Arnold BAX (1883-1953)
Phantasy for Viola and Orchestra (1920) [17:31]
Theodore HOLLAND (1878-1947)
Ellingham Marshes for Viola and Orchestra (ca. 1940)* [15:55]
Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958)
Suite for Viola and Small Orchestra (1933-34) [24:16]
Richard HARVEY
Reflections for Viola and Small Orchestra (1990/2012)* [21:10]
Roger Chase (viola)
BBC Concert Orchestra/Stephen Bell/*Richard Harvey
rec. The Colosseum, Town Hall, Watford, 16-18 April 2012
* World premiere recordings
DUTTON EPOCH CDLX 7295 [79:13]
There has been talk for decades about a second recording of the Bax Phantasy
for Viola and Orchestra. Finally one emerges from the realms of vapour-ware
and it is little surprise that it comes from indefatigable and inspired Dutton.
The Bax has appeared on CD before, though only once. Rivka Golani recorded
it in 1989 for long-disappeared Conifer (CDCF171) alongside the Elgar Cello
Concerto as arranged for viola by Tertis and the same composer's three Characteristic
Pieces for viola and orchestra. That collection rather echoed the even
more alluring English piano and orchestra collection also on Conifer (CDCF175)
by Kathryn Stott which has been reissued by Dutton.
The Phantasy is as near-as-damn-it to Bax’s Viola Concerto though
these days it would not at all surprise me if the contemporaneous and masterly
Viola Sonata were not orchestrated to companion the Phantasy.
The Tertis-dedicated Phantasy is typical rhapsodic Bax and Chase does
a great job of keeping a firm grip on the forward momentum of the piece while
not short-changing the Szymanowski-style poetic asides. The work starts with
a gruffly belligerent gesture, reminiscent of the anger that launches the
Northern Ballad No. 1. This furious tone is maintained through the
warlike march episodes that give backbone to the first movement. The central
panel is sweetly released by Chase and his collaborators. There’s a
tense and toe-tapping half-jig, half-quick march in the finale which, while
it might remind us occasionally of RVW, is flooded with Baxian aggression
that melts at times into razor-sharp romance and melancholy. The ending is
well wrought and fittingly flourished by soloist and well-conducted orchestra.
Exemplary Bax.
It’s a while since I have heard the Golani but this strikes me as more
dynamic and will certainly speak to those who find Bax too rhapsodic by half.
It has also been played and in some cases broadcast by Ralph Holmes, Bernard
Shore, Steven Burnard and Frederick Riddle.
For years I have been wanting to hear Theodore Holland’s Ellingham
Marshes. That appetite began when a friend sent me tape of Holland’s
Spring Sinfonietta. We are told that the composer was a friend of Bax
at the Royal Academy of Music and he was later John Joubert’s composition
teacher. This substantial quarter-hour poetic tone poem dates from the early
war years. It is intended to evoke or is at least inspired by the Suffolk
marshes. It is not at all the swooningly fey exercise I had thought. In fact
it is intense and radiant with darker rhythmic material. It has quite a bit
in common with the Bax but with some Patrick Hadley and even Ravel-like moments.
It ends on a breath-taking filament of sound. No rowdy finale here. A very
beautiful work - extremely well served in this its first ever recording.
The RVW Suite has been recorded several times before: Frederick Riddle (RCA
and Chandos)
and Helen Callus (ASV),
not to mention by Melvin Berger on a Pye Collector Series GSGC 14049 LP in
1966 (not sure if ever reissued on CD), by Lawrence Power on Hyperion CDA67839
and by Yizhak Schotten on Crystal CD 837. Rather like the Finzi Bagatelles
for clarinet and piano (orchestrated by Lawrence Ashmore) this sequence of
miniatures has many instantly attractive episodes and a high quotient of VW’s
most pastorally-inspired writing alongside kinetic romps like the Galop.
We end with Richard Harvey and his Reflections. This began life as
Reflection on a Changing Landscape which was premiered by Chase as
part of the Exeter Festival in 1990. The four movements are Awakening,
Shadowplay, Borderlands and Remembrance. Awakening
reminds me of Hovhaness such is its delicacy and plangency. Here it is treated
with great delicacy and whispered care. Harvey's writing is like everything
else here, written in the resilient melodic tonal mainstream that lived on
through the ascendancy of more sterile styles. It is in the English
pastoral mainstream, notwithstanding my reference to Hovhaness, or at least
it is in Awakening where it attains real emotional voltage and swell.
Shadowplay is wispily eerie and derives from music Harvey wrote for
the Granada TV series on Len Deighton's Game, Set and Match. Similarly
inspired is the desolate meditation of Borderlands drawn forth by Ian
Holm as Deighton's spy Bernard Samson. It moves from slow evolution to Glass-like
propulsion at the close. The final Remembrance does elegy and beauty
so well. It starts elegiac and bids adieu in celebration - joy in the life
of Richard Gregson-Williams. The music ends with a few more glistening strokes
that reminded me of Hovhaness. The Harvey is a lovely piece and furnishes
well rounded satisfaction with which to end this treasurable disc. Chase is
the dedicatee alongside Richard Gregson-Williams, one-time director of the
Exeter Festival.
The Harvey reminded me - in its impact rather than its detail - of the music
Carl Davis wrote in the 1970s for one of the best-ever Hardy television adaptations:
The Mayor of Casterbridge in which the late Alan Bates was unforgettable
as tragic Michael Henchard. It was on a 1978 LP EMI INS 3021. There are also
touches of the more understated music for Polanski's Tessby
Philippe Sarde - don’t turn your nose up until you have heard it. It
also brings to mind the Elegy for viola and orchestra (from the film
Lady Caroline Lamb) (1972) as recorded by Philip Dukes on Chandos
CHAN 9867 (2001) and before that by Peter Mark on EMI British Composers
5861882 (2004) and on LP HMV CSD 3728 in 1972.
Chase again presents these works associated with Lionel Tertis on Tertis’s
own Montagnana viola.
Dutton could hardly have been more generous: the four works run just shy of
eighty minutes. We get two works in recording premières, one - the
RVW - previously recorded several times and the Bax recorded commercially
only the once before. The essays are by Graham Parlett except for the Harvey
where the composer has provided his own. The recording is exemplary with violist-turned-engineer
Michael Ponder at the audio controls showing fellow feeling for Roger Chase's
viola.
Chase is no stranger to pioneering viola repertoire. If we restrict ourselves
to Dutton he can be heard in the concertos by Stanley Bate and W.H. Bell on
CDLX7216,
on CDLX7250
in Tertis transcriptions of sonatas by Delius and Ireland and in Dale's viola
works - or some of them - on CDLX7204.
To all of these he has brought real insight and his performances while not
lacking in passion and poetry also evince thoughtful study and ideas that
have matured. No evidence of the sight-reading conveyor belt.
Rob Barnett
Passion and poetry, thoughtful study and ideas that have matured. No evidence
of the sight-reading conveyor belt.
Vaughan Williams review index
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