GRANVILLE BANTOCK 1868-1948
Rare historic recordings commercial and off-air all mono rec 1923-1948
Shulamite's Monologue from The Song of Songs Laelia
Finneberg (sop)/BBCSO/composer 30 March 1936 20.18
Glory of the Sun London Promenade Orchestra/Walter Collins rec 1948
Macbeth Overture Metropole SO/Dolf van der Linden rec 1948
Circus Life Overture London Promenade Orchestra/Walter Collins rec
1947
Four Chinese Landscapes London Promenade Orchestra/Walter Collins
rec 1946 3.45+2.30+1.32+4.00
Polka - Russian Scenes BBC Welsh Orch/Mansel Thomas. 27 May 1937
King Solomon:Processional London Promenade Orch/composer 15 Nov 1945,
3.15
Choral Hymn London Select Choir/BBCSO/composer rec 6 May 1937 3.43
Announcement of King Solomon broadcast 0.32
Songs of Egypt: Invocation to the Nile; Lament of Isis
Leila Megane(sop) /orch/C W Byng rec 30 Oct 1923 1.57+2.29
Now: Frank Mullings/BBCSO/composer 14 Sept 1936 3.27
Pilgrim's Progress: Pilgrim Now Hath Found His Lord; In praise
of Famous Men National Chorus, BBC Wireless SO/Stanford Robinson,
rec Central hall Westminster, 5 Jan 1929. 4.09+3.46
King's Monologue (Act III Song of Songs) Oscar Natzke (bass-bar/
Hubert Greenslades (piano) rec 1937.3.59
Bantock talking about Sibelius 11 March 1941 1.38
DUTTON CDLX 7043
[76.53]
Crotchet
Amazon
UK £8.50 - £9.00
from Stephen Lloyd
Those who possessed the 1951 edition of the Pelican 'British Music of Our
Time', edited by A. L. Bacharach, will remember that one of its most valuable
sections was the 27-page discography at the end, all of course, of 78 rpm
recordings. Although Granville Bantock did not receive a chapter to himself
in the main body of the book (he was grouped with 15 others in a 'Mixed
Gallery'), in the discography, after Delius and Vaughan Williams, he occupied
more space - over three pages - than any other composer. 30 works of his
were listed (the 1946 first edition listed only one Bantock recording that
did not survive the revision) and all these, except three, were recordings
from the Paxton catalogue. The proprietors of this music publishing company
were the Neil brothers. Cyril Neil was a friend of Bantock's and one of his
company's more enterprising offshoots was gramophone recordings, chiefly
of light music. Its catalogue not only served Bantock well but, to a lesser
degree, also his fellow composer, Josef Holbrooke, (with Bantock himself
conducting one item not represented here, a very truncated Birds of
Rhiannon).
A few Paxton recordings were transferred to 10" LP but otherwise, in time,
they disappeared and became collectors' rarities. It is good then that five
of them appear on this CD: a short energetic piece entitled The Glory
of the Sun, a dark 8 1/2 minute overture Macbeth based on the
score Bantock wrote for Sybil Thorndike's 1927 London production, a Circus
Life Overture and Four Chinese Landscapes (all under the
baton of Walter Collins, except the second which was conducted by Dolf van
der Linden), and the Processional from King Solomon, with Bantock
himself conducting the so-named London Promenade Orchestra. Three of these
are fine examples of that dying species, 'Light Music', the Chinese Landscapes
being especially effective, with their evocative titles matched by sensitive
scoring, even if the atmospheric Mist over the Village has strong
suggestions of Tapiola at the beginning and another clear Sibelian
fingerprint at 1'20". But then that is hardly surprising when one remembers
Bantock's strong advocacy for Sibelius, and indeed their great personal
friendship. Of these works the most interesting is the Macbeth Overture,
a more serious study as befits its subject. But all these Paxtons are well
worth reviving. Clearly there is scope for at least another CD of Paxton
recordings
The Processional from King Solomon has almost a whiff of Crown
of India about it. For all its grandeur it is a slight anti-climax as
one half-expects a big tune or trio to come - in vain. But there are other
surprises in store. This commercial Paxton recording is here followed by
some rare archive material: a piece of narration (from 2 Chronicles Chapter
1), delivered by Harman Grisewood, and the stately choral hymn Praise
Ye the Lord, both taken from the Coronation broadcast on 6 May 1937,
with Bantock this time conducting the London Select Choir and the BBC Symphony
Orchestra.
