Edward German: Merrie England at Glasgow.

I posted recently about Herman Finck’s visit to Glasgow to conduct a season of performances of Edward German’s well-known opera Merrie England. I have discovered both the advertisement and the review of the opening night in the contemporary Glasgow Herald.  I have adopted this opera for special consideration and study over the next few months.

The advert indicated that Merrie England commenced on 4 March 1935 at the King’s Theatre, Glasgow and continued for six nights. There were also to be matinee performances at 2 o’clock on Wednesday and Saturday.  The opera was performed by the Princes Theatre London Company and starred Joseph Hislop and Enid Cruikshank. The ‘augmented’ orchestra was conducted, as we have noted, by Herman Finck.   Out of interest the Grand Circle seats could be booked for 6/- (30p) and 4/6d (22½p) and the Upper Circle was a mere 3/- (15p)

On the 5 March 1935 the following review duly appeared. I quote it in full:-

There is still hope for opera in Britain if the size and enthusiasm of the audience at the performance of Merrie England last night be taken as a measure of public interest in this form of entertainment.

Edward German’s delightful comic opera was presented by the Princes Players with a singing cast, which included Joseph Hislop as Sir Walter Raleigh, Enid Cruikshank as Queen Elizabeth, W.S Percy as Walter Wilkins and Rosalinde Fuller as Jill-all-alone. The orchestra was conducted by Herman Finck.

One looked for a certain amount of Savoy tradition in the performance, since the music is in the true line of succession from Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas. One also feared that the lighter fare of musical comedy might encroach on the much better music of Edward German. There was a little of both influences last night, but not enough to take much from the real old English flavour so admirably captured by librettist and composer.

Joseph Hislop sang splendidly, and acted with an ease which was altogether free from the heavier style of grand opera. Enid Cruikshank, like Joseph Hislop, is experienced in opera, and at times one felt that she underlined her part overmuch.  Her singing was excellent in its breadth and dignity.

Miss Fuller deserves a special word for the clever waywardness of her playing in the difficult part of Jill-all-alone. The other characters were all equally good, singing with a clear appreciation of the fact that comic opera is entertainment, and as such every word must be distinct.

In the concerted items and choruses the tone and ensemble were so good that one wondered if, when we do save opera in this country, it may not come by means of the sprightly rhythms and geniality of works such as Merrie England.

Herman Finck, the conductor, although well known for his work at Drury Lane, is making his first visit to Glasgow with this production. He had fine command of his forces in the orchestra and on the stage and the work moved with rhythmic unity. Merrie England has made an excellent beginning of the week’s run at the King’s.

Glasgow Herald 5 March 1935 (with minor edits)

This is the end of the cluster of posts about Finck, Rachmaninoff and Edward German – at least for a wee while. 

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Sergei Rachmaninoff: Review of the 14 November 1929 Recital in Glasgow

I cannot resist posting the review of the first recital given in Glasgow by Sergei Rachmaninoff. It will be the last of the non-British contributions to this blog –at least for a wee while.

The second of the Glasgow series of ‘Celebrity’ concerts, given last evening in St Andrew’s Hall, brought Rachmaninoff to the city in a piano recital.  By virtue of his famous Prelude in C sharp minor he may safely be claimed as the greatest international celebrity of them all. There must be very few, if any, followers of music in the world, even among those who follow music afar off, who do not know his name and at least one of his compositions.  As a pianist he has also been widely known for many years to the gramophone public through his records, which have always shown distinction in both performance and reproduction.  A piano recital by him was therefore an important event.

He presented a very unconventional programme, the more serious items of which were Beethoven’s F sharp major sonata, Op.78, the last of Schumann’s ‘Noveletten’ and three pieces by Medtner, ‘In Praise of Toil’ [1]. The remaining items were light numbers, either original or transcriptions; and the evening has left the impression of a fine pianist and musician too much employed in pianistic display to the neglect of more important matters.

Even on big item of deep musical significance would have added tremendously to the importance of the occasion. 

