SWAGMAN'S PROMENADE
Australian Light Classics for Orchestra
Music by Colin BRUMBY (b.
1933), Lindley EVANS (1895-1982),
George DREYFUS (b. 1928),
John CARMICHAEL (b. 1930),
Miriam HYDE (b. 1913),
Arthur BENJAMIN (1893-1960),
Peggy GLANVILLE-HICKS (1912-1990),
Ronald HAMNER (1917-1994),
Michael HURST (b.1925)
BRUMBY
Paean - Sydney SO/Patrick Thomas
Scena for cor anglais and orchestra - Barry Davis (cor ang)/Queensland
SO/Richard Mills
Festival Overture on Australian Themes - West Australian SO/Richard
Mills
EVANS (arr
Isador
GOODMAN) Idyll - Isador Goodman
(piano)/Melbourne SO/Patrick Thomas
DREYFUS Rush - Melbourne
SO/Dreyfus
CARMICHAEL
Trumpet Concerto - Kevin Johnston (tpt)/West Australian SO/David
Measham
Concerto Folklorico - composer (piano)/West Australian SO/David
Measham
A Country Fair - Jack Harrison (cl)/West Australian SO/Richard
Mills
HYDE Happy Occasion Overture -
West Australian SO/Richard
Mills
BENJAMIN
Overture to an Italian Comedy - Sydney SO/Joseph Post
Cotillon - Sydney SO/Patrick
Thomas
GLANVILLE-HICKS Three Gymnopedies
- Sydney SO/Myer
Fredman
HAMNER Blue Hills Rhapsody -
Queensland SO/composer
HURST Swagman's Promenade - West
Australian SO/David Measham
ABC CLASSICS 442 374-2
2CDs CD1 [71.51] CD2
[72.05]
Crotchet
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This is a Victoria plum of a collection - superbly documented, definitively
performed and unrelentingly enjoyable. Recording quality is inevitably a
bit variable but the sound is at very least good - often much better. It
is a pity that dates and locations of recording schedules are not given however
by the sound of it these recordings date from the 1970s and 1980s.
It is good to see David Measham's name among the list of conductors. His
recordings on Unicorn LPs never made it to CD, more's the pity. We very much
need his versions of Vaughan Williams' On Wenlock Edge (with the superb
Gerald English - such an intelligent artist), Wilfred Josephs' Requiem
and Symphony No. 5, the Barber Symphonies and Essays, Bax Symphony
No. 3 and Goossens Symphony No. 1. Whatever happened to the masters of these
recordings?
In this case Measham conducts the two Carmichael concertos which are
the most substantial works on this set. Each concerto runs to about 25 minutes
and the WASO plays the Carmichael Country Fair with Richard Mills
conducting. Neither of the concertos is desperately original but each has
some wonderfully accessible material. I can imagine these works making an
indelibly good impression in an orchestral pops concert. The
Folklorico is played by the composer and is revealed as a work in
candid tribute to de Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain. Other
'Iberian' influences also thread their way through this work including Ravel's
Rhapsodie Espagnole and Massenet's dances from El Cid. The
Trumpet Concerto has similar charisma - the first movement is very singable.
Overall this work rattles along like some progeny of Richard Strauss's Le
Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Haydn's Trumpet Concerto and Rachmaninov's Second
symphony if that doesn't sound too improbable. This is not for the irredeemably
serious. Great playing from Kevin Johnston.
Brumby's Scena is beautifully projected by soloist Barry Davis.
The work makes a nice twin to another neglected bon-bon; Jean Francaix's
L'Horloge de Flore - try it! Brumby also has the place of honour on
the first disc with tracks 1 and 2. The Paean is a brash ceremonial
statement welding together Baroque strains and a sort of variant of Walford
Davies' RAF March Past. An English voice predominates in the Festival
Overture, as well, with the tune I Love my Love (as delectably
used by Holst) much in play. A Gallic wistfulness languishes over the pages
of A Country Fair. This must surely refer more to a fair country than
to a country fair. The work is in the form of a flighty rhapsody for clarinet
and orchestra. The Miriam Hyde overture is out of the Coates and Bax
camps.
Lindley Evans' 1945 Idyll for piano and orchestra might be
expected to follow the same track as Finzi's Eclogue but in fact (whether
due to Goodman's transcription or not I do not know) it is rather a florid
essay, touching yes but with a decidedly Rachmaninov plangency and Delian
warmth.
Dreyfus's Rush (written for ABC TV) has a Victorian nostalgia
about it, something of Copland's Mexico and La Cucaracha and in it
there is also something of the sepia toned poignancy of the music used in
NBC's major documentary series on the history of the American Civil War.
