Once available separately as:-
CD1 ABC CLASSICS 462 766-2 Symphony
1 etc
CD2 ABC CLASSICS 442 364-2 Symphony
2 etc.
CD3 ABC CLASSICS 462 766-2 Divertissement
etc
Here is the core of Eugene Goossens’
orchestral music spread across three
discs. Three Australian orchestras are
conducted by Vernon Handley that doyen
of fine music ... and not just English
music as anyone who knows his recording
of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony will
know.
People tend to look
askance at conductor’s works but increasingly
we are being allowed by the likes of
CPO and Marco Polo to make up our own
minds, revise, reject or affirm condemnation
and make discoveries. Goossens receives
a resounding vote of confidence in this
prestigious boxed set.
The first volume to be issued featured
the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the second
the West Australian and the third volume
the Melbourne orchestra. Who knows -
perhaps the next (if there is a next)
will have the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
returning to Goossens territory. It
was, after all, the Adelaiders who recorded
the Goossens Symphony No. 1 with David
Measham back in 1977 (Unicorn LP KP8000);
a recording still lying unissued and
a natural for Regis who seem to have
the entré into the Unicorn archive.
Volume 1 presents
the CD premiere of Symphony No. 1 and
of Tam o’Shanter. The Concert Piece
appears for the first time on any commercially-released
medium although there are tapes of a
BBC performance of the piece circulating
among enthusiasts. It is simply packed
with good music although in this company
easily the most impressive and accessible
is the Symphony. This work belongs to
the turbulent late nineteen-thirties
and can loosely be bracketed with the
Hubert Clifford Symphony (available
on Chandos), Stanley Bate’s Symphony
No. 3 (a golden opportunity for some
orchestra and company there) and Arthur
Benjamin’s Symphony (available on Marco
Polo but also to be released in an alternative
performance in the unforeseeable future
by Lyrita Recorded Edition).
Before this recording I had heard a
pair of performances of this Symphony.
The pair were the Unicorn LP - Measham
- and a BBC Scottish SO/Jerzy Maksymiuk
BBC Radio 3 broadcast on 15 December
1990. Both seemed lively and the Measham
in particular I found impressive although
nothing in that recording has won me
over as much as Handley’s ABC disc.
Handley and ABC have captured the often
ambivalent moods created by Goossens
better than any performance so far.
The composer’s own Australian LP is
in a special historical category and
since it has never been issued on CD
is largely inaccessible. In any event
it is in mono and dates from the mid-1950s.
I wonder how many copies survive. Perhaps
supplies of the disc were destroyed
after the scandal which marked Goossens’
tragic departure from Australia?
All the multi-faceted episodes and emotions
are there in the First Symphony. Its
Baxian mystery comes as no surprise:
it will be remembered that Goossens
conducted the UK premiere of Bax Symphony
No. 2 and then revived it with the BBCSO
during the 1950s. This hooded foreboding
jostles with creeping militaristic figures
reminiscent of Alwyn’s bitter determination
in Symphonies 1 and 3. A pointed febrile
urgency is at the cortex of this performance
and Handley keeps in constant touch
with this pulse. At 8.19 in the first
movement a flute passage takes us to
the dank and willowy world of Frank
Bridge. Indeed Bridge is a persistent
reference point for Goossens. At 3.12
in the second movement Bridge’s world
obtrudes again in tones of glassy fragility.
Korngold (violin solo at II 5.00) and
Zemlinsky are also familiar voices.
The third movement is a tetchy divertimento
with an edgily splenetic side-drum goading
the proceedings along. The chattering
flute at 3.28 takes us into RVW territory.
The boiling finale is topped off by
the desperate Scriabinesque fanfares
of the augmented trumpet section. Goossens
prescribed three extra trumpets saying
that they were ‘absolutely essential
to the effective brilliance of the finale.’
They register strongly in this clean
and direct ABC ambience.
The other works are worth having but
are not as immediately attractive. They
register a voltage level in the lower
foothills of the symphony. The Concerto
is concise and fanciful; a capricious
tone poem for oboe and orchestra without
obstinately memorable ideas. Tam is
brief and does not register in the mind
but that also applies to any performance
including the one conducted some years
ago for an ABC LP by Patrick Thomas
(a coupling for the opera Judith). The
Concert Piece is a one of those works
I still have not yet come to a conclusion
about. It is a family confection for
Marie and Sidonie (the two harpists)
and for Leon (the oboist). The harps
glitter and glimmer in shimmering iridescence.
The oboe pays sad court to the harps
but the beauties of the piece fail to
come over strongly. This is a piece
to intrigue rather than immediately
conquer. Did I detect a pervasive air
of sadness and nostalgia? Certainly
the eruption of a famous concert waltz
towards the end suggests recollections
of past glories.
