Neville Dilkes Conducts English Music, Vol. 2

Neville Dilkes' first LP of English music was popular around these parts, so here is the second volume. It was released in early 1972, so it was probably recorded in 1971 - possibly at the same sessions that produced the earlier album.

For this set, the conductor again chose 20th century composers, all of whom were inspired by early music or folk song. George Butterworth returns, joined by Walter Leigh, Peter Warlock, John Ireland and E.J. Moeran.

Neville Dilkes

As with the previous record, the critics were pleased. Here is Edward Greenfield in The Gramophone: "An enchanting collection, every item of which I warmly commend to lovers of English music ... If anything the playing on this second disc from the English Sinfonia is even better than on the first with warm, firm string tone. The recording is vivid and involving in the same way as before, though not surprisingly the harpsichord is balanced very far forward in the Concertino ..."

Walter Leigh

The LP begins with perhaps the least familiar music of all the pieces recorded - the Harpsichord Concertino by Walter Leigh, a highly skilled composer killed in the Second World War at age 36. The work is an utter delight, blending neo-classicism with a pastoral influence in the gorgeous Andante. Pace Mr. Greenfield, but I do not think Dilkes' fluent harpsichord playing is too loud, nor do I agree that the Andante is taken too slowly.

The Holy Boy, a carol, is perhaps the best known work by John Ireland (1879-1962). Originally for piano, it exists in 16 different arrangements by the composer and others Here it is found in the 1941 version for string orchestra.

George Butterworth

Butterworth is represented by his two English Idylls. As Greenfield wrote, they "are less elaborate than the more famous tone poems which Dilkes included on his earlier disc of English music but they reflect a completely uninhibited approach to folk-song, a simple joy in morning - fresh melodies played as often as not on the orchestra's nearest relation to a pastoral reed-pipe, the oboe."

Peter Warlock

From another short-lived composer, Peter Warlock (Philip Heseltine), who lived from 1894-1930, we have his sparkling Capriol Suite of dances, inspired by Renaissance music. This captivating music is perhaps his most popular work, although his best is probably the haunting song cycle The Curlew on Yeats poems. It has appeared here in the recording by Alexander Young and instrumentalists, which is newly remastered. Constant Lambert's recording of the Capriol Suite can be found here.

John Ireland and E.J. Moeran

E.J. Moeran (1894-1950) was a friend of both John Ireland and Peter Warlock. On this LP, we have his Two Pieces for Small Orchestra. The first, Lonely Waters, elaborates on a Norfolk folk song. Its companion, Whythorne's Shadow, takes inspiration from a work by the Elizabethan composer Thomas Whythorne. In both cases, the source works are transformed greatly by Moeran's artistry.

This is another well-recorded and absorbing release from the English Sinfonia and Dilkes. Next in this series is their recording of Moeran's Symphony in G minor.

LINK

Romances and Serenades from Cleveland

My last post from the Clevelanders and conductor Louis Lane elicited a plea from long-time blog follower Douglas (coppinsuk), who wanted to hear the companion LP Romances and Serenades from the same source.

I warned Douglas that my copy is in mono, but that was fine with him, and I hope with you. (The sound is excellent, regardless.)

The previous LP was called Rhapsody, and included the Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 and such. This program has nothing so beefy. In keeping with its title, the works are generally much lighter.

Louis Lane

The longest work is Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending. Britain's Classic FM says it is the nation's favorite classical work - and has been for 11 years.

The retailer Presto Music lists 168 releases of the piece, although presumably with some duplicates. So imagine a world where there was only one recording available - the 1952 effort by Jean Pougnet with Sir Adrian Boult and the London Philharmonic. That was the situation when this performance by Cleveland concertmaster Rafael Druian and the Cleveland Sinfonietta came on the market.

Rafael Druian

The reviewers uniformly praised the performance. Edward Greenfield in The Gramophone wrote, "I have a feeling that the very 'authenticity' of many English performances ... lies more than anything in their very tentativeness musically." He added, "Give me polish and confidence like this ... when it is allied with such warm, genuine emotions."

It's not just Druian who is outstanding here - there are notably assured contributions from the solo clarinet and horn. The cover notes say that the Sinfonietta is composed of "21 first-chair and supporting players from the internationally famous Cleveland Orchestra." This suggests that the musicians may be principal clarinet Robert Marcellus and principal horn Myron Bloom, but we can't be sure.

Druian also is featured in Delius' Serenade from Hassan, along with the orchestra's second harpist, Martha Dalton (who is identified on the label). Greenfield claims the overall performance is "soupy". This is the least successful item on the disc, but also its shortest.

