Sir Malcolm ARNOLD (1921-2006)
Four Scottish Dances, Op. 59 (1957) [9:35]
Symphony No. 3, Op. 63 (1957) [34:51]
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Malcolm Arnold
rec. November 1958, Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London, UK
Reviewed as 24/96 download from HDtracks
Pdf liner-notes included
EVEREST RECORDS SDBR 3021 [44:26]
Readers of a certain age will remember Everest Records, which made a
clutch of fine recordings vetween 1958 and 1960. The brainchild of Harry
D. Belock and Bert Whyte the US label was known for its superior sonics
and roster of artists, among them Leopold Stokowski, William Steinberg,
Sir Adrian Boult and Sir Malcolm Sargent. Their recording of the other
Sir Malcolm’s Four Scottish Dances and Symphony No.
3 has had several incarnations – appropriately, Phoenix was one
of them – but now the Everest catalogue has been re-mastered and
reissued by Countdown Media. Rob
Barnett welcomed the first tranche of discs, which are also available
as high-res downloads from HDtracks and as aacs from iTunes.
It’s outrageous that Arnold’s music is still neglected in
Britain, so we must be grateful for the advocacy of Vernon Handley (Conifer),
Andrew Penny (Naxos) and Richard Hickox and Rumon Gamba (Chandos). All
are splendid in this repertoire, although it’s Tod Handley who gets
my vote more often than anyone else. He has a rare feel for this music,
its wit and unnerving asides, and his cycle – recorded in the 1990s
– is in excellent sound. However, the composer was no mean conductor
himself, so this Everest reissue deserves our attention too.
Typically the Four Scottish Dances couldn’t be further
from the twee Brigadoon style of national nonsense favoured by
Hollywood; these are trenchant, rhythmically robust tunes that are unmistakably
Arnoldian in their skirl and skitter. The LPO play this music with great
verve and the clean, detailed sound of this re-master is most appealing.
Only the brass at the close of the first dance sounds a tad strained;
otherwise timbres are true and there’s a decent sense of space around
the notes. The harp in the gorgeous third dance is especially well caught,
as are the yearning upper strings. The wild fourth dance is as thrilling
as it gets.
Arnold’s Third Symphony is not the sunniest of works; indeed,
even the first movement displays the sudden shifts of mood that we hear
elsewhere in his oeuvre. Those Ealing comedy moments are very well handled
here – Hickox is polished but perhaps a little too controlled at
times – and the quality of Arnold’s writing is as startling
as ever. I’m very impressed by the width and depth of the stereo
image and the original Everest team’s ability to pick out telling
touches in the most natural and unobtrusive way. The oom-pah brass writing
is a special treat; also, Arnold’s sharp nudges and sly winks have
seldom seemed so louche.
Behind this distracting façade lurks something much darker, as
the middle movement demonstrates. The LPO strings are marvellous here
and the sour brass is deeply unsettling. Handley certainly captures this
strange, twilight sound world very well; Hickox is somewhat po-faced by
comparison. Arnold’s account of this movement is the bleakest of
them all. The mask is back on for the cantering finale, whose blend of
weight and sparkle has seldom sounded so engaging. Perhaps Handley binds
it all together better – he offers a more obvious narrative, if
you will – but Arnold makes the most of the symphony’s subversive
side. The original, very informative sleeve notes by Paul Affelder round
off a quality package.
A classic reborn; Arnoldians rejoice!
Dan Morgan
http://twitter.com/mahlerei
Review index: Arnold symphonies
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