21 October 2006 would have been the
85th birthday of Sir Malcolm
Arnold an event a trio of Decca boxed
sets was to have celebrated. In fact
the composer died on 23 September; just
one month short of celebrations which
included the Arnold Festival given in
his birthplace in Northampton.
If you are at all interested
in Arnold’s music these are recordings
you will want to have. In short, work-for-work,
there is no competition. The closest
you get is the now deleted Naxos White
Box of the nine numbered symphonies
(NSO Ireland/Andrew Penny) 8.505178
review
This was from the same orchestra (different
conductor, Robert Houlihan) who played
substantial; extracts from the symphonies
on the Tony Palmer DVD Toward the
Unknown Region of Arnold’s life.
review
and review.
You can probably pick up the individual
Naxos discs easily enough and the Naxos
Ninth also has the composer in discussion
with Andrew Penny.
The present five disc
set is one of three boxes returning
to the shelves the splendid 1990s Conifer
recordings made by the label’s former
Director of Artists and Repertoire John
Kehoe. It’s all the more remarkable
that this is done at bargain price.
The three sets comprise:
vol. 1 5CDs
476 5337: The Eleven Symphonies
(that’s all but comprehensive –
the nine numbered symphonies conducted
by Vernon Handley plus the Symphony
for Brass and the Symphony for Strings)
vol. 2 4CDs
476 5343: Seventeen Concertos;
vol. 3 4CDs
476 5348: orchestral, brass and
piano music. . The only compromise
is that you lose Piers Burton-Page’s
detailed commentaries that were such
a pillar of the individual 1990s discs.
The notes in the Decca boxes are by
John Kehoe, Anthony Meredith and Paul
Harris. They are very compressed though
they certainly tackle the essentials.
They do so with the authority of the
mastermind of the Conifer project and
the two authors who have charted the
deeply-scored triumphs and tragedies
of Arnold’s life.
The three boxes represent
a stunning achievement. The Edition
is the largest-ever collection of Arnold’s
concert music, with 61 works spread
across three volumes and 13 discs. It’s
a resounding triumph for Decca Universal.
In the case of this symphonies box Decca
have added the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble’s
world premiere recording of the gaunt
and forbidding Symphony for Brass.
This is the only Decca analogue presence
in what is otherwise indebted to digital
encodings from Conifer.
The other thing that
makes this set so gratifying is that
many of the individual discs issued
by Conifer were only available very
briefly in the 1990s before the label
was deleted wholesale. In particular
you do not often come across secondhand
copies of the Conifer discs of symphonies
1 and 5 (75605 51257 2), 3 and 4 (75605
51258 2), or 9 (75605 51273 2).
Arnold wrote two symphonies
outside the numbered canon. The earliest
was the Symphony for Strings (drawn
from Conifer 75605 51298 2) and, from
1970, a Symphony for Brass Instruments
written for fellow trumpeter
Philip Jones and the brass ensemble
that bore his name: PJBE, virtuosos
every one. It is good that the symphony
is played here by its dedicatees. When
originally released on LP (Argo ZRG906)
it was coupled with various other contemporary
brass pieces including ones by Leonard
Salzedo Capriccio for Brass Quintet
Op. 90 and Raymond Premru Music
from Harter Fell. Recording standards
are well up to the excellence of Decca-Argo's
1979 vintage and no one needs to worry
about the analogue origins - FFRR with
a vengeance! The Symphony is tough with
few concessions - listen to the gritty
Andante con moto. It is a natural
companion to the Seventh and Ninth Symphonies
except in the silver buffoonery of the
Allegro con brio which links
across to the brio movement of
the Brass Quintet. It is a work that
has the same ecstatic-depressive dimension
found in his contemporary masterpieces
of the Cornish years: the Fifth and
Sixth Symphonies and the Cornish
Dances.
The other unnumbered
symphony featured here is the Symphony
for Strings. It’s a very early
piece from the middle years of the Second
World War. Fully characteristic it is
threaded through with gestures we later
came to recognise as essentially Malcolm
Arnold. They’re all there: pizzicato
deployed to release or escalate tension,
sudden bursts of jerky furioso,
sentimental tunes escaped from a cinematic
argot, gracious Finzian sighs and deadly
serious gritty Bartokian austerity.
