Orpheus must have spent
an extensive holiday in the British
Isles in the 1870s. His lyre spread
a magic spell in all directions, spawning
a pantheon of composers including many
of the shining lights of the British
Musical Renaissance. This decade not
only saw the birth of the acknowledged
masters Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav
Holst, John Ireland and Frank Bridge
but also Frederic Austin, W.H. Bell,
Rutland Boughton, Havergal Brian, Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor, Fritz Hart, Hamilton
Harty, Joseph Holbrooke, William Hurlstone,
Cyril Rootham, Cyril Scott and Donald
Tovey. Most were schooled at home at
the RCM or RAM. Some went abroad for
their training but all contributed countless
works that enriched the British musical
scene in the first half of the twentieth
century. This talented group including
the lesser-known names has become much
better represented on CDs in recent
years by recordings of many of their
major orchestral works. Now another
creative voice from that remarkable
era has emerged from relative obscurity
in a very auspicious way.
Thomas Dunhill was
born in London in 1877 and studied with
Charles Stanford and Frederick Taylor
at the Royal College of Music. He later
became a professor at that school and
also taught at Eton. To promote the
music of his contemporaries, he founded
in 1907 the "Thomas Dunhill Chamber
Concerts" and also worked as a conductor.
His compositional output was not vast
but included light operas (his most
successful genre), ballets, orchestral
works, chamber music and songs. In addition
to his single Symphony, making its recorded
début on this release, some of
his other works for orchestra written
over the span of four decades and ranging
from serious to light are: Rhapsody
in A minor (1903), a suite for small
orchestra The Pixies (1908),
Capricious Variations on an Old English
Tune for Cello and Orchestra (1910),
prelude The King’s Threshold
(1913), Elegiac Variations on an
Original Theme (1922), Chiddingfold
Suite for Strings (1922), The
Guildford Suite (1925), Triptych
- Three Impressions for Viola and
Orchestra (1942), Waltz Suite
(1943) and overture May-Time
(1945).
According to Lewis
Foreman’s highly informative booklet
notes, Dunhill’s Symphony in A minor
was first conceived in 1913 and completed
in 1916. It received a reading at the
RCM in 1922 but had its official première
that same year in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
The first British performance took place
the following year in Bournemouth conducted
by the composer. Before disappearing
prior to this current recording the
Symphony would receive several further
hearings with its last one being in
1935.
The Symphony makes
an immediate impression as a big, warm,
tuneful and memorable statement. It
is decidedly conventional and old-fashioned
even for its own time. No influence
of the folksong movement or Delian pantheism
is evident while the influence of Elgar’s
Symphonies is unmistakable though not
pervasive. Despite its gestation during
World War I the music lacks any significant
sounds of deep anxiety. The opening
movement is forceful, though perhaps
a little over-extended, and abounds
in big tunes one of which bears a striking
resemblance to a similar melody in Ernest
Chausson’s Symphony in B flat major.
The rollicking scherzo might remind
the listener of Litolff’s famous scherzo
from his Concerto Symphonique No. 4
but it is pure delight. The slow movement
marked adagio non troppo is haunting
and the work’s crowning section. Here
is where Elgar’s spirit looms large.
The music is none the worse for it as
its elegiac beauty demanded repeated
hearings from this listener. The last
movement returns to the sound-world
of the first movement and moves inexorably
towards a grand climax that ought to
bring any audience to its feet. In short,
I enjoyed this work enormously and would
put it on any list of most satisfying
revivals of forgotten works. For those
who have given Anthony Payne’s elaboration
of the sketches of Elgar’s Third Symphony
such a warm reception, here is another
work that they will truly savor.
If the Dunhill Symphony
were not enough to make this CD an indispensable
acquisition for any lover of British
orchestral music, the second work included
here only makes it more so. Richard
Arnell who this year celebrated his
ninetieth birthday has been going through
a renaissance of his own mainly thanks
to this same Dutton Epoch label responsible
for this current CD. Having previously
released in the last two years 4 of
his 6 numbered Symphonies (the remaining
2 are surely on the way?) as well as
his Piano Concerto and New Age Overture,
Dutton Epoch now treats us to his Symphonic
Portrait "Lord Byron." This
is in marked contrast to the entire
LP era when Arnell’s sizable output
for orchestra was represented only by
Beecham’s 1950 recording of the ballet
suite "Punch and the Child"
and the 1958 composer-conducted recording
of another ballet suite "The Great
Detective."
Like Dunhill two generations
before him, Arnell was born in London
and studied at the Royal College of
Music. His composition teacher was John
Ireland who, again like Dunhill, was
a student of Stanford. He spent a number
of years in America where his music
was championed by Bernard Herrmann and
other conductors and a number of his
major works received performances. Back
in England after World War II, Beecham
became a patron as well but Arnell’s
prominence eventually faded when composers
of his tonal ilk were consigned to near-oblivion
by the musical fashion-police.
Those familiar with
Arnell’s expansive post-romantic/conservative
modern idiom will find much to enjoy
in "Lord Byron". Written in
1952, the work was commissioned and
first performed by Sir Thomas Beecham
and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
It plays without a break for more than
21 minutes but is divided into eight
distinct sections that highlight six
episodes in the poet’s life girded by
a prelude and an epilogue. This very
descriptive music ranges from gentle
to soaring and is a delight from beginning
to end.
To sum up, this is
a marvelous CD filled with two stunning
recording firsts of important works
by composers of two different eras that
are lovingly performed, superbly recorded
and skillfully and comprehensively annotated
by Lewis Foreman.
Mike Herman
Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Martin
Yates 
