RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Gustav HOLST (1874-1934)
The Hymn of Jesus, Op. 37 (1917-19) [21:55]
Frederick DELIUS (1862-1934)
Sea Drift (1903-04)* [27:01]
Cynara (1907/1929)** [11:35]
Roderick Williams (baritone)/Hallé Choir/ Hallé Youth Choir/
Hallé/Sir Mark Elder
Rec. live & in rehearsal, 15 March, 2012, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester;
* live & in rehearsal, 12 March, 2011, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester;**
4 February, 2012, BBC Mediacity, Salford. DDD
Texts included
HALLÉ CD HLL 7535 [62:25]
Though by no means all the own-label releases by Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé
have been devoted to English music it’s in that field that their
finest work has been most consistently achieved on disc. Here’s another
choice example though the pieces by Holst and Delius perhaps sit a little
oddly together.
I know of at least three other recordings of Holst’s visionary Hymn
of Jesus. There’s Sir Adrian Boult’s pioneering 1962 Decca
recording, though the sound on that is by now somewhat dated (review).
Much better sonically are the 1977 EMI recording by Sir Charles Groves (review)
and the 1990 Chandos version conducted by Richard Hickox, which Len Mullenger
rightly described as “full-blooded” (review).
Incidentally, by a nice piece of symmetry Hickox was the chorus-master of
the London Symphony Chorus at the time they made the Groves recording.
Groves scores a point over Boult and Hickox in having a youth choir - the
choristers of St Paul’s Cathedral - to sing the substantial and crucial
semi-chorus part. Elder also uses a group of young singers, the estimable
Hallé Youth Choir. They make a tremendous contribution, as they have
done to some previous Hallé choral recordings. Extravagantly scored
for semi-chorus, two SATB choirs and a substantial orchestra, The Hymn
of Jesus is a work of blazing originality. I suspect we can get an idea
of how important it was to Holst by the fact that the dedicatee was his great
friend, Vaughan Williams.
Elder’s performance is thoroughly convincing. There’s a fine feeling
of space and mystery in the Prelude; the orchestral playing is as refined
as we’d expect from this source. The semi-chorus is a bit more magically
distanced than on any of the other recordings, yet their singing has good
presence too. When the Hymn proper begins with the entry of the main choirs
the music fairly blazes. Later, when Holst sets his mystic dance going in
irregular quintuple metre - an inspired idea since it suggests a primitive
dance, highly appropriate to the text - the performance has great spirit.
The Hallé Choir sings superbly, mixing ardour and finesse as Holst’s
quickly-changing musical moods demand. Holst’s extraordinary harmonies
at such places as ‘To you who gaze, a lamp am I’ or again at ‘Know
in me the word of wisdom’ are splendidly achieved. As for the Youth
Choir their many - and important - interjections are all spot-on. With the
Hallé playing magnificently this is a very fine performance indeed
of Holst’s choral masterpiece. There is applause at the end but, happily,
the music is allowed to die away first.
Sea Drift is another visionary work but completely different to The
Hymn of Jesus both in style and in concept. It’s another of Delius’s
Whitman settings, which received its first performance, in a German translation,
in Essen in May 1906. This was as part of a music festival in the city, Calum
MacDonald writes in his interesting and detailed booklet note. Essen hosted
at least two significant premières at that time because I believe that
just three days later Mahler conducted the first performance of his Sixth
Symphony in the city, presumably as part of the same festival. It was not
until 1908 that Sea Drift was heard in the UK.
Elder leads a distinguished performance. Right from the start the wistful
orchestral introduction is beautifully paced and judged. The Hallé
Choir, here called upon to sing very different music to the Holst, prove equally
adept in this idiom and deliver Delius’s highly individual choral parts
splendidly. There’s much sensitive singing from them, such as the passage
beginning ‘O rising stars!’, but they do equally well when required
to sing out ardently - ‘Shine,! Shine! Shine!’ being one such
case.
The baritone solo role is crucial and Roderick Williams offers distinguished
singing. His tone is even, firm and focused and, as ever with this fine singer,
the words are enunciated with great clarity and an evident full understanding
of their meaning. In my experience he always produces his voice evenly throughout
its compass - as here - but his top register must be the envy of many baritones.
Hear him at ‘He poured forth the meanings’, for example. I’ve
previously mentioned the long passage that begins at ‘O rising stars!’
in the context of the choir’s performance but Williams’s emotive
singing makes an equally critical contribution to these pages. He’s
outstandingly expressive in the passage beginning ‘O reckless despairing
carols’ and, if anything, impresses even more in the last section, beginning
at ‘O I am very sick and sorrowful’ where the quality of the orchestral
accompaniment is simply marvellous. This performance of Sea Drift is
of the highest quality from all concerned and clearly it was appreciated greatly
by the Manchester audience, though thankfully there’s a decent pause
before the ovation begins. Incidentally, another performance of Sea Drift
a few days later by the same forces was reviewed
for Seen and Heard by Michael Cookson.
There are several good recordings of Sea Drift in the catalogue already
and for quite some time the ‘market leader’ has arguably been
the Hickox/Terfel recording on Chandos which Brian Wilson rightly praised
in its download format (review).
That CD has been part of my own collection for many years. Terfel offers a
very different listening experience. For one thing he has a much bigger voice
and more vocal amplitude than Roderick Williams. There are several occasions
in his recording, made under studio conditions, where Terfel takes risks for
interpretative emphasis - he’s daringly quiet at ‘This gentle
call is for you my love, for you’ for instance. Terfel’s exciting,
risk-taking approach may not be to all tastes, however. I continue to admire
his recording very much but the more natural, relaxed approach of Roderick
Williams is extremely satisfying and suits the music very well indeed.
There haven’t been too many recordings of Cynara so far as I’m
aware - and it’s something of a rarity in our concert halls too - but
some fine baritones have recorded it. I first got to know it many years ago
in the recording by John Shirley-Quirk and that doughty, underrated Delius
champion, Sir Charles Groves (review).
Originally intended by Delius as part of Songs of Sunset, he decided
against including it and the setting remained incomplete for over twenty years.
Cynara was one of the first - indeed, I believe the first -
of the pieces that Delius was able to complete with the support of Eric Fenby.
It’s good, then, that this was one of the works that Fenby recorded
for Unicorn-Kanchana in the early 1980s (review).
The soloist was Thomas Allen - not then knighted - and his performance is
characteristically eloquent and nuanced, though some may feel - as I do -
that both he and the orchestra were placed rather too distantly from the microphone.
Now Roderick Williams enters the lists with this version, the only item on
this new CD to be recorded under studio conditions.
As in Sea Drift Williams gives an eloquent performance, characterised
by the same technical qualities such as even, firm tone, sense of line and
clarity of diction. He’s very subtle and expressive and the orchestra
plays Delius’s sensuous music with refinement and sensitivity. The music
briefly flares up at the start of the third and fourth stanzas of Ernest Dowson’s
poem but for the most part the writing is lyrical and expansive. This is up
to the same extremely high standards that we’ve experienced in the other
two works here.
Two different production teams have worked on this disc but whether in the
Bridgewater Hall or in the BBC’s new Manchester studios the recorded
sound is excellent. So too is the quality of the notes, which are by Michael
Kennedy (Holst) and Calum MacDonald. This is a disc that not only maintains
but also enhances the very high reputation of Sir Mark Elder and his Hallé
forces, especially in English music.
John Quinn
A disc that maintains and enhances the very high reputation of Sir Mark Elder
and his Hallé forces
Holst discography & review index
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