieces, op.11. These are a million miles away from everything on these discs.

Yet this reviewer would give up a lot of piano music from ‘progressive’ composers to be enabled to enjoy what Stanford has written for the piano. I have wondered why this is. I believe it comes down to three things: honesty, technical competence and sheer musical pleasure.  With perhaps a fourth reason for good measure: the hint of the Celtic Dawn. 

The second volume of this major exploration of Charles Villiers Stanford’s piano music opens with Two Novellettes. These pieces date from 1874 and have remained in holograph until Christopher Howell created the present performing edition. It was produced during his first half year visit to Germany. There he studied with the ‘dry’ and ‘desiccated’ composer and Schumann enthusiast Carl Reinecke (1824-1910). The Novellettes owe much to Schumann’s exemplars complete with appropriate mood-swings redolent of the German’s alter-egos, Eusebius and Florestan.  The second Novellette opens with a Schubertian theme, soon to be replaced by something from Schumann, and enjoying an operatic gallop theme as the third subject. As an aside, the adjectives applied to poor Reinecke were soon to be heaped on Stanford – usually by people who knew little of his music.

The Suite for pianoforte, op.2 was penned around 1875 and featured four old time dances – Courante, Sarabande, Gigue and Gavotte. The movements are connected by some quasi-improvisatory passages. However it is not really a pastiche of Baroque music, more a re-presentation of these traditional forms for the Victorian audience. Howell notes the incipient ‘Celtic’ tone of the pensive Sarabande and the semi-Wagnerian harmonies of the final Gavotte.

‘Fare Well’ was written only two days after the death of Field Marshall Horatio Herbert Kitchener, (1850-1916) sunk of the coat of Orkney aboard HMS Hampshire.  The music alludes to the Westminster chimes (Kitchener had a house near the Abbey) and also to the Stanford’s own music including the heart-breaking melody of ‘Fare Well’ from the last of the Songs of the Fleet, op.117 which features in the central section. It may not be his greatest work for piano, but it is certainly a most moving tribute.

‘Six Song-Tunes’ presents a series of interesting and melodious little pieces well suited to the needs of the piano teacher. These pieces may be simple, but they are never patronising. ‘Tunes’ presented include ‘Sleep’, ‘Sun’, ‘Marching’, ‘Swing’, ‘Dance’ and ‘Sea’.

I have had a copy of ‘A Toy Story’ for many years: I still play them on occasion and I am never disappointed in their simple charm. This delightful little collection of ‘Schumann-esque’ miniatures does indeed tell a story – from a child alone, the arrival of the post-man, opening the parcel to reveal a new toy, the toy broken, mended and finally enjoyed. Child not alone. Not quite as bathetic as the story implies – clearly an adult was there to fix the toy!

These were some of Stanford’s contributions to the ever increasing demand for pieces needed by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. They were composed around 1919-20. 

Some years earlier (1894) Stanford had written Ten Dances (Old and New) for Young Players, op.58.  I guess that even in the last decade of the nineteenth century few of these pieces were modern in the sense of the ‘latest thing.’  Once again they had educational purposes in mind. They were dedicated to Stanford’s children Geraldine Mary (1883-1956) and Guy Desmond (1885-1953). Howell in his liner notes submits that these pieces hover between the Grade IV and VI marks at today’s level.  I like every one of these ten dances, but my favourites include the ‘Galop’, a dance that came from Germany in the middle 1800s, the ‘Morris Dance’ with its open air feel, and the hauntingly beautiful Parry-esque ‘Minuet’. As Charles Porte has remarked, ‘All these dances are fairly musical and characteristic’ of the composer. I shall be looking for a copy to sit on my piano.  
To be continued...

Graham Whettam: Sinfonia Concertante for small orchestra

Graham Whettam’s (1927-2007) Sinfonia Concertante for small orchestra was first performed 50 years ago at the Civic Theatre in Darlington on 11 October 1966. Other works that evening included Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.2 with the soloist Peter Wallfisch, Mozart’s ‘Linz’ Symphony No.36 in C major, K.425 and Jacques Ibert’s Concertino da camera for alto saxophone with Jack Brymer in a less-than-familiar role.  The Northern Sinfonia was conducted by the Canadian Boris Brott with Whettam directing his own work. The Sinfonia Concertante was repeated in Newcastle on 12 October. It was one of three important premieres for the Northern Sinfonia that year: the other two included Nicolas Maw’s Sinfonia and Wilfred Mellers’ Magnificat. All three works seem to have disappeared from the repertoire.

Graham Whettam’s Sinfonia Concertante for small orchestra has three movements: Maestoso, allegro, andante and allegro. It lasts for about 21 minutes.  The full score was published in 1987 by UK Meriden Music.

Brian Newbould in The Guardian (12 October 1966) gave a major review of this concert: ‘With some relief, no doubt, those in the audience to whom Graham Whettam has been no more than a name will have found his new Sinfonia Concertante an utterance of the direct, uncomplicated kind, designed (so it seemed) to please the ear above all, and engage the mind of him who is willing.  The symphonic element of the title is invoked at the start with a sombre, pounding bass that recalls Brahms’s very first symphonic bars. Although its mood is to return intermittently, and again for a passing moment in the last of the three movements, it is the concertante element that predominates, the elected instruments being flute, oboe, cor anglais, clarinet, bassoon and harpsichord against a background of strings.