One the second disc,
the shortest of the three, the Symphony
No 2 is the anchor. It was written in
Maine, Seattle, New York and Cincinnati.
Here it gets its first commercial recording
albeit from a concert performance. Not
that that factor dilutes the obvious
technical and artistic strengths of
this musical event - quite the opposite
in fact - a real sense of occasion is
conveyed. The recording is complete
with applause. The audience is otherwise
unobtrusive.
The artists project
Goossens’ own brand of brooding and
astringent lyricism with great power.
The work does however need repeated
hearings. The language is slightly more
oblique than the franker heroics of
Symphony No 1 (1940) from which it is
separated by only five years. Its darkness
reflects the war years as the composer
seems to admit in his programme note.
Occasionally Nielsen, Bax and even Rawsthorne
are suggested but these are passing
impressions. Sample the start of the
symphony: a sinuous bassoon theme climbing
out of subterranean depths. Aspiring,
straining, Scriabinesque trumpet calls
are a feature of the second movement
at 6.40. The folk song The Turtle
Dove casts its spell over the slow
movement. The more Goossens you listen
to the more is his voice revealed as
distinctive and strongly atmospheric.
There are many beautiful moments here.
This symphony was first performed by
the BBC Symphony Orchestra/composer
(People’s Palace, London, 2.11.1946).
The Concertino
for strings is propulsive, lively and
buoyant. It began life in 1928 when
it was scored for string octet. You
may well have heard it broadcast on
the BBC some years ago or more recently
on a Chandos CD. The Fantasy
(1924) is, by turns, Russian-exotic,
folksy and Grainger-like. It is the
"through a glass darkly" folk-song
element which, for me, marks out Goossens’
music so pungently. There is something
here of Frank Bridge’s There is a
Willow.
Having recorded the two symphonies ABC
Classics turned to some of the other
orchestral works.
Divertimento’s Dance Prelude
(first of three movements) is initially
light-hearted but becomes quite serious
and emphatic. Towards the end we have
a major romantic climax. The Scherzo
and Folk tune central movement betrays
the influence of Arthur Bliss and drifts
into Szymanowski territory at moments.
The following Folk Tune is one of Goossens’
most uncomplicated pastoral sketches.
It is a gem of a piece and is eloquently
treated here. The final Ballet Flamenco
has some hard-faced castanets, woodblocks
and side drum. The piece was inspired
by the dancing of flamenco dancer, Carmen
Amaya. Goossens conducted the orchestra
when she danced de Falla’s Ritual
Fire Dance in Cincinnati in 1944.
This can be added to the pictorial literature
of Hispanic evocations which stretch
from El Salon Mexico to Rhapsodie
Espagnole. Vernon Handley’s performance
and the wonderful recording accorded
by ABC’s engineers completely outpace
the Gaspare Chiarelli-conducted version
once available on a Unicorn LP (RHS348).
The Variations on a Chinese Theme
wind us back nearly fifty years.
An innocent little theme of Chinese
dip and lilt is put through its paces.
The fifth, seventh and eighth variations
hark back to Brahms while the sixth
is much more modern in approach. The
ninth is Dvořákian; the tenth like
Tchaikovsky. The eleventh could easily
have been a Vaughan Williams frolic
out of The Wasps. The
12th is an uncomplicated
serenade. The next variation is closer
to the uncertain world and implicit
threat of the music of Frank Bridge.
This later vaporises and the music drifts
into an impressionistic grand valse.
The last variation begins in the mildly
scary world of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker
but soon resolves into a proto-Arnoldian
English dance.
The Eternal Rhythm is from a
year later but already Goossens is showing
more individuality and there are far
more hallmarks of his developed style.
Goossens conducted the premiere at the
Queen’s Hall on 19 October 1920. Sinuous
clarinet melodies wind in and out through
an orchestral mist worthy of the opening
of Herrmann’s music for Citizen Kane.
At 5.30 a Scriabinesque trumpet cries
out to the heavens as, in 1939, he was
to do with the whole of the expanded
trumpet choir in the finale of his First
Symphony. At 10.04 the twist in the
notes is remarkable and intriguingly
unsettling: French impressionism meets
Russian mysticism; Janáček
meets Debussy. Bax must have learnt
from this voluptuous music as well.
It is all well handled here although
the awed trumpets faltered once or twice.
At 17.50 there is a further misty passage
which seems to predict the darker moments
in Bax’s Second Symphony.
The final ten minute Kaleidoscope
is an orchestral jeu d’esprit
which may well be known to many
in its solo piano version. It is a varied
collection seemingly out of a child’s
colouring book and music box; akin to
Ma Mère L’Oye but with
Stravinskian interpolations. Appropriately
it opens with Good Morning and
closes with … you’ve guessed it … Goodnight.
The moon floats high in a Disneyesque
night sky.
Design values throughout are excellent.