It’s by no means an ingratiating work.
The tragic and tensely
Sibelian First Symphony was recorded
by the composer conducting the Bournemouth
Symphony Orchestra in 1979. It was issued
on LP as EMI Classics ASD3823. The work
was premiered by the composer conducting
the Hallé at the Cheltenham Festival
in 1951. You can hear that Bournemouth
EMI recording if you can find CDM 7
64044 2. Rather like the composer’s
Lyrita recording of his Fourth Symphony
[review
review]it
is taken at a slow pace (39:08) as if
the composer was relishing the memories,
joys and pains reflected in each bar.
For me that recording is something special
and it’s the version by which I came
to know the piece. Compare this with
the less plangent and certainly speedier
Naxos version at 28:27 and the vivid
and explosively recorded 30:13 of Hickox/LSO
on Chandos CHAN 9335. The trouble with
these is that they almost sound perfunctory
after the composer’s tranced, slow motion,
gaze into the this Sibelian dynamo of
the emotions. Handley is even more urgently
whipped forward and Tapiola-stormy.
He takes the RLPO through the work in
27:12 – the fastest by far. Yet it works
… and the recording is extraordinarily
rich and multi-layered. Just listen
to the discreetly chattered horn fanfare
at 02:00. Shortly after, one wonders
at 2:35, whether the very recent example
of his great friend Walton in the pre-Battle
morning stirrings of the Henry V film
music had lodged in his mind.
The Second Symphony
has had far more recordings than
the First. Its first outing had the
composer conducting the RPO on Philips
LP NBL5021. Perhaps someone will rescue
that recording to give us the younger
composer’s perspective on his own work.
Like Martinu’s Second this is the composer’s
pastoral symphony, not that it is without
exhilarating virtuosity – especially
in the lilting birdsong and silkily
confiding writing of the first movement.
Of all the works, this is the one that
shares most with the English Dances
and you can hear that voice in the
first, second and fourth movements.
Handley is frankly superb although once
again things go with a fast swing –
a tendency also noted in his award-winning
Chandos recordings of the Bax symphonies.
He is aided and abetted in style by
the golden virtuosity of the RLPO brass.
I liked his slowish Lento (III)
much more than Penny’s Naxos (27:13)
counterpart. That said, once again the
Naxos sound, though excellent, slightly
lacks the immediacy of the Conifer original.
Then again the sweetest sound and the
cheekiest lilt comes from the 1976 EMI
analogue for the Bournemouth Orchestra,
again with Charles Groves (27:42). At
31:02 Hickox delivers the slowest version.
His Lento at 13:51 becomes becalmed
although I rather wonder if the composer
would not have taken it at just this
pace had he recorded it in the 1970s
or 1980s.
The Third Symphony
I recall finding quite difficult
at first hearing but for all its torment
and protest it is now much easier to
follow. Its Sibelian chatter and chilly
curvaceous themes - try the Lento
for echoes of Sibelius 4 - have
now fallen into sharp focus. I went
back to the first commercial recording
of this work which was written between
1954 and 1957. This has the composer
conducting his own orchestra, the LPO,
and taking the 34:38. Originally this
was issued on an Everest LP with the
benefits of 35mm film recording and
it really shows in the staggering realism
of the recording with its biting brass
and percussion let alone the suave and
swooning woodwind and warm string sound.
Oldsters may recall the garish LP cover
with its Highland tartan clad legs,
sgian dubh and crossed swords – the
latter relating to the coupling: the
first recording of the Scottish Dances.
You can hear it now if you can find
Phoenix PHCD102. It’s well worth the
trouble. The sound for Hickox on CHAN
9290 is more sophisticated and the depth
of the soundstage is more realistic
with a sense of depth not just breadth
although the agreeable stereo spread
of the Phoenix-Everest original is lost.
Hickox is a shade faster in the first
and third movements and half a minute
slower in the central Lento.
Overall he is 33:43 against Handley
and the orchestra for which he wrote
the symphony, the RLPO, who take 31:20.
I do feel that Handley could with advantage
have allowed more light and air between
the notes especially in the finale.