It is the woodwinds that have summoned Mr Whettam’s more riveting ideas: the string writing rather overworks its less resourceful material. The central slow movement measured by ear, not by the clock, is long in relation to the other movements and its own slight substance. It also dispenses with the harpsichord, which elsewhere had not sounded very much a part of the concertante group, placed as it was by the stage wings.’

The first broadcast performance was given on 9 October 1968 on BBC Radio 3. The concert also included music by Haydn. The Northern Sinfonia was conducted by Norman del Mar (Radio Times)

Edmund Rubbra wrote in a review of this concert in The Listener (17 October 1968):

‘The first broadcast performance of Graham Whettam’s Sinfonia Concertante …showed a skilled hand in the deployment of instruments and a flair for effect. If it left no very clear-cut formal impression, this was partly the result of material that tended to have blurred edges and loose ends.’

Two weeks later the composer responded to this review in a letter to The Listener (7 November 1968):

‘Sir: Dr. Edmund Rubbra, in reviewing the first broadcast performance of my Sinfonia Concertante, referred to ‘blurred edges and loose ends.’ With this I entirely concur, having advised the BBC of over three dozen specified inaccuracies or inadequacies in the performance, these varying from simple ignoring of written dynamics to one passage where crotchets were played in time of quavers. The microphone balance in the recording did not appear to be satisfactory, there being a heavy preponderance of strings. After a two year delay since the Northern Sinfonia Orchestra gave the initial performances of this work under my own baton, the BBC was obliged ‘in the interests of the Corporation’s economy drive’ to quote a senior official, to entrust this first broadcast to a conductor hitherto unfamiliar with the work, and whose only consultation was to advise me by letter that this would be ‘an ordinary common-or-garden pre-recorded broadcast.’ I regret that I was unable to accept this broadcast as an adequate representation of Sinfonia Concertante.

Graham Whettam.’

I find that his work is immediately approachable. There is nothing here to challenge the listener in 2015: there is plenty to interest them. I was particularly impressed with the use of the harpsichord in this work. Strangely, it adds to it contemporary feel and does not strike the hearer as being in any way pastiche baroque. The slow movement is haunting and quite magical. The work is full of delightful conversations between the solo instruments and the string orchestra. This is a piece that would be successful if given a modern recording, possibly coupled with some other music by the composer. It is one of the great works of the 1960s. 

Graham Whettam’s Sinfonia Concertante for small orchestra has been uploaded to YouTube .  It was recorded from a broadcast on 19 May 1982.  The Northern Sinfonia was conducted by Bryden Thomson. The concert included John McCabe’ ‘Sonata on a Motet’ (1976) and Gerard Schurmann’s ‘Variants for chamber orchestra’ (1970)

A York Yuletide: The Choir of York Minster

Few need reminding of York Minster’s great musical tradition. From the days of James Nares, the Camidge dynasty and by way of Edward Bairstow, Francis Jackson and Philip Moore, the liturgical and concert music has been in excellent hands. The York Minster Choir provide the daily cycle of worship as well as the young choristers receiving an excellent education at the Minster School. Over the years the choir has made a number of recordings, most recently St Peter’s Day at York Minster - a musical celebration of the patronal festival under the auspices of the present director, Robert Sharpe.  A York Yuletide is a worthy addition to their catalogue.

For the purposes of this review, the title ‘Yuletide’ can be seen interchangeable with ‘Christmas’, although there are subtle shades of meaning.

Highlights (for me) on this imaginative programme include Bob Chilcott’s arrangement of ‘In Dulce Jubilo’, David Hill’s beautiful reworking of ‘Silent Night’, and Andrew Carter’s setting his own words ‘Lullaby my Jesus’ to part of Warlock’s ‘Capriol’ Suite. The liner notes do not mention that this latter piece uses the ‘Pieds-en-l'ar’, movement.

The CD opens with a delightful arrangement of ‘Ding! dong! merrily on high’ by Mack Wilberg. ‘Jingle Bells’ as arranged by Richard Shepard begins with a serious and ‘expansive’ organ introduction, before sleigh bells introduce a ‘spirited, wayward and syncopated’ version of the well-known song.

No CD of ‘Yuletide Music’ can be complete without a carol by John Rutter. On this disc there are two – the ‘Nativity Carol’ which was composed in 1963 and represents one of the composer’s early pieces. ‘What Sweeter Music’ with words by Robert Herrick, was written for the Festival of Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge during 1987. 

Herbert Howells’ well-loved Three Carol Anthems are given a fine and sensitive performance. The largely chordal ‘Here is the Little Door’ contrasts with wonderfully accompanied baritone solo (Sam Hucklebridge) of ‘A Spotless Rose’. ‘Sing Lullaby,’ to words by the Gloucestershire poet F.W. Harvey, creates all the magic of the wise men visiting the crib.  The same composer’s ‘Long, long ago’ is more adventurous, but equally evocative, in its style.  William Walton is not usually recalled for his liturgical music, however a clutch of anthems and carols are regularly heard. ‘All this time’ is a lively little motet based on an anonymous 16^th century text.