The inclusion of the Beethoven sonata, one almost never heard in public, was something to be grateful for. It is one of the most happy and intimately beautiful of all the sonatas, and the subtleties of touch and delicacy of finish with which it was played made it a specially enjoyable. The Schumann ‘Novelette’ also had an excellent performance, finely coloured and with a delightful effect made by the delicate crispness of some of the quiet sections. But some item of the importance of the C Major ‘Fantasia’ would have been welcome in its place.

The Medtner numbers were interesting, especially the first two, ‘Before work’ and ‘At the anvil,’ but this fine composer could have been better represented.

Tchaikovsky was not at his best in his music for piano, and the Variations from Op.19 were only mildly interesting. There was group of three Schubert transcriptions – ‘Le Ruisseau’ (more readily identified for identified, perhaps as ‘Wohin?’) arranged by Rachmaninoff very cleverly, but suggesting that the brook had overflowed its banks; the ‘Ave Maria’ arranged by Liszt, and making one think of the opera-house; and Tausig’s brilliant transcription of the ‘Marche Militaire’, the most legitimate of the three, but not any more thrilling last evening than a really good performance of Schubert’s own duet version would have been. A transcription by Rachmaninoff of Kreisler’s well-known ‘Liebesfreud’ concluded the programme. Here again the interest was in the playing rather than the music, for most of the joy had been lost in the process of arranging and replaced by a sense of difficulties overcome.

Two compositions by Rachmaninoff, a ‘Barcarolle’ in G minor, Op.10 and a ‘Moment Musicale’, Op.16 were also played. While pianistically effective, these numbers were not distinguished in melody, and they suggested a pianist-composer rather than a composer-pianist. The famous Prelude [in C#minor] was given as the second extra, and the opening phrase was interrupted by an outbreak of applause. It was beautifully played, providing in particular an excellent study in tone gradations, and the audience enjoyed the rare privilege of hearing the piece as it ought to sound. It is a hard fate that has made this genuinely romantic and well-written number the most hackneyed musical item of our generation.

The Glasgow Herald 14 November 1929 (with minor edits) 

[1] Nicolai Medtner: Three Hymns in ‘Praise of Toil’ Op. 49. These pieces were composed between 1926 and 1928. The third pieces was entitled ‘After Work’. 

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Rachmaninov in Glasgow 4 March 1935: the Recital Review

No sooner had I drawn a seeming blank on Rachmaninov’s appearance in Glasgow on 4^thMarch 1935, than I found this review of the concert in the Glasgow Herald. I know that the Russian composer does not really fall into the remit of The Land of Lost Content British Music Blog, however I think it is such an important event that is is worth recording here. I do not believe that anyone else has written about this in recent years.  I have included the reviewer’s philosophical musings on the nature of piano recitals as I believe that his view is still relevant today. 

‘Rachmaninoff gave a piano recital in St. Andrew’s Hall last evening after an absence of many years [1] One-man recitals are in these days comparatively rare events, and the ramrkable enthusiasm aroused by Rachmaninoff and his playing last night suggests that a great pianist and a good programme still make a strong appeal. One wonders whether it would not have been worth to cultivate the piano recital on lines that would remove the objection sometimes made, that concert pianists in general are content to live their professional lives on a very restricted diet.

A study of concert programmes for, say, the last 20 years would show that the charge of lack of enterprise is not without foundation, and no one can suggest in defence that the piano repertoire is deficient in great music.

Last night’s programme combined some familiar numbers with others that were welcome because they are not so often to be heard under first class conditions. Beethoven supplied one of these signs of enterprising choice with an early Sonata – No.3 of Op.20 in D major. It is unfortunate for him that one of his piano sonatas is almost a necessity for candidates aiming at a diploma in piano playing, and the choice often falls on an early example. [2] The young people naturally feel inclined to look on Beethoven as one who makes their way troublesome, and many of them no doubt never quite forgive him, and put him aside with relief when the diploma arrives.

Yes, all the Op.10 sonatas are good, and No. 3 is the finest of them. The first movement is not more remarkable for its variety of vital interest than the second is for its rich and solemn beauty.  The Minuet and Trio has a special charm, and the Finale is not only humourous – it is sometimes even witty.  Op.10 No.3 is entitled to a place of its own among the Beethoven Sonatas. Rachmaninoff’s reading of it last night offered one of the most enjoyable things of the evening for he made poetry of it all and demonstrated the quality of his artistic service.

