Dedicated Elgarians
will find this irresistible. In fact
it really doesn’t matter what any critic
writes they will have to have this CD.
Some purists may object to another reanimation
but most will find the prospect of discovering
another major ‘Elgar work’ irresistible.
What is on offer? Here
are 64 minutes of Elgar’s music. I say
‘Elgar’s music’ but in the case of most
of this material other creative hands
have arranged, orchestrated, completed
or realised Elgar’s own material. In
addition there is a ten minute Elgar
memorial piece by composer-conductor
Anthony Collins. The Elgar material
includes a 37 minute and three movement
piano concerto, four Elgar songs arranged
as a suite for orchestra alone, three
choral-orchestral pieces and one late
piano piece in an orchestration by someone
else but approved by the composer.
The Piano Concerto
was started by Elgar in 1913. He
was sketching it in parallel with his
work on the Third Symphony right up
to the end in 1934. The middle movement
is the only part of the concerto to
have been completed. Elgar gave it to
Harriet Cohen in two-piano short score
and Percy Young orchestrated it for
piano and strings in 1956 for a performance
given by Ms Cohen. Later he expanded
this to a full orchestration and it
was in this guise that it was recorded
by Margaret Fingerhut for the ClassicO
label with Douglas Bostock.
The Concerto begins
in the blackest of majestic moods -
extremely impressive and captured here
with craggy mastery. Despite the piacevole
marking this movement strikes me as
music by a composer who knows that seraphic
peace is fragile and who keeps a wary
eye on catastrophe. The music has plenty
of Elgarian atmosphere and familiarity
of gesture. The shadow of both symphonies
- more the Second than the First - passes
across these pages. However there are
elements of ‘otherness’ too: from Rachmaninov
2 (rather like the Stanford Second Piano
Concerto), from Grieg and from both
Brahms piano concertos - especially
the strenuous First. Both the big first
movement and the finale manage to be,
at one and the same time, heroic, ominous,
tragic, virtuosic. They project a sense
of striving against adversity. The mood
in the second movement is almost frivolous
- more like light Grieg. Think also
in terms of the famous Litolff scherzo,
the Albeniz Piano Concerto or one of
Saint-Saëns’ decorative movements.
The other work it recalls somewhat is
Bax’s Morning Song: Springtime in
Sussex for piano and orchestra;
another Harriet Cohen and Margaret Fingerhut
speciality.
Listening to the Piano
Concerto impressions flood in. The sound
of the piano is grand indeed - testimony
to the pianist, to the engineers and
the instrument. If the strings of the
BBC Concert Orchestra are not as rapturously
‘fat’ as they might be the crackling,
blaze and bark of the brass desks impresses.
Norris’s Elgar credentials
are already acknowledged. It was not
all that long ago that the site reviewed
his CD of the Elgar piano music; the
first of a series. By coincidence that
disc includes a new recording, recreated
by David Owen Norris, of the five piano
improvisations which Elgar recorded
for HMV in 1929. The composer’s waxes
were issued for the first time in 1979
on LP (EMI RLS 713). Those Improvisations
are said by Robert Matthew-Walker and
David Owen Norris to be linked to Elgar’s
Piano Concerto project. Material from
them has been used in the realisation
of this concerto. See review at: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Aug03/Elgar_Norris.htm
The Piano Concerto
has some grand and memorable moments
but after about half a dozen hearings
I feel that it is not totally satisfactory.
It lacks a completely resolved sense
of inevitability. Its moods are very
grown-up and dark in the flanking movements
but the gear-change from the insouciance
of the poco andante to the ‘sturm
und drang’ of the outer movements is
disconcerting. Themes hook themselves
into the memory but does everything
cohere? At this early stage I have my
doubts. These are early days so what
matters most is that I found myself
wanting to go back to try the concerto
again and again without having to rely
on the compulsion of reviewer’s duty.
This is a fascinating
project and is well worth your hard-pressed
listening time. Thanks go to Robert
Walker, David Owen Norris and Robert
Matthew-Walker for bringing the score
to its present state. It has continued
to evolve with every performance since
its first outing in 1997 at Dartington.
