Christopher GUNNING (b.1944)
The Film and TV Music
Poirot Variations (1989 – 2010) [8:53]
La Môme Piaf (La Vie en rose) (2007) [6:17]
Under Suspicion (1991) [7:00]
Cold Lazarus (1996) [10:15]
The Rosemary and Thyme Caprice (2003 – 2006) [3:59]
Rebecca (1997) [6:38]
Pollyanna (2003) [6:17]
Firelight (1997) [7:14]
When the Whales Came! (1989) [7:12]
The Hollow (2004) [3:14]
Five Little Pigs (2003} [3:33]
Lighthouse Hill (2004) [4:27]
Nicole Tibbels (soprano), Craig Ogden (guitar), Martin Robertson (saxophone)
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra/Rumon Gamba
rec. 14 July 2009, 4 January, 15, 17 June 2010, Studio 7, BBC New Broadcasting
House, Manchester. DDD
CHANDOS CHAN 10625 [75:50] 
See
also review by Rob Barnett
I was very excited, last year, by the Chandos issue of Gunning’s 3rd
and 4th Symphonies (review
review)
and the news that the company was intending to undertake a series of recordings
of Gunning’s works. Here is the second instalment, and most welcome it is.
Music for film has come a long way since Franz Waxman’s seminal score for
James Whale’s The Bride of Frankenstein – generally regarded to be
the first great score for film – and today there is a good selection of film
scores available on CD, ranging from the older masters of the genre to today’s
composers. Christopher Gunning has an impressive list of credits to his name,
and, possibly more than most, he has conceived much music for television –
serials as well as one-off dramas. Both are represented here.
For me the most impressive of these scores is Under Suspicion, which,
in the excerpt recorded here, could stand alone as a very exciting, indeed
thrilling, tone poem in its own right. As with all the music here, it’s brilliantly
conceived and orchestrated - not a note is wasted and there’s plenty of tension
and release. This is the symphonic Gunning, and most impressive it is. The
music for Dennis Potter’s final television play Cold Lazarus is no
less impressive, but here the music makes for a very disturbing listen; Potter
was never an easy playwright. Rebecca is a dark story and here Gunning
achieves music of a brooding grandeur, almost Sibelian in its starkness.
Despite what I have repeatedly written about the darkness or the thrilling
aspects of this music, there is always a rich romantic vein running through
each composition. There are some soaring tunes which are truly memorable.
I have written about these scores first because, for me, Gunning is a dramatic
composer, certainly his symphonic works prove that, and symphonic thought
and logic can be found, in abundance, in these scores.
As a welcome contrast, there are two other kinds of music on this CD – lighter
works and Poirot. Of the “lighter” pieces, Firelight is a masterpiece
of understatement - a simple theme, light orchestration and a feeling of being
shut in, away from the madding crowd. But what a tune solitude engenders!
When the Whales Came! is a meditation on the sea. and whales, which
includes a solo voice and whale sounds, slowed down to create a very eerie
effect. The Rosemary and Thyme Caprice is a gentle meditation on the
well known folk tune, for guitar and small orchestra. Pollyanna is
basically a meditation for flute with piano. It is utterly unaffected and
delightful. The love music from Lighthouse Hill is another example
of Gunning being able to create an atmosphere with the fewest possible notes
and gestures. This could develop into something bigger, as with some of the
romantic music in the earlier scores, but he won’t allow that, and that is
all to the good. La Môme Piaf (La Vie en rose) is a film
about the little Sparrow, Edith Piaf, and this excerpt consists of a most
melancholy waltz which strives for attention but which never escapes its loneliness.
Finally to Hercule Poirot, possibly the world’s most famous Belgian. As a
good score consists of variations on the main theme, Gunning has joined together
several cues from the TV series into a very satisfying whole, with a chase,
love music (!) and the famous title music. It makes a very nice suite and
an excellent saxophone concerto. The Hollow and Five Little Pigs
are two episodes from the Poirot series. The former consists of a richly romantic
string theme and the latter a lilting solo violin tune.
As with others in this series, the recording is exemplary, the sound, superb
and full, capturing what is, at times, a very large orchestra, but still allowing
for intimacy in the smaller works. The performances are first rate. Gamba
is such a good conductor, and not just of this repertoire, and can get the
best from his players. Soloists Nicole Tibbels, Craig Ogden and Martin Robertson
make valuable contributions and, although small in the overall playing time
of the music, their presence is most significant.
Poirot says of his secretary, Miss Felicity Lemon, that Anything that she
mentioned as worth consideration usually was worth consideration. I can
concur that anything Gunning has written is worthy of consideration. My little
grey cells tell me that this is a disk not to be missed.
Bob Briggs
My little grey cells tell me that this is a disk not to be missed.