The music of Sir George Dyson has enjoyed something
of a renaissance in recent years; in the recording studios at
least, if not in the concert hall. Credit for that must go, most
of all, to Chandos and Richard Hickox for their estimable series
of recordings of Dyson’s larger-scale works. I’ve
been delighted to be able to hear for the first time fine works
such as the Violin Concerto and Quo Vadis and not just because,
like Dyson, I was born in Halifax in what was then the West Riding
of Yorkshire. It’s much more than native Yorkshire pride.
Dyson’s music is of great interest in its own right.
The present CD was something of a pioneering
release. It was first issued quite some time ago, long before
the Chandos-led rediscovery of Dyson and was engineered by Bob
Auger, in itself something of a guarantee of excellence. Auger
produced a very satisfying sound, using the acoustic of the college
chapel intelligently and atmospherically and integrating the organ
well with the choir.
The recital benefits not just from good engineering
but from fine choral singing. There isn’t a listing of the
choir but it sounds to me to be about two dozen strong. The top
line is taken by sopranos, not trebles, and at least some of the
altos are male. The sopranos and tenors produce a bright sound
and the basses, while not heavy, give a solid enough foundation
to the ensemble. The singers have clearly been well prepared by
Owen Rees for their diction is excellent throughout, balance is
always good. The choral tone is forward and clear and rhythms
are consistently alert and precise. On top of all this Ian Coleman’s
organ accompaniments are thoroughly musical and supportive.
Coleman comes into his own in the five solos
allotted to him. Four of these are by Dyson himself and it was
a nice idea to include the slender tribute by Herbert Howells,
an effective organ transcription (by whom?) of one of his clavichord
pieces from the collection entitled Howells Clavichord. These
organ pieces are nicely contrasted. In particular it’s good
to hear the paired Prelude and Postlude together. The former is
a ruminative mood-setting piece while the latter would send any
congregation out of the church with a spring in their collective
step.
As will be noted from the heading, most of the
choral works come from the period towards the end of Dyson’s
life and they do share for the most part something of a sense
of the serenity of old age. Lines are long, harmonies full and
satisfying. But I mustn’t give the impression that the music
is complacent. The Te Deum, for example, is sturdy and confident,
as is the organ piece, A Voluntary of Praise, which dates from
the late 1950s. However, most of the music is lyrical in style
and I especially enjoyed the flowing, delightful setting of the
Benedicite. From the other end of Dyson’s career comes the
‘Mag’ and ‘Nunc’ of 1907. The Magnificat
is a fine, four-square, robust setting while its companion is
easeful and gentle. It’s rather remarkable that such quintessentially
Anglican music should have been written in Dresden while the composer
was studying in Germany.
All the choral music sounds as if singers will
derive great pleasure from the singing of it. It is understandingly
written for the human voice and while it is far from bland or
facile it does not place extreme demands on the choir. In short
it was designed by a skilled and practical musician to be sung
by good church choirs rather than to gather dust on the shelves
because it made insensitive demands on singers. (As an aside I
had a nostalgic moment listening to the final item, Valour. I
remember singing this very piece at school and I haven’t
heard it since. Dyson gives Bunyan’s words what the annotator
rightly calls a “memorably masculine treatment”)
I enjoyed this disc very much and strongly recommend
it to anyone interested in the English choral tradition. The performances
are first class and are well recorded. The notes are succinct
but useful and full English texts are provided. And all at a bargain
price. Perhaps George Dyson wasn’t a composer of the first
rank but he was not an inconsiderable figure and his well-crafted,
sincere and enjoyable music is well worth hearing.
John Quinn
Choir of St. Catherine’s College, Cambridge/Owen Rees Ian Coleman
(organ) Rec. St. Catherine’s Chapel, June/October 1986. DDD