This may be defined as sensitive collaboration rather than attendance, and is only open to those who are respectfully imaginative. This power to interpret music personally, yet without injunction to the composer, distinguished all Rachmaninoff’s performance.

It was first displayed in Tausig’s transcription of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, and was strongly exemplified in Chopin’s ‘Funeral March’ Sonata [3] which in interpretation was held together with more success than usual, and was therefore particularly impressive.  An interesting selection of pieces by Scriabin, Medtner, Borodin, Rubenstein, Dohnanyi, and Rachmaninoff himself completed the programme. [4]

The Rachmaninoff group included a new work, ‘Oriental Sketch,’ [5] which exhibited in livelier style the composer’s known qualities.  Included in the group of extra numbera demanded by the audience was the famous Prelude, [6] whose real musical effect was, it is to be hoped, a corrective of the many wrong impression that countless arrangements of it must make.

The Glasgow Herald 5 March 1936 (with minor edits)

Notes

[1] According to The Rachmaninoff Performance Diary, the composer/pianist first appeared in Glasgow on 13 November 1929. The next recital was the one reviewed in this post.  He was to appear again on 18 March 1937 and on 2 March 1939.

[2] The Sonata Op.20 No.3 in D major is often regarded as Beethoven’s first truly virtuosic sonata. It was written some three years before the famous (and sometimes hackneyed) Pathétique.

[3] Frederic Chopin’s Piano Sonata No.2 in B flat minor Op. 35. The well-known ‘Funeral March’ was believed to have been composed in 1837, some two or so years before the entire Sonata was published in 1840.

[4] It is unfortunate that the reviewer does no give a complete listing of the pieces played by Sergei Rachmaninoff. However it is possible to reconstruct the concert from information provided by Scott Davie of the Rachmaninoff Society.

The Borodin would have been the ‘Scherzo’ in A flat major. At this time Rachmaninoff was playing a selection from Nicolai Medtner’s Fairy Tales.  Anton Rubenstein was most likely to have been the Barcarolle in A minor Op.45. Ernest von Dohnanyi Etude Caprice in F minor Op.28.  Scriabin was probably represented by his Poem in F sharp minor and the Étude in D sharp minor.  

[5] The Oriental Sketch was hardly new. It had been composed in 1917. However, it is unlikely to have been heard by British audiences.

[6] The ubiquitous Prelude in C# minor from the ‘Five Morceaux de Piano’, Op.3 (1892)

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Clive Richardson: Melody on the Move

I first came across Clive Richardson when a very good friend suggested that I listen to the London Fantasia, which was a wartime work and purported to be ‘a day in the life of a city being blitzed’.  It is a piece I have yet to hear. However, many of his delightful pieces have come my way including Naval Splendour, Girl on the Calendar, Beachcomber and Running off the Rails. One of my favourites is Melody on the Move. This work was composed around 1946 and was recorded by the Queen Hall Light Orchestra in the late 1950s.

In 1958, the BBC produced a breakfast-time light music programme entitled ‘Melody on the Move’ on the ‘Light Programme’, which is now Radio 2.  The music was performed by a different house orchestra from the BBC. The programme ran until the early 1960s. The theme tune was, naturally, by Clive Richardson.

The Robert Farnon Society ‘page’ on Clive Richardson has noted that the composer confessed that the ‘Dorabella’ variation from Elgar’s Enigma Variations was the inspiration for this delightful piece.

Structurally the work would appear to be in ternary form preceded by a short introduction.  The vibraphone announces a melodic phrase which is largely made up of descending thirds with the odd major second thrown in for good measure. There is a little section of some four bars repeated before the main theme enters as patterns of light staccato chords. This is busy chattering music played by the woodwind. The phrases are of irregular length with the third being the longest and rising quickly to a climax. These phrases are repeated with minimal alteration. The first ‘episode’ is based on similar material although now transposed into the B flat.  The ‘vamping’ pattern of four bars is repeated before the next episode in Eb major presents the romantic tune with the strings to the fore. This makes a large number of modulations. The main theme is reprised in its original key before the work concludes with an enigmatic coda.

