Edward ELGAR (1857-1934)
The Starlight Express Op. 78 [86:03]*
Act I [20:29] Act II [37:30] Act III [28:47] (Premiere recording in this
version)
Suite from The Starlight Express (arr. Sir Andrew Davis)
[44:57]‡
Clive CAREY (1883-1968)
Three Songs from The Starlight Express (orch. Davis) [6:03]† (I The
Organ-grinder's
Song [3:07] II The Dustman's Song. [1:39] III The Gardener's Song [1:17]
Simon Callow (narrator)*; Elin Manahan Thomas (soprano) (Laugher/Jane
Anne)*‡; Roderick Williams baritone (Organ-Grinder/Gardener)
*†‡; Scottish Chamber Orchestra/Andrew Davis
rec. 28-31 May 2012, Usher Hall, Edinburgh (musical numbers) and 3
August 2012, Studio 80a, BBC Broadcasting House (spoken narrative) SACD
Text and notes included
CHANDOS CHSA 5111 [58:03+80:05]
Elgar was always ready to return (in thought) to the world of his
childhood and never more so than in the winter of 1915-1916. The war had
profoundly depressed him - he had never had any illusions about a quick
victory. When it was suggested that he write incidental music for an
escapist fantasy he did not need much convincing. Little did he know that
this effort would grow to become one his longest and most personal
scores.
Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951) was a well-known writer of both
fantasy and ghost stories. Before the war he had written a novel entitled
A Prisoner in Fairyland, a work of more seriousness than the title
might suggest. In 1914 the writer Violet Pearn had dramatized the novel
under the title The Starlight Express, leaving out much of what we
might call the “Blackwood” elements. The dramatization was not
produced, but in 1915 Ms. Pearn tried again, enlisting the combined
assistance of Blackwood and Elgar. The two men hit it off and evolved a
joint vision of what the dramatized version should be like, although they
were to be disappointed. At first Elgar planned merely to adapt some of his
Wand of Youth pieces, but as he became more interested in the project
he began writing new music as well. The score evolved into a large sale
monodrama in which the old and new themes are developed in a symphonic way.
While the official designation for The Starlight Express is
“incidental music” the score is over 300 pages long. It
accompanies most of the spoken dialogue of the play, as well as
incorporating orchestral interludes and free-standing songs for various
characters sung by a soprano and a baritone. The songs have been described
as in “Elgar’s best light style”, but the effect of the
music in its entirety is both child-like and serious at the same time, not
unlike in several of the composer’s other works.
As indicated above Blackburn’s novel can be described as a
children’s fantasy with a serious side. Unfortunately some of the more
adult aspects of the novel were lost in Violet Pearn’s dramatization,
a fact that distressed Elgar as much as Blackwood. The drama involves an
English family living in Switzerland in which both the father and mother
have strayed from their youthful selves (“wumbled” in the
language of the story) as opposed to their three children, full of
imagination and concern for others. As dramatized, each act of the play is
preceded by a song for baritone from The Organ Grinder, one of the fantastic
characters who appear in the play. These songs point out the main theme of
each act. The first song “To the Children” lets us know that the
three children will indeed be the focus of the action (track 1). The first
scene contrasts them not only with their ‘wumbled’ parents in
some poignant music (track 8) but with their equally at sea adult neighbors.
In scene 2 warm-hearted music introduces us to the children’s’
Uncle Henry, the only “unwumbled” adult in sight, if not the
only one in Europe at the time. He tells them of his childhood dreams of an
alternate world of fairies and sprites including the Organ Grinder and The
Laugher.
The second act opens with the song “The Blue-Eyed Fairy”
(track 17) prefiguring the fantastic world where most of the act will take
place. Henry and the children fall asleep during a jaunt in the woods and
their spirit selves emerge to some of the loveliest music in the score
(tracks 18-19). They are joined by the Laugher (sung by soprano), the
Organ-Grinder, the Gardener, the Dustman, and a variety of other sprites
from Uncle Henry’s fairy world. The spirits arrive on a comet in the
form of a railroad train - the Starlight Express. This sequence is
accompanied by music that combines fantasy and mystery as only Elgar could
create (track 30). Following the complete Sun Dance from The Wand
of Youth as interlude, scene 2 shows the sprites, Uncle Henry, and the
children working their magic on the assorted adults from Act 1 (tracks
37-43). This music includes the wonderful song “O stars Shine
Brightly”) and the act ends with the evenly lovelier “Dawn
Song” (track 45), perhaps the highpoint of the score.
