This is justifiably one of the most famous discs in the Nimbus
catalogue. When it was first issued all of the works contained
on it were new to CD. It includes the complete orchestral music
of George Butterworth, the composer who was regarded as one
of the great white hopes of the English Musical Renaissance
– Vaughan Williams dedicated his London Symphony to
him – but whose life was tragically cut short during the Battle
of the Somme in 1916.
Butterworth is known nowadays principally for his songs. Apart
from arrangements of English folksongs, these were mainly settings
of Housman from his collection A Shropshire Lad, poems
which not only reflect the English pastoral tradition but also
commemorate the transience of human happiness. Housman himself
hated musical settings of his poetry, but ironically enough
his words struck a chime with many composers in the early years
of the twentieth century – Vaughan Williams, Somervell and Orr
all created song-cycles from his texts. There are a very considerable
number of other works inspired by the same material. Butterworth’s
settings were incorporated in two cycles, A Shropshire
Lad and Bredon Hill, the latter more complex and
the former mainly strophic treatments that strike an instant
chord. Towards the end of his life Butterworth’s music was tending
towards greater depth and his later song-cycle Love blows
as the wind blows (settings of Henley) contains an overwhelming
masterpiece in his setting of the otherwise unremarkable poem
Coming up from Kew. His orchestral rhapsody A Shropshire
Lad draws on material from the first song of his early
cycle, but develops it in a way that presages greater things
to come – masterpieces that were, alas, never realised. It is
the only one of his orchestral pieces that does not draw on
English folksong for its material. It breathes an undeniable
air of the countryside of the Welsh borders. The two English
Idylls are smaller and lighter, but The banks of green
willow develops its folksong material with a surer hand
and rises to considerable emotional heights in its comparatively
short duration.
Since Boughton’s 1986 recording there have been a number of
other discs (including re-releases) of the complete Butterworth
orchestral works including performances by Sir Adrian Boult
(Lyrita, coupled with miniatures by Howells, Hadley and Warlock),
Neville Dilkes (EMI), Sir Mark Elder (on the Hallé’s own label,
coupled with works by Delius and Grainger), and Sir Neville
Marriner (on a Double Decca with pieces by Elgar, Delius, Vaughan
Williams and Warlock). Some of these are more smoothly and assuredly
played than here, but Boughton’s performances are packed full
of feeling and have plenty of passion. None of the alternatives
offer this coupling. The Parry suite was also recorded by Boult
(now re-released by Lyrita coupled with his other Parry interpretations).
It was also given by Richard Hickox in a 1984 recording which
is now only available as part of a five-disc set of his EMI
recordings of British music. Hickox also recorded the Bridge
Suite as part of his invaluable complete Bridge cycle
for Chandos.
Nevertheless this disc remains very special. Every collector
I know has a copy of it in their library. Boughton’s readings,
particularly of the Butterworth works, are superb. For these
recordings the string complement of the English String Orchestra
was expanded to full orchestral size, and the playing of the
woodwind in particular is superb. At 5.50 the trumpets peal
across the full orchestra with all the heartbreak not only of
Housman but also of the lost generation of British artists who
were to fall on the Western Front. The violin solo at 7.41 has
an unbearable poignancy. At the end the flute solo sounds properly
quasi lontano as marked. Elder with the Hallé is rather
slower (over a minute longer), but the closer recording is less
atmospheric and there is no sense of distance in the flute solo
at the end. Marriner is better recorded but his speeds seem
very fast in places – the strings at 4.45 are hardly tranquillo
as marked – and the trumpets at 5.44 are more conventionally
triumphant than tragic. Boult is even quicker - he cuts three
minutes off Elder’s timing - and the atmosphere is lost in this
uncharacteristically rushed performance and very prosaic recording.
No, in the complete sets of Butterworth orchestral music Boughton
is the conductor who best captures the magic of the scores.
For these readings alone, this disc remains an essential component
of any collection of English music.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
see also review
by Michael Cookson
English String Orchestra/William Boughton