Only recently I was commenting on the
disorientation of meeting a composer,
known for tackling the symphony, writing
art songs (Martinů
songs) Here is a similar
experience except that I knew what was
coming having heard these recordings
when they were first issued on LP all
of 25 years ago. Havergal Brian famously
wrote 32 symphonies during his long
life. There are in addition operas,
concertos and much else but that he
wrote songs will come as a surprise
to many.
The first of the two
Shakespeare Songs has a brutal fortissimo
joyousness about it. It is memorable
for its buffeting melisma on the word
‘blow’ and for an idiom recalling Finzi
in his most forthright and dissonant
moments. Speaking of Finzi the tolling
concentrated mood if not the manner
of Since Love is Dead reminded
me of Finzi’s He Abjures Love.
Take O Take Those Lips Away protests
as strongly as the Foulds songs The
Phantom Horseman and The Seven
Ages of Man. Sorrow Song recalls
the stalwart baritonal sections of Omar
Khayyam written by Brian’s friend
Granville Bantock. In fact the BBC broadcast
through which I know Bantock’s Omar
has the same baritone as one of
the trio of soloists.
The Message gets
as close as Brian ever gets to the troubadour-like
cavatina of songsters such as Mary Plumstead,
Gurney’s Hawk and Buckle and
the least complicated songs of Peter
Warlock - all territory well-known to
this baritone. Farewell is notable
for its grand Brahms-influenced piano
part and that same leonine rearing upwards
can also be heard in the Herrick setting
Why Dost Thou Wound and Break My
Heart? Care Charmer Sleep with
its free use of dissonance was written
during 1919 while Brian was deeply enamoured
of Elizabethan poetry. When Icicles
Hang by the Wall foreshadows the
protesting fulminations of The Soul
of Steel. Defiance is very much
the tenor of another collection of songs
recently issued: the BMS collection
of the songs of another of Brian’s friends,
Rutland Boughton (to be reviewed). On
Parting and Ellayne recall
the songs of Cyril Scott. The mystical
Renunciation again suggests Scott
and Debussy. It contrasts nicely with
the by turns gaunt and jaunty Love
is a Merry Game - a mercurial song
constantly changing in mood and fascinating
throughout. Both Piping Down the
Valleys Wild and The Chimney
Sweeper sound rather like very early
Britten folk settings - artful and carefree.
After two Blake ballads come two very
different Blake settings. The Land
of Dreams and The Defiled Sanctuary
are a different proposition altogether
- expressionist in style, chilly, desolate,
despairing and lichen-hung reaching
its apex in The Defiled Sanctuary.
This protesting music is related again
to Sorrow Song and its forebear
in Bantock’s Omar Khayyam at
the words: "A Muezzin from the
Tower of Darkness cries / "Fools! your
Reward is neither Here nor There!""
.... and ... "Up from Earth's Centre
through the Seventh Gate / I rose, and
on the Throne of Saturn sate ...."
The slatey darkness of Rayner Cook’s
voice is a perfect complement to the
black and bleak defiance of the words
and music.
With thematic relationships
to The
Gothic and the Violin Concerto,
the Legend lies at first in a
land remote from the piano-violin Legends
of Bax and Delius. However after
the preface of determined and angular
writing the music veers into lyrical
territory. The violin’s singing solo
statements also mark out similar moments
early in the first movements of not
only The Gothic but also the
Third Symphony.
Brian’s lyricism can
be rather chaste in Legend and
some of it evokes a taciturn Lark
Ascending. The piece ends in a passive
gesture - sounding almost unfinished.
The performance is full of vitality
although as with its original vinyl
release the sound is slightly boxy.
Legend is the only surviving
chamber work by Havergal Brian.
The sound in the songs
is big and unapologetic.
The notes are exemplary
as you would expect from one of the
two leading Brian scholars, Malcolm
Macdonald.
This disc is the perfect complement
to Brian’s complete music for solo piano
on Athene reviewed at:-
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/aug99/brian.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/athene/brian.htm
The texts are printed
in full.
The songs are all well-rounded,
well recorded and project a grand nobility
aided invaluably by Brian Rayner Cook’s
distinctive baritone and the sensitive
and, when called for, larger than life
pianism of Roger Vignoles.
This disc will be widely
welcomed. The release on CD of these
outstanding performances of intriguing
and impressive music should find ready
takers in the burgeoning market for
British song and for the music of Havergal
Brian.
Rob Barnett
Brian Rayner Cook (bar); Roger Vignoles (piano)
