I gave a warm welcome to
Volume 1 of this survey by these same artists.
I’m pleased to say that, if anything Volume 2 is better still. Given
that it follows the same format with the same artists in the same venue with
the same technical team it should be the equal at least of the earlier disc.
The fact that I consider it better is simply down to the repertoire recorded
which includes two of Delius’s most important and characteristic
scores:
Paris and
Song of the High Hills. Volume 2 - which
runs less than thirty seconds shy of eighty minutes - was recorded just five
months after Volume 1. Clearly pianists Callaghan and Takenouchi were
immersing themselves in the Delian idiom at this time. This would seem to be
one of the main reasons both discs ‘work’. Regardless of the
medium - and let’s be honest Delius does not work at its absolute best
stripped of its orchestral garb and varied tonal palette - these are fine
performances of often elusive music.
Valuable too to pay homage to the dedicated transcribers, three of
whom at least were vital in establishing Delius as a major international
composer. None more so than Julius Buths who arranged the first work here:
Paris - the Song of a Great City. Buths is probably
best known for his championing of Elgar’s
Dream of Gerontius -
rescuing it from the car-crash of Richter’s Birmingham premiere. He
had enough belief in the composer to midwife the work giving it its German
and European premiere on 19 December 1901 in Düsseldorf. At the second
performance in 1902 such was the applause that Elgar was called to the stage
twenty times. This was the performance that elicited Richard Strauss’s
famous quote “I drink to the success and welfare of the first English
progressive musician, Meister Elgar”.
Delius was Buths’
other great British composer passion - he was the soloist in the first
performance of the
Piano Concerto in 1904 and conducted just the
second performance of
Appalachia in 1905.
Paris is one of
Delius’ first major scores - he was in his late thirties by the time
it was written but what strikes one is the muscular confidence of the
writing. For sure the influence of Strauss is at its least digested but as a
picture of a great city at night it remains both compelling and effective.
There is a certain episodic nature to it work but Callaghan and Takenouchi
are very good indeed at keeping the large - sometimes sprawling - structure
together. I particularly like the murky opening, a kind of musical mist on
the Seine from which the city emerges.
As I mentioned in my earlier review, the arranger’s dilemma
here is quite
how to transcribe these very detailed and complex
works. To include “everything” takes it out of the realm of
playability for most of the (then) target public but to make it simply
pianistic is to risk losing the essence of Delius. To me this can be
expressed as a sense of fluidity and flow within a strongly defined
structure. Too often Delius can be allowed to wallow in its own narcissistic
beauty - to its major detriment. Buths includes as much as possible but the
players here overcome those technical hurdles with ease. The second piece
Eventyr,
feels like a smaller work even though it runs
to a substantial eighteen minutes. Its arranger Benjamin Dale was a virtuoso
composer for the keyboard so it should not come as any surprise what an
accomplished transcription he made. The ‘novelty’ in this work
is the “wild shout” of “Hei” which the orchestral
score directs as being made by “20 men’s voices
(invisible)” - it’s one of those effects which seems like a good
idea but ends up as a faintly embarrassed “gentleman’s excuse
me” so its absence in the transcription is not sorely felt. It does
however bring it home just how demanding it is to take Delius from the
orchestral score. This work abounds in extremes of dynamic and tempo (the
shout is marked
ffff) so again praise is due to arranger and
performers for so successfully bridging the gap between the genres.
Interesting to note that the third work is a transcription by two
working pianists. It is the only score I do not have to hand in the original
orchestral version. It sounds like duettists Ethel Bartlett and Rae
Robertson had chosen to make this transcription more of an overtly pianistic
display than the other arrangers here. Not that that is a bad thing for it
sounds lovely. However, there is a striking sense that more of the textures
are filled with pianistic filigree than true Delian weave. Together with the
languidly beautiful
Summer Night on the River arranged by Philip
Heseltine/Peter Warlock these two relative miniatures provide a beautiful
respite before the final assault on the Grainger-arranged
Song of the
High Hills.
Increasingly this seems to me to be one of Delius’ greatest
and most significant works. It embodies so much of his essence both
musically and spiritually. At just a few seconds shy of thirty minutes of
continuous music it is his largest single span of orchestral music.
Grainger’s achievement is to make the transcription as convincing as
he does and again it is served superbly here. Callaghan and Takenouchi
really do give an utterly convincing account. Even so, such is the
work’s scale, aspiration and conception that anything less than the
full orchestral presentation must be doomed to - an albeit glorious -
failure. If one were trying to persuade someone of Delius’s greatness
and chose this score as an exemplar the simple fact is you would never turn
to this transcription before the original.
Therein lies the ‘problem’ for this disc, much as it did
for volume 1. By definition this is a specialist CD. For that reason we must
be extremely grateful to the performers and to Somm for the time and effort
lavished on it. As before, I find Martin Lee-Browne’s notes verging on
the pointless with little consistency in the manner in which the information
he does give is presented. The
interest in this disc for 99% of those
collecting it will be the two piano format. Telling us little or nothing
about the arrangers or discussing the manner [and success] of their
transcriptions is an opportunity missed. When Lee-Browne writes apropos the
final work “In my view, the moment about a third of the way through,
when the chorus enters unaccompanied and
ppp is one of the most
magical in all music” it seems rather perverse given that we are given
a version with no chorus. All this does is highlight what is lacking not
what has been achieved.
Somm’s regular production team have produced a very good
sound-picture. I like the way the two pianos sit clearly differentiated in
the stereo spread. This allows you to hear how skilfully the arrangers have
divided the musical spoils - it really does differ from arranger to
arranger. Again, as with volume 1 I did wonder if the Steinway Model
‘D’ pianos as recorded in this acoustic didn’t just harden
fractionally at the most powerful climaxes. For some reason I have it in my
mind’s ear that a mellower piano tone might be even more appropriate.
There is just one little performing quirk; the players occasionally choose
to spread unison chords in a way that prevents total unanimity of attack. It
happens often enough to clearly be a performing choice rather than an
ensemble slip. Given the choice I would have preferred something with
absolutely precise articulation but that is a tiny caveat for an excellent
disc.
This is a magnificent recital of works that still struggle to be
recognised as the masterpieces I believe them to be.
Nick Barnard
Previous review:
Ian Lace
