Long before the recent
renaissance of the label Lyrita showed
a canny tendency to track down and license
recordings issued by other labels and
reissue them. Examples include the Tippett
opera Midsummer Marriage licensed from
Philips but they have also netted invaluable
Welsh orchestral material – Daniel Jones,
William Mathias and Grace Williams -
from Decca, EMI and BBC Regium. That
trend continues here with unequalled
generosity and featuring two English
composers.
Nicholas Maws Scenes
and Arias is a big work of voluptuous
beauty in which erotic stormy and eruptive
urgency melds with music of curvaceous
Szymanowskian subtlety. This is however
Szymanowski (Song of the Night;
King Roger) out of Berg out of
Tippett. That Norman Del Mar – himself
an authority on Richard Strauss and
an occasional champion of Szymanowski
should be conducting – is fitting given
the lavishly Straussian tone of the
writing. Its fleshy celebratory tone
may also recall Carmina Burana.
Written as a BBC Proms commission it
is rich in allusion and impression and
is a remarkable piece for a 26 year
old. Laid out for orchestra with three
intertwining female voices it was the
key to the sustained recognition now
enjoyed by this composer. The Argo LP
of Scenes and Arias quite properly
carried Maw’s name internationally.
Hearing the stereo analogue recording
now in this transfer is a tribute to
the work of the original engineer Ted
Burkett in London’s Kingsway Hall. The
sound is rounded, well defined yet smooth
and without glare so far as the strings
are concerned. On the other hand the
exuberant raspberry blast of the brass
(tr. 6) and the whip-sharp skirl and
wood-dove shuttling of birdsong remains
uncompromised. In fact I doubt that
this work has ever been heard with such
gripping clarity since those long past
sessions in a hall now demolished.
Milner
was a Bristolian, educated at Douai
School and the RCM with Herbert Fryer
(piano) and R.O. Morris (theory) for
whom, Toccata promise to do much. He
also studied composition privately with
Matyas Seiber. He held various teaching
posts until his retirement in 1980 (Morley
College, King’s College London, Goldsmiths
College and the RCM. Milner’s work for
the Roman Catholic church was extensive
and included congregational hymns and
Mass settings. He was made a Knight
of St Gregory by Pope John Paul II.
A well regarded teacher, lecturer and
writer, in the USA as well as UK he
lectured extensively. His last work,
an Oboe Concerto, was written under
the shadow of multiple sclerosis which
made composition an uphill battle. He
died in Spain.
Hugh Wood wrote of
Salutatio angelica: ‘Working
in a strongly conservative idiom, but
with wide and humane musical interests,
Milner has succeeded in bringing an
enlightened and refreshing breath of
life to the English choral tradition.’
It is a lyrical work of patent unflamboyant
integrity projecting head-bowed devoutness.
One example among many in this work
is the meditative-reflective Aria
III – Mater Misericordiae. However
there is rhythmic playfulness too though
indebted to Tippett. Even so the work
contrasts with the Maw’s volcanic carnality.
Roman Spring is more extrovert
and shares bird-song voices with the
Maw. He writing is more lush and accessible
than the devotional Salutatio angelica.
Again the nature-ecstatic tone reaches
towards the warmer less rhythmically
unsubtle parts of Orff’s Catulli
Carmina trilogy. Tear is in young
voice projecting a wholly apt Italianate
Puccinian virility. His voice later
dried considerably. Felicity Palmer
is in her usual radiant voice. Both
Palmer and Tear are here most impressive.
The final surging choral-orchestral
bow-wave sets the seal on a work in
which Milner turns from introspection
to climactic statement.
Of Roman Spring
let me quote Paul Conway who puts
the matter far better than I ever could:
"a beautifully evocative setting
of Latin poems on the themes of spring,
the renewal of love and the transitory
nature of life. The work marked a significant
change in direction for Milner's music,
which became more and more expressively
dramatic, unlike the Chamber Symphony
of 1968."
Milner has enjoyed
few commercial recordings. Famously
there was a single LP of his First Symphony
and a set of Variations. This has been
reissued on Claudio
so don’t forget it. That Hyperion vinyl
was a victim of being issued a couple
of years before the CD revolution. Long
before that in 1972 Decca issued this
LP financed as was the Maw/Lutyens Argo
by funding from the British Council.
The CD could hardly
be more full and the notes (Calum Macdonald)
and texts and translations are all provided
in handsome detail.
A generous offering:
Maw’s early verismo-lyrical triumph
and two less flamboyant works from the
lower key but grandly rewarding Milner.
Rob Barnett
for details 
† Jane Manning (soprano); Anne Howells
(mezzo); Norma Proctor (contralto) 
