Manchester, Classical Music and British Composers – Part Two: Summer Season 2011

Many of the events in this brochure have been and gone. However May 2011 was not a great month for British music. The Hallé gave Beethoven’s Overture: Egmont, Bruch’s inevitable Violin Concerto No.1 (he actually wrote three!) and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5. The Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra also concentrated (hardly surprisingly) on Tchaikovsky.

May 5 was a red letter day. After Sibelius’s En Saga and Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto, Mark Elder and the Hallé performed Elgar’s Enigma Variations. However the only British piece in their subsequent concert was that composer’s P&C No.4. The BBC Philharmonic played Haydn, Dvorak and Shostakovich, but nothing home-spun.

Andrew Wilde, on 11 May gave a recital of music by Chopin, Beethoven and Mozart. We can pass over Loudon Wainwright III.

Once again the Hallé came up trumps on 14 May. After a Handel Overture and Mozart’s Symphony No.39 in E flat major they performed one of Benjamin Britten’s masterpieces – Spring Symphony.

However their next outing was a concert of Sibelius, Rachmaninov, Rimsky-Korsakov and Stravinsky. Lang Lang ignored British music in favour of Beethoven, Albeniz and Prokofiev. (£56.17 for a ticket!!)

The Manchester Camerata played two works by Felix Mendelssohn – the Violin Concerto Op.64 and a narrated version of the Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Early June brought a performance of a single movement from Elgar’s Sonata in G for organ, played by Stephen Cleobury- why not the entire work?. The rest of the programme was Bach, Liszt and Widor. The Sixteen with Harry Christopher devoted their efforts to the music of Tomas Luis de Victoria.

The Royal Northern College of Music under Yan-Pascal Tortellier gave Bartok, Copland and Gershwin. On 29 June Trevor Pinnock & Friends will include Purcell’s Airs and Dances from The Fairy Queen. Bach and Handel make up the rest of the programme.

The Cheetham Symphony Orchestra will give works by Brahms and Berg, including the wonderful Violin Concerto with Fiona Robertson as soloist.

So the summer season is a little brighter from the British perspective with two undoubted masterworks –the Enigma Variations and the Spring Symphony.

The next post on this subject will consider the ‘International Series.’

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Granville Bantock: Hebridean Symphony

Bantock wrote a number of works inspired by Scotland, the land of his patrimony. Most of these works are of a programmatic nature. Many have a Celtic twilight feel to them. Some are inspired by the redoubtable folk-song collector Marjorie Kennedy-Fraser. These works include, the Seal-Woman- a two act opera, the Celtic Symphony, The Sea Reivers, Cuchullan's Lament, Three Scottish Scenes, Coronach, Macbeth Overture and a number of songs and choral works.

The Hebridean Symphony was composed in 1915 and was first given in Glasgow under the composer's baton in 1916. It was eventually to be one of the works published by the Carnegie Trust in a sumptuous edition. The CD sleeve-notes gives the keynote to this piece, 'a work of brooding mystery and impetuous drama.' The notes go on to describe this work as having 'power, breadth of conception and imagination…'

The symphony is in one continuous movement, however Naxos has subdivided it into four tracks that well reflect its natural subdivisions. The work can be listened to purely as abstract music, however an appreciation of the landscape, the sights and sounds of the Highlands will lend some colour to the experience. Bantock himself actually embarked upon a walking tour of the Highlands and Islands before beginning this work.

The first movement, or more correctly first section, begins in the mists of the Celtic west. We are led to understand a kind of Garden of Fand - the Blessed Isles of the West. Bantock makes use of Gaelic folksong, either as themes or as the basis of themes throughout this work. The orchestration of this first section is wonderfully transparent, being a cross between Wagner, Bax, Rimsky-Korsakov and perhaps even Fred. Delius. Yet somehow the imposition of the folk song 'The Seagull of the Land under Waves' tends to spoil this evocative seascape not because it is a poor tune, but somehow it seems as if he has made room for it, for its own sake. There is a gradual Tristanesque build up which then just as typically subsides. As a tone poem this is fine stuff.

The second section, 'Con moto' takes the place of the traditional scherzo. This is storm music par excellence; one of the great seascapes of which there are many fine examples in musical literature. Not over the top, but just perfect. The third section is supposed to represent the arrival of marauders to despoil the islands. The clans are called to their duty by one of the most effective pieces of brass scoring in the literature. Once again folk tunes are used with some effect - most specially the 'Pibroch of Donnail Dhu'.

The symphony ends with a song of victory, before the islands are left to their eternal rest. Bantock recaps many of the themes he has used throughout the symphony.

