It was as recently as August that I contributed to MusicWeb International
an article about Elgar’s The Spirit of England, a score
that I consider to be the most seriously under-regarded among his major
works. In that piece I compared the three available recordings of the work,
little knowing that a new version was on the way from Somm. This new release
is to be welcomed, therefore, as a significant addition to the fairly small
discography of
The Spirit of England but it is welcome on several
other counts as well. It’s an important release because it usefully brings
together all of Elgar’s collaborations with the poet, Laurence Binyon
(1869-1943), including one posthumous collaboration. The disc also includes
at least one and possibly two recorded premières. The work that I am certain
is appearing on disc for the first time is the complete incidental music
that Elgar wrote in 1923 for Binyon’s 1919 verse play,
Arthur. Somm
do not claim
Carillon as a première recording but I’m not sure that
the work has previously appeared on disc with Binyon’s 1942 words.
This recording of
Carillon is an interesting supplement to Somm’s
earlier disc of Elgar’s wartime music,
The Longed for Light (
review) and its 1995 predecessor on Pearl SHECD9602
from Barry Collett and the Rutland Sinfonia. That valuable Somm collection
included the original 1914 version of
Carillon with Simon Callow
reciting the English translation of the French poem by the Belgian poet
Émile Cammaerts (1878-1953). A footnote in the booklet accompanying that
disc told me something that I didn’t know: in 1942, with the consent of
Cammaerts, Laurence Binyon wrote a new poem to go with Elgar’s music. That’s
the version that’s included on this present disc; in fact, the recording was
made at the same sessions that produced
The Longed for Light. In
Elgar’s score most of the recitation is unaccompanied – only a few lines are
lightly accompanied by the orchestra. That had the very practical benefit
that Cammaerts’ poem could be recited in either the original French or in
the English translation made by the poet’s wife. Happily, this also means
that Binyon’s words can be substituted with ease. I think the 1942 text fits
pretty well. Cammaerts lamented in his poem the destruction of many Belgian
bell towers as a result of the German invasion and he envisioned a time when
the bells would once again peal out in victory. It’s very much a text of its
time and we should understand it as the outpouring of a patriot who has seen
his native land pillaged by invaders. Binyon’s poem, though also written in
wartime, is more reflective and restrained in tone, though no less deeply
felt – by comparing the two texts we can see how times and tastes had
changed in just less than three decades. Binyon’s verses require a less
histrionic style from the speaker and Simon Callow is sensitive to the
contrast with Cammaerts' sentiments: only in the last three lines
does he “let rip”. This is an important supplement to the earlier disc and
Somm are to be congratulated on including it.
The Spirit of England is an extremely fine piece indeed. All
three movements in this work are very thoughtful: Binyon’s verses and the
unfolding tragedy at the Front inspired Elgar to produce some truly eloquent
music. This new performance from John Wilson is very good in many respects.
However, I do have one reservation, namely the singing of Judith Howarth.
She has all the histrionic capabilities that many passages in the score
require but in my view she overdoes the expression at times. In ‘To Women’
she is most expressive but she misses the gentle pathos that is surely an
intrinsic element of Elgar’s setting. I can’t escape the feeling that she
strives too hard for expression; indeed, at one point in my notes I
scribbled down “this is Elgar, not Verdi”. Felicity Lott, who sings for
Hickox, is much more successful at conveying the emotion without excess. The
David Lloyd-Jones version (
review) isn’t entirely comparable since he uses a tenor
soloist in this middle movement and there are pluses and minuses to that
decision. On balance, I like the use of the male voice here and Andrew
Kennedy does well; I prefer his approach, too, to that of Miss Howarth. She
displays some similarities with Susan Gritton (for Lloyd-Jones) in the outer
movements – both sing with generous tone and strong expression. My favourite
soprano on disc remains
Felicity Lott, followed by Susan Gritton and Judith Howarth in
that order.