Possibly less well-known, but equally fine carols include music by Stephen Jackson, Howard Skempton, Matthew Martin, Grayston Ives and Francis Pott which add variety and interest to the programme. The late David Willcocks is represented by his popular ‘Tomorrow shall be my dancing day’ featuring descants and strong syncopation.

The major work on this CD is Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols. This has long been one of my favourite seasonal works. Matt Dowdy provides a thoughtful baritone solo, with the choir and organ providing the magical accompaniment. This music epitomises the mood of an ‘old English Yuletide.’

The Choir of York Minster under their Director of Music Robert Sharpe give a good account of these delightful ‘Yuletide’ songs, hymns and carols. David Pipe, the Assistant Director of Music provides the essential organ accompaniment to a number of these pieces.

An attractive picture on the CD insert shows York Minster on a snowy day taken from inside the Dean’s Park. The liner notes by George Haynes are helpful, but why could the dates of the composers and arrangers not have been provided? I know that they can be ‘Googled’, but not everyone is online when they are listening to Christmas carols. The texts to all the pieces have been included. 
This is an attractive and enjoyable selection of Christmas music from a wide range of composers. There are many favourites here as well as a good sprinkling of lesser-known arrangements. 

Track Listing:-

16^th Century French, arr. Mack WILBERG (b.1955)

Ding! dong! merrily on high

John RUTTER (b.1945)

Nativity Carol

Herbert HOWELLS (1892-1983)

Three Carol-anthems: Here is the little door, A spotless Rose, Sing lullaby

Matthew MARTIN (b.1976)

Nowell sing we

John RUTTER

What sweeter music

Francis POTT (b.1957)

Balulalow

English traditional, arr. David WILLCOCKS (1919-2015)

Tomorrow shall be my dancing day

Grayston IVES (b.1948)

Lo, how a rose e'er blooming

William WALTON (1902-1983)

All this time

Herbert HOWELLS

Long, long ago

Howard SKEMPTON (b.1947)

Adam lay-y-bounden

Stephen JACKSON (b.1951)

The Virgin's Song

Old German, arr. Bob CHILCOTT (b.1955)

In dulci jubilo

Franz GRUBER (1787-1863), arr. David HILL (b.1957)

Silent night

Peter WARLOCK (1894-1930) transcribed by Andrew CARTER (b.1939)

Lullaby my Jesus

James PIERPONT (1822-1893) arr. Richard SHEPHERD (b.1949)

Jingle Bells

Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958)

Fantasia on Christmas Carols

The Choir of York Minster/Robert Sharpe, David Pipe (organ)

REGENT REGCD467 

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

2016 New Year Greetings

A Happy and Prosperous New Year

To All Readers of

The Land of Lost Content

Significant British Composer Anniversaries for 2016:

Bi-Centenaries

Alfred Angel (1816-76)

William Sterndale Bennett (1816-75)

George J. Elvey (1816-93)

William L Phillips (1816-60)

150 Years

Amanda Aldridge (1866-1956)

George H. Clutsum (1866-1951)

Learmont Drysdale (1866-1909)

William E Duncan (1866-1920)

Katherine Mary Adela Maddison (1866-1929)

Centenaries

Denis ApIvor (1916-2004)

Robert Atherton (1916-97)

Bernard G Stevens (1916-1983)

There are a number of ‘big’ commemorations this year. In particular it is 200 years since William Sterndale Bennett was born. He has been reappraised in recent year, with a number of CDs having been dedicated to his music. This has included symphonies, piano concertos, overtures, chamber works and piano music. However Sterndale Bennett has a considerable catalogue of music and there are plenty of opportunities to explore further, especially in the choral music genre.

I hope that Learmont Drysdale gets a mention in dispatches (he will from me). This interesting Scottish composer wrote a wide range of music including eleven operas, many cantatas, songs and choral music. Possibilities for revival include his Overture: Tam O’ Shanter, the cantata The Kelpie and his tone-poem ‘A Border Romance’.

The centenaries include two great, but largely ignored composer who have written a wide range of music. Denis ApIvor wrote five symphonies, a variety of concertos and much chamber music. The Arkiv Catalogue currently shows no recordings available, so it is very difficult to form an opinion of his music. However, he was originally a serialist composer who ‘returned’ to a more tonal language towards the end of his career.

Bernard G. Stevens, like Alan Bush, derived much of his musical aesthetic from Marxist theories. As the BMS British Composer Profiles point out, he was able to synthesise popular elements into his serious music. His works include two symphonies, a cello and a violin concerto, a deal of chamber music as well as film music. At present there are a few CDs dedicated to his work, including what may well be his masterpiece, A Symphony of Liberation composed at the end of the Second World War.

And finally Katherine Mary Adela Maddison surely deserves investigation. Internationalist, friend of Gabriel Fauré and Rutland Boughton, she composed operas and ballet music. Her life does seem to be interesting to say the least. 