Bantock's Hebridean Symphony is recorded on Naxos 8555473 and Hyperion 66450

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British Music in the USA

Pam Blevins in Brevard, USA sent me this note: it is well worth publishing here:-

If the situation with performances of British music is disappointing (see my recent post on the Halle Proms, JF) this summer season, I am pleased to report a somewhat better climate at the Brevard Music Center tucked away in the mountains of western North Carolina. On opening night Friday, conductor JoAnn Falletta and the Brevard Music Center Orchestra launched the 6-week series with a come-alive performance Walton's Portsmouth Point Overture and a remarkable performance of Elgar's Enigma Variations.

The orchestra was made up of students and faculty who had not played together until four days before the concert, a fact that made Falletta's task even more difficult and challenging. But in that short time with only four rehearsals, she pulled all of these musicians together to give a sweeping, majestic, passionate and beauty-drenched performance that reduced a lot of people to tears. She shaped the music in a way that gave it a new richness and elevated it to a different plane. It was no longer about portraits of Elgar's friends but more that Falletta revealed Elgar's soul and that's what made it so profoundly moving. And she conducted without a score!

Next week, the Brevard Music Center features Vaughan Williams's Oboe Concerto under a different conductor.

Hat tip to Pam for such encouraging news from the USA!

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Manchester, Classical Music and British Composers – Part One the ‘Proms’ (26th June to 31st July)

I was in Manchester a few days ago and visited the Bridgewater Hall. Unfortunately, there was a ‘special’ event on, so I was duly (very politely) ejected. However, the lady on the door did manage to present me with three leaflets: - ‘The Hallé Promenade Concerts June-July 2011’, ‘The Bridgewater Hall International Concert Series 11/12’ and the ‘Summer 2011’ events brochure. Interesting reading? Well, from a general musical perceptive, yes. However, from the point of view of British Music it is very much a washout –with a few notable exceptions.

For my first post on this particular ‘whinge’ I will look at the short Manchester Promenade Concert series.

Let’s not include Handel as an ‘Englishman’ – so the ‘first night’ starts off with Parry’s ‘I was glad’ and Michael Tippett’s ‘Deep River’, extracted from A Child of our time. The second concert is devoid of British music, although it is a pleasant programme of Prokofiev, Saint-Saëns and Ravel. The ‘Movie Night’ event has, predictably, a couple of items by John Williams (but then he is an American) and an arrangement of Hard Day’s Night/Help by a Lennon/McCartney.

The Last Night has (predictably) the London copy-cat Henry Wood Fantasia on British Sea Songs, Thomas Arne’s ‘Rule Britannia!’ (not so easy these days without any aircraft carriers!) “Parry orch. Elgar” ‘Jerusalem’ and Elgar’s P&C No.1. What Ho!

Not a single British Symphony, Suite, Concerto, Overture or Tone Poem!

My next post on Manchester musical life will look at ‘The Bridgewater Summer Season’.

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Arnold Bax: Saga Fragment for piano and orchestra

There is a danger that listeners may down-rate the Saga Fragment simply because it was not a new work, but a reheated piece ‘dished up’ from Bax’s catalogue of chamber music. In fact, they could make no greater error of judgement. As Brian Wilson writing on MusicWeb International suggests, ‘it sounds anything but cobbled together.’

The work was a result of a request by Harriet Cohen for a short ‘concerted’ piece for her forthcoming American tour in 1933. Bax orchestrated the [Piano] Quartet in One Movement (GP255) which had been written in 1922 at around the same time as he was composing his First Symphony. It was a time when the composer was dismayed by the developing civil war in his beloved Eire.

Lewis Foreman has noted that the original piano part has been rearranged a little with some octave doubling added. The work was orchestrated for relatively small forces - piano solo, trumpet, percussion and strings. The Saga Fragment’s first performance was at the Queen’s Hall with Constant Lambert on the rostrum.

The mood of the music is quite severe. Andrew Burn in the liner notes of recently released Naxos CD quotes Cohen writing in her autobiography that this is ‘a savage little work much admired by Bartok.’ Bax himself is reputed to have said that Saga Fragment was ‘a rather tough pill.’

Once again Lewis Foreman well sums up the mood of this piece – ‘The composer appears torn between grim contemporary realities and an earlier, more romantic existence.’

Certainly, the piece opens with an aggressive, bristly staccato on the strings, and the piano, when it enters, strikes a sinister note. However this belligerence is not the full story. The composer is almost schizophrenic in his approach to the musical language with the middle section being wistful, reflective and possibly even optimistic in its mood. There is a ‘bardic’ magic in some of the quieter moments in this piece that looks towards the re-creation of an ideal world- most likely in Eire. At bottom, it is the violence pitted against the romance that makes or breaks this piece.

This work is currently available on Chandos and Naxos. Both versions are essential listening to all Bax enthusiasts.

