This disc includes the bulk of Arnold’s ballet music. The only
works not included here are
Solitaire (1956) and
The
Three Musketeers, which was premièred in Bradford on the very
evening that his death was announced. It will be noted that Chandos
present these four works in chronological order, which seems a
very sensible arrangement. All four works are characterised by
a strong dramatic sense and vividly colourful orchestration together
with fine melodic invention; in short, all the qualities that
made Arnold such an effective composer of film music.
Homage to the Queen, which is heard here in the six-movement
suite extracted by Arnold himself, was composed to a commission
by the Royal Opera House as part of the celebrations to mark the
coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. In his excellent note, Mervyn
Cooke describes the backstage rivalry in which Arnold was unwittingly
caught up. The music was choreographed by Frederick Ashton and
was well received at first, it seems. However, the ballet fell
into complete neglect within a year, until it was revived with
new choreography in 2006 to mark the Queen’s eightieth birthday.
The music is very impressive. The first and last sections have
unmistakable Waltonian overtones – and are none the worse for
that. On the other hand, the exhilarating second section, ‘Dance
of the Insects’, the brief ‘Fire Dance’, and the lovely, lyrical
Pas de deux, which forms the fifth movement are quintessential
Arnold. It’s all ripe stuff and it’s played with a marvellous
mix of finesse and relish by Gamba and his excellent BBC orchestra
Ashton was also the choreographer of
Rinaldo and Armida,
which was commissioned by the Royal Opera House in the immediate
wake of
Homage to the Queen. The plot is based on an episode
in a poem by the sixteenth century poet, Tasso. The enchantress
Armida lures lovers to their doom but meets her own end when she
falls for the mortal, Rinaldo. The ballet took the form of an
extended
pas de deux and it contains some strong and descriptive
music, orchestrated with consummate skill. The performance here
is full of conviction and Gamba realises the dramatic possibilities
of the score very well indeed.
Sweeney Todd is described on the Malcolm Arnold
website
as a ballet but Mervyn Cooke refers to it as a “hybrid theatrical
entertainment”, composed for the Royal Ballet’s touring company
and first staged by them at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in
Stratford-upon-Avon. The tale of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street
has its macabre side but is also a richly slapstick invention
at times and both sides come out in Arnold’s entertaining score.
This is given here in a seven-movement suite arranged by David
Ellis, working with the composer.
There’s a strong element of the Keystone Cops at times in this
score and several passages recall the world of
Beckus the Dandipratt.
The dark side of the music is brought out most effectively
but the sly, irreverent humour leaves the strongest impression.
Unless you are allergic to Arnold’s musical sense of fun I defy
you not to smile broadly at the cheeky melody of the second section
(track 14); at the helter-skelter music a little later on (track
16); and at the trademark broad melody – complete with twittering
birdsong at one point! – mingled with broad humour in the last
section, (track 19). This score – and the superb performance on
this disc – is a winner!
Finally we are given the One Act Ballet,
Electra, here
receiving its first recording. This was another Royal Opera House
work, choreographed this time by Robert Helpmann, who based the
action loosely on the tragedy by Sophocles. As befits its subject,
this is the darkest music on the disc and it’s compellingly effective,
very powerful and often extremely exciting. The music is quite
grim in tone and pulls no punches. Arnold makes striking use of
a battery of percussion, including bongos, tom-toms and timpani
and the resulting rhythmic drive is hugely exciting. As the last
section – of three – draws to a close (track 22 from 2:43) the
frenetic, menacing drumming impels the music forward with immense,
dark power. Here, the vivid and potent Chandos engineering, which
is enormously impressive throughout the CD, is absolutely stunning
in its immediacy.
Over the years Malcolm Arnold’s music has been well served on
CD and I have many excellent discs of his music on my shelves.
But I fancy this is one of the finest of all. The BBC Philharmonic
plays superbly throughout and Rumon Gamba confirms his excellent
credentials as an Arnold interpreter that I first encountered
in his disc of
Arnold
overtures a few years ago. Throw into the mix recorded sound
in the demonstration class and you have a disc that no admirer
of Arnold’s music will want to be without.
John Quinn
And a further review from Rob Barnett:-
As marches were woven into Mahler's creative psyche so dance figured
in that of Malcolm Arnold; not to say that Arnold did not have
a weakness for marches as we know from Padstow to the Eighth Symphony.
In any event, sets of national dances for the four quarters of
the British Isles take their place from the late 1940s and extend
into Arnold’s final phases. Add to this the dance ballet
Solitaire
(drawing on the idiom of the
English Dances) and the
composite ballet
The Three Musketeers.
For these reasons it should come as no surprise that ballet music
also takes its place in his worklist. Early success bred commissions
and these included the slightly Blissy
Homage to the Queen.
As we can see and hear from this disc that score was not an end
of the connection. Ballets extended into the 1960s with a work
based on a Greek tragic theme.
In the
Homage score euphoric confidence rises from quiet
fanfares touched with jauntiness. There’s also a modicum of the
succulent brilliance of the
English Dances. The fruity
and dewy romance of those same
Dances can be heard at the
heart of the
Prelude and Opening Scene. The
Water movement
is irresistible and beguiling music flickering with a sunny airborne
disposition. Also notable is the steady, upbeat and pulsed grandeur
of the Pas de Deux. This has an affinity with the sunset end of
the Fifth Symphony. A slowly blooming warmth is pervasive.
There's a Blissy
Checkmate aspect to the
Finale which
has the same grandeur and march quality. The trumpets and horns
at 1.11 echo back and forward in triumph.
Electra's subject matter is bound to recall Barber's
Medea.
That bridging of the void between dance and the drama of the symphony
is clear in Arnold’s
Electra.
Rinaldo and Armida takes
one step back from the grand symphonic ballet style – a slightly
frothier mix but for complete indulgence in the wildly absurd
and giggling melodrama don’t miss the suite from
Sweeney Todd.
It was
previously recorded by Vernon Handley for Conifer
and latterly available on one of the three magnificent
Decca
Arnold boxes. Speaking of which the
Rinaldo score has
also been previously recorded on the now defunct ClassicO with
Homage to the Queen (
see
review).
[NOTE: ClassicO
has gone out of business but copies of most of the CDs including
the one mentioned are available in small numbers through MusicWeb-
see here]
As usual with Chandos the sound is splendid and the documentation
likewise.
Rob Barnett
BBC Philharmonic/Rumon Gamba 