Perhaps there will be further changes
still.
The Suite of
Four Elgar Songs transcribed
for orchestra alone was done by Haydn
Wood. It is a polished and smoothly
graceful job even if the effect without
the voice part is of a certain calming
blandness. Overall this is gently Elgarian
with hybrid voices from Massenet and
from Frank Bridge’s light orchestral
genre pieces. The much later Adieu
is in much the same mood pattern.
Here Henry Geehl did the orchestrational
honours from a slight but affecting
orchestral miniature.
Then follow three pieces
for chorus and orchestra. The gem here
is the ravishingly lilting and indelibly
memorable Spanish Serenade.
The tambourine provides exotic atmosphere
in this truly lovely troubadour song.
It is a perfect piece which, incongruously
for its Iberian claims, taps into the
perpetual Nordic summer-nights and Brahms’
vocal ensemble Volkslieder; all
done with Mendelssohnian delicacy. Other
echoes include Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker
and Bantock’s Omar Khayyam -
especially the Summer Dresses movement.
It would be a natural for repeat playings
on Classic FM. Anthony Payne, who famously
realised the Elgar Third Symphony, lends
orchestral wings to So Many True
Princesses. This was written
for chorus and military band for an
outdoor event in 1932. Payne does his
very considerable best for this piece
which has more than a touch of bluster
about it.
There is no direct
competition although this anthology
of rarities complements several other
Elgar collections: Bostock and the Munich
Symphony Orchestra’s The Crown of
India March; Hail Immemorial Ind from
The Crown of India; The Wind
at Dawn; Empire March; A
Voice in the Desert; Polonia;
Piano Concerto (slow movement); Spanish
Lady suite; Civic Fanfare - Hereford
on ClassicO CLASSCD334.
There is also the collection
of wartime music on Pearl SHE CD
9602 (Barry Collett and Rutland Sinfonia).
If you bought Lewis Foreman’s book:
‘Oh my horses! Elgar and the great
war’ Elgar Editions ISBN 9537082
3 3 you will have a CD that came with
the book. This includes Carillon
(Henry Ainley, SO, composer); Fringes
of the Fleet (Mott, Henry, Stewart,
Barratt, SO, Elgar); Carillon (Alvar
Liddell, Kensington SO/Leslie Head),
Hail Immemorial Ind (Carol Leatherby,
KSO/Head); Immortal Legions;
Song of Union (Anthony Ransome,
KSO and choir, Head); Bliss Spring
Offensive (Basil Maine); Stanford
Farewell (Peter Dawson); Cowen We
Sweep the Seas (Harry Dearth); Paul
Rubens Your King and Country Want
You (Maggie Teyte).
The new Dutton recordings
are very fine. There is transparency
in the more delicate moments and a fine
pesante impact for the big choral
contributions as in the far from subtle
So Many True Princesses. None
of these alternative CDs is an identical
or even close match in repertoire however,
where there are overlaps, I would prefer
the Dutton disc.
Finally comes Collins’
Elegy in Memory of Edward Elgar.
Anthony Vincent Benedictus Collins was
born in Hastings on 3 March 1893 and
died in Los Angeles on 11 December 1963.
As a teenager he mastered the viola
and became principal viola initially
(1910) with the Hastings Municipal Orchestra
and then, until 1914, with other orchestras.
He studied, after serving in World War
I, at the RCM with Boult and Holst until
1925. In addition to the viola he was
also taught violin by Achille Rivarde.
He became principal viola with the LSO
and the Covent Garden Orchestra. He
resigned in 1936 as composition and
conducting took up more of his time.
Previously he had undertaken some conducting
for the Carl Rosa Company, Sadler's
Wells and various festivals including
the Hastings Festival.
His first conducting
engagement in London with the LSO was
a great success with an outstanding
performance of the Elgar Symphony No.
1 (20 January 1938). A selection of
his Elgar recordings was issued on the
now-deleted Beulah 1PD15: Falstaff
with the LSO and Introduction
and Allegro and Serenade with
the New Symphony Orchestra.