Victor Hely-Hutchinson: A Carol Symphony Part II

The Musical Times reviewer (November 1929) wrote that:

‘The novelty on September 26 was Victor Hely- Hutchinson's 'Carol Symphony,' a composition on a large scale, and with some thematic organization, yet giving the impression of a suite rather than a symphony. It is music spun agreeably round excellent material whose associations, however, only too readily hold out temptations to fall into mere picturesqueness. Mr. Hutchinson avoids this in the first movement by rather desperately building on the rocky foundation of Bach's embellished chorales, but later he succumbs to influences which do not help him much to withstand the besetting danger. This composer is resourceful, lucid, effective, very respectably conservative and complaisant to a not too sophisticated audience. An English Humperdinck, shall we say? As a personal utterance his work suffered perhaps unduly from its vicinity to Vaughan Williams's infinitely more distinctive 'Concerto Accademico,' the crack work of the evening, in which Miss Jelly d'Aranyi played the solo violin part with something just a shade below her usual form; in other words, very well.’

The reviewer of The Times (19 December 1930) noted that the Amateur Orchestra of London had furthered their ‘commendable policy’ of presenting works that are outside the usual repertoire.  On Monday 15 December 1930 A Carol Symphony was presented at the Kingsway Hall in London. The reviewer stated that ‘any competently written work employing carol tunes must make a strong appeal, especially at this time of year, and whether such a work is called a fantasia or a symphony or a suite ought not to affect one’s enjoyment of the music.’ He feels that this distinction is more problematic than a first glance would suggest. He suggests ‘it has often been demonstrated that folk-tunes do not readily lend themselves to symphonic development’ and he believes that Hely-Hutchinson has stretched ‘their capacities to the utmost by making his symphony in cyclic form.’ Furthermore, the reviewer then suggests how the composer ought to have written the work. He should have allowed one carol or wassail song to ‘suggest another, and let that suggest a counterpoint and so on.’  The problem seems to be that Hely-Hutchinson has given the impression of ‘stopping at the end of each bit of tune to think what he could do next with it.’  The fundamental issue seems to be that the texture and the scoring of the work are perfectly appropriate – it is the thematic treatment that lets the work down.

Jürgen Schaarwächter in his magisterial Two Centuries of British Symphonism (2015) suggested that the Carol Symphony is a ‘lightweight…and somewhat obscure piece’. He further describes it as ‘clearly a third-rate piece of light music (similar to Anthony Collins’s First String Symphony). This latter piece is one that I enjoy! He quotes Benjamin Britten’s view that the work was ‘utter bilge’ (Britten’s diary 22 December 1922) Schaarwachter provides a lengthy quote from D. Millar Craig (‘The Younger English Composer – XV Victor Hely Hutchinson’, in the Monthly Musical Record 1930):-

‘The Symphony is in four movements, played continuously: all are based on Christmas tunes, and the work sets forth different aspects of the festival – its solemn grandeur, the mystery and romance of the manger, and its rollicking joy as Dickens shows it to us…[The] work reveals the spirit of nearly all Hely-Hutchinson’s music: gloom does not appeal to him. But youth’s good spirits are held in check, and a fastidious restraint as well as an instinctive sense of shapeliness sees to it that exuberance and gusto do not break bounds.’

Some years later, The Times (27 November 1951) in a review of a recently released record (Paxton GTR 123/4/5, mono, Metropole Symphony Orchestra/Dolf Van der Linden) of the Symphony suggests that this is ‘not only a work brimming over with gaiety but refutes the accepted and not unjustifiable generalization that folk tunes are rcalcitrant to symphonic development’.  The reviewer is suitably impressed with the way that the composer has taken ‘the half dozen best known and most hardly worked carols and symphonizes them by dissolving them in ostinato figures, of which the chief is a cross between Bach’s Wachet Auf …and an English country dance tune’.

In 1930 an extract (3^rd movement, ‘Noel Fantasy’) from the Carol Symphony was released by HMV (C1968). The Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden was conducted by the composer. 

This entire work is currently available on three CDs. The first is a reissue of a recording made by Barry Rose and the Pro Arte Orchestra made in Guilford Cathedral in September 1966 (EMI Classics CDM 7 64131)  A more recent version appeared on Naxos 8.557099 in 2002 with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Gavin Sutherland. This is also available as an MP3 download. The above noted performance by the Metropole Symphony Orchestra is currently available on the Guild Light Music Series GLCD 5233. 

All the recordings are interesting, although the Sutherland one has the edge on sound quality. On the other side of the coin, as Neil Horner at MusicWeb International has pointed out, the EMI recording does have fine couplings with R.V.W.’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols, Roger Quilter’s Children’s Overture and Ernest Tomlinson’s Suite of English Folk Dances. 

Victor Hely-Hutchinson: A Carol Symphony Part I

This is an updated and expanded article first published on MusicWeb International in 2008.

Victor Hely-Hutchinson’s A Carol Symphony is one of six works I always listen to at Christmastide. The others include R.V.W.’s Hodie, Finzi’s In Terra Pax, J.S.B.’s Christmas Oratorio and Benjamin Britten’s A Boy was Born. Fortunately, recordings of Hely-Hutchinson’s work have been rarely unattainable over the years since its first recording in 1951. It is a work that is infrequently given in the concert hall or on the wireless.

Hely-Hutchinson is a relatively little-known composer, professor and administrator. He merits only a handful of lines in Grove’s and has not yet been provided with a biography. So, a few notes on his lifetime’s achievement will be helpful. 

