Further details about Collins at:-
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Feb05/Elgar_piano_concerto.htm
Anthony Collins is
probably best remembered today as a
gifted conductor, particularly of Sibelius
and especially of that composer’s symphonies,
all seven of which he memorably recorded
for Decca in the early days of LPs (early
1950s). These are now once again available
on the Beulah label:-
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Mar06/Collins_Sibelius_14PD8.htm
Collins wrote many
film scores, notably for producer Herbert
Wilcox in England. They include - other
than those featured here - The Swiss
Family Robinson and Tom Brown’s
Schooldays. Alas much of his music
seems to have been lost due to various
take-overs in the music-publishing industry.
But with this new release, piloted by
the young conductor John Wilson, who
is also something of a scholar specialising
in lighter music, perhaps a Collins’s
revival might be imminent?
Victoria the Great,
starring Anna Neagle, was Anthony Collins’s
first film score. The ‘Prelude’ opens
and closes imposingly, as befits the
subject, with one of his memorable ‘royal’
slow marches not far removed from Elgar
and Walton and used in the coronation
scenes. In between there is atmospheric
material underscoring the Lord Chamberlain’s
urgent ride to Kensington to inform
the young Victoria that she is now Queen.
‘Portrait of Lord Melbourne on his Horse’
introduces some gentle whimsy in the
eighteenth century classical style as
the old soldier, who is having his portrait
painted, is mildly ribbed by the Queen.
‘Victoria and Albert’ is a tender picture
of domestic conjugal bliss while ‘The
Queen’s Caprice’ underscores Victoria’s
gentle guying of the hesitant Prince
Albert when they first meet. Another
grand march ‘Victoria Regina’, complete
with cannon salutes, and integrated
with the coronation music, is heard
over the end titles. It concludes this
suite.
From another Anna Neagle
film about the World War II heroine,
Odette, we hear the charming
Viennese-waltz-style ‘Valse Lente’.
The Lady with Lamp, again featuring
producer Herbert Wilcox’s wife, Anna
Neagle, is represented by ‘Prelude and
Valse Variations’. Collins’s Prelude
music speaks eloquently of suffering,
endurance and heroism while the waltz
variations move from battlefields to
glittering ballrooms.
The Festival Royal
Overture forms a wonderful rousing
opening to this album’s concert. As
its name implies, it is full of pomp
and circumstance. It was first performed
by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted
by Stanford Robinson on 6 June 1956.
Besides its royal connotations it would
seem to be very suitable for newsreel
introductory music.
Perhaps the best known
item is Collins’s delightful four-minute
light music encore, Vanity Fair
first broadcast September 1952 and performed
countless times since.
The Song of Erin
(subtitled Lamentation -
perhaps for a dead hero as the concluding
bars might suggest - is a mistily atmospheric
Celtic piece spotlighting the cor anglais.
More Celtic music, from the Emerald
Isle, Eire is a three-movement
suite commencing with a jolly swaggering
‘Battle March’ setting of ‘Mat Hannigan’s
Aunt’; next comes a misty dream-like
‘Reverie’ arrangement of the well-known
song ‘The Mountains of Mourne’ and finally
another merry setting of ‘Phil the Fluter’s
Ball’. Santa Cecilia, termed
by Anthony Collins as a madrigal, was
one of the composer’s last compositions,
written some four years before his death.
No clue is given as to the subject matter
of this gently flowing work except that
it might be thought to be a sunny depiction
of the church of that name in Rome.
Louis XV Silhouettes’
first movement ‘At Versailles’ begins
majestically with a flourish in the
grand style of Lully before proceeding
to sound rather more like Handel. ‘At
the Tuileries’ covers various dances:
‘Sicilienne’, ‘Tambourin’, ‘Pavane’,
‘Forlane’, and ‘Passecaille’ - all cast
in the style of the period but with
an unmistakeable Collins overlay, often
spiced with a pinch of sly wit. The
Suite concludes with a movement entitled
‘At Luciennes’ located at the chateau
of the King’s mistress, Madame du Barry.
The music is all feminine charm, frippery
and inconsequence.
The album concludes
with the first of Collins’s symphonies
for strings. It is another example of
the composer’s predilection for pastiche
period pieces. And once more his style
is elastic, overlaying his own light,
witty touch over: first a Haydn-like
Allegro; then an introspective ‘Adagio
molto’ that mourns gravely in the style
of Bach, and finally the ‘Allegro vivace’
that takes us back to the Celtic with
a jolly, skittish setting of a song
that I seem to remember is entitled
‘Oh Dear What Can the Matter Be?’ -
or has that line predominant.
John Wilson leads the
BBC Concert Orchestra in sparkling performances
of these charming confections.
Charming light music
by a quite-forgotten composer-conductor.
Ian Lace
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