This totally unexpected
disc arrives with perfect timing
to coincide with the opening of
this year’s Proms. It enshrines
the opening concert – or parts of
it – of 1943’s Prom season, the
forty-ninth. It was the last complete
season under Wood’s direction as
he was die the following year. That
perilous season saw premieres of
symphonies by Vaughan Williams (his
Fifth), Goossens and Lennox Berkeley.
The complete broadcast
programme has not survived or has
survived in poor estate. The concert
opened with the National Anthem
(preserved) and continued with Bax’s
London Pageant. In his notes Robert
Matthew-Walker states that it’s
been impossible to obtain a "suitable
copy" of this. By which I infer
he means that a copy in poor condition
has survived. So the concert proper
opens with Dukas’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice,
and is then followed by Moura Lympany’s
performance of two movements of
the Saint-Saëns G minor concerto
– the middle movement is apparently,
like the Bax, preserved in poor
shape. The Heddle Nash Handel aria
is intact. There is only the opening
movement of Beethoven’s Fifth. This
is followed by a real novelty, the
American composer’s Lamar Stringfield’s
A Negro Parade. The last
item in the Prom was Tchaikovsky’s
Theme and Variations from the Suite
No.3, preserved in its entirety.
The patrician tones
of BBC announcer Stuart Hibberd
gets things underway as he notes
the leaders of both the LPO and
LSO, who were to undertake the season;
Jean Pougnet of the former, Paul
Beard of the latter. Good to know
that Proms announcers have always
indulged in some pre-concert waffle.
"Here is Jean!" says Hibberd
as if Pougnet were a schoolboy tennis
champion "tall, slim, fair…"
In period intonation he notes the
"vo-ciferous welcome for Sir
Henry." Then Wood ushers in
a nice and slow National Anthem
and leads an engaging performance
of the Dukas, one that reflects
well on the war-depleted LPO. It’s
certainly no Stokowski performance;
his fellow Londoner Wood was a more
placid communicator all round. Wood
had recorded a snippet from this
on Columbia back in 1917.
It’s a shame that
one movement of the Saint-Saëns
is in such imperfect condition because
Lympany plays with flair, power,
and considerable imagination in
the two outer ones – once past a
very brief pitch lurch in the opening.
This is eloquent playing and exciting
too, swashbuckling in the finale.
Merited applause breaks out. Heddle
Nash reigning British lyric tenor
gives one of his party pieces from
Handel. He recorded Love in her
eyes sits playing with Maurice
Miles and the young Philharmonia
two years later – a rather quicker
performance. Wood also speeds up
between verses, unlike Miles who
is steady. . The broadcast catches
Nash rather fuller of voice than
in his commercial disc though very
slightly less steady in shaping
the line. Splendid to hear his mistrelsy
though.
We know from Jessie
Wood’s book how fed up Henry Wood
had become of Beethoven’s Fifth
by now. He’d recorded it for Decca
in 1935 [Dutton CDAX2002]. There’s
a bit more prominent surface noise
in this opening movement of the
symphony than elsewhere. It’s of
a piece with his earlier recording.
Stringfield was born near Raleigh,
North Carolina, and his works seem
to have ranged over Black, Appalachian
and Blue Ridge topographies. A
Negro Parade was given a programmatic
note by its composer but stylistically
it’s a dash of Stravinsky and an
overdose of La Valse with
some gospel and Blues elements.
The March effects are atmospheric
and the blues cadences on clarinet
in the central section similarly.
It makes for diverting if somewhat
repetitious listening. Tchaikovsky
was a Wood speciality and a real
strength. He’s aided in the Theme
and Variations by Pougnet’s
luscious, rich viola-like solo;
a good performance throughout.
Releases like this
come as amazing surprises. Britain’s
recorded heritage from the war years
is rather sparse so survivals such
as this one satisfy a real desire
to hear more – and also stimulate
curiosity as to what else is out
there.
As a special plea,
when is someone going to do the
right thing and release Robert Soetens’s
British premiere broadcast performance
of Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto
(he gave its world premiere) conducted
by Henry Wood?
Jonathan Woolf
Moura Lympany (piano) ¹ 