Each of the three recordings features excellent orchestral playing and
choral singing. I have the impression that on this new version the LSO
Chorus has been placed slightly closer to the microphones than is the case
on the Hickox and Lloyd-Jones recordings. By comparison with them the sound
of the LSO Chorus for Wilson seems just a tiny bit cramped – that’s no
reflection on the singers. On the other hand, the Somm recording conveys the
orchestra perhaps even more excitingly than either rival. One passage that
especially caught my ear is the section in ‘To Women’ where the choir sings
‘Swift, swifter, than those hawks of war’. On the new recording the buzzing,
trilling woodwind register more insistently and insidiously than I can
recall hearing before; it’s tremendous.
John Wilson conducts with evident belief in the score. There are a few
points at which I prefer either Lloyd-Jones or Hickox but anyone buying this
recording is going to find that Wilson leads a convinced and convincing
performance. I still think that Lloyd-Jones has the edge - and the Hickox
would be an extremely strong competitor were it to be re-released separately
– but Wilson’s is a considerable performance.
In 1920 Elgar was asked to provide a piece to be played at the unveiling
of the Cenotaph in London on 11 November that year, the second anniversary
of the Armistice. He arranged the last movement of
The Spirit of
England, ‘For the Fallen’, for chorus and military band, giving the
re-worked piece the title
With Proud Thanksgiving. In the end the
music was not played at the Cenotaph ceremony and the following year Elgar
re-arranged the accompaniment for orchestra and it’s that version that has
been recorded here
. I’ve previously described the result as less of
an arrangement and more an act of butchery. The resultant piece was about
half the length of the original with the solo role eliminated entirely.
There were also some changes to the music that survived, principally the
inclusion of new – and very inferior – music for ‘They shall not grow old …’
There has been a previous modern recording of
With Proud
Thanksgiving, conducted by Douglas Bostock, but I’m not sure that disc
is still available (
review). In any event, this new John Wilson version is
very good and makes the best possible case for the piece. I might rate it
more highly if I didn’t know – and rate so highly – the music in its
original and infinitely superior guise.
The final piece on the programme should make the disc self-recommending to
Elgar enthusiasts, even if they have recordings of all the other music in
their collection. Somm offer us the first recording of the complete
incidental music that Elgar wrote in 1923 for Binyon’s 1919 verse play about
King Arthur. The play, utilising Elgar’s music, had a short run in London in
March 1923 and then both play and music seem to have been largely forgotten.
A 23 minute suite compiled from the incidental music was recorded in 1973 by
the Bournemouth Sinfonietta conducted by George Hurst. That suite was issued
on Chandos CHAN6582 and CHAN8428. However the full score was not heard in
concert until the 2012 English Music Festival when it was played by the
present performers, the Orchestra of St. Paul's and Ben Palmer.
The score consists of 25 numbers. Some of these are very short – 13 of
them are less than one minute in length – and the two longest movements each
play for just over five minutes. The orchestration is, of necessity, sparing
because the music had to be played by a pit band. So, just 14 players are
required: two woodwind, three brass, six strings, harp, piano and
percussion. Yet, though he was writing on such a small scale Elgar’s music
is interesting and it certainly gets a spirited performance here.
Incidentally, sharp-eared listeners may pick up one or two familiar
fragments: in line with Elgar’s intentions Anthony Payne incorporated some
material from
Arthur into the second and fourth movements of his
realisation of the Third Symphony sketches.
To be frank, I think the
Arthur music is likely to be of
specialist interest. One problem is that quite a few of the numbers are so
short that they seem to be over almost in the blink of an eye – that’s
especially true of one sequence (tracks 18 – 22) – and some of these short
numbers end abruptly. One wouldn’t notice that if one were watching the play
but when the music is heard in isolation the “bittiness” is much more
apparent. The thematic material is a little thin and, as so often happens
with incidental music, there’s quite a bit of repetition. Nonetheless, the
best of the numbers are well worth hearing – Anthony Payne undoubtedly mined
the two most memorable ideas for the Third Symphony – and the quiet,
dignified elegy at the end, which is built around material that was to find
its finest expression in the symphony’s finale, is very moving. It’s good
that the music is available for us all to hear and Ben Palmer and his
players give it a most skilful and sympathetic performance.
The value of this collection is enhanced still further by the detailed and
authoritative notes by Andrew Neill. This is an important release that all
Elgarians must hear.
John
Quinn
Previous review:
Nick
Barnard