Christian Victor Noel Hope Hely-Hutchinson was born in Cape Town, South Africa on 26 December 1901, the youngest son of the last Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Cape Colony, the Right Honourable Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson. He was educated at Eton and also studied at the Royal College of Music with Donald Tovey. He went up to Balliol in 1920. The following year he left Oxford before completing his degree: he had been offered a lectureship at the South African College of Music.  After three years in this post Hely-Hutchinson returned to London and joined the staff of the BBC. Later, he moved to the corporation’s Midland region before taking up a professorship of music at Birmingham University, where he succeeded Granville Bantock. In 1944 Hely-Hutchinson became Director of Music of the BBC where he remained unit his death in 1947. 

His works, apart from A Carol Symphony, include a Piano Quintet, a Violin Sonata, the orchestral Variations, Intermezzo, Scherzo and Finale (1927) and a number of settings of Edward Lear’s Nonsense Songs. Grove’s Dictionary suggests that he was an effective administrator rather than an important composer. It notes that few of his works are heard today.  Fortunately Dutton recordings recently released his Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra "The Young Idea" which I commented on in my ‘blog’ in April 2008.

A Carol Symphony is really more a sequence of ‘preludes’ rather than movements in a classical or traditional sense. Some critics have worried about the works internal cohesion, but typically most have been impressed by the unity of the work considering the small number of carols that the composer used.

Each movement is based on a single carol, with allusions to others, although the scherzo and the finale do have additional material. The entire work is designed to be played without a break – although there are short pauses between the movements in the recordings.

The first movement ‘allegro energico’ makes an impressive presentation of Adeste Fideles, largely in the style of a Bach Chorale Prelude. It is a strong opening and never lacks interest. The scherzo explores God Rest ye merry gentlemen in a manner not dissimilar to the Russian School of Rimsky Korsakov and Balakirev. One reviewer noted that ‘Mr Hely-Hutchinson goes far towards beating the ‘Invincible Band’ in their own bandstand, so to speak’.  The ‘andante quasi lento e cantabile’ is truly lovely, although it has been suggested that the composer ‘spreads mere picturesque-ness a little too thinly’. Yet, the use of the orchestra here is masterly. It is not ‘effect for effects sake’, but a good use of colour and balance. The outer sections are based on the Coventry Carol with the ‘trio’ section making use of The First Nowell. The introduction to the First Nowell section is the most memorable part of the entire Symphony, with its enigmatic harp theme leading to the presentation of the tune. To this listener at any rate, it is musically suggestive of a ‘cold and frosty night.’ The last movement is another ‘allegro energico’ which makes clever use of Here we come a-wassailing before reprising Adeste Fideles.  The composer makes fine use of various contrapuntal devices to explore these two melodies. It has been compared to some final movements of Stanford’s Symphonies with some justification. Like the elder composer’s works, there is nothing pedantic about this finale, in spite of its textbook use of a variety of musical devices. 

The Manchester Guardian (28 September 1929) reviewer was impressed at the first performance of A Carol Symphony at a Promenade Concert on 27 September 1929. He notes that the work ‘pleased the audience immensely…and surely not only because he uses wonderfully persuasive traditional tunes in it.’ He continues by suggesting the ‘work is extremely well turned out’ although ‘the treatment is scarcely more original than the thematic material, but the composer give the impression of knowing exactly what he wants and getting it without any effort…’ There is a slight sting in the tail. He laments the fact that ‘one sighed now and again for a little sympathy with modern thought but was consoled by the reflection that in two hundred years or so it will not matter that this work sounds about twenty years old today’.

Yuletide Greetings

A Merry Christmas

To All Readers of 'The Land of Lost Content'

 

Bruegel the Elder_ The Census at Bethlehem

Voices in the Mist

by

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The time draws near the birth of Christ:

The moon is hid; the night is still;

The Christmas bells from hill to hill

Answer each other in the mist.

Four voices of four hamlets round,

From far and near, on mead and moor,

Swell out and fail, as if a door

Were shut between me and the sound:

Each voice four changes on the wind,

That now dilate, and now decrease,

Peace and goodwill, goodwill and peace,

Peace and goodwill, to all mankind.

Advent to Epiphany: The Frobenius Organ at Oundle School Chapel

This new CD from Priory features the fine Frobenius organ in Oundle School Chapel. This is a ‘co-educational boarding and day independent school’ in the historic market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire. It was founded by the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City of London in 1556: they still support it.  

The liner notes suggest that in spite of the instrument’s justified fame, there has been no commercial recording since 1985. This was ‘The New Frobenius Organ at Oundle School’ with the organist James Parsons (PR168).  It featured Bach, Maxwell-Davies, Howells and Saint-Saens. The present CD celebrates the instrument’s 30th anniversary, in an attempt to redress the balance.

The programme presents music appropriate to the Christmas season from Advent to Epiphany and is designed to display the organ’s versatility: the music ranges from the 15^th to the 20^th century.

The CD opens with the attractive Concerto Grosso, op.6, no.4 by Arcangelo Corelli which is better known as the Christmas Concerto. It is believed to have been composed for Christmas Eve 1690 for his new patron, the Duke of Modena. Normally heard in its string and continuo version, this six movement concerto transcribes extremely well for organ.  The track listings (but not the liner notes) for some reason show this work to have been composed by a certain Alessandro Corelli (1660-1725). These dates actually suggest Alessandro Scarlatti!

