Brahms from Sir Adrian and Dame Janet

Dame Janet Baker and Sir Adrian Boult

Two of the most distinguished and beloved British musicians of the 20th century - mezzo-soprano Dame Janet Baker and conductor Sir Adrian Boult - combined to produce this 1970-71 LP of Brahms' compositions.

On this record, Baker is heard in the Alto Rhapsody, while Boult conducts the second symphony. For Sir Adrian, it was the the second installment in his second cycle of the Brahms symphonies, succeeding his 1954 set. Dame Janet would go on to record a program of Brahms lieder with André Previn at the piano in 1978.

Original and reissue covers

Discussing the Alto Rhapsody, Trevor Harvey wrote in his Gramophone review, "Turgid Brahms, you may think. Yet How can anyone resist Janet Baker’s superb singing and vocal colouring, from a wonderfully veiled tone to great, thrilling outbursts, full of warmth and feeling. Sir Adrian knows exactly how to accompany his soloist with understanding."

Dame Janet, now retired at age 89, is a mezzo-soprano and the work was, after all, written for contralto. But the music is within her range and more importantly she brings great sensitivity to the part. To hear the Rhapsody sung by a true contralto, please look into previous posts by Marian Anderson (newly remastered in ambient stereo) and Aafje Heynis.

Recordings by Marian Anderson and Aafje Heynis

Boult takes a characteristically unfussy approach to the symphony. It may not glow with the radiance of Bruno Walter's late-career recording, but it is cogent in its own way, beautifully balanced and judged. George Jellinek wrote in Stereo Review, "For my taste, the finale does not quite move with the excitement toward which such a finely controlled interpretation should build, but the overall performance displays a maturity, sense of proportion, and delicacy of detail hard to find fault with."

The Alto Rhapsody recording is from a late December 1970 date in Abbey Road Studio No. 1. The symphony comes from January and April 1971 sessions split between Abbey Road and Kingsway Hall. The sound is very good. The excellent performances are relatively closely miked, and any sonic differences between the venues were not noticeable to me. 

The download includes scans from both the first and reissue pressings (the transfer is from the reissue). Along with several reviews, I've included an article about the Alto Rhapsody recording session, along with texts and translations (which HMV did not supply).

This was another of the recordings on non-English music that Sir Adrian undertook in the last years of his career. Earlier we heard from him in Mozart symphonies. Unlike those performances, Boult's Brahms symphonies were issued in the US, but this transfer is from a UK pressing.

HMV ad in the October 1971 Gramophone

Previn Conducts Britten's Spring Symphony

My recent upload of William Mathias' This World's Joie was surprisingly popular. Mathias had at least two inspirations - the Vaughan Williams choral works that have appeared in this series (notably Hodie and Sancta Civitas) and in particular Benjamin Britten's brilliant Spring Symphony from 1949.

Britten himself led the first commercial recording of the work in 1960, but today we have a transfer of André Previn's 1978 reading, beautifully performed and recorded. It has been a favorite of mine since it was issued. This transfer is from an original EMI Electrola pressing.

André Previn and Benjamin Britten in 1976

As with the other recordings in this series of choral works, this production offers some of the finest artists then active in Britain - soprano Sheila Armstrong, contralto Janet Baker and tenor Robert Tear. Previn conducted the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the St. Clement Danes Boys' Choir.

The recording also is notable for its superb late-analogue sound, as derived from Kingsway Hall by producer Christopher Bishop and engineer Michael Sheady. To pick one example, I like the way the important tuba part is notably clear while remaining part of the ensemble. (Edward Greenfield in his Gramophone review identified the tuba player as John Fletcher, who is not credited.)

Front: Janet Baker, Sheila Armstrong, Robert Tear. Rear: Christopher Bishop, André Previn 

Britten called the work a symphony, but it actually is a song cycle with texts chosen primarily from the 13th to 19th century - "Sumer is icumen in" through to John Clare. The 20th century is represented by "Out in the lawn I lie in bed" from W.H. Auden's 1933 poem A Summer Night. The Auden piece, sung by Janet Baker, takes up the central portion of Britten's work, which points up its ominous reference to "Where Poland draws her Eastern bow," adding, "Now ask what doubtful act allows / Our freedom in this English house / Our picnics in the sun." Greenfield notes, "Both Previn and Baker are children of the inter-war years, Previn in Berlin very immediately so."