It is all highly enjoyable though and
gives a different spin to this wonderful
piece. The Naxos/Penny version is of
a piece with the Handley although Handley
shades it by a very slight margin on
recording quality – to do with the forwardness
and immediacy of the sound.
Then we come to the
Fourth Symphony a work of the
lightest and liltingly sweetest tunes
– often accompanied by overtones of
1950s MOR - and of explosive full-square
eruptions from brass and percussion.
We also hear Caribbean steel band sonorities
in much the same way as they appear
in the glorious Commonwealth Christmas
Overture. Here Penny and his Irish
orchestra relish the opportunity for
display as do Hickox and the LSO (Chandos
CHAN9290) although here the sound quality
is not as immediate as that achieved
by Chris Craker in Dublin for Naxos.
Hickox takes 40:36 against Penny’s 37:36
and Handley’s 37:09.
The Fourth was premiered
by the composer conducting the BBC Symphony
Orchestra on 2 November 1960 and that
broadcast was issued on a pirated LP
(Aries LP1622). With all the confidence
of the creator of the music and a late-Bernstein
sense of encompassed time the composer
took an elephantine 54:11 for his 1980s
digital recording on Lyrita SRCD 2000
review
review.
The orchestra was ‘his own’ LPO but
forty years on from when he had been
principal trumpet. The recording has
a remarkable and gripping impact and
the experience of hearing the work extended
by more than fifteen minutes beyond
what you hear with Handley has fascination.
The music takes on a dreamy almost psychedelic
imagery which is far from disagreeable.
It would be good to compare how Arnold
conducted this work at its 1960 premiere;
I cannot believe he took the oompah-oompah-pah
ostinato at 4:10 (Lyrita) at quite that
italicised pace.
The Fourth surfaced
with a BBC orchestra at the time when
William Glock’s grip was tight. The
Fifth Symphony, written from
the heart – and a deeply troubled one
at that - in a style guaranteed to displease
the artistic bureaucracy and academic
elite of the time faced even more of
a struggle. It was completed in 1960,
premiered at the Cheltenham Festival
– still welcoming at that stage - but
not given its first BBC radio performance
until 1 May 1967. The Fifth is amongst
the finest Arnold. With the First and
the Eighth it is a good place to start
your exploration of the Arnold symphonies.
It was the last of the symphonies that
the composer himself was able to conduct
complete. Its inspiration was found
in the deaths of four close friends
and the shuddering end of his first
marriage. We can hear Arnold directing
the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
on a now long deleted EMI CD CDM 7 63368
2. In sessions at De Montfort Hall,
Leicester University in June 1972 he
takes 33:18 by comparison with Penny’s
32:37. The CBSO original was first issued
on LP as ASD 2878 with the Four Cornish
Dances and the inconsequential Peterloo
Overture. Penny’s is a strong account
and as ever with this Naxos set there
are many imaginative touches including
the affectionately insinuating way the
symphony starts. The Hickox is not far
off the norm at 32:34 and this time
is captured (with the Sixth Symphony)
in superb Chandos sound on CHAN9385.
After this issue Hickox dropped the
cycle or Chandos dropped Hickox; I do
not know which. It was left to the wonderful
Rumon Gamba to complete the cycle -
he was recently heard in eager and delightful
form at BBC Manchester conducting George
Lloyd’s epic Fourth Symphony. Handley
on Decca is quick but by no means the
fleetest of foot at 30:41. This is only
felt as hasty in the first movement
where some of the music-box nostalgia
sounds breathless. Otherwise this is
a superb performance beautifully recorded
as is, best of all from an audio viewpoint,
the version on ClassicO CLASSCD 294
by Douglas Bostock – like Handley a
pupil of Boult review.
This takes a stunningly driven 29:54.
The quality of the recorded image taken
down by Jiri Gemrot and Jan Lzicar in
Munich is up there with the exalted
work of Lyrita for the Fourth Symphony.