Two Benjamin works kick off the second disc. The Overture we know
from Myer Fredman's LP with the RPO (a Lyrita lollipop). Joseph Post directs
a performance with rough edges. It lacks the fizz of the Lyrita and for that
matter of the vintage Frederick Stock/Chicago version on Biddulph. The work
explores territory familiar from Barber's School for Scandal overture
and two overtures by Benjamin's friend, Bax: the peppy Work in Progress
and the Overture to a Picaresque Comedy. It is no surprise to
hear that the Benjamin used this as an overture to his own opera Prima
Donna. The Fredman version is not currently accessible. For ten years
now there has been a rumour, gradually fading, that Lyrita will reissue this
on CD with Barry Wordsworth's very fine 1992 account of the Benjamin symphony
(LPO)and Del Mar's version of Cotillon. From effervescence to
neo-classicism: Cotillon is based not too tightly on original eighteenth
century dances. You will know what to expect if you are familiar with Moeran's
Serenade, Rubbra's Farnaby Improvisations, the outer movements
of Finzi's violin concerto, the double violin concerto of Gustav Holst and
the full orchestral version of Warlock's Capriol Suite. The work has
a dab of Pulcinella here and a touch of tenderness there. Patrick
Thomas is more successful than Del Mar in conveying the sheer zest of this
work.
Hamner, like Benjamin and Glanville-Hicks had strong British connections.
Phil Scowcroft has written up some biographical background which I append
to this review. The Blue Hills Rhapsody uses a pastoral melody, brief
but potently memorable. It hints at Wagner's Siegfried Idyll and then
floats off into lush English pastures. Blue Hills was a long-running
ABC radio serial. The theme was written by Hamner and expanded into this
Rhapsody which at one point seems to jump through at least one Korngoldian
hoop - like a fugitive from the Sinfonietta and at another to saunter
through the lobby of the Grand Hotel.
Hurst's Swagman's Promenade (which gives the set its title)
is an uproarious and raucous medley of unmistakably Australian tunes that
are now so mingled with the Aussie 'way' that they might easily be taken
to be folktunes - Waltzing Matilda, Botany Bay, Click Go
the Shears all put in bucolic apparel.
Peggy Glanville-Hicks Gymnopedies are not twins with the Satie
works. They reflect the composers long-time interest in Mediterranean culture
and music intertwined with her grounding in the music of Vaughan Williams
(Symphony No. 5). The oriental tone in these works is as tangy as in her
song cycle Letters from Morocco.
If you are one of the thousands who have bought the Marco Polo British Light
Music series, or the three Hyperion (Ronald Corp) discs or the blizzard of
EMI light music reissues this selection is definitely for you.
The recordings are culled from the coffers of the ABC archives. The whole
anthology is swept onto two green camouflage fatigue discs accommodated in
a single width case.
A resounding welcome for this set.
Rob Barnett
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BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS - RONALD HAMNER
Ronald Hamner, born in Reigate in 1917 and who died in 1996, has been known
for perhaps half a century as a highly regarded composer and arranger for
light orchestra, his output in this area alone totalling well over 500 items,
including some forty of the well-remembered (by me at least) arrangements
for the ITMA programme. Hamner studied at Blackheath Conservatory and was
a theatre organist between 1935 and 1948. Since then he has found plenty
of work as a freelance orchestrator and conductor. Music has been provided
by him, for films, theatre (including adaptations for amateurs of musical
shows - Viva Mexico! and The Merry Widow are examples) and
radio. His orchestral tally has included potpourris, with titles like
Bouquet de Paris, Capstan and Windlass, The Heather and
the Thistle, Heritage of England, The Holly and the
Mistletoe, The Oak and the Rose and Memories of Hungary,
and original genre pieces in orchestral or piano versions such as On a
Windy Day, Limelight Lady, Dot and Carry One,
Pastorale, Mosquito, City Desk, The PC 49 Theme and
Fashion Parade. Wind players have had particular cause to be grateful
to him as many publications, useful both as instructional pieces and as concert
items, have come from his pen: clarinet quartets and trios, flute trios,
a Cuckoo Quartet (for two flutes and two clarinets), Two
Contrasts for oboe and piano, trumpet trios, a Suite for French
horn and piano, direct in its appeal, and Three Sketches for trumpet
and piano. I heard the Suite for Seven (i.e. two flutes, oboe, three
clarinets and bassoon) twice in Doncaster recently and was taken with its
good writing and melodic and rhythmic interest; there is a Serenade for
Seven also. Hamner is well respected as a composer in the brass band
world, where his output ranges from light genre pieces (Latin Americana,
Brass Spectacular, March With a Beat, Waltz with a Beat,
Mexican Fiesta and the march, Over Hill Over Dale) through
solos (Praeludium and Allegro) for trombone, Cavatina and Allegro
for E flat horn, Arioso and Caprice for horn and Flight of Fancy,
for cornet and euphonium) to more substantial works: the fantasy Alice
in Wonderland, The Four Corners of the World, Down Under (he
emigrated to Australia) and Episodes for Brass. Nor have smaller brass
groups been forgotten by him, as he published Prelude and Rondo and
Seven Up for septet, Prelude, Romance and Finale
for brass quartet and the cornet quartet Foursome Fantasy.
© Philip Scowcroft