The London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Kingsway Hall

But the majority of the work is notably sunny, appropriate to one celebrating spring. "Previn goes farther [than Britten] in realizing the dramatic-evocative aspects of the work, as shown in the pointing of instrumental witticisms and the unrestrained enjoyment of the open-end cadenza or bird sounds in 'Spring, the sweet spring'," writes Richard Freed in the Stereo Review. "The overall effect is one of mystic fantasy, evoked to a degree that Britten did not attempt in his own recording." It is this atmosphere that makes the Previn recording such a source of delight.

Britten's music has appeared several times on this blog - vintage recordings of his Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge and A Simple Symphony are newly remastered.

1979 Gramophone ad

Vaughan Williams' Christmas Cantata 'Hodie'

Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote a great deal of Christmas music, primarily carol settings, but also the well-known Fantasia on Christmas Carols, the relatively obscure "masque" On Christmas Night, and this cantata, Hodie.

The work dates from relatively late in the composer's career, in 1953-54, when he was 82. By this time, Vaughan Williams had explored a variety of styles; this work reflects many of them, from the pastoralism of his youth to the visionary quality of The Pilgrim's Progress.

Accordingly, in Hodie he set words from a variety of sources: from the Bible to Myles Coverdale, George Herbert and Thomas Hardy and his wife, the poet Ursula Wood Vaughan Williams.

In this regard, the work's anthology nature is similar, surprisingly, to Benjamin Britten's Spring Symphony of 1949. In that work, the composer remains at some distance from his material; nonetheless, the music is dazzling.

In the same way, Hodie is not consistently in the warm, consoling manner that we associate with holiday fare. This is a much different composition than the Fantasia on Christmas Carols. In his notes, Michael Kennedy notes that the work primarily expresses joyful exuberance, but to me, its visionary quality is to the fore.

The Performance

David Willcocks

Hodie had to wait until 1965 for its first recording, led by David Willcocks, who recorded a great deal of Vaughan Williams' choral music. By this time, the conductor had become well known for his work with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge. He also was the director of the Bach Choir, which performs on this recording. The boys' voices are from Westminster Abbey. The orchestra is the London Symphony. The organist is Philip Ledger, who himself was to become the director of the King's College Choir.

Janet Baker

John Shirley-Quirk

Two of the solo voices were of the generation that came to prominence in the 1960s - mezzo-soprano Janet Baker and bass-baritone John Shirley-Quirk. The other voice was tenor Richard Lewis, who was 20 years older than his colleagues. None of the soloists were particularly associated with Vaughan Williams. This appears to be the only recording of the composer's music from both Baker and Lewis. Shirley-Quirk also can be heard in Willcocks' recording of Sancta Civitas and Previn's of the Sea Symphony. All distinguish themselves in this music, as was their pattern with all their recordings.

A few of the contemporary reviews thought that Willcocks' conducting could have been more incisive, citing the Narrations, which function as recitatives. These do tend to drag as the trebles and organ make their way through the biblical passages. But that's inherent in Vaughan Williams' writing. All told, the work is exceedingly beautiful, although its inspiration is not as consistent as the composer's best works. 

Richard Lewis

The Recording

Hodie was one of the many large-scale recordings of the time to have been recorded in London's Kingsway Hall. The sound on this record is a notable achievement by producer Ronald Kinloch Anderson and engineer Neville Boyling.

Kingsway Hall in 1970 - Sir Adrian Boult is the conductor

For EMI recordings of this vintage, the best sound is generally derived from the UK pressings. In this case, I have transferred my copy from a 1970s-vintage box set of Vaughan Williams' choral music from HMV. That's not to say that it is perfect in all respects: as with many classical LPs, the dynamic range is compressed.

The download includes many contemporary reviews of the LP, the front cover of the original UK Columbia pressing and the back cover from the US issue, which includes the texts.