York Bowen (1884-1961)
Miniature Suite, Op.113 (1944)
Burlesque (1956)
Debutante (1956)
Susan Spain-Dunk (1880-1962)
Rhapsody Quintet (c.1920)
Gordon Jacob (1895-1984)
Swansea Town (1973)
Karl Jenkins (b.1944)
Chums! (2004)
Sir John Blackwood McEwen (1868-1948)
Under Northern Skies (1939)
Gustav Holst (1874-1934)
Wind Quintet in A flat, Op.14 (1903)
Camarilla Ensemble
rec. 2021, St George’s Headstone, Harrow, UK
DUTTON EPOCH CDLX7398 SACD [72]
Here’s an interesting melange of British wind compositions composed over the period of a century, from Holst in 1903 to Karl Jenkins in 2004. All are heard here in world premiere recordings, including Holst’s Wind Quintet, which is heard in full for the first time.
York Bowen and Susan Spain-Dunk – who is enjoying her time in the discographic sun – were fellow students at the Royal Academy. Bowen is represented by three morsels, the most substantial of which is the 1944 Miniature Suite for flute, oboe, two clarinets and bassoon. The movement titles suggest the pleasures to be heard – Burlesque, Pastorale and Caprice, which translate as ingeniously witty, languid and a virtuoso frolic. Composed for the conductor Guy Warrack and the winds of the BBC Scottish Orchestra, this near-ten-minute work is a delightful find. The idea of Burlesque returned in 1956 where it’s the title of a very short encore piece, coupled with the coquettish Debutante.
Spain-Dunk was an accomplished chamber music composer active up to the Second World War. Her Rhapsody Quintet, provisionally dated to 1920, has been edited for performance by Peter Cigleris, and it’s a study in lyrical compression predicated on the Cobbett ‘four movements in one’ Fantasy precedent. At nine minutes in length, it hardly outstays its welcome, focusing as it does especially on a longish expressive second section that takes up nearly half the work. There seems to be no evidence that the Quintet was ever performed in Spain-Dunk’s lifetime.
Gordon Jacob contributes Swansea Town, written in 1973 when he was in his late 70s. The tune (‘Oh! Farewell to you, my Nancy’) is followed by a succinct sequence of eight variations, all beautifully laid out and full of variety – especially the fast Variation 6 and the professional and charming fugue with which the work finishes. One doesn’t often encounter a charming fugue – as such - but Jacob’s is precisely that. Karl Jenkins is the only living composer represented and his wind quintet is called Chums! which was first performed by - and dedicated to - the ensemble that performs it in this recording, the Camarilla. Instructed to be played Cheekily! the surfeit of exclamation marks should alert you to the crisp and whimsical nature of the work, which ends in a well-deserved and droll payoff.
This leaves near-contemporaries John Blackwood McEwen and Holst. The former’s Under Northern Skies is quite a late work for McEwen, dating from 1939 and again edited by the indefatigable Cigleris. McEwen’s extensive portfolio of chamber music demonstrated his acute affinity with musical watercolourists and this work is no exception - dappled impressionism and colour balanced by hazy warmth emphasised by quick, overlapping lines. Finally, then, to Holst’s Wind Quintet in A flat, Op.14, which he wrote when he was 29. This is the first recording to restore the music excised by his daughter Imogen and Colin Matthews from Holst’s manuscript, and as Lewis Foreman relates in his compelling booklet notes, this amounts to some 76 bars. The restoration was the work of Raymond Head. Holst withheld performance and it was only premiered in 1982 in its old edition. It’s a delightful, unpretentious work, with supple lyricism, some glorious writing for the horn in particular, and a dash of wit in the Minuet third movement. At around 18 minutes it’s the longest work in the disc.
Kudos to the Camarilla Ensemble for taking on this overlooked body of music and presenting it with such naturalness and authority, as well as individual and corporate elegance. It was recorded at one of Dutton’s favoured locations, St George’s Headstone, Harrow, and makes for characterful, varied, and rare programme making.
Jonathan Woolf
