Sir Arthur BLISS (1891-1975)
The Lady of Shalott, ballet in one act (1958) [43:19]
Rout for soprano voice and orchestra (1920) [7:36]
Polonaise (1925, orch. of the second movement of Suite for Piano) [3:17]
One-Step (1923, orch. 1936 by Leighton Lucas and Victor Fleming of piano piece) [2:28]
Answering You [Your Questions Answered] (1944) [1:29]
Heritage of Britain [versions A & B] (1950) [1:55]
Two Contrasts for string orchestra (1950, arr. 1972 from the middle two movements of String Quartet No. 2) [12:57]
March of Homage in Honour of a Great Man (1965) [4:00]
Ilona Domnich (soprano), BBC Concert Orchestra/Martyn Yates
rec. January 2020, Watford Colosseum, UK
DUTTON EPOCH CDLX7387 [77:38]
The major news for Bliss collectors here is the first recording of the complete ballet music for The Lady of Shallot. Commissioned by the University of California, its scenario was written by Bliss and Christopher Hassall in 1958 after Tennyson’s poem, and its premiere seems to have been successful. Subsequent performances, though, have been very few and far between, its British premiere only coming in 1975, the year of Bliss’ death.
As for recordings I’m only aware of the 1968 broadcast that Bliss conducted with the BBC Symphony when he also directed Campoli in the Violin Concerto (BBC Radio Classics 1565691842). That was substantially complete but three small sections were excised for the radio broadcast – the ones here on track 6 (The Lady Longs to Make Contact with The Dancers), track 12 (Re-Entry of the Page) and 13 (The Abbot). Of these it’s the last named which is the most significant musical loss in the 1968 broadcast, because the characterisation is subtle. The total cut made in Bliss’s broadcast is around five minutes in total, by my reckoning.
In the score Bliss balances precision with succinctness. There is also rich variety of mood and texture and some superb examples of his powers of orchestration, from gossamer to broad ceremonial. The Prelude’s mysterious dreamscape, the lively depiction of the Lady of Shallot’s weaving – Bliss employs the winds for this - and the way in which one brief scene sometimes prefigures the next one all point to a genuine engagement with the subject matter. The scenes for the villagers contain a few jazzy cadences as well as a luscious waltz. For the arrival of the Page, Bliss unveils some gentle archaisms on the flute and when the Page meets the Lady there is coquettish interplay. The appearance of the Knight is announced in serio-comic pomposo terms, though this soon modifies into tenderness and a delightful Pas de Deux.
Listening to the music evokes so much of the vigour and romance of Bliss’s conception that it’s not hard, in one’s mind, to choreograph The Lady of Shallot. This makes it seem even more disappointing that the work hasn’t taken off on stage. Scenes like the arrival of the Tumblers, the re-entry of the Page, the gentle solemnity of the scene for the Abbot – a kind of Elgarian interlude – or the strongly filmic music for The Young Lovers, all point to a rich cross-fertilization of influences and musical solutions. Orchestrally, there are numerous elements reminiscent of the Blow Meditations, composed just a few years before. The scene where the Lady and Lancelot kiss, which is marked by a cymbal crash, would be dramatically effective on stage as it’s followed so soon by the inevitable disintegration of all hope, and her death, where the Epilogue functions as a kind of cortège.
The BBC studio broadcast is heard in dryer sound and has those cuts but has a bracing, dramatic and incisive quality that one would expect from a composer-directed performance. As one could also predict Bliss adopts, in places, slightly faster tempi than Martin Yates but there’s really little in it – and of course that broadcast was made over 50 years ago. It’s high time a resonant contemporary recording was made and here it is, splendidly realised.
Rout (meaning ‘revelry’) is one of the works that brought Bliss to attention as a possible Bad Boy of British music. It’s heard in its full orchestral version sung (she famously is asked to sing syllables) by soprano Ilona Domnich with fortitude and focused tone. This carnivalesque scena is more commonly encountered in its chamber guise, such as by The Nash Ensemble on CDA66137, so it’s good to hear the greater amplitude of this full recording. It was also the first of Bliss’ pieces to be recorded, back in 1921 with Stella Power and Adrian Boult doing the honours. The composer himself recorded it with Rae Woodland and the LSO for Lyrita, a disc released to celebrate his impending 80th birthday.
Dutton clearly wants to capitalise on the first complete recording nature of the work by adding a raft of others. The 1925 Polonaise is Bliss’ orchestration of the second movement of his Suite for Piano, a boisterous work that transfers well into this colourful new guise. His One-Step is similarly orchestrated but this time not by Bliss but by Leighton Lucas. Further additions were made by dance band leader Victor Fleming. Answering You is the title of a wartime BBC radio series and Bliss’s music for the signature tune is in best swaggeringly Imperial manner.
Another signature tune can be heard immediately afterwards, that for Heritage of Britain. It’s actually heard in two versions, the A and B versions (around a minute each), derived from his film music for Christopher Columbus. Suitably ceremonial too. In 1972 Bliss adapted the middle two movements of his 1950 Second String Quartet for string orchestra, to be played by Neville Marriner’s Academy of St Martin in the Fields. This works surprisingly well as a diptych, the expressive intensity of the slow movement contrasting with the flighty scherzo. The March of Homage in Honour of a Great Man marked Churchill’s death, powerful and ceremonial of course.
Lewis Foreman’s booklet notes are a model of how these things should be written and the cover artwork is a very appropriate one of the Lady of Shallot by John William Waterhouse in full Pre-Raphaelite form.
The two BBC signature tunes are premiere recordings, Polonaise, One-Step and the Two Contrasts are first recordings of these orchestrations. In fact, Rout is the only work to have been recorded in this form, in full, in the entire programme. Whilst it would be foolish to claim that these small pieces and the orchestrations alter in any way one’s perception of Bliss, they are useful additions to one’s shelf. The ballet, however, is more than that and well worth acquiring.
Jonathan Woolf
