Arthur BUTTERWORTH (1923-2014)
Symphony No. 1 Op. 15 (1957) [38:13] MONO
Symphony No. 2 Op. 25 (1964) [28:09] MONO
Symphony No. 4 Op. 72 (1986) [39:39] STEREO
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Arthur Butterworth (1); Christopher Adey (2)
BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra/Bryden Thomson (4)
rec. BBC broadcasts: 2 December 1976 (1); 20 January 1975 (2); 8 May 1986 (premiere)(4)
LYRITA REAM1127 [67:49 + 38:13]
This CD set garnered some complaints almost as soon as it
saw the light of day, with Colin Mackie on the message board of this site
lamenting the fact that we were being given further recordings of the First
and Fourth Symphonies while others of the Butterworth canon languished
unrecorded. Well, although the First and Fourth were included
in a previously issued Dutton collection (and the First had also
previously appeared on a Classico CD) both of those earlier releases appear
to have succumbed to the deletions axe, or at least are not listed as currently
available on Arkivmusic. No doubt second-hand and remaindered copies may be
obtained on the internet, but at the time of writing Amazon yielded only copies
of the Dutton set at £15.62 and the single Classico disc at £16.50. This makes
the newly released set a considerable bargain by comparison.
Unfortunately the recording of the First Symphony held in the BBC
archives was wiped, and Richard Itter’s home taping required considerable
work to obtain any sort of satisfactory results - Adrian Farmer explained
this in an appended remark to the earlier review on this site by Stephen Greenbank.
The sound on Barbirolli’s pioneering broadcast featured on the Dutton
set is similarly of poor quality, which leaves only the deleted Classico recording
conducted by Douglas Bostock to provide us with a recording in modern sound
(and it is coupled most enterprisingly by the Second Symphony by
Ruth Gipps). The quality of the sound here is doubly unfortunate since this
was the work which established the composer’s reputation (and it remained
his favourite among his output), and to hear it conducted by the composer
himself is especially valuable.
Recordings by composers are a somewhat fraught issue; although, in my experience,
orchestras are both understanding and tolerant of the technical shortcomings
of composers wielding the baton in their own scores, there is nevertheless
some degree of inevitable hesitancy when a potentially fallible figure is
on the podium. Such considerations do not apply in the case of Butterworth,
who was an established conductor in his own right; and he should therefore
be believed when in the First Symphony he takes each and every movement
more slowly than Barbirolli, in the case of the slow movement extending the
duration by more than two minutes. Similarly, in the Fourth Symphony
Butterworth on Dutton is slower than Bryden Thomson here in all movements
except the first; and he adds more than three minutes to Thomson’s
timing in the finale. The results in every case are sheer gain; this is music
which gains in power and stature from the composer’s own more deliberate
approach, whatever may be the sacrifice in excitement as the music builds
to a climax.
The music of all these symphonies is indeed powerful and exciting. The atmosphere
of the landscapes of northern Britain (Scotland as well as Butterworth’s
native Yorkshire) dominates the music as surely as that of Finland dominates
that of Sibelius. Comparisons with Sibelius do not end there, as the structure
of the symphonies is equally assured as in the case of the Finnish master.
Parallels with Nielsen and Bax are also apposite. Those who would like to
experience something of the ongoing tradition of classical music in Europe
deriving from that prestigious line will find something gripping and absorbing
here. The recordings of the Fourth and the Second Symphonies
are considerably better than that of the First, and indeed give credit
to the BBC engineers who supervised the broadcasts; one can only regret that
Lyrita did not see fit to include the Third Symphony, similarly recorded
by Bryden Thomson for broadcast, which would have added an otherwise unrepresented
work to the catalogues (but which has been available at times on the internet).
There would indeed have been room for this on the second CD, and if Richard
Itter himself had not recorded the broadcast presumably permission to license
the BBC tapes could have been sought.
I should add that there was at one time a Dutton issue of Butterworth’s
Fifth Symphony conducted by the composer, but this too appears no
longer on current listings although Amazon offer one solitary copy at the
swingeing price of £14.82. This unfortunately appears to be par for the course
with Dutton. We are of course immeasurably grateful for the label’s
extensive explorations of the neglected repertory, not only of British but
of international music too, many of them in superb performances and recordings;
but the company does seem to be content to allow these issues to go out of
circulation once the initial pressings have been sold, which robs subsequent
potential purchasers of the chance to explore the music. Some of the recordings
do maintain a presence on Spotify, but by no means all; nor are many of the
releases available as downloads. Is there something that can be done to keep
these valuable recordings in circulation (and hopefully generating income
for both the company and the artists involved, as well)?
But enough of carping. This is a valuable issue which provides the listener
with readily available performances of three major symphonies, and I find
it amazing that at the time of writing I could find no evidence that (outside
this site) it had garnered any critical attention from reviewers beyond a
tangential reference to the release in a Guardian article devoted
to the del Mar recording of Bantock’s Omar Khayyám. (The Lyrita
site itself does feature an anonymous review which for some reason credits
the performance of the Fourth to Vernon Handley.) This is a real
injustice to music which should be looking to attract substantial interest
from the general music-lover. And then again, if other reviewers eventually
prove to be equally enthusiastic, we might possibly hope for releases of the
other symphonies which Butterworth wrote after the Fifth.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
Previous review:
Stephen Greenbank
From Adrian Farmer, Trustee of Lyrita Recorded Edition
Trust
The initial 'flat' transfer of Butterworth's Symphony No.1 was impossible
to listen to and we were on the point of rejecting it. The recording of the
broadcast had at some point been badly processed, probably through the incorrect
use of a dolby noise reduction unit. Richard Itter had professional dolby
equipment for use with his Lyrita studio masters, perhaps he decided to use
it on on this BBC Broadcast, it is quite possible that the surviving tape
in his archive is a copy. Our restoration team - including Norman White, better
known as Nimbus's Prima Voce archivist - manually rebalanced the frequency
content of the recording. Had the BBC retained a copy in their archive we
would have applied for a licence, but unfortunately in this instance there
was no library copy.
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