Utterly superb photos adorn the cover
and 24 page booklet. The biographical
introduction is the same across each
of the series. The 12 pages of English
only notes are by Meurig Bowen and Philip
Sametz and they cover each of the works
in some detail.
Vernon Handley’s own perspective on
Goossens is also there in the booklet:
When I first heard Goossens in the
flesh all my admiration was confirmed:
authoritative, passionate, individual
but never indulgent. I determined to
look up this man’s compositions and
found the same characteristics in evidence,
Fashion has temporarily buried Goossens’
works but I hope their vitality and
personality has been captured on these
discs and will engage modern listeners.
It has been a moving experience for
me to repay in part my debt to him with
these recordings.
The only regret is that ABC lacked the
daring to add their long-deleted and
LP-isolated recording of the opera Judith.
OK it was conducted by Patrick Thomas
but why not? We must also hope that
ABC has not forgotten one of its most
ambitious and impressively carried-through
projects: Myer Fredman conducting Goossens’
epic The Apocalypse (based on
The Book of Revelations and scored
massively for orchestra, soli, choirs
and orator). This was reocrded digitally
in 1983 and should go onto a single
well-crammed CD. It is perhaps too much
to hope that Goossens’ opera Don
Juan de Mañara would also
receive its first ever commercial recording
but we can live in hope.
Will ABC also now oblige with Goossens’
two Phantasy Concertos, piano (1944,
suggested by an Edgar Allan Poe tale)
and violin (1948), perhaps coupled with
the Lyric Poem for violin and
orchestra (1919), Three Pictures
for flute, strings and percussion (1935)?
The concertos are extremely rewarding
works and well worth world premiere
recordings.
Handley is not just
a national treasure. His reach is international.
ABC Classics would do well to encourage
him back into the studio with works
that he has always cherished such as
Prokofiev’s Sixth Symphony and other
works which would blossom under his
direction: Edgar Bainton’s visionary
Third Symphony; Stanley Bate’s wartime
Third, Bliss’s Beatitudes, Rachmaninov’s
Symphonic Dances and Cyril Rootham’s
Second Symphony.
Meantime this set is
most warmly recommended. If you enjoy
Bax, Bridge, Szymanowski, Scriabin,
Schmitt and the French voluptuaries
this is for you. Glorious!
Rob Barnett
FULL TRACK-LISTING
EUGENE GOOSSENS (1893-1962)
CD 1
Symphony No. 1, Op. 58 (1940)
Andante - Allegro con anima
Andante espressivo me con moto
Divertimento: Allegro vivo
Finale: Moderato - alla breve (con moto)
Oboe Concerto, Op. 45 (1927)
Joel Marangella oboe
Tam O'Shanter, Op. 17a (1919)
'Scherzo after Burns'
Concert Piece, Op. 65 (1958)*
Fantasia
Chorale
Perpetuum mobile e buriesca
Joel Marangella oboe and cor anglais
Jane Geeson and Sebastien Lipman harps
West Australian Symphony Orchestra
Vernon Handley conductor
CD 2
Symphony No. 2, Op. 62 (1945)*
Adagio - Vivace me non troppo
Andante tranquillo
Giocoso (Interlude)
Andante - Allegro con spirito
Concertino, Op. 47 (1928)
for double string orchestra
Allegro moderato - Andante tranquillo,
ma con moto - Allegro moderato
Fantasy, Op. 36 (1924)
for nine wind instruments
Moderato - Allegro moderato -
Andante - Allegro moderato
Janet Webb flute, Guy Henderson
oboe, Lawrence Dobell and Christopher
Tingay clarinets, John Cran and
Fiona McNamara bassoons,Robert
Johnson and Clarence Mellor horns,Daniel
Mendelow trumpet
Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Vernon Handley conductor
CD 3
Divertissement, Op. 66 (1956-60)
Dance Prelude
Scherzo and Folk Tune
Ballet Flamenco
Variations on a Chinese Theme, Op.
1 (1911-12)
Theme (Allegro)
Var. 1 (Allegro)
Var. 2 [(Allegro)]
Var. 3 (Moderato)
Var. 4 (Allegro)
Var. 5 (Andante quasi Adagio)
Var. 6 (Scherzando)
Var. 7 (Andante quasi Adagio)
Var. 8 (Allegro)
Var. 9 (Allegro moderato)
Var. 10 (Tempo di Marcia)
Var. 11 (Semplice - Allegro)
Var. 12 (Tempo di Valse)
Finale (Allegro giusto)
The Eternal Rhythm, Op. 5 (1913)*
Kaleidoscope, Op. 18 (1917; 1933)
Good Morning
Promenade
The Hurdy Gurdy Man
The March of the Wooden Soldier
Lament for a Departed Doll
The Old Musical Box
The Punch and Judy Show
Good Night
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Vernon Handley conductor
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra/Vernon Handley