But the gem of this disc is the first item: The Shulamite's Monologue,
that comprises 'The Second Day' of The Song of Songs (the whole work
spans five days). Some publicity described The Song of Songs as an
opera in five acts, but in the vocal score there is no use of that terrn,
although the list of characters and the brief synopsis hint at its operatic
potential. Listening to this twenty minute scena, one feels, in many places,
a dramatic urgency similar to 'The Sun goeth down' in Elgar's The
Kingdom. The five parts of The Song of Songs were published between
1922 and 1927, the year in which the work had its first complete performance
under Hamilton Harty at a Hallé concert. This performance of the
Monologue is taken from a 1936 broadcast, with Bantock again conducting
the BBC Symphony Orchestra. For what should strictly be a dialogue between
the soprano Shulamite and her tenor Shepherd lover, here the two vocal lines
are taken by the soprano, the Liverpool-born Laelia Finneberg, who made her
first London appearance in 1933 and she is heard here in glorious voice.
The sound quality is remarkably good (with only just a very slight hint of
'wow' at the end), the surface noise by and large negligible, and the side-joins
inaudible. One is literally swept along by a performance of great passion,
full of energy, drive and sensitivity, with marvellously controlled rubato.
Of the other items on this CD, the Russian Scenes can be heard in
full in the Marco Polo Bantock CD 8.223274 (with the Hebridean Symphony
and the Old English Suite), but the live1y Polka alone
is here performed in a 1937 broadcast by the BBC Welsh Orchestra conducted
by the composer and conductor Mansel Thomas, later to become Head of Music,
BBC Wales. There are two HMV acoustic orchestral songs: Invocation to
the Nile and Lament of Isis, sung by soprano Leila Megane (with
whom Elgar had recorded his Sea Pictures nearly a year earlier). These
are followed by another discovery: the song with orchestra, Now, with
Frank Mullings, and Bantock conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a broadcast
on 14 September 1936.
The Pilgrim's Progress was a commission in 1928 for the Bunyan
tercentenary, first performed in November that year in Queen's Hall by BBC
forces conducted by the composer. The BBC National Chorus, that was first
heard in that performance, recorded for Columbia, the following January,
two sections with the BBC Wireless Symphony Orchestra under Stanford Robinson.
The chorale 'The pilgrim now hath found his Lord' precedes Pilgrim's entry
into the Valley of the Shadow of Death. (A cut of three pages in the vocal
score is made, necessary no doubt because the 78 side runs for over four
minutes as it is.) This is followed by the more demanding and more complex
chorus 'In Praise of Famous Men' that comes near the end of the work. This
is performed complete, apart from a slightly abbreviated orchestral ending.
The chorus of 250 voices stretched Columbia's recording capacity to its limits
without any serious distortion.
Next, the King's address to the Shulamite, 'Behold, thou art fair,
my love' from the Third Day of The Song of Songs is heard in a 1937
recording with bass-baritone Oscar Natzke accompanied on the piano by Hubert
Greenslades. The CD ends with another archive rarity, what is probably the
only recording in existence of Bantock's voice, the introduction from a radio
broadcast in 11th March 1941 when he presented a selection of gramophone
recordings of Sibelius's music.
For content and engineering skill, this CD must surely be a front-runner
for the Historical disc of the year. Perhaps the first performance of the
Five Ghazals of Hafiz, in the 1937 broadcast with Harold Williams and the
BBC Orchestra under Clarence Raybould, might be considered for a follow-up
CD, together with more Paxtons. A word of praise for the booklet (which contains
full texts) and the CD casing design. One feels one is handling something
of quality. Most exciting. This a disc of discs.
© Stephen Lloyd
and from Vincent Budd
This is a highly welcome and long overdue addition to Bantock's current
discography, and for all admirers of the composer's work a major evident
in this year's musical calendar. Song of Songs and Other Historical Recordings
is a varied collection of historic recordings put together by Lewis Foreman
mainly from BBC broadcasts and 78s. The CD is most pleasantly packaged and
adorned with one of Helen Bantock's designs. It runs for almost 77 minutes,
and, re-mastered by Michael Dutton, the sound is astonishingly good and potential
buyers should not be put off by the age of the performances. Apart from the
short Polka from Russian Scenes all the included selections are new to the
CD catalogue.