Another English piece is contributed by Peter Warlock, his Serenade for Strings, sometimes called the Serenade for Frederick Delius on His 60th Birthday. Warlock wrote the piece in Delius' style. You can hear Constant Lambert's 1937 and 1941 recordings of the Warlock and Delius compositions via this post.

Much darker hued is the Sibelius Romance in C major of 1903. Greenfield says it emerges from this performance as "something more than an occasional piece."

The lightest work on the program is probably Jean Françaix's Serenade for Small Orchestra, a delightful piece that critics like to call "cheeky," and so it is. This is an accomplished performance, equal to the two previous recordings featured on this blog - a 1939 version from Hamburg under Eugen Jochum, and a 1968 reading from the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and Anshel Brusilow.

I mentioned that this record has fine sound - although I should note that it was bright enough to loosen your fillings until I adjusted the usual 1960s Columbia (and Epic) glare.

Lambert Conducts Warlock, Delius and Lambert

The composer-conductor Constant Lambert has been a periodic subject of posts hereabouts. Today he takes on the music of two people he knew well - "Peter Warlock" (Philip Heseltine) and Frederick Delius, along with his own most famous composition, "The Rio Grande."

Peter Warlock

Philip Heseltine by Gerald Brockhurst

In the 1920s, the young Lambert (1905-1951) was a close friend of the composer Philip Heseltine (1894-1930), who published his music under the name "Peter Warlock," supposedly because of his affinity for the occult.

Heseltine was principally known for his brilliant songs, which have appeared here more than once. His song cycle "The Curlew," set to Yeats, is one of the finest in the English language. Both "The Curlew" and the first work on today's program, the Capriol Suite, betray the influence of Vaughan Williams. The Suite was supposedly based on Renaissance dances, but it is more Warlock's work than any ancient source material.

The second Warlock work is his Serenade to Frederick Delius on His 60th Birthday, from 1922. Heseltine was a confirmed Delius disciple earlier in his life. Although the influence had faded by the time this music was written, this particular piece is a conscious homage to the older composer, and makes a good segue between Warlock's music and Delius' own.

These recordings were made at Abbey Road with the Constant Lambert String Orchestra in 1937.

Frederick Delius

Frederick Delius by Achille Ouvré

In 1938, Lambert was again in Abbey Road, this time with the London Philharmonic and Delius' most famous work, "On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring."

He returned to the studio in 1941 for two interludes from Delius opera, the Serenade from Hassan in Thomas Beecham's edition and "La Calinda" from Koanga as arranged by Eric Fenby. This time the orchestra was the Hallé and the site was the Houldsworth Hall in Manchester.

All these works are nicely handled and the recordings are more suitably atmospheric than those done in 1937.

Lambert's The Rio Grande

Vocal score

Lambert was well aware of currents in music, and was particularly inspired by what he considered jazz. He had been very impressed with the short-lived Florence Mills, whom he had seen in the West End revue Blackbirds in 1926. The composer wrote, "The colour and rhythm of the singing was an absolute revelation of the possibilities of choral writing and this Rio Grande is the first example of a serious and perfectly natural use of jazz technique in a choral work."

All this may be true, but the first name that comes to mind when listening is Gershwin. The writing in the important piano part is Gershwinesque in its rhythms and phrasing. The critic Angus Morrison also cites Liszt's Faust Symphony as a direct influence. Lambert was fond of Liszt; he mined the Abbe for the ballet music Apparitions, done for Sadler's Wells and for a setting of the Dante Sonata for piano and orchestra.

Sacheverall Sitwell

As we have seen before on this blog, Lambert was close with the Sitwells, serving both as conductor and reciter in William Walton's various settings of Edith's Façade. For 1928's The Rio Grande, Lambert set a poetic exercise in exoticism by Sacheverall Sitwell. The poet moved the Rio Grande from North America to South America for the purpose of his verse, and imagines a dream world of dancing and revelers.

"The music of The Rio Grande no more represents any actual scene or event than the poem that inspired it," wrote Lambert. "It is an imaginary picture that it conjures up, a picture of the gay life of a riverside town which may be in either South or North America, as the listener chooses to fancy."

Kyla Greenbaum

The poetry is atmospheric, if dated, but you would have a hard time telling from the woolly diction of the Philharmonia Chorus and even at times the well-known contralto Gladys Ripley. I've included the text for those who want to understand the words. 

The Philharmonia Orchestra plays well for Lambert. The stand-out performance is by pianist Kyla Greenbaum, one exposed slip aside. She did not have a big career, but on this evidence, was a fine talent.

