Gustav HOLST (1872-1934)
Alpha et Omega – Christmas Music
Godwine Choir/Alex Davan Wetton and Edward Hughes
John Wright, Richard Brasier, Tom Bell, Douglas Tang (organ)
Charlotte Evans (oboe), Alison Moncrieff-Kelly (cello)
rec. 13-14 July 2019, St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead; 22 August 2019, Hereford Cathedral (Scherzo)
EM RECORDS EMRCD062 [82:42]
This extraordinarily well-filled disc is a slightly odd compilation, consisting as it does of three groups of items that are not really linked with each other. In the first place, and forming by far the largest content of the CD, we have the complete Holst settings of Christmas carols and arrangements (excluding a couple of larger-scale works for chorus and orchestra); then we have a group of four juvenilia for organ solo written when the composer was in his teens; and finally we have a brand new arrangement of the scherzo from his unfinished second symphony, scored for the unusual combination of two organists at one keyboard.
The three different groups of music are interleaved with each other throughout the duration of the CD, with the early organ pieces inserted into a generally chronological ordering of the carol settings. This provides quite a jolt at times, most noticeably when the quicksilver tonalities of Bring us in good ale are suddenly succeeded by a rather jaunty and almost militaristic Funeral march for solo organ, one of the pieces which Holst himself consigned to a category called “early horrors” – and never was a title more aptly bestowed.
Nonetheless this disc is a most valuable addition to the catalogue, with each of its three elements being of interest to Holstians. In the first place we find gathered here in one location all of Holst’s carols and carol arrangements written mainly in the decade between 1907 and 1917, in the period when he was moving to his maturity and the height of his compositional powers. The disc begins with the 1910 mini-cantata Christmas Day, a collation of four traditional carols; this has some features in common with the Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Christmas Carols written two years later, but VW – in part because of the more beautiful melodies he chose – comes decidedly the better out of the competition. Two of the pieces on this disc are identified as receiving their first recorded performances. The arrangement of I saw three ships is rather conventional, and lacks the sheer panache that Peter Warlock brought to a similar text in his Sycamore Tree; but the late 1917 setting A Dream of Christmas is a marvellous discovery. Written for soprano voices only, it is a setting of a traditional carol text with a strong emphasis on the Crucifixion and Passion and a dream-like atmosphere; we are advised in the informative booklet notes by Chris Cope (Chairman of the Holst Society) that the accompaniment was scored for piano or strings. Here the accompaniment is assigned to the organ, but one would welcome a recording with the strings which would be extremely beautiful.
No less effective are the performances of the better-known carols on this disc. We get for once to hear all five verses of In the bleak midwinter, and the setting of Jesu, thou the Virgin-born written three years later has a tenderness in the performance here that is transformatory. The two carols with instrumental accompaniment are also beautifully delivered; it is not made clear in the booklet which particular players provided the organ part on which particular tracks (or indeed which of the two conductors was responsible for what), but the sound is always characterful and devoid of any suspicion of religious sentimentality. The photograph of the choir in the booklet suggests that they consist of only twelve singers, but there is plenty of body in the more rumbustious carols such as Terly Terlow, Masters in this Hall or Bring us in good ale with its complex interwoven network of vocal lines and modes. Even more complicated is the late 1931 Wassail Song, which has moved a long way from its folk roots (and not always to the advantage of its material, which can tend to submerge in a welter of counterpoint).
As I have already noted, the much earlier organ music featured on this disc is a more problematic matter. The funeral march really is an “early horror”, and listeners hoping for anticipations of Holst’s sad processionals in Saturn, the Ode to Death, or Ode on Grecian urn are going to be sorely disappointed. The other pieces by the teenage composer are innocuous, but only the brief Allegretto pastorale (the shortest of the four ‘voluntaries’ here) gives any hint of what was to come with its slightly fey lilting principal melody possibly suggesting an incipient taste for English folksong. Mind you, the actual material soon gives way to more conventional chordal progressions, and the music as a whole is far
away from the countryside it claims to reflect.
The organ duet arrangement of the Scherzo which brings this disc to a conclusion is a real puzzle. Nor that there is anything actually wrong with it – it is a real tour de force of the art of the both the arranger and the two performers. But one wonders why, with four recordings of Holst’s original score in the catalogues already, it was found needful to provide such an arrangement in the first place. Chris Cope mentions that “there is an arrangement for two pianos” (although whether this was or was not made by the composer he does not say) and Richard Brasier justifies his action in making this organ arrangement with the statement that “the orchestral original transfers exceptionally well to the organ.” I have to take issue with that argument; in particular, the result is much more abrasive than the orchestral original, with Holst’s tonal clashes presented to the listener unmediated by any contrasts in the timbres of individual instruments. It gives the impression that Holst’s unfinished second symphony (of which this scherzo is the solitary completed movement) might have heralded a movement towards a more discordant style – at a time when the composer’s other music written at the same time was showing a tendency to move in the opposite direction with greater emotional warmth in such pieces at the Lyric interlude. It is an interesting argument, nonetheless, and the arrangement is welcome on disc even if it sits somewhat uneasily with the early organ voluntaries and the carols. Despite the title of this CD, the scherzo is certainly not Christmas music.
But despite the eccentric programming, this is nonetheless a most welcome release for all Holstians. As I have already indicated, the booklet notes are – as always from this label – a model of information, and full texts are provided (although no translations for the non infrequently interjected Latin lines). The recording, made in two different venues, is excellently balanced with the many isolated lines allocated to soloists from the choir set in a proper perspective without forward microphone placement. May we perhaps hope that these same singers will now provide us with a CD of some other Holst choral music which stands in urgent need of commercial recording – the magnificent and neglected Hecuba’s Lament, the complete choral Rig Veda hymns (as opposed to excerpts), or a new set of the complete Welsh folksong arrangements which were Holst’s final testament in a field in which he invested so much time and effort.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
Previous reviews: John France ~ Marc Rochester
Contents
Christmas Day [7:37]
In the Bleak Midwinter [4:22]
Four Old English Carols 1. 'A Babe is born’ [2:09]; 2. ‘Now let us sing’ [2:36]; 3. Jesu, Thou the Virgin-born [2:38]; 4. ‘The Saviour of the World is born’ [2:27]
March in C Major for organ [4:11]
Two Carols 1. ‘A Welcome Song’ [2:59]; 2. ‘Terly Terlow’ [2:37]
Allegretto Pastorale’ for organ [3:40]
Lullay my Liking [3:28]
Three Carols 1. ‘I saw three ships’ [1:53]; 2. ‘Personent hodie’ [2:33]; 3. ‘Masters in this Hall’ [3:24]
Postlude in C for organ [4:35]
Of One that is so Fair and Bright [1:58]
This Have I Done for my True Love [5:59]
Bring us in Good Ale [1:17]
Funeral March in G Minor for organ [9:28]
A Dream of Christmas [3:09]
Wassail Song [3:09]
Scherzo, H192 (arr. Richard Brasier) [6:21]