The opening and longest item in the programme is an arrangement just for
soprano (the section covering tracks 2 and 3 was originally a tenor part,
the Shepherd) of the Second Day of GB's mighty Song of Songs. The performance
was broadcast on 30th March 1936 with GB conducting Laelia Finneberg and
the BBC SO, but the composer's own private recording is used here. Although
GB was an avowed pagan (and liked to shock and to flout the conventions of
his day), he was still often inspired by Christian literature and notably
by the poetical elements of the Bible, and this 'opera' or 'staged oratorio',
set for six solo voices, chorus, and orchestra, comprises settings from two
books of the King James version (which the composer loved and admired): namely,
the entire eight chapters of The Song of Solomon, and six Psalms used for
four choral interludes and the mighty choral procession. The programme notes
from a Belfast Philharmonic Society performance in 1928 mention that GB may
have got the idea for his literary format from a book by Ernest Renan
(1823-1892), the French orientalist and writer on religion. GB eschews all
allegorical interpretations of Solomon, and the lyrical love verses and the
psalms are framed into a triangular love story depicting King Solomon's
infatuation with a Shulamite Maiden whose constancy for her shepherd lover
eventually triumphs over the unwanted desires of her royal suitor. GB rarely
did things by halves or even seven-eights and this colossal creation in its
entirety would obviously try the patience of most modern audiences (it would
probably run near to three hours in the hands of some of today's conductors):
but this is not really an example of GB's more wayward and indigestible
compositional intemperance which is so evident in some parts of his oeuvre
especially in his early days. Song of Songs is in fact a work of sustained
musical quality and of abiding grandeur, and if it is thought by some that
it does not quite match the magnificence of Omar or Sappho, then to my mind
it is there or at least thereabouts. The 'second day' may not necessarily
be the most commanding Act of the work, but the graphic impact of GB's
astonishing gift for sublime and intense emotional communication and of his
characteristic opulent harmonies and luxurious sonorities remain for all
to hear. Finneberg's quite exceptional performance as the Shulamite comes
across wonderfully well and is a real bonus.
Much less appealing is a section (the first part of chapter IV of The Song
of Solomon) from the morning of 'Day Three' arranged as a recital piece with
piano accompaniment. It was one of a couple of separately published issues
from the work and was recorded the following year with bass baritone, Oscar
Natzke. To reduce it thus was not one of GB's better artistic decisions as
the rhapsodic rapture of the piece is almost completely lost in this skeletal
frame. It is left somehow merely ramblingly fascinating rather than an abidingly
enjoyable musical experience. Nonetheless, it does reveal the sheer relentless
invention of GB's muse and there are moments of enterprising pianism.
King Solomon is another very attractive inclusion in the programme
and this too is certainly amongst the wheat of GB's harvesting. It is a much
smaller musical conception than Song of Songs and was written for King George
VI''s Coronation in May 1937. It is constructed in three parts. The first,
Processional, opens with a mighty fanfare and is followed by an extended
orchestral march which reminds me of Respighi. There was a break in the original
transmission so this portion of the work is taken from GB's recording with
the London Promenade Orchestra released on the Paxton label in 1945. After
a narrated middle section (obviously using the words of a more recent modern
biblical translation, I think of part of chapter III of the first Book of
Kings), further brass introduce a choral setting of verses adapted from Psalm
148, once again the King James version. Both these are taken from the Coronation
broadcast. This is GB in more straightforward style with simple, broad and
sweeping harmonies, but King Solomon is still a most engaging creation, full
of vibrant colours, and retains its potent force even outside its original
setting.
If Song of Songs and King Solomon are two examples of GB's extraordinary
vocal craft, then Pilgrim's Progress has been considered the composer
in not such inspired form. It was commissioned for the 300th anniversary
of Bunyan's birth, and the work was not well received in some critical quarters
at the time. One wonders why listening to the two examples presented here
from Stanford Robinson's 1929 recording for Columbia with the National Chorus
and the BBC Wireless Symphony Orchestra. It is another lengthy work, but
is more in the direct musical spirit of King Solomon than the vast, complex
musical architectonics of Song of Songs. The chorale, The Pilgrim Now Hath
Found His Lord, begins with two a cappella verses of Bowker Andrews's provided
poetry, with particularly striking antiphonal effect in the second, before
the chorus proceeds into the final stanza with a mighty orchestral accompaniment.