The Act 3 Organ-Grinder song “My Old Tunes” affirms the
power of empathy to make the world better. Elgar brilliantly increases the
dramatic intensity as the adults see the world with new eyes (tracks 2 and 3
of CD2) and the sprites join the humans (tracks 7-9). The poignant final
song (track 10) suggests that the whole world needs to be
“unwumbled”, but Elgar’s coda is more bittersweet than
triumphant (track 11).
It is easy to see how this story would appeal to Elgar. While the
music of The Starlight Express is some of the composer’s most
personal, the fact that it was written to accompany spoken dialogue renders
the score hard to follow if one is not watching or reading the play itself.
Sir Andrew Davis has found one solution to this problem by creating a part
for narrator taken from the texts of both A Prisoner in Fairyland and
The Starlight Express. This provides a structure for the music,
making the story easy to follow, but inevitably focuses attention on the
narration more than the music. The alternative is to record the music as
written and have the listener follow a synopsis. This is what Vernon Handley
did in his complete recording of 1976 (re-released on CD in 1990). For those
interested only in the score’s free-standing songs and interludes Sir
Andrew has also extracted these as a separate item for this set and they are
helpfully keyed to the complete text in the booklet.
In addition to both the complete incidental music and the suite,
this set includes music for the first, aborted, production of The
Starlight Express. This was written by Clive Carey, composer, actor,
singer, director, folk-song collector and singing teacher (he coached Joan
Sutherland). Sir Andrew has resurrected three of the songs Carey wrote for
that first production and orchestrated them for the same ensemble as
Elgar’s. The first song, for the Organ-Grinder, is simpler than its
Elgarian counterpart, but quite touching. Carey’s second song, for the
character of the Dustman, is rather forward-looking, as is the
Gardener’s Song. All three are sufficiently interesting to make
one wish to hear more of Carey’s music.
Whatever the merits of having a narrator for The Starlight
Express there can be no doubt that Simon Callow was an excellent choice
for the task. His ability to bring out both the varied elements of the
story, not to mention his well-known enthusiasm, put over the dated text and
its various characters. Elin Manahan Thomas has the right kind of bright,
airy, voice for her role of the Laugher and sings with great naturalness.
The same cannot be said for Roderick Williams, whose Elgar (and other)
performances I have always admired. He is in good voice here but his
delivery of the Organ-Grinder’s songs is much too stagy and misses the
composer’s intentions. Elgar scored The Starlight Express for a
large theatre orchestra and this provides an interesting contrast to his
music for full or string orchestra. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra takes
full advantage of this opportunity, playing with both subtlety and
conviction. The instrumental solos in Act II are especially well performed.
Davis obviously has great affection for this score. He conducts in a less
symphonic manner than does Vernon Handley, even in the suite, but with equal
attention to detail and equal enthusiasm for the music.
In terms of recording, the singers and narrator sound quite
lifelike, being well-served by Chandos’ 24-bit recording and SACD.
However, even with these, the Usher Hall renders the orchestral sound a
little distant, negating some of the beauties of the orchestral texture. Sir
Andrew wrote the notes for these discs himself and they are very informative
both about Algernon Blackwood and about the play’s war-time run, as
well as his researches into the play and his reasons for constructing the
part for narrator. Unfortunately, he does not say enough about the actual
story of the play (see Jerrold Northrop Moore’s excellent descriptions
elsewhere). One should also mention that text and discs are contained in an
attractive box with individual sleeves for each disc.
Although excerpts from the Starlight music have been recorded
by a number of conductors including Elgar himself the only comparison for the complete music is the
Vernon Handley recording mentioned above. The Davis recording benefits from
up to date recording although Handley’s, old as it is, is a slightly
more animated rendering but as this is currently available only in a 30-CD
set [see link] Sir Andrew’s version is the one to
get.
William Kreindler
See also review by Paul
Corfield Godfrey
Sir Andrew’s version is the one to get.
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