With thanks to MusicWeb International where the substance of this text first appeared.

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John Blackwood McEwen: Scottish Rhapsody - Prince Charlie

John Blackwood McEwen is rather like the district of Galloway - an undiscovered country. Both deserve to be much better known. A few brief notes about the composer's life and works are in order. Born in the Border town of Hawick in 1868. Studied at Glasgow University - gaining an M.A. - then at the Royal Academy of Music under the tutelage of Ebenezer Prout, Tobias Matthay and Frederick Corder. Held posts as choirmaster and organist in Glasgow and in Lanark. Founded Anglo-French Music Publishing Company. Taught harmony and composition at the Athenaeum at Glasgow. Moved to Royal Academy of Music in London teaching the same subjects. In 1924 he succeeded Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie as Principal of this institution. He retired in 1936. He was author of a number of books and articles. McEwen died on the 14th June 1948.

All one’s instincts tell you that Scottish Rhapsody - Prince Charlie will not be a success. For one thing, Bonnie Prince Charles, Charles Stewart, ended his days ingloriously in Rome. However, his pretension to the throne generated an entire industry in Scotland - especially in the poetry and song departments. McEwen uses a number of tunes to evoke the memory of this 'hero'. It is a fantasy based on a strange funeral version of 'Charlie is my Darling', although it reappears in more traditional guise later. Other tunes are less well known but equally poignant - especially the extremely reflective 'Wae's me for Prince Charlie' & 'The Gypsie Laddie'. As a Scot myself I declare that it would bring a tear to a glass eye. This is actually a well constructed piece - defying all negative expectations of 'Tartanry'. Why is it not a popular encore?

John Blackwood McEwen: Scottish Rhapsody - Prince Charlie can be heard on CHANDOS CHAN 9880 although I believe that it is only available as MP3 or in the second-hand shops.

With thanks to MusicWeb International where this first appeared.

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Robert Farnon: Jumping Bean

Robert Farnon’s miniature Jumping Bean is a perennial favourite. I guess that it is known by all enthusiasts of light music and is remembered by most music lovers. However, there can be confusion. On a (unnamed) webpage someone has suggested that it was used as the theme tune to ‘Top of the Form’. It wasn’t. That particular favourite was Marching Strings by Marshall Ross. However, Jumping Bean was used by the producers of the radio programmes ‘Journey into Melody’ and ‘Melody Hour.

Like so many pieces of light music it is hard to pin down an ‘exact’ date of composition. Tim MacDonald writing in the liner notes or the Marco Polo edition of Robert Farnon’s music suggests that it was written ‘in 1947 perhaps even earlier. He notes that this piece has been used as a signature tune for more programmes than any similar work. This reputedly included the weather reports in a certain US state!

As a child I always wanted a ‘jumping bean’ needless to say I never got one! However, as I understand it, the ‘jumping bean’ comes from Mexico, most especially the state of Sonora.

According to Wikipedia, these beans were used in various cartoons and comedy sketches which played on the fact that if one ate these beans, one would jump around too! The technical reason the ‘frijoles saltarines’ beans ‘jump’ is caused by the larva of a small moth which has climbed inside the seed pod: when the larva gets warm, it ‘snaps’ its body whilst trying to get cool! Hence the ‘bean jumps.’

Nevertheless, the musical depiction in this short piece has little to do with flora and fauna. I guess that the ‘cartoon’ imagery is nearer the mark. However, I recall when I was young my father would accuse me of being like a ‘jumping bean’ when I was not prepared to sit still. So maybe it is a musical picture of someone who is ‘full of beans’ and is ‘jumping’ from one thing to another?

Jumping Bean is based on a ‘tritone’ figure. For the record, as it were, this means the melodic interval of the augmented fourth, for example, from C to F# on the piano. This ‘interval’ dominates the music. In spite of the title suggesting otherwise, this is not a fast piece: it is more bouncy or perhaps even ‘galumphing.’ The piece is underpinned with a memorable main theme, it is well scored with excellent muted brass and percussion excursions including wooden blocks in the middle eight. The composer is witty in his subtle use of ‘shifting harmonies’ and ‘craftily-positioned offbeats.’

Perhaps the final word can go to Andrew Lamb writing for the Hyperion conspectus of Light Music Volume 1. He suggests that Jumping Bean ‘exemplifies as well as anything the characteristic of so many …light-music classics that the title and the composer may mean little but the piece itself is instantly and gratifyingly familiar.’

Perhaps the revival of light music in recent years has done much to bring composers such as Robert Farnon back into the popular imagination. However, for most folk Jumping Bean will be a tune they know and enjoy but cannot quite place.

Listen to Jumping Bean on Hyperion or on YouTube

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