In Praise Of Famous Men is the closing episode of section 11, Through the
Golden Gate, the penultimate movement (GB closes the work with a short orchestral
epilogue): it is writ large with a big 'B' and constitutes the grand choral
climax of the work. Though the words seem somewhat incongruous for such a
moment in the proceedings, the music is powerfully uplifting and produces
a splendour that should beguile many.
The two brilliant excerpts from Pilgrim's Progress are followed by a recording
of Frank Mullings singing GB's setting of Browning's Now (from the Dramatic
Lyrics) with the composer conducting the BBC SO. Browning was one of the
composer's most cherished poets and GB composed over fifty settings of his
poetry. Mullings had been singing this and other Bantock material for years
and was something of a Bantock specialist and it is interesting to hear his
voice at last after having seen his name so often in programmes of GB's music.
He certainly gives it some welly and the piece provides him with an ample
opportunity to extend himself, but at times his phrasing is a little too
affected and he perhaps makes it all just a little too emotionally wrought.
The oldest recording in the collection is from 1923. It is also the earliest
example of GB's work on display. The Invocation to the Nile and Lament of
Isis, both begun in late 1896, constitute the first and fifth of the six
Songs of Egypt which were the third in the series of the six sets of Songs
of the East, GB's first collaboration with Helen Schweitzer who was soon
to be his wife. We are provided with the orchestrated versions sung by Leila
Megane and released by HMV in 1923. There is certainly a pleasant whiff (for
this is not necessarily a bad thing!) of the musical hall in Invocation,
but some of the orchestral ornamentation sounds a bit naff. Isis is much
more impressive and really hits the mark: the wonderfully grieving melody
line, dare I say, even summons up some of the pathos of Sappho's yearning
(I've just noticed Anderton, GB's first biographer, also makes the correlation
- so there you are, it is not as curious a comparison as it may at first
seem to be), though once again the orchestration days not quite match it.
Taken for what they are, they are pleasant and pleasing and certainly Lament
of Isis is one of the most worthy songs in the whole series and is well warranted
a recording - it is interesting to note that at the time in a letter to Helen
GB considered his first few Songs of the East to be his finest achievement
thus far, even if his burgeoning romance with his collaborator may have slightly
clouded his judgement somewhat.
GB wrote many great works involving the human voice and made a supreme
contribution to the songs and vocal repertoire of his nation - even aside
from the more patent examples such as Omar, Sappho, Five Ghazals of Hafiz,
Ferishtah's Fancies, The Great God Pan, and others - and there is sadly still
so much that needs to be recovered from undue oblivion and newly explored.
It is a joy therefore to get even this brief glimpse of GB's vocal virtuosity,
however much it remains wonderfully out of synch with present day musical
tastes.
But if GB was understandably primarily admired and lauded in his day for
his choral works and songs, his musical genius was also equally revealed
in the mastership of his orchestral invention and indeed many of his purely
orchestral works sound much less dated than his vocal scores and are clearly
more in accord with contemporary sensibilities - his symphonies, for example,
should be a staple diet of the orchestral repertoire of his country. Vaughan
Williams (he and GB seem to have never clicked as personalities) once remarked
that 'what Bantock did not know about the orchestra is not worth knowing',
and it is a debatable point that, due in part to the abiding musical priorities
of his time, GB was too often overly taken up with vocal and choral composition
to the detriment of his orchestral creation. The examples presented here
range from mere divertissement to the genuinely inspired.