Mordant, responsive
sound across the spectrum is typical
of the Handley-Decca set and this comes
through as well in the Sixth Symphony
which dates from Arnold’s period in
Cornwall at St Merryn. The disused tin
mines of the Cornish Dances -
and something darker haunting his own
mind - can be heard in the shifting
tonalities and inimical shadows of the
middle lento. Strangely enough
the aspect of blurted-out jollity at
the start of the finale is reminiscent
of the euphoria of the finale of the
Fourth Symphony of George Lloyd - the
Cornish-born composer. However, there
are some typically Mahlerian moments
such as the terrifically powerful downward
stabbing figures from the brass in the
first movement set against a strong
line of terrifically pained intensity
in the strings. For all that Lloyd’s
Fourth Symphony was prompted by the
horrors of the Arctic convoys there
is little appearance of angst in that
symphony. In Arnold’s Sixth it is unmistakable
– and of such penetration that it recalls
Shostakovich. There was more to come
in the symphonies 7 and 9. Handley and
the Conifer engineering team catches
the Sixth with great fidelity. Penny,
who is once again rather well recorded,
takes a too-pressed 24:41 as against
Handley’s 26:51 and Hickox’s 25:13,
sumptuously recorded Chandos version
on CHAN 9385. I prefer Handley for his
interpretative strengths in this searing
yet far from forbidding symphony.
The years Arnold spent
in Ireland (1972-77) are logged in the
last three symphonies. The Seventh and
Ninth are not easily accessible; at
least not by the side of symphonies
Four, Five and Six. The Eighth is just
as scarifying but far more approachable.
I heard the first broadcast
performance of the Seventh Symphony
in which the BBC Symphony Orchestra
was conducted by the composer on 16
March 1977. At the time I was left bewildered
and like the Ninth it still remains
a tough nut to crack. It is a three
movement 45 minute piece with each movement
dedicated to one of his three children:
Katherine, Robert and Edward.
I listened first to
Andrew Penny’s version of No. 7. In
the first movement Arnold uses a macabre
fractured music-box ragtime (8.20) a
little reminiscent of similar moments
in the first movement of the Fifth.
We also catch the tattered wraiths of
more popular works like the Concerto
for Two Pianos Three Hands (Phyllis
and Cyril). This is Arnold playing
the evil clown-master. Bernstein's brilliance
is also suggested more than once and
it is a wonder that 'Lenny' did not
take an interest. He would have made
hay with the Fifth in particular. Arnold
was at core more of a musical soul-mate
to Bernstein than William Schuman ever
was. Bernstein and Arnold also shared
a Mahlerian interest. It may well be
that the pioneering CBS Bernstein
Mahler cycle of the 1960s gave Arnold
his first chance to hear many of the
symphonies. At 12.22 in the first movement
of the Seventh a great sliding lichen
bedecked tune is developed. This is
a symphony with a troubled nocturnal
character: daylight remembered, if at
all, from the vantage point of dark.
The late-Mahlerian
second movement drifts like someone's
'Dark Night of the Soul'. A Bachian
chorale-like variant (9.40) familiar
from the first movement reappears here
- as it also does in the finale at 2.33
- amid tom-tom pattering. The music
rises to the nightmare clang of cowbells
at 12.01. A gaunt trombone call also
rears up. After two meaty movements
(16.23 and 13.58) the Allegro is
only 7.43. Happy? Well, not directly.
This is happiness viewed through cordite-smoked
glass from the vantage of disillusion
and dissolution. Those terminal bells
ring out dully and they speak of negation
and decay.
Rumon Gamba on Chandos
CHAN 9967 takes the Seventh Symphony
very fast at 31:52 compared with Handley’s
37:40 and Penny’s 38:24. Gamba is very
well recorded but this pace strikes
me as far too hurried. Broadcast tapes
of versions directed by the composer,
by Charles Groves and by Edward Downes
are closer to the 45 minute mark. What
are we to make of this? I think this
tells against the well-recorded Gamba;
challenging though it is to hear the
work at this speed. This leaves Handley
and Penny in the lists. Each takes the
piece at about the same pace. The recording
is sometimes a shade clearer and more
tightly focused in the case of the Conifer
so I would recommend the Handley but
there is very little in it.
The Eighth Symphony
has been a long-time favourite of mine.
This has been ever since hearing the
first broadcast performance in the UK.
This was given by Charles Groves conducting
the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra
- now the BBC Phil – on 2 October 1981.
