Henry Wood may be best
known now as the founder of the Proms
and the arranger of the Fantasia
on British Sea Songs heard on their
last night - now in a very altered version
from its 1905 original. He was also
the conductor of the first performances
of Schoenberg’s Five Orchestral Pieces
(1912), Delius’ Eventyr (1919)
and Bridge’s The Sea (1912),
and of an enormous number of first British
performances including such leading
composers of the time as Busoni, Mahler,
Sibelius and Debussy. Earlier he had
conducted the first British performances
of many works by Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov.
The orchestrations
on this disc date from between 1905
and 1929. By that time at the very least
he was recognized as a thoroughly professional
musician with a wide practical knowledge
of what the orchestra can be made to
do. Many of these versions were made
for inclusion in concerts to commemorate
specific events. The Granados, Grieg
and Debussy pieces were included in
concerts commemorating their composer’s
deaths, the Chopin the death of Joseph
Joachim, and the Scharwenka the achievement
of Polish independence in 1919.
Like all of the works
here these transcriptions are very obviously
the work of a master of his craft, capable
of achieving the varied effects that
he felt the various pieces require.
The Debussy goes much further than mere
good workmanship. It uses a gong, various
bells, two harps and organ pedals as
well as a large orchestra to create
a complex texture of often very quiet
sounds. I can’t imagine that Debussy
would have orchestrated it like this,
but that does not invalidate it as the
working of another highly imaginative
musical mind on the original piano piece.
The versions of the
two remaining shorter works are above
all else very showy. The Bach was Wood’s
answer to those critics who had complained
that his orchestrations were heavily
Wagnerian or suffocated the original.
He therefore introduced it as being
by "Paul Klenovsky", and dated
it "Moscow, 1923". He was
delighted when, as Lewis Foreman’s excellent
notes explains in Wood’s own words,
"the Press, the musicians of the
Orchestra and the officials of the BBC
fell into the trap, and said the scoring
was wonderful, Klenovsky had the real
flair for true colour etc". Wood’s
pleasure at this is understandable,
as was the popularity of the piece at
the time. Toscanini conducted it in
1936 and more recently Sir Andrew Davis
has conducted it at the Proms where
it should surely have a permanent home.
It’s a much better memorial to Sir Henry
than the Fantasia on Sea Songs which
was written in a style much more that
of the bandstand and of the earlier
Promenade concerts. The Rachmaninov
is even more over the top and is a piece
that I found immensely enjoyable.
The largest piece on
the disc is the "Pictures at an
Exhibition", again arranged with
great imagination and freedom, but inevitably
inviting comparison with Ravel’s version
of 1922. Whilst I greatly enjoyed Wood’s
version it has to be said that in terms
of imagination and ability to illuminate
the implications of the music Ravel
wins almost all the way. Perhaps that
impression may be due in part to the
greater familiarity of the latter but
side-by-side comparison does confirm
this view. Unfortunately the performance
of this piece by the London Philharmonic
conducted by Nicholas Braithwaite seems
somewhat too careful, which adds to
the impression at times of a painstaking
and professional arrangement rather
than one in which Wood’s imagination
has been especially stirred. Fortunately
this does not apply to the performances
of the other items on the disc. Even
in the Mussorgsky it does not seriously
detract from the overall value of this
collection which gave me great enjoyment.
The late Arthur Jacobs’ book about Sir
Henry lists many other arrangements,
including more Bach, some of Liszt’s
Hungarian Rhapsodies and various pieces
by Handel.
I very much hope that
this well filled and well recorded disc
will have the success it deserves and
that it will soon be followed by recordings
of some of Sir Henry’s other arrangements.
John Sheppard
see also
review by Rob Barnett
The
Lyrita Catalogue
for details
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Nicholas
Braithwaite 