Circus Life Overture (an orchestral recasting of the Overture of a
set of piano pieces entitled A Marionette Show) and The Glory of the Sun
(also originally a piano piece) are from GB's late association with Cyril
Neil and the Paxton record label. Performed by Walter Collins and the London
Promenade Orchestra, they are short, light, playful, throwaway pieces and
have some delightful moments and are either to be enjoyed for what they are
or disliked for what they are not according to the tempers of your musical
opiniatry. Still, they could perhaps have been left for another time or at
least been more appropriately sequenced: they come immediately after the
emotional intensity of the Song of Songs and therefore require here a radical
re-adjustment of musical focus which could tend to diminish their impact
even further - but then again they do act as an engaging respite. The Macbeth
Overture, also a Paxton recording but this time with Dolf van der Linden
and the Metropole SO, is a little more serious and substantial and a far
from inferior piece and has some highly enjoyable passages: it is GB in fine,
fair-to-middling form and an occasional outing in the concert hall would
do no-one any harm. However, Four Chinese Landscapes, another Collins/London
Promenade Orchestra/Paxton recording, is one of the real highlights of the
whole collection and worth the admission fee by itself. It is a superb and
potentially very popular work and such a pleasing orchestral conception that
it surely requires the Handley/Hyperion treatment in the not-too-distant
future. The piece which follows, the Polka from GB's much earlier
Tchaikovsky-like suite, Russian Scenes, is a cheery and sprightly miniature
(the full work can be found on a Marco Polo release alongside his even more
entertaining English Suite and one of GB's bona fide masterworks, the Hebridean
Symphony, and the CD also comes highly recommended).
The collection closes first with GB's introductory statement to a recital
of Sibelius's music: it is the only known recording of his characterful voice.
This was an excellent idea and the programme should possibly have fittingly
ended there, but for some reason (though perhaps I am being unduly humourless
here) this is followed by the radio announcement concerning the gap in the
BBC broadcast of King Solomon (you rarely hear voices like that any more
on Radio 3, thankfully!).
This is a wonderful assortment of the ranged nature and qualities of GB's
vast output and for those already taken with the composer's music it is an
exceptional pleasure. With each listen it further ingratiates itself on the
listener and again one begins to wonder how did this man fall so out of favour.
There is no apparent systematic rationale to the choice of recordings and
the running order is arguably a little curious. Though the two Solomon works
obviously go well together, it might possibly have been more pleasing to
have had the intended series organised along more thematic lines (say, Bantock
conducting his own works, Hebridean works, BBC radio recordings, Paxton Mood
Music, or some such) - though, swings and roundabouts, the very assorted
nature of the collection is also part of its very delight and it still works
extremely well and many listeners will no doubt much prefer this more mixed
approach. Given the material available some of the selections, particularly
for an opening and 'catch 'em while you can' volume, might be considered
a tad questionable and it includes a couple of items which will obviously
do nothing to add to his reputation and are more of curiosity value and of
interest mainly to his admirers than examples of his real stature as a composer.
Walter Collins's London Promenade Orchestra recording of the Celtic Symphony
should surely have been an obvious choice for a Volume 1. But once again
it does give a fulsome insight into the variegated quality of GB's scores,
including a taste of what some - especially those who like to judge rather
than enjoy - will inevitably consider the chaff. One of the essential problems
with GB is that he composed his music with an unrestrained and often highly
indiscriminate facility (in stark contrast to his friend Sibelius who, if
I recall correctly, said he throw away more than he published - a complete
anathema to a composer like GB). He could hit and miss in equally extreme
measure (sometimes in the same piece!), some of his loftiness could at times
almost cross the border into veritable kitsch, and more could too often be
much less: all this has tended to obfuscate the substantial portion of his
oeuvre which at its best rivalled the greatest British composers of this
century. At the same time, GB was a man of diverse moods and different
compositional priorities and many of us bitten with the Bantock bug can take
(and often still happily enjoy) the more insubstantial and near gaudy elements
of his creative tempers without it diminishing from the unquestionable greatness
of his finest scores; and in any case many of his so-called lesser works
are not as dreadful as they are too often and too easily assumed to be. This
CD gives us a marvellous taste of both and he still comes up shinning like
a lighthouse beacon - if there were any of them left.
So although Song of Songs and Other Historical Recordings may not necessarily
gain any new converts to this great and truly unreasonably neglected composer,
it is certainly an essential and prized release for all Bantockians. The
nostalgic atmosphere of the whole experience transports us back to musical
tastes of a bygone age - a world of family Ovalteenies by the wireless and
plummy voiced BBC announcers, and a Labour Party still unashamed of the word
'socialism': but now played nice 'n' loud through your modern Hi Fi equipment
this CD helps breath a whole new life into the works, and approached with
the appropriate empathy it packs an undeniable musical punch if you are ready
and willing to take it. Lewis Foreman's sleeve notes as per usual provide
a highly useful background to the recordings - though he repeats the false,
but oft-repeated, assertion that GB conducted Sibelius at New Brighton, and
GB did not complete and publish Songs of the East 'in little over a year',
and (without wishing to sound unduly pedantic) the tale that GB was the first
British academic to wear corduroys to a faculty meeting is (I think) a slightly
exaggerated encyclopaedic version of the story related by Anderton in an
article which relates that he was merely the first to be so attired ('a suit
of brown-ribbed velveteen') at a meeting of the Senate of Birmingham University.