The haunting Magnificat Sexti Toni by the French composer Jean Titelouze is accompanied by the chant of the canticle, beautifully sung by Daisy Tebbutt. Clearly, this instrument is at its best playing Bach and Buxtehude. So the latter composer’s Chorale Fantasia on ‘Wie Schön leuchtet der Morgenstern’ is used to display the ‘Germanic flavour’ for which the organ is justly famous. The variation structure of the work allows for some very interesting registrations. Alexander Eadon then performs three consecutive settings by Bach of the chorale prelude, ‘Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland’. It is certainly stimulating to hear them played ‘back to back’ in this manner.

Just to prove that romantic music can be effectively played on this instrument, the recital includes Alexandre Guilmant’s ‘Introduction et Variations sur un Ancien Noël Polonais’. It is not a work I warm to, and one feels that Guilmant has not quite realised the intimate mood of the ‘Infant Holy, Infant Lowly’ text in this somewhat loud and lively piece.

Flor Peeters’ ‘Heer Jezus heeft een hofken’ (King Jesus hath a garden) is a lovely reflective little theme and variations. The theme makes use of the romantic salicional and flute stops. The second variation is wayward, with interesting use of polytonality and the finale is brash, but satisfying. In contrast, the short ‘Veni, Emanuel’ by Gerhard Krapf is written for manuals only and is surprisingly beguiling. Helmut Walcha, the great Bach organist, contributes an attractively simple chorale prelude on ‘Den die Hirten Lobten sehre’ (He whom the shepherds praised).  

Paul Manz’s ‘Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern’ is a will-o’-the-wisp piece that showcases the Rohr 8̍ flute on the Great and the pedal coupled to the Positive 4̍ flute.  

The most modern piece on this disc is Mark Blatchly’s Three Versets on ‘Away in a Manger’ which was published in 1995. For some reason this work is not mentioned in the liner notes. However, the composer uses imaginative harmonies and accompaniments to point up this well-loved carol.

The CD ends with Paul Edmundson’s Toccata-Prelude IV on ‘Vom Himmel hoch’ which is the finale from his Christmas Suite no.2. This American composer provides a great warhorse which I guess would sound impressive on any instrument, large or small, baroque or romantic.

Strangely there is no history given about the organ builder or the organ: a few words may be of interest to readers.

Th. Frobenius & Sons was founded in 1909 in Copenhagen, Denmark by Theodor Frobenius (1885-1972).  In 1925 the company moved to the suburb of Lyngby. Joined by his two sons, he gained a reputation for building organs with mechanical actions and slider windchests. They are regarded as epitomising neo-classical design. Important instruments include Aarhus Cathedral in Denmark, as well as The Queen’s College, Oxford, All Saints, Kingston upon Thames and the Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh.  The Oundle School organ was installed in 1984 and the inaugural concert given by the late Carlo Curley in January 1985. The liner notes do give the all-important organ specification of organ, which has three manuals and pedals. (Great, Positive and Swell). The instrument has tracker action for the keys and mechanical action for the stops. One useful feature of the sleeve notes are the details of the registration used for each piece.

Alexander Eadon is currently Assistant Director of Music of Eastbourne College. Between 2009 and 2015 he was Choirmaster at Oundle School. At present, Eadon has a free-lance career, giving recitals in concert halls and organ lofts across the world.

Altogether an enjoyable CD which succeeds in being both a seasonal and inclusive exploration of one of the more interesting neo-classical organs in the country.

Track Listing:-

Arcangelo CORELLI (1653-1713) arr. Jan VERMULST (1925-94) & Robert GOWER (?) ‘Christmas Concerto’ - Concerto Grosso in G, Op. 6 No.8 (1690?)

Jean TITELOUZE (1562/3-1633) Magnificat Sexti Toni

Dietrich BUXTEHUDE (1637-1707) Chorale Fantasia on ‘Wie Schön leuchtet der Morgenstern’

Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750) Chorale Prelude: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland BWV 659; Chorale Prelude: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland BWV 660; Chorale Prelude: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland BWV 661

Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911) Introduction et Variations sur un Ancien Noël Polonais

Flor PEETERS (1903-86) Heer Jezus heeft een hofken

Gerhard KRAPF (1924-2008) Veni, Emmanuel

Helmut WALCHA (1907-91) Chorale Prelude on ‘Den die Hirten Lobten sehre’ [2:06]

Paul MANZ (1919-2009) Wie schön leuchtet [2:33]

Mark BLATCHLY (b.1960) Three Versets on ‘Away in a Manger’ (pub.1995)

Garth EDMUNDSON (1892-1971) Toccata- Prelude IV on ‘Vom Himmel hoch’ (1937)

Alexander Eadon (organ) Plainchant versets for Titelouze sung by Daisy Tebbutt

PRIORY PRCD 1164 

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

William Walton (1902-83) Christmas Carol: All this Time: Part 2

The theme of the song is the story of the Nativity with the refrain emphasising the theological interpretation that ‘Verbum caro factum est’ - ‘The Word was made flesh’. This is the fundamental meaning of the events in Bethlehem both at the time of Jesus’ birth and for the present.

The carol is simplicity itself. William Kenneth Fulton’s (1981) dissertation provided me with analytical information on this carol. The music beings with a setting of the refrain in four parts. Walton has used the Mixolydian mode in A (scale based on A with F#, C# and G natural). However he does make use of the G# in the progress of the music.