The thing that strikes about Melody on the Move is the orchestration. So often, light music composers are accused of writing in clichés. However Richardson has a sure understating of instrumental colour and turns what is a fine piece when played on the piano into a magical score. A lot of the credit for this is the skilful use of the percussion. 

There are arrangements of Melody on the Move for a number of resources. The version heard on Hyperion under the baton of Ronald Corp was made by Ronald Hanmer (1917-1994). The piano version also dates from 1946 as well as one for military band by W. Duthoit.

Clive Richardson’s Melody on the Move can be heard on YouTube. A modern day performance is available on Hyperion British Light Music Classics Volume 3 CDA67148.

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Rachmaninov and Herman Finck Revisited.

Further to my recent post, it has not been possible to establish the exact details of Sergei Rachmaninov’s recital in Glasgow.  However, I do know that the date was 4^thMarch 1935. Let us hope that some reader can provide me with more details.  In 1943, the music critic at the Glasgow Herald reprises Herman Finck’s anecdote from a slightly different perspective.  It is worth repeating.

‘When Rachmaninov played here…another well known musician, in the lighter field of music, was also in Glasgow. He was Herman Finck then conducting the orchestra of a production of Edward German’s Merrie England visiting the King’s Theatre. Finck told us that when walking along the corridor of his hotel, heard the sound of a piano coming from one of the rooms. After listening for a time, and thinking the playing was very fine, he asked a passing maid if she knew who the pianist was. She replied that she couldn’t remember his name exactly, but it was something like ‘Rakky’, and he was a foreigner.

“Well, tell him from me that he certainly can play,” said Finck, who admitted later that he felt pretty sick at sending such a message when he discovered who the pianist really was.”

It is surely strange how stories can morph in the telling and the retelling.

The Glasgow Herald 30 March 1943 (with minor edits)

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Two Anecdotes from Herman Finck.

I recently posted a review of the music of Herman Finck. Apart from being a good composer he is quite definitely one of the greatest musical wits to have lived in the Twentieth Century. Ok. I accept that his humour may not appeal to the sophisticated audiences of today who idolise Jimmy Carr or Peter Kay. Furthermore, his wit is not caustic like Sir Thomas Beecham – I guess that Finck rarely offended anyone. However, some of his anecdotes are funny, entertaining and educative.  I give two for your delight.  Over the next couple of posts I will try to give a little more detail about these stories.  

The first concerns a well-known Russian pianist and composer:-

‘When I was on tour with [Edward German’s] Merrie England  in Glasgow, I went upstairs [to my hotel bedroom] to hear brilliant pianoforte playing.  Someone was playing Chopin, then dropping into the Midsummer’s Night Dreamscherzo. A part of the scherzo would be played so very slowly, then more Chopin would follow. I was so fascinated by the playing that I begun to undress in the corridor [I do not believe this is meant to be taken in anything other than in good faith! Ed.] outside my bedroom door to listen.

‘Who is that playing?’ I asked the chambermaid.

‘Oh, I cannot pronounce his name,’ she replied.

‘Rachmaninov?’ I asked.

‘Yes, that’s it.’

Rachmaninov was giving a recital in Glasgow that night, but as I stood in the corridor wrestling with a white tie I could not for the life of me think why he should be playing Mendelssohn at that dirge-like tempo. Months later, I heard that Rachmaninov had prepared an elaborate piano arrangement of the ‘Scherzo’[from the Midsummer’s Night Dream]. So I was the first person to hear it; he had been going through it slowly that night in Glasgow.’

Apparently, there are many anecdotes about corridors, music, hotels and Rachmaninoff in the musical literature.  

The other tale concerns Maurice Ravel. Herman Finck wrote that:- ‘The French composer [had] orchestrated some of the etudes of Chopin for a Nijinsky ballet season at the Palace and his orchestrations were sent to me. I found out that one was incomplete, and I was trying to sort the matter out, when Philip Page came into the theatre.

‘What are you doing?’ he asked.

‘Trying to unravel Ravel,’ I replied.

