This
disc was the result of Lyrita receiving funding for the re-mastering
and CD release of a large swathe of 20th century
Welsh music from 1960s and 1970s LPs. As a result Mathias,
Hoddinott and Grace Williams tapes first issued on vinyl
were given a new lease of life. Three LPs culled from the
archives of EMI and Decca form the source of this compilation. Penillion was
originally coupled with Daniel Jones choral piece The
Country Beyond the Stars and Hoddinott's Welsh Dances
both of which ended up on other Lyrita CDs. The Sea Sketches came
from a Decca LP of Welsh music for string orchestra including
Gareth Walters' Divertimento and two works by William
Mathias: Divertimento Op. 7; Prelude, Aria, and
Finale Op. 25.
There's
no doubting that Grace Williams had a strikingly individual
lyric talent and there are certain to be major discoveries
yet to be made. Her Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes is
delectable melodic rhapsody around various folk-tunes which
are handled with complete professionalism being integrated
seamlessly into a satisfying whole. Carillons for
Oboe and Orchestra was written for the BBC who requested - and
received - a light-weight entertaining work but not a trivial one.
The mood is subtle and elusive and unmistakably her own - always slightly mysterious, even exotic as if drawing
on Medieval air drawn from the warmer valleys and forests
of Wales. If it occasionally and fleetingly sounds like Malcolm
Arnold's own gorgeous Oboe Concerto no harm is done. This
is a work that deserves to be discovered by contestants in
the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. Penillion is
soaked in the Welsh tradition of improvised vocal descants
to the harper's melody. It is recognisably by the same composer
as Carillons and once again the music is lissom, serene
and exotic. The Andante con tristezza is warm with
melancholy - doused in just enough sentiment to tug at the
heart but not so much as to become mawkish. It is almost
Rozsa-like in its otherworldly beauty. The final Allegro
agitato sounds vaguely Elizabethan and the tremendous
power of the piece links with the dynamic punch of the Ballads
for Orchestra on the companion Lyrita SRCD 327.
The solo
trumpet plays a large and melismatically singing part in Penillion and
of course is at the centre of things for the three movement
Trumpet Concerto. Howard Snell who later founded his own
orchestra gives a sensational performance and once again
there are those skirls to be heard (Poco Lento) later
to be recalled in Ballads. This is a less ingratiating
work than the other pieces on this disc. All the works are
succinct with many short movements and that's also the case
with the Sea Sketches for string orchestra - a challenge
to use a body of strings to depict the seas. Her work with
Britten (who, it seems, wanted her to be his assistant) is
apparent in the gale-plied and ozone-rich High Wind movement. Sailing
Song is warm and calm with the boat barely making gentle
headway. This is followed by the thoughtful Channel Sirens
- more
a matter of chilly foghorns than seduction. Breakers is
a gusty presto and things come to a close in the same warmth
as Sailing Song for the tenderly music finale Calm
Sea in Summer with its faintly Straussian redolence.
A
second Lyrita CD encapsulates the tougher yet still entrancing
world of Grace Williams with the scena Fairest of Stars,
the Second Symphony and the sensational Ballads for Orchestra
- a work which although more compact is as brilliant and
moving as Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances.
The
helpful notes are by Malcolm Boyd.
Williams
also enjoyed a Chandos LP in the early 1980s and this was
also issued on CD but otherwise there has been little else.
We await first recordings of the Sinfonia Concertante for
piano and orchestra, the Violin Concerto and the First Symphony Owain
Glendwyr as well as the Missa Cambrensis for soli,
chorus and orchestra.
This is a beguiling recital and while it may not have the
instant draw of the symphonic big guns in SRCD 327 it presents
many captivating aspects of Grace Williams' treasurable creative
genius.
Rob Barnett
bAnthony
Camden (oboe); dHoward Snell
(trumpets); 
for
details