Collins established
the London Mozart Orchestra in 1939.
The same year he went to the USA, conducting
in New York and Los Angeles and writing
film scores for RKO Studios. He returned
to the U.K. in 1945 undertaking conducting
tours for ENSA with the LSO, LPO, Hallé,
Birmingham and Liverpool orchestras
and more film work. He retained his
British citizenship as well as an enduring
regard for British music which is evidenced
by the fact that he regularly included
at least one work by a British composer
in his New York concerts. There was
a further visit to the UK in 1953 to
conduct the LSO. He also pursued his
conducting into the recording studio.
In the early 1950s he recorded on mono
Decca LPs a remarkable cycle of the
Sibelius symphonies and tone poems.
Beulah have issued all his Sibelius
recordings although sadly they are now
deleted.
Collins’ compositions
cover a wide range: Ballet: The
Willow Pattern Plate (1946). Choral:
Cantata, The Lay of Rosabelle for
baritone, chorus and orchestra. Opera:
Catherine Parr (New York, 9.5.1949,
one act, after a play by Maurice Baring);
Perseus and Andromeda (one act);
The Blue Harlequin (one act);
Kanawa (one act). Concertos:
Violin Concerto No. 1; Violin Concerto
No. 2. Orchestra: Symphony No.
1 for strings; Symphony No. 2, for strings
(*Hallé/Barbirolli Cheltenham
Festival 7.7.1950); Pastoral, Topley
Pike (BBCSO/Collins, 1.2.1937);
completion of Michael Savage Heming's
Threnody for a Soldier Killed in
Action (1943, FBP 2.11.1944, BBCSO/Raybould;
later recorded by Barbirolli/Hallé
and now reissued on EMI Classics CDM
5 66053 2); Hogarth Suite for
oboe and strings (*Evelyn Rothwell/Hallé/Barbirolli,
Cheltenham Festival, 17.7.1952); an
orchestration of Schubert's Grand Duo
D. 813 and much light music including
the very popular Vanity Fair.
There are film scores for: Sixty
Glorious Years/Victoria The Great (1938);
Allegheny Uprising (1939); Nurse
Edith Cavell (1939); Swiss Family
Robinson (1940); Tom Brown's
Schooldays (1940); Destroyer
(1943); Forever and a Day (1943);
The Fabulous Texan (1947); Odette
(1950); Trent's Last Case (1953);
Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1954);
Laughing Anne (1954); The
Rat; The Courtneys of Curzon
Street. Chamber Music: String
Quartet in B flat major; Trio for flute,
viola and harp; Quartet for flute, violin,
viola and harp; piano arrangements of
Schubert and Mozart for four hands.
The Elegy in
Memory of Edward Elgar is an
intensely stormy piece at times sounding
like Sibelius (Tempest Prelude
and introduction to Finlandia)
or Rubbra (Soliloquy and Symphony
No. 4) in blackest mood. A searching
string line reminded me of the sustained
tormented cantilenas in William Alwyn’s
First Symphony of 1949 and of the extremes
of passion carried by the massed violins
in Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique.
There are a couple of moments where
the colours and manner are so extreme
that Collins’ Hollywood credentials
show through. In case you are wondering,
the Elegy does not sound at all
Elgarian; no reason why it should. It
ends in an atmosphere of peaceful resignation.
As is typical of Dutton
this CD is exhaustively documented.
The derivation of the concerto is given
in page after page of analysis and commentary
from Lewis Foreman, from David Owen
Norris and from Robert Walker. Full
sung texts are provided.
This disc is enthusiastically
recommended to Elgarians everywhere.
Only fundamentalist Elgar purists will
need to avoid this - and those who do
will do so will be seen as cutting off
their nose to spite their face. The
CD will also gain a ready hold on the
growing ranks of fans of the romantic
piano concerto. Those who pursue the
furthest reaches of the English repertoire
will also have to have this; not only
for the Elgar but for the rare opportunity
to hear some Anthony Collins.
Rob Barnett
David Owen Norris (piano) † 