The verses are written in A Lydian mode (scale based on A with F#, G#, C# and D#). There is a prominent octave leap at the beginning of each verse. The first three stanzas are presented by sopranos, tenors and sopranos respectively using virtually the same melody. Each time this is followed by the refrain. The final stanza is sung by the full (S.A.T.B.) choir. The carol closes with the refrain and a repeated ‘Verbum caro’. The harmony makes considerable use of parallel fourths and fifths.

In a letter dated 9 October 1972 from La Mortella, Forio d’Ischia  William Walton remarked to Malcolm Arnold, ‘I’m glad you like the S.A.T.B piece [the carol ‘All this Time’] I’m getting to like it a bit myself & so[,] he writes me, does the great B. himself.’ There is no doubt the ‘great B’ was in fact Benjamin Britten. I was unable to find the reference in The Selected Letters and Diaries of Benjamin Britten, 1913-1976, Volume 5, (2010) edited Donald Mitchell.

Over the years there have been a number of recordings of William Walton’s ‘All this Time.’ At present there are 10 listed in the Arkiv CD database.  The earliest, in 1972, was by the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford conducted by Simon Preston. (Argo ZRG 725)  This was part of an LP dedicated to Walton’s Church Music. S.W. writing in The Gramophone (November 1972) notes that the carol has already become popular by its inclusion in the then recent Carols for Choirs 2. Christ Church was the where the young Walton was admitted aged 10, so this album was an appropriate present for his 70^th birthday.

In 1987 a fascinating album of Christmas music by Holst and Walton was issued by Nimbus records (NI 5098). Once again it featured the choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, this time conducted by Stephen Darlington. It is still available from record shops and online.   The carol was included in the Chandos ‘complete’ cycle of Walton’s music in 1991 (CHAN 8998). It was coupled with the other carols, the Coronation Marches (1937) and (1953) and In Honour of the City of London (1937) as well as some of the liturgical works.  Most recently it has been featured on A York Yuletide: The Choir of York Minster with the musical director Robert Sharpe. (Regent, REGCD467). There is currently (accessed November 2015) a good version of ‘All this Time’ on YouTube sung by the Finzi Singers conducted by Paul Spicer.

Select Bibliography:

Craggs, Stewart R, William Walton: A Catalogue (Oxford University Press, 1990)

Ed. Craggs, Stewart R, William Walton: Music and Literature (London, Ashgate, 1999)

Fulton, William Kenneth, Selected Choral Works of William Walton (Ph.D. Dissertation, Texas Technical University 1981)

Smith, Carolyn J., William Walton: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, Greenwood Press, 1988)

Tierney, Neil, William Walton: His Life and Music, (London, Robert Hale, 1984)

William Walton (1902-83) Christmas Carol: All this Time: Part 1

William Walton’s lovely Christmas carol ‘All this Time’ was written relatively late in his career in 1970. The previous year had witnessed the premiere of the film The Battle of Britain which included music by Walton and Ron Goodwin, although subject to some considerable dissension.  On 14 January 1970 his Improvisations on an Impromptu of Benjamin Britten was heard in San Francisco at the War Memorial Opera House performed by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Josef Krips.  This work was a commission from the bio-chemist Dr Ralph Dorfman (1911-85) in memory of his first wife, Adeline Smith Dorman. The British premiere was at The Maltings, Snape on 27 June where Sir Charles Groves conducted the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.  The year also saw music composed for the film of the Chekov play Three Sisters, now forgotten, except for the three movement suite arranged by Christopher Palmer on Chandos (CHAN 8870).  One other brief work composed in 1970 was the Theme (for variations) for cello solo: this was part of a joint work, Music for a Prince dedicated to Charles, Prince of Wales in celebration of his Investiture in Caernarvon the previous year. This collection, which included contributions by Lennox Berkeley, Arthur Bliss, Ronald Binge, Vivian Ellis, John Gardner, Joseph Horovitz, Mitch Murray, Steve Race, Ernest Tomlinson, Guy Warrack, Brian Willey, Grace Williams and David Wynne, appears to have sunk without trace. However, the Theme has been resurrected and included on Tony Woollard’s debut CD Cello Journey. (WWRCJ1)

‘All this time’ is one of the few pieces that Walton wrote for unaccompanied mixed choir. John Coggrave (Craggs, 1999) has noted there are some 15 settings of religious texts (not including Belshazzar’s Feast) made between 1916 and 1977. These fall into three groups:

1. Settings of medieval carol texts.

2. Full-scale setting of liturgical texts.

3. Treatments of poetic or biblical material.

There are four carols, (Group 1) written between 1931 and 1970 – ‘Make we Joy now in this Fest’ (1931), ‘What Cheer?’ (1961), ‘All this Time’ (1970) and ‘King Herod and the Cock’ (1977).  Coggrave suggests that these are ‘delightful examples of medieval pastiche, as invigorating and accomplished as Walton’s neo-Elizabethan pastiche in his Shakespearean film scores.’  Neil Tierney (1984) considers that the vocal scoring of ‘All this Time’ has a ‘simplicity’ that ‘matches that of the words.’  The first of these carols owes something to Peter Warlock’s examples of the genre without making use of chromatic harmonies in succeeding verses. (Meurig Bowen, Hyperion sleeve notes, CDA67330, 2002). ‘What Cheer?’ and ‘All this Time’ are vibrant and ‘full of harmonic bite.’ The final example ‘King Herod and the Cock’ is a gentle example of a Christmas carol with little to trouble or challenge the listener.