My Melodious Memories Herman Finck Hutchinson & Co. Ltd., 1937 (with minor edits) 

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The Finck Album: Music by Herman FInck

Herman Finck (1872-1939)

Cheero! for orchestra; In the Shadows; Hullo, Girls! for orchestra; My Waltz Queen; Jocoso for orchestra; ‘Dear old fighting boys’; Pirouette (dedicated to Anne Pavlova); Venetia (from Decameron Nights); My Lady Dragonfly – Ballet Suite; The K-Nuts Medley – including ‘Gilbert the Filbert’ & I’ll make a Man of you’; Queen of Flowers; Moonlight Dance for orchestra; Decameron Nights -Orchestral Suite

The Principals of the Theatre Bel-Etage, Tallinn, Estonia

Kelli Uustani, Pirjo Levandi and Mart Sander (singers)

Divine Arts ddv62402 [67:54]

I first came across Herman Finck in an album of piano pieces. After much effort, I managed to plough my way through his waltz, In the Shadows. It is not that difficult, although there are a few passages where it is very easy to stumble. Somewhere in the past, I have heard an orchestral version of this tune – possibly on one of the Guild Light Music series.  However, apart from that, he has been a closed book to me – and I guess ton many other folk too.

Yet, that was not always the case. According to the liner notes, his was once a household name. 

His biography is easy to locate on Wikipedia and is given in the liner notes. However, a couple of headlines will not go amiss. In spite of the German sounding name, he was born in London on 4 November 1872 – the same year as Ralph Vaughan Williams!  He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, before embarking on a career as musical director at the Palace Theatre in London. He was to remain there for 20 years.  Other posts at this time included principal conductor at the Queen’s Theatre and also the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Additionally he travelled to the Lancashire Coast to conduct concerts in the seaside town of Southport.  Alongside his conducting, he wrote a considerable corpus of music including scores for the theatre, for silent movies and for the concert hall. Many of these diverse pieces are recorded on this present CD.  Herman Fink died shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War on 21 April 1939.

The present CD is an excellent cross section of Fink’s music.  A variety of genres are explored including the purely orchestral, extracts from his revues and musicals a number of ‘patriotic’ songs from the Great War.

Two of his musicals are characterised by the ballet from My Lady Dragonfly and the operetta Decameron Nights.  They are competent examples of the (extremely) light music genre presented on this CD.  Songs from the revues such as The Passing Show and Round the Map are characterized by ‘Queen of the Flowers’ and ‘Gilbert the Filbert’. Dances include ‘Hullo Girls’, which was composed for the Palace Theatre, and ‘Pirouette’, which was composed for Anna Pavlova.

Stylistically, do not expect Edward Elgar, Edward German or Haydn Wood. This music is good, well written and enjoyable: however, it is largely ephemeral. I guess the nearest thing would be music written for the the annual pantomime or possibly for a television series. Yet, when all is said and done, this CD is a piece of musical archaeology: it is exciting to unearth it some 90-odd years after it was composed.

Divine Arts Recording Group has made an excellent release with their exploration of Herman Finck. They have captured the mood and the spirit of the Edwardian and Georgian times. The singers and the band sound perfectly home in the music hall and end-of-pier environment – and that is not a sleight or criticism. The performers, Kelli Uustani, Pirjo Levandi and Mart Sander are all from the Bel-Etage Theatre in Tallinn, Estonia, which was itself an old music hall.  The company is well regarded in its championship of British music including Gilbert & Sullivan and Lionel Monckton. They support a ballet troupe and two orchestras who fulfil many engagements at home and abroad.

The sound quality is good. The liner notes are sufficient and have a number of evocative images and photographs, including the cover of the sheet music to In the Shadows.   I look forward to subsequent releases from this accomplished group.

Finally, the waltz that I learnt to play all those years ago has an interesting history. Originally composed for the Palace Girls at the eponymous theatre it was called ‘Goodnight’ – however, it was later changed to In the Shadows. Finally, this was one of the last numbers played by the orchestra on the Titanic before she sank. It is played on this CD in its vocal waltz incarnation. 

The CD can be bought from the DIVERSIONS web page. 

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