Among the conductors of our time none has been a more
consistent champion of English music than Andrew Davis (though Richard
Hickox deserves equal praise). With the BBC Symphony Orchestra he performed
contemporary music as well as maintaining the opportunities to hear
the great composers from the national repertoire.
This bargain-priced collection of four CDs from Warner
Apex is in many respects a tribute to Davis and his time with the BBC
Orchestra. The playing is first-class, so too the recorded sound, while
the interpretations can challenge the best. Added to that, the CDs come
in a nicely produced presentation box, and there is a booklet which
contains well written and quite substantial notes on all the music.
As usual with Apex, however, the presentation of the printed material
would benefit from a more thoughtful editorial touch, since neither
the font, the print size, nor the layout (there is a lot of wasted space)
make the task of the reader an easy one.
Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide to
the Orchestra, otherwise known as Variations and Fugue on a Theme
of Purcell, was written to a commission for a film explaining the
instruments of the orchestra. It succeeds on every front, with a plan
that takes the listener on a guided tour around the sections and instruments,
yet still manages to be a strongly constructed piece which communicates
a convincing expressive message. In other words, it is a masterpiece
on every count, and when the Purcell theme (from Adalezar) comes
back in clear at the end, it is a fulfilling moment. Another aspect
of the music is that this is a concerto for orchestra, and the better
the playing, both individually and collectively, the greater the rewards.
The BBC Symphony Orchestra do themselves proud, while the recorded sound
from St Augustine's Kilburn is warm and sonorous.
Frank Bridge was probably the most significant influence
on the emerging genius of the young Britten, so it was fitting that
the Variations on a Theme of Bridge should have been one of the
works that confirmed Britten's stature. The score was composed in the
late 1930s for the leading string ensemble of the day, the Boyd Neel
Orchestra, so it is no surprise that virtuosity plays such a full part
in the proceedings. But there is more too it than that; for in the hands
of a great composer music in variation form tends to move the listener
through the whole gamut of experiences. And while this is not a definitive
performance, it is a very fine one.
The opera Peter Grimes can lay claim to being
Britten's masterpiece, and is certainly one of the great operas of the
20th century. The orchestral interludes gathered for concert performance
have long made their separate presence felt, and this recording is one
of many. One of its virtues is the addition of a fifth interlude, the
Passacaglia which serves in the opera as a character study of
Grimes. It is a strongly constructed piece, the recurring theme deriving
from his vocal outburst 'And may God have mercy upon me', but moving
through the widest conceivable expressive range in one of the finest
constructive achievements in all Britten's music. This performance meets
all these demands and is hugely rewarding. So too are the better known
Sea Interludes, which are nothing if not atmospheric of time and place.
The Delius collection is notable for the beautiful
orchestral playing. For an immediate example of this, listen no further
than the first few bars of that beautiful tone poem, In a Summer
Garden. The dynamic shadings, the exquisite contrasting of strings
and woodwinds, have never been done better. In fact this is particularly
hard piece to bring off, since the music extends across more than fifteen
minutes, without having a strong sense of quasi-symphonic purpose. In
his ability to sustain and reconcile both the long-term view and the
local detail, Davis gives a fine performance, aided considerably by
the beautifully balanced recording.
Paris is a work that is bigger still, but the
expressive concerns are quite different, and the music is more big-boned
and opulent. Again the recorded sound is a bonus here, though Davis
does not entirely succeed in dismissing lingering doubts that at more
than twenty minutes, the music slightly outstays its welcome. It does
always sound well, however.
There are no such doubts with the remainder of the
programme, which includes a splendidly rich performance of Brigg
Fair. This surely ranks as one of the best in the catalogue, showing
off the masterly way that Delius uses an English folk song in variation
form to make one of his biggest orchestral works. It is one of his most
satisfying musical structures.
This performance of the wonderful orchestral interlude
from the opera A Village Romeo and Juliet, known as The Walk
to the Paradise Garden, does not sound as expressively intense in
its earlier stages as in Barbirolli's marvellous recording (EMI). However,
Davis makes his point later by reaching to a fully sonorous climax,
and he thus places special emphasis on the music's structure, one of
its most satisfying features.
The disc is completed with those two well loved miniatures,
On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring and Summer Night on
the River. Here as elsewhere on this disc, the music gains from
the quality of the orchestral playing and the sensitivity of the recorded
sound.
Four of Elgar's best orchestral works are featured
here. This reissue of 1991 performances was recently available separately,
but without the Serenade for Strings. Then it was an attractive
enough proposition, but now it is even better, of course. The orchestra
clearly knows the music well and the conductor is among the leading
Elgarians of our time.
The Cockaigne Overture always presents an orchestra
with the opportunity to sound at its best, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra
certainly does so, captured in warmly atmospheric sound which allows
for the richly sonorous climaxes to make their mark. Davis makes excellent
point of the musical range, articulating the rhythmic details crisply,
while also giving due emphasis to the tender lyricism which lies at
the opposite pole of this wonderful score.
While the Introduction and Allegro as conducted
by Davis does not alter the position of Barbirolli's famous performance
at the head of the field, it remains highly satisfactory. The dynamic
shadings allow the range of the musical expression to be felt, and the
sound of the strings is nothing if not pleasing.
The Serenade for String Orchestra may be a slighter
piece than its illustrious companions gathered on this disc, but it
is decidedly not to be underestimated. For the slow movement in particular
is a powerfully expressive masterpiece, in many ways announcing that
the young composer had come of age. And that is certainly how the music
feels in Davis's performance, with the BBC strings at the top of their
form.
The largest of the four works is the famous Enigma
Variations. This is played with real freshness, the tempi always
appropriately judged: the noble Nimrod variation comes over splendidly,
for example. Perhaps the sound at climactic moments is not quite as
full bodied as it might be, but the sweep of momentum in the closing
stages is still compelling.
Holst's Planets is one of the great orchestral
works, and one of the most often recorded. Davis therefore enters a
competitive market place, but he and the orchestra need fear not, since
theirs is a competitive product. The recording handles everything that
Holst demands of it, which of course is considerable. The fact that
the crucial organ contribution in Uranus was recorded separately
- played by Andrew Davis himself at King's College, Cambridge - means
that it was remixed into the equation by the engineers. This kind of
technological conceit is by no means unusual, but this reviewer at least
disapproves of it. Having said that, unless we were told, would we really
know?
The Planets occupies the whole variety of Holst's
musical personality, and this performance makes the most of the opportunities
offered by this wonderful score. The powerful insistence of Mars
contrasts with lightness of touch of Venus, while the mysticism
of Neptune has never been heard to better effect in a recorded
performance, as the ladies of the BBC Symphony Chorus meet the demands
of keeping in tune. Uranus the Magician is not so dramatically
urgent as some interpretations, but the music still compels the listener,
as it does throughout.
Holst thought Egdon Heath his best piece, and
it is hard to argue with its mastery, once one has come to terms with
the austere idiom. Davis and the BBC Symphony Orchestra certainly have,
and they maintain the standards of playing found elsewhere in this most
appealing collection.
Terry Barfoot
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Sir
Andrew Davis