This is David Lloyd-Jones’s
fourth Lambert CD for Hyperion. I hope
that it is not the last although the
Lambert catalogue is not large.
Right from the start
of this disc the artists communicate
Lambert's characteristic blend of touching
poetry and jazzy exuberance. Conductor
and orchestra fully capture the brilliance
of the Romeo and Juliet score
which was written for Diaghilev. Lambert
was in fact one of only two British
composers who had Diaghilev productions:
the other was Lord Berners.
The playing is spot-on
at all times. This is very much to the
point in the thunderous jazzy Sonatina
of Romeo and Juliet which rattles
with jazzy echoes of Lambert’s Rio
Grande. The Sinfonia (tr.
7) has all the expansive grandeur of
Lambert’s Horoscope ballet score.
This contrasts with a Stravinskian Alla
Marcia (tr. 8) and that strongly
neo-classical approach also surfaces
in the finale (tr. 13). The Toccata
(tr. 9) also carries occasional pre-echoes
of Moeran’s 1944 Serenade and
of Lambert’s own Music for Orchestra
(1927). In the Adagietto
(tr. 12) The Death of Juliet
is portrayed through plaintive slow
motion for strings. There is no sobbing;
all is bleakly understated in a manner
familiar from Roy Harris. The score
has no pretensions to the exalted emotionalism
of Prokofiev in his Romeo and Juliet.
It si nevertheless a better than interesting
score and it is not without emotional
content even if it is in water-colour
tints.
The Elegiac Blues
was written in memory of Florence Mills
whose Dover Street to Dixie revue
was seen by Lambert with his friend
the pianist Angus Morrison at least
four times. The piece is fleetingly
brief - like a Liadov tone poem - and
wears a slow and sour jazz age smile.
It’s notable amongst other things for
its Delian fanfare à la Appalachia
- not a shred of vainglory ... just
a melancholy gesture.
The Piano Concerto
here is a full concerto and is not
to be confused with the much better
known Lambert concerto for piano and
chamber ensemble. The composer here
uses an orchestra lacking only a full
wind complement. It is for two trumpets,
timpani and string orchestra and has
four movements. The work is well worth
hearing with its first movement characterised
by insistently hammering rhythmic material
and just the hint of a Scottish skirl
which reappears in the finale amid ruthless
Prokofiev-like energy. There’s very
little in the way of jazzy voicing.
Instead the piece comes up bright as
a sixpence in the manner of the wonderful
and under-recognised Walton Sinfonia
Concertante. Lambert takes his eyes
off the ball only in the Andante
where the emotional material fails to
engage the listener.
The Bird Actors
is chipper and Milhaud-bright with
much use of castanets and tambourine.
There are fugal echoes at 1.30 again
recalling the Music for Orchestra.
This is fun with some characteristic
touches but not from the top drawer.
A privilege at last to hear this earlyish
piece.
Prize Fight
is a knockabout satirical piece that
takes on the wildness of Havergal Brian's
The Tigers. It has the tumultuous
activity of Chisholm’s Piano Concerto
No. 1 and Grainger’s The Warriors
but is more frivolous than either
score. The cartoon style fight between
Bug the American bruiser and the black
man is relentlessly insistent complete
with bell to mark the end of the round.
Other disparate presences include a
satirical echo of Petrushka’s negro,
a shard of the march Johnny Comes
Marching Home and that Scottish
snap again.
The booklet note hits
all the right bases and is faultlessly
communicative. The author is Stephen
Lloyd who is working on what is likely
to be the Lambert biography.
It should be out next year all being
well.
The booklet carries
a 1926 portrait of Constant Lambert
by Christopher Wood (1901–1930).
After this let's have
a further Lambert CD including Green
Fire, the Dirge from Cymbeline
and the superb Music for Orchestra.
I have heard the latter in off-air recordings
conducted by the composer, by Maurice
Handford and by Norman Del Mar. Forget
the grey Hindemithian title, this is
a work that describes a glorious symphonic
parabola of about 18 minutes duration.
Poignant, dramatic and not at all academic
its absence from the catalogue is yet
another incomprehensible omission.
This is Lambert’s centenary
year but the celebrations have been
a pretty muted affair. No performances
of Tiresias or Music for Orchestra
and none of Summer’s Last Will
and Testament. Surely one of the
Prom concerts should have been devoted
to him. There has however been no shortage
of performances of Rio Grande which
in the popularity stakes stands to Summer’s
Last Will in much the same relationship
as Bax’s Tintagel to the seven
symphonies. Hyperion can claim credit
for this disc not simply for the transient
accolade of a CD entry during the composer’s
centenary year but also because the
music has intrinsic attraction. Romeo
and Juliet has been recorded before
but not with such elan and the other
pieces receive their premiere recordings.
Rob Barnett
LAMBERT ON HYPERION
Horoscope - Suite
BLISS Checkmate - Suite
WALTON Facade - Suite
English Northern Sinfonia/David Lloyd-Jones
Compact Disc CDH55099
Mr Bear Squash-you-all-flat
Piano Concerto
Piano Sonata
Eight poems of Li-Po
Nigel Hawthorne narrator, Philip Langridge
tenor, Ian Brown piano, The Nash Ensemble/Lionel
Friend
Compact Disc CDA66754
Summer's Last Will
and Testament
The Rio Grande
Aubade Héroïque
Sally Burgess mezzo, William Shimell
baritone, Jack Gibbons piano, Leeds
Festival Chorus/Chorus of Opera North,
English Northern Philharmonia/David
Lloyd-Jones
Compact Disc CDA66565 Review
Tiresias A Ballet
in three Acts (1950/1)
Pomona A Ballet in one Act (1927)
English Northern Philharmonia/David
Lloyd-Jones conductor
Compact Disc CDA67049 Review
for
details
Jonathan Plowright (piano) 