It had been premiered by the Albany
Symphony Orchestra under Julius Hegyi
on 5 May 1979 in New York. The carefree
finale takes the listener back to the
days of the second and third symphonies
with their echoes of the English
Dances. Yet there is clearly torment
in the first movement as well and while
we hear diminutive fife and drum cheeriness
the little drummer boy marches through
a dark and sinister wood – another Kwai
march with Salvation Army resonances.
The Decca version has the benefits of
a superb recording and of Handley taking
longer to allow Arnold to register his
message. Handley takes 26:42 against
Gamba at 24:34 and Penny at 25:47. Gamba
strikes me as just a shade too impetuous
although his version portrays the turmoil
and torment with the greatest impact.
However for me the breathless forward
bustle of the fife and drum tune at
1:37 rules him out and leaves it between
Penny and Handley. Pressed to make a
recommendation I would come down in
favour of Handley.
The Ninth Symphony
has much in common with the Seventh.
This is Arnold at his toughest – especially
in the sombre long curve of the Lento.
It derived from a BBC commission for
European Year of Music in 1985. The
composer’s mental state put an end to
composing during the years 1982-86 but
in August and September 1986 over a
three week period he completed this
major symphony. This was with the support
of his close companions and carer, Anthony
Day to whom the symphony is dedicated.
Sir Charles Groves
brought the work to premiere despite
resistance within the BBC but this was
given with the BBC Phil not the BBCSO.
Regional orchestras – although in fact
of superlative quality in the case of
the BBCPO - were considered Arnold’s
fitting performers. As it is, the Bournemouth
Symphony Orchestra make an outstanding
version with Handley for Decca. They
flamboyantly handle the rapacious Shostakovich-style
(even Kabalevsky!) demands of the Vivace
third movement. Once again Handley
(48:46) and Gamba (47:07) win out by
the slightest shading on recording quality
over Penny (46:58). Gamba sounds quite
brilliant in the hands of the Chandos
engineers but Andrew Keener, Tryggvi
Tryggvason and Andrew Hallifax, originally
for Conifer, produce a warmly glowing
sound in the acoustic of the Wessex
Hall in Poole. Invaluably Penny’s Naxos
disc of the Ninth has an illustrated
interview with a rather taciturn composer.
Drawing comment from the ailing composer
was like drawing teeth but it is still
wonderful to have this documentary element.
That morendo end to the long
lento has a suitably valedictory
finality and a gravity that recalls
the finale of Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique.
There are no other
Arnold symphonies apart from the unrecorded
Toy Symphony (1957) but if you
want to rope in the far from carefree
Sinfoniettas (1954, 1958, 1964) you
can do so by tracking down EMI Classics
CDZ 5 74780- 2 issued in 2001.
Each of the three Decca
Arnold Edition boxes is uniform in appearance
and the covers are graced by June Mendoza’s
portrait of the composer – soulful yet
with an impish glint in the eyes.
For all that this Decca
Universal set is a reissue project,
the music has an incontestably matchless
sweep. This box is indispensable to
anyone with an interest in the twentieth
century symphony. These works merit
comparison with those of Sibelius, Shostakovich
and Pettersson. Handley for all his
occasional tendency to press forward
hard is an inspired and often majestic
guide to ten of these eleven symphonies.
These are works awesome in their command
of emotion from delight to terror.