All in all a wonderful contribution to Bantock's current revival and a hearty
thanks and drinks all round due to those involved. Bantock lovers can only
look forward to the further promised volumes.
(c) Vincent Budd
and from Rob Barnett
To Bantockian time-travellers this is an irresistible issue. Not only are
many fabled 78s reissued but private records made from radio broadcasts of
the 1930s are also made available.
Those who have fallen under the spell of Bantock's late romantic
Sappho Fragments (an hour
long cycle for soprano and orchestra, wondrously recorded on Hyperion) will
want this disc for the hefty fragment from his The Song of Songs (for
solo voices, chorus and orchestra). The two works are cut from the
same golden sable cloth. Laelia Finneberg is a resplendently secure soprano
floating miraculously sustained Straussian high notes ppp at 0.51
and 03.02 in track 3.
Bantock was a master of opulent orchestration as this score declares time
after time. This is from a radio broadcast. One is pitifully grateful for
this substantial fragment but what about the rest of this 2½ hour work
which is a hefty partner to his 3 hour Omar Khayyam (for the same
forces as Song of Songs) a work crying out for recording. The dark-hued
voice of Oscar Natzke guides us through the King's Monologue from
Act III but without orchestra it lacks impact despite Hubert Greenslades'
valiant pianistic efforts.
The Glory of the Sun gallops like a Valkyrie's chariot - a British
version of Saint-Saens' Phaeton. The more extended and dramatic
Macbeth overture is a Tchaikovskian portrait capturing spirit rather
than incident and at 6.30 recalling Bantock's own Hebridean Symphony.
Circus Life is bright and effervescent - a Donna Diana of the
British overture genre - with a slap and a dash of Waldteufel and
Nutcracker.
The Four Chinese Landscapes have been a favourite of mine since Mark
Bernier sent me a tape back in the early 1980s. It is not the light pier-end
frivolity you might have suspected but rather a series of pastel character
pictures much accented by Bantock's Sibelian tendencies. Remember that Bantock
was the dedicatee of the Finn's Third Symphony! The second piece is clearly
recalling Tapiola or Tempest-Storm almost to a tee. The homage
is pretty direct. Thankfully there is no tinpot Orientalism. In the finale
we meet cross-currents from Rimsky, Richard Strauss and Karelia.
The Kouchka are paid jerky tribute in the Polka from the overall
rather lack-lustre Russian Scenes.
King Solomon is stirring both chorally and in the inky brass fanfares.
The processional elements are sturdy and a shade four-square but undoubtedly
affirmative.
Continuing with GB's beloved 'exotics' Dutton have assembled three songs
from his sequence Songs of Egypt. The first two sung by Leila Megane
(a Bantock 'favoured one') recollect the Sappho Songs. The last one
is taken by Mullings, another GB stalwart.
Then a switch from exotica to mainstream British C of E. Pilgrim's Progress,
sounds rather like splendid hymnal arrangements at one moment and at
another like a Delian Mass of Life manqué.
Regrets: a few. What a pity that the 1930s broadcast of Harold Williams singing
the Five Ghazals of Hafiz (baritone and orchestra) could not have
been included. The disc is discreetly marked 'vol.1' so perhaps there are
hopes for vol.2? Also long anticipated is the 1925 Boult acoustic set of
the Hebridean Symphony. There are also stacks more of those Paxton
and Cyril Neil mood music bonne-bouche 78s to act as fillers.
The disc is rounded out by the voice of Bantock speaking about his idol,
Sibelius.
This generous disc deserves to do well and I recommend it to Bantock fanciers
and anyone caught up by the diversity and inventiveness of British music
in the 1910s and 1920s. Bantock had little time for nobilmente or pastoralism
or jazz. Instead his very evident models were Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Sibelius
and the Gaelic hegemony.
