Introduction - The Guildhall Strings
Those who have admired the fine ensemble playing of the Guildhall Strings
over the years, especially in the various music festivals up and down the
country, will welcome this their first (but hopefully not last) appearance
on the Hyperion label. The Guildhall Strings play standing up (except for
the three cellists) in a semi-circle creating a freedom of communication
impossible in traditional orchestral seating. Since there is no conductor,
all the players contribute to the overall shape of the music, as members
of a string quartet do. As a Daily Telegraph critic has written, "They
are as much a pleasure to watch as to listen to."
Armstrong Gibbs string works on this album
The collection commences with the Prelude, Andante and Finale. This
work was originally written by the composer for string orchestra but this
version was lost (the only surviving copy is for piano, four hands.) The
version on this CD is Lawrence Ashmore's version for Gibbs's original forces
in which he underlines the grandeur and scale of Gibbs's music with his rich
scoring. Having just returned from leading a Holiday Fellowship (walkers)
special interest holiday on Music Appreciation, I very much appreciated Gibbs's
music of the Prelude with its marching music. You can hear the pattern
of the walkers' feet: the leader striding along purposely and the varied
patterns of the other (perhaps not quite so committed) walkers tread. Included
on an earlier Marco Polo album of Armstrong Gibbs's music, was the composer's
Westmoreland Symphony (1944), a highly personal musical outpouring
of personal grief. That mood is sustained through the Andante - a
coming to terms with wartime trauma and personal loss culminating, here,
in a tormented final climax. The Finale returns us to the bracing
outdoors with music marked by constantly changing accents that reminds one
of Holst.
Dale and Fell is a short evocative suite. The opening Prelude:
The Beck Climb, is appropriately evocative and has a memorable long-breathed
tune; the central movement Rest at Noon is a lullaby as the walkers
doze under the hot mid-day sun; and the final Over the High Fells
is a sturdy descending marching bass with a no-nonsense marching tune.
In 1919, Gibbs was working as a teacher at his old preparatory school in
Brighton when he grasped a chance to switch to a full time music career.
He was asked to organise a celebration for the retiring headmaster. He hit
on the idea of a play with music composed by himself. For the text he turned
to Walter de la Mare. De la Mare agreed to write the play and two months
later a script called Crossings arrived. Clearly then, Walter de la
Mare figured prominently in Gibbs' creative life. When the poet died in June
1956, Gibbs immediately responded with his Thenody for Walter de la
Mare - a deeply felt paean that looks back to the sound world of
Vaughan Williams's Tallis Fantasia but also to Herbert Howells in
similar mood.
A Spring Garland (1937) is a collection of five, two-minute miniatures recalling
Peter Warlock's Capriol Suite in style. Each movement is named after
country flowers: Kingcup, Dog Violet, Daffodil, Windflower and
Tulip. Almayne, the earliest Gibbs work in the programme is
a similar work written in an older style. In fact the tune comes from Elizabeth
Rogers' Virginal Book of 1656.
The album concludes with the most substantial work in this collection -
Suite for Strings completed just one year before Gibbs's death. Containing
some of his most sonorous and rich string textures, it is notably lacking
in angst. The opening music is strongly reminiscent of Gerald Finzi.
His middle movement, A Song of Sleep allows untroubled slumber and
his finale, The Promise of Spring, is all ebullience and
celebration.
A collection to treasure, proving (if any were necessary) the worth of this
unjustly neglected British composer. The Guildhall players deliver performances
full of vigour and sensitivity. More Armstrong Gibbs, please, Hyperion.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Guildhall
Strings directed by Robert Salter