In March 1970 Walton was asked by Oxford University Press for a work to be included in the second volume of the popular Carols for Choirs, Volume 1 which had been published in 1961 with conspicuous success. ‘All this time’ was published in Carols for Choirs 2, edited by David Willcocks and John Rutter (1970). It was also issued separately as an Oxford Choral Songs Series, X201. The manuscript is archived at the William Walton Museum in Forio d’Ischia, Italy.

       

The text of ‘All this Time’ is an anonymous 16^th century carol, written before 1536, possibly derived by the composer from Edith Rickert’s Ancient English Christmas Carols, 1400-1700, London 1910, and subsequently reprinted many times. Rickert (1871-1938) was a significant medievalist at the University of Chicago. Her major contributions included collaboration on Chaucer Life-Records and the eight-volume Text of the Canterbury Tales (1940).

There are a few minor verbal differences, and the addition of the refrain ‘All this time this song is best’ at the end of each stanza. The words ‘Verbum caro factum est’ translate to ‘The Word was made flesh.'  I have shown Walton’s changes in italics and Rickert’s original text (assuming he used this edition) in square brackets. Minor punctuation changes have been ignored.

All this time this song is best:

All this time this song is best:

‘Verbum caro factum est.’

This night there is a Child y-born,

That sprang out of Jesse’s thorn;

We must sing and say thereforn,

All this time this song is best:

‘Verbum caro factum est.’

Jesus is the Childës name

And Mary mild is His dame,

All our sorrow [is] shall turn[ed] to game:

All this time this song is best:

‘Verbum caro factum est.’

It fell upon [the] high midnight,

The starres [they] shone both fair and bright,

The angels sang with all their might:

All this time this song is best:

‘Verbum caro factum est.’

Now kneel we down [up]on our knee,

And pray we to the Trinity,

Our help, our succour for to be.

All this time this song is best:

‘Verbum caro factum est.’

Frank Chacksfield: Alpine Sleigh Ride

I first came across Frank Chacksfield in 1970. I bought my mother a copy of his lovely evocative album ‘Mediterranean Moonlight’ (ECS 2041) as one of her Silver Wedding Anniversary presents. I was more interested in The Beatles and their break-up at that time, but somehow I did admire that attractively romantic string sound of Chacksfield’s orchestra performing numbers such as ‘Isle of Capri’, ‘Lady of Spain’ and ‘April in Portugal’. Not something I would have admitted to my fellow fourth formers at grammar school though.

I concede to having omitted to note Frank Chacksfield’s centenary last year (2014). However, better late than never. He was born in Battle, Sussex on 9 May 1914. In the early part of his career he played both piano and organ, with youthful concert performances at Hastings and holding the post of church organist at Salehurst. However it is as a conductor that he is now best remembered, especially of light and easy listening music.  In 1936, after leaving a career in a solicitor’s office, he formed his band. After war service which included a posting to the Royal Army Service Corp’s Entertainment division (ENSA), where he met Sergeant Charlie Chester and became arranger for the ‘Stars in Battledress.’

After the war he maintained a busy performance and recording schedule at home and in the United States. He is estimated to have sold some 20 million albums word-wide. Chacksfield’s musical style is relaxed mood-music similar to that of Mantovani.

He was also a composer of many pieces including ‘Firecracker’, ‘Cuban Boy’, ‘Candid Snap’, ‘Summer Serenade’, ‘Innishannon Serenade’, ‘Bossa For Bess’, ‘Autumn Island’, ‘Rosella’, ‘Medway Magic’ and perhaps most famously an arrangement of ‘Ebb Tide’. He wrote under the pseudonym Roger Senicourt and Martino Paticano.

His orchestras included Frank Chacksfield and his Orchestra, the Singing Strings as well as The Tunesmiths.  Frank Chacksfield died in Kent on 9 June, 1995.

‘Alpine Sleigh Ride’ may not be one of Chacksfield’s (as Roger Senicourt) characteristic sweeping strings arrangements, however it is a lovely example of a little piece of programme music, ideal for the Yuletide Season. Who has not wanted to go on a sleigh ride in the Alps – whether German, French, Austrian or Italian (and not forgetting Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Monaco and Slovenia)? I feel that the composer has chosen the German part of the snow covered mountains. The listener is gently taken past villages clearly preparing for the Christmas Festivities. There are some sweeping strings, but also a little bit of the oompah band. Naturally, he makes good use of the percussion section’s sleigh bells. It is a well-constructed little piece that suggests fun rather than a cosy trip with one’s lover. 

Frank Chacksfield’s ‘Alpine Sleigh Ride’ is available on The Golden Age of Light Music:  ‘Christmas Lights’ GLCD 5222: this is coupled with a huge variety of Seasonal favourites. The present tune is played by Frank Chacksfield and his Orchestra. The piece was also included on an old Decca Eclipse album ECS 2134 which was released in 1969. It features on YouTube.