Victor HERBERT (1859-1924)
Columbus Suite. Irish Rhapsody. Auditorium Festival March.
Selections from Natoma
Keith Brion conducting the
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava)
MARCO POLO 8.225109
[67:13]
Purchase from:
Crotchet
Dublin born, Victor Herbert receive his musical training in Germany and went
to the U.S.A. when he was 27 to play at the Metropolitan Opera. He was
prodigiously multi-talented: a major orchestral conductor (Pittsburgh Symphony
Orchestra), orchestral, opera and (silent) film composer, presenter of pops
concerts, a fabulously successful bandmaster (competing with Sousa) and a
leading composer of Broadway musicals including Naughty Marietta and
Babes in Toyland both of which were subsequently filmed. On top of
all this he was, for a time, America’s premiere solo cellist
This second concert of Herbert’s music, released by Marco Polo, is conducted
by Keith Brion who is director of his own Victor Herbert Orchestra and New
Sousa Band. He is known internationally for his specialisation in the works
of Victor Herbert, John Philip Sousa, Percy Grainger, Alan Hovhaness and
Charles Ives.
The present concert opens with Victor Herbert’s Auditorium Festival
March created for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and celebrating
Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre where Herbert had ambitions to take his
Pittsburgh orchestra. This was the piece that helped clinch the deal. Its
jubilant imposing opening will lift you from your seat. Contrasted with the
ceremonial pomp are more tender waltz passages and the incorporation of Auld
Lang Syne.
Brion proceeds to a scintillating performance of Victor Herbert’s Irish
Rhapsody. With harp prominent, misty nostalgia is an early ingredient
but the appellation of one commentator, ‘The Irish Wagner’ is
appropriate here as we have grand noble material alternating with sweetly
sentimental treatments of: All Those Endearing Young Charms; To
Sadie’s Eyes; Come O’er the Sea and Rich and Rare
Were the Gems She Wore; while the work ends with a rousing brass rendering
of Erin Oh, Erin.
A real find is the music for Natoma one of only two grand operas written
by Victor Herbert. Herbert composed it working from fragments of Indian music
which, to avoid monotony, he harmonised in his own way, while still retaining
something of the Indian character. The selections here include mistily
atmospheric passages, tender material and war dance music. At least one of
the big romantic themes uncannily anticipates Max Steiner. There is also
considerable use of exotic Spanish dance rhythms – presumably to suggest
the Conquistadores? Why mention of this wonderful music has been omitted
from the front cover of the CD booklet, I cannot imagine -- for me it is
the best work on this disc.
The major work in the concert is the four-movement, 28-minute Columbus
Suite. It begins with the impressionistic ‘Dawn and Sunrise’
which is representational of the great Moorish castle of Ferdinand and Isabella
illuminated in an increasingly brightening dawn light until the huge redoubt
is revealed in all its magnificence. This is a leisurely portrait, slow to
build up to its shattering climax. A piece that brings Wagner face to face
with Debussy. ‘At the Convent’ is a shorter but more complex movement
with ceremonial pomp, quiet introspective organ prayers and music which signals
dread anticipation of the hazardous voyage ahead. ‘Murmurs at Sea’
must be one of the most placid musical seascapes ever. All is calm, the sea
glassy, just the quiet gurgling of waters brushing against the keel and soft
breezes murmuring in the rigging. Occasionally, a sea bird flies by. Distant
thunder is heard which comes little closer then passes. The final movement
‘The Triumph of Columbus’ expands on this mood then the lower strings
evoke swelling seas, eventually rising to become powerfully surging as the
music reaches a triumphant conclusion.
Heartily recommended
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Rob Barnett adds:
Herbert is known for his numerous contributions to early American musical
theatre. Marco Polo now remind us of his work in the classical concert hall
in the 1890s when he was director of music with the Pittsburgh Symphony.
Marco Polo are not the first to do this. Karl Krueger's Society for the Promotion
of the American Musical Heritage recorded Herbert's tone poem Hero and
Leander back in the 1960s but since then nothing.
The regal and sumptuous march suffers from a bit of middle age spread and
is slightly cheesy in its use of Auld Lang Syne but offsets this with
its conviction, sharp tight brass work and anticipations of Korngold and
even Walton.
The Rhapsody is comparable to Stanford's similarly titled works. It is gleamingly
orchestrated with Rimskian mastery and a light touch. A little Celtic sentiment
must be expected and this sighs with endearing charm through a sequence of
familiar Irish songs. Jigs and reels hiccup and wink through the pages. This
Rhapsody is orchestrated with much skill and the work will appeal to those
who appreciate the Dvorak Slavonic Rhapsodies and Dances.
Herbert never completely escapes his light music roots and this needs to
be borne in mind but he is clearly a pioneer at ease in the language of 19th
century mid-European romanticism. Natoma and Madeline are Herbert's
two grand operas. The potpourri from Natoma (1911) uses red Indian
songs and dances but the treatment is as American as the material in Dvorak's
American Suite and New World Symphony. There are some nice
moments but Herbert does have a predilection for grandeur and over-extension
of good ideas that let's them run to bombastic fat. Thankfully this
predisposition is resisted in the flimsy filmic textures of Dawn and Sunrise
at the Alhambra. Here Herbert sounds like early Delius (Florida
Suite). At la Rabida is Tchaikovskian (opening pages of Romeo
and Juliet and Murmurs of the Sea are of the same cloth never
for a moment leaving you in doubt of Herbert's orchestral wizardry. He must
have absorbed Rimsky's primer from Sadko and Dubinushka. While
there is much to admire in the first three movements the finale, while starting
with as much atmosphere as Richard Strauss's Alpine Symphony, soon
becomes one of the walking wounded as the work develops bombastic pomp. The
final stick in the mud pages may be loud but they are not glorious. Do not
hold this against the whole work as it is only in this movement that Herbert
succumbs to failure.
The orchestra are excellent and rather like the Razumovsky orchestra with
whom Brion has recorded the lighter Herbert (and Sousa) are clearly getting
to know the style and the man. More early Americana please. Pity this is
not at Naxos price. It would have fitted aptly into the American Classics
series.
Reviewer
Rob Barnett
