The second volume of 'Manchester Sounds' (the first volume
of which was reviewed in BMS News 88 December 2000) has just arrived on
my desk -and, at the same time, an intriguing collection on CD of music
'by composers with Manchester Connections'.
If provincial northern accents predominate in the periodical,
there is an urbane eclectic variety in the selection of pieces on this
disc, ranging from the orchestrally clad Walter Carroll miniatures (whose
choice of Rackham drawings on the covers of the published piano sheets
beloved of children is paralleled here in Eric Fogg's imaginative scoring)
to the complex music of Manduell's 'Diversions' and the dark
modality of John McCabe's 'Dances' for harp and strings (from
the Scottish Ballet's production of 'Mary Queen of Scots') This
range encompasses, en route, a Rondino movement for piano and
small orchestra, originally belonging to an early Piano Concerto by
composer Terence Greaves, whose delightfully capricious music is played
with the most delicate lilt by the young Jonathan Scott (whose progress
I will continue to watch with the keenest interest) and the ravishing
Theme and Variations of Tom Pitfield. While the respected Carroll
is justifiably regarded as 'the father of Manchester composers' (especially
for his community work with children and their music making) it is to
Pitfield's richly evocative harmonies, recalling Warlock and Moeran,
that I return most often. It appears that this work was rejected by
readers at the BBC as 'suitable for a school orchestra' - which says
something perhaps about the comparative values, even discernment, of
the respective musical centres of the north and the metropolis. It is
to be hoped that the centenary of Pitfield's birth in 2003 will afford
a hearing 'in depth' of the range of this fine composer's work.
Not too far behind in the rich harmony stakes, the
reticent composer James Langley's string orchestra work in four movements
is warmly appealing. Contrast is provided by Sir John Manduell's 'Diversions'
- whose purpose, says the composer, is simply 'to divert' - and
since he also says that
'descriptions of Divertimenti finales are generally
superfluous’ I leave this exciting music to speak for itself. Contrasts
also in the statuesque incidental music of John McCabe and Anthony Gilbert's
Another Dream Carousel (are there more?) - an almost nightmarish
waltz sequence whose nostalgia seems to be lit by the flashing kaleidoscope
colours of the ever-turning roundabout.
If one needs a reason to compile a recording of varying
and attractive music, yet with a similarity of accent, then the idea
of a regional bias is not inappropriate - and I imagine that, with the
material that may yet be available and unexplored further compilations
may appear. If they are of this standard then I eagerly anticipate.
Colin Scott-Sutherland
Northern Chamber Orchestra