I nearly did it,
I nearly caught myself thinking – and writing: ‘This is too
good for children.’ Remembering my own first experiences with
records I would say top quality performance is a must as an
introduction to good music – bad, or merely beige noises are
more than likely to put a sensitive young soul off ‘serious’
music for life. If you are thinking of making a start on introducing
your wee treasure to the sound of a classical orchestra then
this could be the very place.
Don’t be deceived
by the cartoon on the cover however – this is in fact comes
over as quite a toothsome programme, with well-written, certainly
well arranged and incontrovertibly well performed works – all
in sparklingly fresh, rich sound. There is hardly a hackneyed
carol in sight, and certainly nothing you will hear over the
speakers in your local supermarket this Christmas – bliss! The
opening Classic Sleighride is in fact one movement from
a piece called Musical Sleighride, attributed to Leopold
Mozart, but with origins which are somewhat mysterious. It has
all of the wondrous jangling bells you would expect and some
super horn calls, setting the mood for this CD in admirable
fashion.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
is best known for his Hiawatha trilogy, but his Christmas
Overture appeared only in 1925 after being arranged by Sydney
Baynes, composer of the ‘Destiny Waltz.’ It is a nicely put-together
piece, being more than just a pot-pourri of Christmas tunes,
but cleverly integrating some famous carols like Hark the
herald angels sing and God rest you, merry gentlemen
into a pleasantly coherent work.
Jules Massenet provides
some gentle contrast with The Last Sleep of the Virgin,
a remnant from La Vierge, an oratorio or ‘sacred legend’
which is rarely heard in its entirety today. Matthew Lee plays
a suitably understated cello solo part, in what is after all
a quiet lullaby.
Philip Lane is a
name which may not be household, but his work most certainly
is – he did after all write the ‘Captain Pugwash’ theme. His
Overture on French Carols is, like the Coleridge-Taylor,
a well written work which introduces tunes which are simultaneously
familiar and refreshingly different, like Noël nouvelet and
Quelle est cette odeur agréable. The tunes may be French,
but the character of the work is disarmingly British, with touches
of Malcolm Arnold and Vaughan Williams among others – I wonder
what our European partners make of it.
There is a more
Hollywood feel to The Night Before Christmas. Filling
the lack of an orchestral accompaniment to Clement Clarke Moore’s
famous poem, the piece was apparently composed within a week
in November 2005, and is deliberately compact, allowing the
text to flow without too many moments of programmatic padding.
Despite being written for a modest orchestra there is plenty
of variety in texture, making the most and getting the best
out of the instruments with touches of harp and percussion widening
the scope of winds (brass and wood) and strings. There are some
marvellously witty touches to go under the descriptions and
action in the poem, and with such a symbiotically hand-in-hand
approach this is the ideal opportunity for Stephen Fry to go
some way toward compensating for his own well documented agonies
at being unable to produce music himself. As you might expect,
his reading is perfect – intimately confiding at the opening,
later filled with wonder and excitement, expression and characterful
nuance without any forcing or artificiality in the declamation.
His subtle portrayal of ‘Saint Nick’ is a joy, and his own pleasure
in lines like ‘… a little round belly, that shook when he laughed
like a bowlful of jelly’ is infectious, revelling in and revealing
the succulence of the language as much as the colourful nature
of the story.
After the light-footed
reindeer and smoky St. Nicholas we immediately have some heavier
fare, with Otto Nicolai’s Christmas Overture, which has
plenty of Brahmsian weight, developing Vom Himmel Hoch into
a substantial symphonic movement.
The Australian/British
composer John Carmichael wrote a suite based around the ski
resort of Thredbo in New South Wales, and this Sleighride,
while less overtly jingly-jangly (no bells) as that of Mozart’s
dad, provides a fun ride nonetheless – full of descriptive whoops
and whistling.
Anthony Collins
published his arrangement of four movements from Franz Liszt’s
Christmas Tree Suite in 1952, using strings and celeste
to create by turns a cheery, light and atmospheric seasonal
concert piece. Rebecca Turner’s solo in the second movement,
In Olden Times is again suitably restrained and nostalgically
lyrical.
Dorothy Carwithen
studied at the Royal Academy of Music and specialised in film
music, working closely with Muir Mathieson and producing music
for over thirty films. As William Alwyn’s second wife her
compositional activity unfortunately took a back seat, but wrote
On the Twelfth Day as a continuous score for a short
film without dialogue, taking the famous seasonal song literally
to disastrous, comic effect. The film received Oscar and BAFTA
nomination, and while a great deal of the pictorial elements
(car horns and the like) have been kept, Philip Lane has adapted
the piece for concert performance, taking the lack of visual
reference into consideration. This works very well, and while
you probably won’t find yourself laughing out loud, there are
plenty of fun moments, robust film-score style writing and lovely
choral singing which make this into more than just a pleasant
diversion.
This is a grand
alternative to the usual ‘Christmas Album’, and Naxos deserve
plaudits for combining commercial attractiveness with a net
cast wide, catching all kinds of unusual repertoire for our
seasonal entertainment. Does it go without saying that the recording
is excellent and the performances spotless? No, because this
will be the second time I’ve said it, so it must be true.
Dominy Clements
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