Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958)
Music for two pianos
Symphony No. 5 in D minor (arr. Michael Mullinar; revised by Vaughan Williams; edited by Anthony Goldstone) [34:35]
The Running Set (arr. Vally Lasker and Helen Bidder) [6:52]
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (arr. Maurice Jacobson) [13:17]
Goldstone and Clemmow (two pianos)
rec. 2016, St John the Baptist Church, Alkborough, North Lincolnshire
ALBION RECORDS ALBCD031 [55:26]
This isn’t the first time that Albion Records have released
recordings of piano arrangements of orchestral scores by Vaughan Williams.
One earlier release included a two-piano arrangement by Michael Mullinar of
the Sixth Symphony and Constant Lambert’s arrangement for piano, four
hands, of the Overture to The Wasps. On that disc the pianists were
Alan Rowlands and Adrian Sims (ALBCD011). Another issue included Iain Burnside
playing Vally Lasker’s 1930 piano version of Job – A
Masque for Dancing, which I understand was made for the purpose of dancers’
rehearsals and which Oxford University Press deemed worthy of publication
in its own right in the following year (ALBCD015). I’ve not heard either
of those discs.
Michael Mullinar (1895-1973) was a friend and close associate of Vaughan Williams
from his own student days at the Royal College of Music in the 1920s. He was
often a participant in the ‘play through’ of a new score when
VW would unveil his latest work to a select group of friends. Mullinar received
the signal honour of the dedication of the Sixth Symphony – he went
on to make arrangements of that score for both solo piano and for two pianos.
His arrangement of the Fifth was never published and it’s uncertain
exactly when he made it. However, it’s clear from the surviving manuscript
that the composer himself took an active interest in the transcription –
the manuscript shows evidence of corrections that he made. For this recording
Anthony Goldstone has edited what seems to have been a somewhat disorganised
manuscript. The fact that the manuscript required quite a bit of work on his
part causes me to wonder if the transcription was ever played in public.
Before I go any further I should say that the playing on this disc is very
fine indeed. The husband and wife team of Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow
play with tremendous skill, no little finesse and an evident understanding
of and empathy with the music. Such reservations as I have about this enterprise
have nothing at all to do with the quality of their playing.
While I was listening to this disc I thought more than once of Ravel, which
is fitting given that VW was for a brief period a pupil of the French master.
Works such as Le Tombeau de Couperin and Ma mère l'Oye,
though vastly different as music, came to mind but there’s a crucial
difference: those scores originated as piano works – and, indeed, still
form part of Ravel’s piano literature – which were subsequently
orchestrated by their composer. These VW pieces originated as orchestral scores
and were subsequently arranged by other hands for piano, though clearly with
the composer’s blessing.
What struck me each time I listened to the transcription of the Fifth Symphony
was the clarity of texture that’s achieved. That’s not to suggest
that the orchestral scoring lacks clarity; VW achieves a different kind of
clarity. In this piano version a great deal of subsidiary material can be
heard with greater clarity than usual. I wonder though if this clarity comes
at a price. Despite the sensitivity with which the pianists play there’s
a problem in that the music is being played by two equal instruments. Furthermore,
these instruments are percussive in nature. So the half-lights that we glimpse
in VW’s orchestral version are more in the spotlight than is perhaps
desirable. The second movement offers a case in point. The playing of the
two pianists is light and precise and the rhythms emerge with great clarity.
All that’s very much to be welcomed. The almost constant running accompaniment
figurations can be heard distinctly (for example from about 1:30) and on one
level that’s very interesting. However, are the accompanying figurations
too clearly heard? This material, after all, is background material –
undercurrents, if you will - and that’s how it comes across in the orchestral
score. Here, though, the music is being played by two pianos which are equally-weighted
voices.
The magical chords that open the Romanza are beautifully weighted
– and, arguably, even more so when we hear the chords again at 1:54.
It’s something of a disappointment, though, that the Pilgrim’s
Progress theme inevitably sounds a bit prosaic on a piano instead of
a cor anglais. I admired the pianism as I listened but how I missed the colours
and contrasts of the orchestral score. Here and elsewhere the effect is somewhat
akin to viewing a black-and-white reproduction of a colour photograph. Similar
thoughts arise from listening to the finale though I must record that Goldstone
and Clemmow deliver the seraphic ending most beautifully.
The problem that I’ve had with this transcription is that I know the
orchestral score so well. When the transcription was made – almost certainly
when the symphony was newly-composed – performances would have been
rare to say nothing of recordings. People who played or listened to this transcription
might well have been completely unfamiliar with the orchestral score. What
a revelation it would have been to hear the full score later, the orchestral
colourings coming as a glorious surprise. Nowadays we have so many opportunities
to hear the full score and I’m not sure that the reverse process –
moving from orchestral to piano versions – works; one almost hears the
transcription as a contraction.
The transcription of Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis was made
by the composer and pianist, Maurice
Jacobson (1896-1976) who was another of VW’s longstanding friends
and collaborators. This transcription was published in 1947, perhaps to aid
study of the piece. I’m afraid it just doesn’t work for me at
all despite the excellent advocacy of Goldstone and Clemmow. There are two
great problems. One is that pianos, which are percussive instruments, can’t
begin to do justice to the timbre of stringed instruments. More damagingly,
the transcription doesn’t convey any sense of space. You don’t
get any feeling at all for the separation between the main body of strings,
the solo quartet and, especially, the subsidiary string orchestra. So, for
example, when the subsidiary orchestra has a telling entry at 3:35 there’s
no real contrast, nor is there when the solo quartet contributions begin at
5:24. It would be too harsh to say that the transcription presents the music
without the magic but certainly VW’s carefully calculated spatial effects
go for nothing.
The transcription of The Running Set was made by Vally Lasker and
Helen Bidder. I learned from the notes that they were teachers at St. Paul’s
Girls’ School and colleagues there of Holst. They were frequent collaborators
with both Holst and VW. The Running Set isn’t great Vaughan
Williams but it’s a jolly little romp which incorporates four folk-song
tunes. The transcription gets a sparkling performance here.
I’m sorry that I can’t be more enthusiastic about the contents
of this CD though I can’t emphasise strongly enough that the performances
themselves are excellent. The transcriptions allow us to hear the scores in
a different light, it’s true. They probably have some value as an aid
to studying the music and I can’t deny that in listening to the symphony
in particular I’ve heard a good deal of interesting detail. I’m
not sure, however, if I’ve learned much new about the scores. I’d
sum these transcriptions up as very interesting but also rather frustrating.
I do recognise, however, that other lovers of Vaughan Williams’ music
may react rather differently to hearing these pieces in this unfamiliar guise
and it’s hard to imagine that the transcriptions could be better played
than is the case here.
The recorded sound is very good indeed and the notes, which take the form
of an essay about the works by John Francis and a shorter note by Anthony
Goldstone, are valuable.
As I was putting the finishing touches to this review the death of Anthony
Goldstone was announced. He died on 2 January 2017, aged 72.
John
Quinn
|
Support us financially by purchasing
this from
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|