Not long ago I reviewed
a recent disc by the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus and Philip Barnes.
I remarked then that I had heard and reviewed all their discs with
the exception of a collection of music by Sir Granville Bantock. Now
I’m able to rectify that omission and I’m very pleased
to do so for this is an excellent addition to the Bantock discography.
The choir’s director, Philip Barnes, has contributed the excellent
notes for this release and in them he comments that a fair number
of Bantock’s works have now become available on CD. Hyperion
– who else? – led the way with no fewer than six discs
of orchestral music conducted by the late and still-lamented Vernon
Handley (review).
Chandos weighed in with another Handley enterprise, Omar Khayyám
(review).
Several other independent labels have played their part too with the
result that if you search under Bantock’s name on MusicWeb International
you’ll be directed to a gratifyingly large number of reviews
of recordings of his music. However, one aspect of Bantock’s
art that has not yet been greatly explored on disc, so far as I know,
is his unaccompanied choral music, which makes this recital from St
Louis all the more valuable. As can be seen from the track-listing
the majority of the programme that Philip Barnes has assembled consists
of pieces receiving their first recording.
Though the music is new to me it seems that the recorded premières
could not be in better hands than those of Philip Barnes and the St
Louis choir. I’ve been impressed by the high standard of their
singing every time I’ve heard them on disc and this is no exception.
The sound that the choir makes is consistently pleasing. The blend
and balance are excellent, as is the tuning, while the clarity with
which they enunciate both notes and words is admirable. I can only
think that the music must have been new to all of them yet it is sung
with assurance and commitment. In short the music could scarcely receive
better advocacy.
These pieces are well worth rescuing from the oblivion into which
they’ve sunk. The programme gets off to a strong start with
Bantock’s setting of the Prologue to the epic poem The Golden
Journey to Samarkand by James Elroy Flecker (1884-1915). It’s
not easy to date some of these compositions but the piece will post-date
the poem itself, which was written in 1913. How it must have appealed
to Bantock with his great interest in the Orient. Philip Barnes describes
the setting as ‘stirring’ and so it is. However, the sheer
romance of the words might have been expected to inspire Bantock to
compose in an even more overtly excited fashion than was the case;
I was a little surprised – pleasantly – by the restrained
tone of much of the music and also by how imaginatively Bantock responded
to the words; each of the seven stanzas is treated very differently.
The piece that follows was written within a few days of the sinking
of the Titanic. Bantock’s choice of words from Psalm
107 – ‘They that go down to the sea in ships – is
very appropriate and the music is sincerely felt. A poignant little
footnote is related in the notes: the copies used for this recording
came from the music library at the cathedral in Cork near the Irish
port of Cobh, Titanic’s last landfall before her fateful
voyage.
A couple of the pieces reflect Bantock’s love for and fascination
with all things Scottish. Coronach is a setting of a lament
by Sir Walter Scott and it’s very touching. Even more affecting
is The Mermaids Croon. The words are those of a Gaelic folksong,
set and sung in the original language. It’s an exquisite, haunting
lullaby. The fine performance includes an excellent contribution from
soprano soloist, Emily Heslop, a member of the choir. She also features
in the preceding item, The Lake Isle of Innisfree, a beguiling
and effortlessly simple setting of lines by W.B. Yeats.
The Three Choruses for Male Voices comprise a short setting
of some lines from the Greek tragedy Agamemnon by Aeschylus
in a translation by Robert Graves followed by more extended settings
of two original poems by Graves. The music sounds technically challenging,
especially in the last two pieces and it’s all extremely well
sung. If I’m less gripped by this music I think it’s because
I strongly prefer mixed choir music to pieces for either male or female
voice choirs.
A Pageant of Human Life, the work which gives the album its
title, is an interesting work. Philip Barnes describes it as the third
in Bantock’s series of choral symphonies, though to me it appears
surprisingly short to be counted in that category. I bow to his greater
knowledge but it seems more like a suite of eight short movements
– in this performance all the sections apart from the last take
less than two minutes to perform. The texts are a series of short
stanzas written, apparently during his childhood, by Sir Thomas More
(1487-1535). Bantock sets the various movements for different combinations
of voices and even includes a children’s choir in three of the
movements. Here the children’s choir is from a St. Louis school,
Parkway North High School Choir, and they do very well. One of the
two most impressive movements are the fifth, ‘Death’,
where the St. Louis choir very audibly and effectively obeys the composer’s
request to sing ‘sardonico’. The other highlight is the
closing section, ’Lady Eternity’. This opens with some
luxuriantly expansive choral writing and, happily, Bantock allows
us to hear a reprise of this material in the closing bars.
The last item on this programme was nearly part of another choral
symphony. It seems that Bantock planned such a work setting words
by Walt Whitman – a poet whose verses, you might think, were
tailor-made for this composer. Bantock’s journal contains a
very explicit entry for 2 January 1913 recording that he had completed
the setting of Darest thou now, O Soul ‘which
is to be the 5th and last movement of the Walt Whitman
choral Symphony’. However, it seems as if the project came to
nothing and this movement remained unpublished and unperformed until
a Bantock scholar, Dr Matthew Kickasola of Washington University,
unearthed the manuscript in the composer’s archive in Birmingham
City Library and brought it to the attention of Philip Barnes. He
and his choir gave the first performance of the piece immediately
prior to this recording for which they are joined, fittingly, by the
Concert Choir of Dr Kickasola’s university. Here Bantock sets
the same lines from Whitman’s Whispers of Heavenly Death
that Vaughan Williams selected for Toward the Unknown Region.
Though his writing is expansive Bantock’s setting is much more
concise than RVW’s and his harmonic language is even more exploratory
and adventurous at times. However, RVW wins hands down, I think, when
it comes to the music for the final lines, ‘Then we burst forth….’
though, like Vaughan Williams, Bantock achieves an ecstatic ending
to his piece.
By the way, Bantock's other two choral symphonies — Atalanta
in Calydon
and Vanity of Vanities — can be heard on Albany TROY
180. The dchoir is the BBC Singers conducted by Simon Joly.
This Regent disc comprises a fascinating collection and no Bantock
enthusiast should be without it. The performances are first class
as are Philip Barnes’ invaluable notes. The recorded sound is
very good and, albeit belatedly, I’m delighted to welcome another
excellent release from St. Louis.
John
Quinn
Bantock discography & review
index
Track listing/performance details
The Golden Journey to Samarkand [10:37]
They that go down to the sea in ships (A Threnody for S. S. Titanic)
(1912) [3:23]
In the silent west^ [3:26]
Coronach (1911) [3:35]
One with eyes the fairest [3:22]
The Lake Isle of Innisfree^ (1928) [3:53]
The Mermaids Croon (Crònan na Maighdinn-Mhara)^ (1915) [5:37]
The Happy Isle [3:34]
Requiem [3:42]
The Isles of Greece [2:47]
Three Choruses for Male Voices (1930) [16:16]
A Pageant of Human Life* (1914?) [12:54]
Darest thou now, O Soul** (1913) [4:16]
All first recordings except items marked ^
