Frederic CLIFFE (1857-1931)
Symphony No. 2 in E minor (1893) [59:59]
Coronation March (1910) [7:31]
Lambeth Orchestra/Christopher Fifield
rec. All Saints Church, West Dulwich, London, 18 July 2015 (symphony); 6 December
2014 (public performance) (march)
ELYROSE PROMOTIONS no catalogue number [67:30]
Bradford-born Cliffe taught John Ireland and Arthur Benjamin
at the Royal College of Music where he was Professor of Piano from 1884 to
1931. His career as a composer appears to have guttered out by 1905 in favour
of Academe.
The British composer Frederic
Cliffe has been something of an avocation for the conductor and writer
Christopher
Fifield. Back in 2003 he presided over Cliffe's first compact disc
principally comprising the First Symphony (review
review).
That music was fittingly issued on Sterling as part of its 'British
Romantics' series - the only entry to date in that line. This was followed
up in 2011 by Cliffe's Violin Concerto on Hyperion
although there the conductor was David Lloyd-Jones.
Mr Fifield is accustomed to the romantic and discursive nature of Romantic
era music and that familiarity meets its soul-mate in this Cliffe symphony.
He has written authoritative and engaging books on Max
Bruch and most recently on The German Symphony between Beethoven and
Brahms (Ashgate, 2015) - a much needed study. This conductor's
related journeys of discovery and revelation on Sterling have extended to
Robert
Hermann, Richard Franck (review
review),
Philipp
and Xaver
Scharwenka and Andreas
Hallén.
Now with the Lambeth Orchestra we get to hear Cliffe's Second Symphony
written four years after the First as a Leeds Festival commission. The present
performance and resulting disc were Mr Fifield's 70th birthday present
to himself but also to us. As he says "It's with my Lambeth
Orchestra and considering it was all done in a day, I am proud of the
result. … In many ways it's a better work (than the First Symphony)".
It's a long symphony in four movements with pictorial titles: I. At
sunset [15:57]; II. Night [19:16]; III. Fairy revels
[9:59] and IV. Morning [14:47]. Its power is in mood illustration
rather than in symphonic steel. The character of the writing is loquacious,
poetic and instinctive. You must not expect the grit and drive of the Elgar
First Symphony. This is broadly speaking more in the track of the Raff symphonies
and some of the more laid-back Huber examples. The second movement broods
and muses - almost indulgently Delian as does the first movement where the
nature painting seems to predict Bax's Spring Fire and Bantock's
very much later Pagan Symphony. The Fairy revels movement
is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed with writing that reminded me of Glazunov's
The Seasons and Tchaikovsky's First Symphony. There's
sprawling grandeur of a Stanford-like character in the sturdily triumphant
finale. With horns enjoyably to the fore (try 9:35; 13:38) the music reminded
me of the much later orchestral signature of Stanford's Piano Concerto
No. 2. Cliffe 2 is an heroically ambitious project and the Lambeth Orchestra
do very occasionally sound hesitant or queasy as in the complex liquid wash
of lyrical lines at the start. Even so their playing convinces the listener
of the calibre of this huge score which is put across under Fifield's
informed and inspired grip.
Not content to leave it at that the disc also includes the 1910 Coronation
March which goes through most of the right motions and is enjoyable.
The Trio is nicely noble although the whole lacks full-voltage Elgarian snap
and crackle. It is fascinating to hear as an example of a luxury deep-pile
march written for the following year's ceremony for George V. There's
applause at the end too as, unlike the Symphony, this was taken from a concert.
Helpful notes complete a fascinating disc that stylishly and enjoyably advances
the cause of British music and of research and appraisal of the genre.
Rob Barnett
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