Rob Barnett
Volume
1 The symphonies Volume
2 The Concertos Volume
3 Orchestral Music etc.
See also MALCOLM
ARNOLD – THE SYMPHONIES: A
comparative review By Paul Conway
THE MALCOLM ARNOLD EDITION – Detailed
track listing
Volume 1 –THE ELEVEN SYMPHONIES
CD1
Symphony for Strings, Op.13 20:17
1. Allegro ma non troppo 06:49
2. Andantino quasi allegretto 07:21
3. Allegro feroce 06:07
BBC Concert Orchestra
Vernon Handley
P1998 Conifer Records Limited
Recording Producer: Andrew Walton
Recording Engineer: Richard Millard
Recorded in Walthamstow Assembly Hall,
London, 13-15 October 1997
Symphony No.1, Op.22 27:16
1. Allegro 09:51
2. Andantino 09:30
3. Vivace con fuoco 07:55
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Vernon Handley
P1996 Conifer Records Limited
Recording Producer: Oliver Rivers
Recording Engineer: Tryggvi Tryggvason
Assistant Engineer: Andrew Hallifax
Recorded 14-15 September 1995 in Walthamstow
Assembly Hall, London
Symphony No.2, Op.40 29:33
1. Allegretto 06:17
2. Vivace 04:14
3. Lento 12:52
4. Allegro con brio 06:10
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Vernon Handley
P1994 Conifer Records Limited
Recording Producer: Andrew Keener
Recording Engineer: Tryggvi Tryggvason
Assistant Engineer: Andrew Hallifax
Recorded on 29 and 31 May 1994 at All
Saints’ Church, Petersham, Surrey
CD2
Symphony No.3, Op.63 31:08
1. Allegro 11:10
2. Lento 13:07
3. Allegro con brio 06:51
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Vernon Handley
P1996 Conifer Records Limited
Recording Producer: Andrew Keener
Recording Engineer: Tryggvi Tryggvason
Recorded in Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool,
17-18 June 1996
Symphony No.4, Op.71 37:24
1. Allegro 12:38
2. Vivace ma non troppo 04:57
3. Andantino 11:45
4. Con fuoco 08:04
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Vernon Handley
P1996 Conifer Records Limited
Recording Producer: Andrew Keener
Recording Engineer: Tryggvi Tryggvason
Recorded in Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool,
17-18 June 1996
CD3
Symphony No.5, Op.74 30:43
1. Tempestuoso 08:44
2. Andante con moto 11:11
3. Con fuoco 04:42
4. Risoluto 06:06
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Vernon Handley
P1996 Conifer Records Limited
Recording Producer: Andrew Keener
Recording Engineer: Tryggvi Tryggvason
Assistant Engineer: Andrew Hallifax
Recorded 14-15 September 1995 in Walthamstow
Assembly Hall, London
Symphony No.6, Op.95 26:41
1. Energico 08:59
2. Lento – Allegretto – Lento 10:54
3. Con fuoco 06:48
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Vernon Handley
P1993 Conifer Records Ltd.
Recording Producer: Andrew Keener
Recording Engineer: Tryggvi Tryggvason
Assistant Engineer: Mike Cox
Recorded on 19-20 April 1993 at Henry
Wood Hall, London
CD4
Symphony No.7, Op.113 37:40
1. Allegro energico 15:54
2. Andante con moto – Sempre crescendo
e accelerando -
Molto vivace – Lento+ 13:54
3. Allegro – Allegretto – Allegro –
Allegretto – Vivace 07:52
+Derek James, trombone
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Vernon Handley
P1991 Conifer Records Limited
Recording Producer: Andrew Keener
Recording Engineer: Tryggvi Tryggvason
Assistant Engineer: Anton Tryggvason
Recorded on 7-9 July 1990 in Henry Wood
Hall, London
Symphony No.8, Op.121 26:27
1. Allegro 11:45
2. Andantino 08:55
3. Vivace 05:47
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Vernon Handley
P1991 Conifer Records Limited
Recording Producer: Andrew Keener
Recording Engineer: Tryggvi Tryggvason
Assistant Engineer: Anton Tryggvason
Recorded on 7-9 July 1990 in Henry Wood
Hall, London
CD5
Symphony for Brass Instruments 22:49
1. Allegro moderato 07:17
2. Allegro grazioso 04:23
3. Andante con moto 05:22
4. Allegro con brio 05:47
Philip Jones Brass Ensemble
P 1979 Decca Music Group
Recording Producer: Chris Hazell
Recording Engineer: John Dunkerley
Recorded in Kingsway Hall, London, January
1979
Symphony No.9, Op.128 48:50
1. Vivace 08:48
2. Allegretto 10:01
3. Giubiloso 06:13
4. Lento 23:48
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Vernon Handley
P 1996 Conifer Records Limited
Recording Producer: Andrew Keener
Recording Engineer: Tryggvi Tryggvason
Assistant Engineer: Andrew Hallifax
Recorded in the Wessex Hall, Poole,
Dorset, 17-18 June 1996
DECCA UNIVERSAL 4765337 [5CDs: 77:16 + 68:32
+ 57:44 + 64:38 + 71:54] 