For this recording, Lambert returned to Abbey Road in early 1949, two years before his early death. The recording is good. My transfer of The Rio Grande comes from a 1950s LP reissue on UK Columbia. The other works were remastered from lossless transfers found on Internet Archive and CHARM.

English Songs from Wilfred Brown

The English tenor Wilfred Brown (1921-71) is best known for his recording of Gerald Finzi's "Dies Natalis," which I have cited here before as one of my favorite records.

To my knowledge, Brown did not make other records of similar repertoire. That's why I was so excited to learn of this rare recording, uploaded to another site by my friend David (aka "dances"). It presents Brown in a recital of songs by 20th century English composers, and it is a treasure to those who, like me, love this material.

David, a reader of this site, graciously offered to let me present the record here. I am very grateful for the opportunity.

Wilfred Brown

As noted, Brown is best known for his recording of "Dies Natalis"; he was a friend and associate of the composer, who appears here with three of his settings of Thomas Hardy. Brown was a member of the Deller Consort for some years. He also appeared on recordings of Handel, Purcell, Bach and Haydn, one duo recital with guitarist John Williams and a few other LPs for small labels.

This recital was made for the Jupiter label in 1962. That imprint was apparently started by the business executive T. Wallace Southam, a part-time composer who is represented by two songs on the compilation. One, a setting of "Nemea" by Southam's friend Lawrence Durrell, is quite good.

Beside Finzi and Southam, the other composers represented are Peter Warlock, George Butterworth, W. Denis Browne, Lennox Berkeley, Ivor Gurney and William Walton. Browne, like George Butterworth, perished in World War I. His setting of Richard Lovelace's "To Gratiana singing and dancing" is a high point of the program.

Several of the songs represented have appeared on this blog in other performances. Warlock's "Sleep" can also be found in the Warlock collection from Alexander Young. Butterworth's "Loveliest of Trees," the first song in his first group of Housman settings, "Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad," has appeared here before in the recording by Roy Henderson.

The Walton works comprise his "Three Songs" of 1932. In that group, Walton reset some of the many Façade pieces he composed with Edith Sitwell. These are sung, rather than recited versions that make an interesting contrast to the earlier items, two of which have appeared here before. "Through Gilded Trellises" is contained in the Sitwell-Prausnitz recording of 1949. "Old Sir Faulk" can be heard in the 1929 recording by Constant Lambert and Walton, as well as in a 1950 instrumental version conducted by Lambert, both available via this post.

Accompanying Brown is the excellent Margaret McNamee, who apparently was the singer's regular pianist.

Included in the download are texts of all songs and translations of the two Berkeley items, compiled from web sources, along with a front cover cleaned up from a web source. Good mono sound; David says there doesn't appear to have been a stereo version.

Thanks once again to David for allowing me to make this available here!

Alexander Young in Peter Warlock Songs

I wrote in early 2009 about Alexander Young's recording of Vaughan Williams' settings of poems from Housman's "A Shropshire Lad". I mentioned that work's influence on Peter Warlock's 1920-22 setting of works by William Butler Yeats, "The Curlew". Today we have Young's recording of that setting, together with a fine selection of other songs by the same composer.

As in the previous record, Young is accompanied by the Sebastian String Quartet and pianist Gordon Watson. Lionel Solomon (flute) and Peter Graeme (English horn) are heard on "The Curlew." As before, the recordings originate with Argo and are from slightly later American Westminster pressings.

Alexander Young

Peter Warlock, a pseudonym for Philip Heseltine, mainly wrote songs during his short life, which ended in what is most likely suicide at age 36. He is lightly regarded as a composer - possibly because he was a miniaturist, but his songs are of a very high standard. "The Curlew" cycle is his masterpiece, his music fitting extraordinary well to Yeats' bleak poetry. ("No boughs have withered because of the wintry wind; the boughs have withered because I have told them my dreams.") But the composer responds just as strongly to joyful verse such as the Shakespeare setting "Pretty Ring Time." This dual aspect of Heseltine's work is sometimes thought to express the dual Heseltine/Warlock identity.

Young is the right artist for this work; he encompasses all its facets beautifully, and the other musicians also are excellent. As is standard for Argo recordings of this vintage (1953), the voice is backwardly balanced.

The Argo cover is above; scans of the inappropriate Westminster cover (of Big Ben!) and texts are included in the download.

I have Young's recording of Roger Quilter songs somewhere and will transfer it when I find it.

LINK to June 2025 remastering in ambient stereo