More strength to Dutton and the Bantock
Society.
Rob Barnett
(historical)
and from Gary Dalkin
This anthology is labelled Bantock Society Historical Recordings Vol.
1 and contains music from The Song of Songs - indeed, by far the
longest selection on the disc is the first track, the 20-minute "Shulamite's
Monologue" from Act II, the BBC SO conducted by the composer in 1936 for
the BBC National Programme - as well as from King Solomon, Songs of Egypt,
Pilgrim's Progress, the Macbeth Overture, Four Chinese Landscapes
and a few other short pieces. There is also 1:38 of Bantock talking about
Sibelius.
Michael J. Dutton's remasterings are always done with both respect for the
source material and considerable technical accomplishment. There are no gimmicks,
simply as good a transfer as possible given the technical limitations of
the original recordings and the deterioration over the intervening years.
Technically the music sounds as good as can be expected, and despite the
inevitable distortion on some orchestral peaks, sometimes a great deal better;
the clarity and richness of soprano Laelia Finneberg in the "Shulamite's
Monologue" is a revelation. The music itself makes a strong case for the
critical reappraisal of Bantock as a significant British composer, and the
performances, many of which are conducted by Bantock reveal a subtly and
sense of atmosphere not usually associated with his name. The booklet is
well illustrated, contains full texts, an 8 page essay by Lewis Foreman and
some fascinating background on the recordings themselves. For the Bantock
aficionado this release is essential, and may well go some way to bringing
this undervalued British composer back into the public eye. A most commendable
issue.
- sound
- historical value and presentation
and from Gerald Fenech
The tale behind the resurrection of this fabulous compendium is admirably
told by Lewis Foreman in his extensive notes to the disc. I won't intrude
on that side of the coin! This is indeed a fantastic collection of private
pressings and recordings finally seeing the light of day as commercial recordings
over fifty years after. The miraculously vivid sound is another tribute to
Mike Dutton who has been definitively re-creating the sounds of yesteryear
with the best possible results. We have two extremely rare overtures, 'Macbeth'
and 'Circus Life', which receive vivid recordings by the Metropole Symphony
Orchestra conducted by Dolf van der Linden and the London Promenade Orchestra
under Walter Collins respectively. The main work is undoubtedly Laelia
Finneberg's glorious rendition of 'The Shulamite's Monologue' from The Song
of Songs conducted with understanding by the composer in an uncannily vivid
1938 recording. 'King Solomon' is also well represented with a stunning
'Processional' and 'Praise Ye Lord' both conducted by the composer. Frank
Mullings' inimitable voice is heard on a 1936 recording of 'Now' again conducted
by the composer with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Stanford Robinson conducts
a few numbers from 'The Pilgrim's Progress'. Walter Collins conducts 'The
Glory of the Sun' and the evocative 'Four Chinese Landscapes', wonderful
tone pictures from the Orient. We even have Bantock talking about Sibelius;
as well as a few other titbits. The CD is labelled 'Volume 1' and I look
forward to further releases from this source. For the time being this is
indeed a splendid enterprise.
No stars for performance and sound - A unique historical project.
See also book review AN
INTRODUCTION TO THE LIFE AND WORK OF SIR GRANVILLE BANTOCK by Vincent Budd
The book is only available direct from the author. It is priced £6 00,
plus 50p p&p (Europe 75p, ROW £1). If you would like to order a
copy please include your details, enclose it with your cheque, payable to
'Vincent Budd', and post to 2 Seallaidh Bharraidh, Polochar, Isle of South
Uist, Outer Hebrides, SCOTLAND HS8 5TR Please write clearly.
THE BANTOCK SOCIETY
Vincent Budd produces the superbly detailed Bantock Society newsletter. The
Winter 1999 one is profusely illustrated with rare photographs and plates
centering on performances of Atalanta in Calydon in the USA and on
the 1896 Shamus O'Brien tour. Goossens' 1936 first US performance
of Atalanta was in a concert which also included Cyril Scott's La
Belle Dame Sans Merci with the solo voice role being taken by Theodore
Webb.
Vincent and the Society can be contacted at 2 Sealladh Bharraidh, S.Uist,
Western Isles, Scotland HS8 5TR. Vjbd@argonet.co.uk
