From the Back Room: Historic Delius from Toye, Barbirolli and May Harrison

The music of Frederick Delius (1862-1934) is an acquired taste, but, as the saying goes, it is a taste worth acquiring. Today's program includes fine performances by artists who were devoted to his music, almost all of which were made during the final years of the composer's life, when he was increasingly infirm and eventually blind.

On the program are orchestral works conducted by Geoffrey Toye and John Barbirolli, and the Sonata No. 1 with violinist May Harrison and pianist Arnold Bax, better known as a composer.

Geoffrey Toye Conducts

Geoffrey Toye

The name Geoffrey Toye (1889-1942) will be unfamiliar to most people, so a few words of introduction follow. He was a conductor, composer and opera producer best remembered for his leadership of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and association with Sadler's Wells. His principal composition was the ballet The Haunted Ballroom. This program includes a recording of a waltz from that work as a bonus.

As it happened, Toye's only commercial recordings were of Delius' music. These include "On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring" and "In a Summer Garden" with the London Symphony in 1928, and "Summer Night on the River" with the New Symphony Orchestra the following year. All are very well done, giving a good representation of the music, and are a credit to Toye's memory.

Toye died of lung damage sustained in the London blitz. The conductor Sidney Torch recorded the waltz from Toye's The Haunted Ballroom with his orchestra in 1947.

John Barbirolli Conducts

John Barbirolli

The conductor John Barbirolli (later Sir John) was a strong proponent of the composers Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Delius. He began recording in 1927; one of the first pieces he chose was Delius' "Summer Night on the River" for the National Gramophonic Society, soon followed by an HMV recording of "A Song Before Sunrise" in 1928. The latter, with the New Symphony, is included in this program.

We then jump ahead to 1948 for "Deux Aquarelles" with the Hallé Orchestra, which body Sir John conducted from 1943 until his death in 1970. The Aquarelles are arrangements for string orchestra by Eric Fenby made from two songs without words that Delius had composed for chorus in 1917. Fenby was the composer's amanuensis during his last years - and himself made excellent recordings of Delius' music in the 1970s.

May Harrison and the Sonata No. 1

May Harrison

The violinist May Harrison (1890-1959) and her sister Beatrice were close associates of Delius. He wrote his Double Concerto for them and his Violin Sonata No. 3 for May.

Arnold Bax

May recorded the Sonata No. 1 for HMV in 1929; the piano part was taken by the composer Arnold Bax, who may have being making his only recording as an instrumentalist. In any event, he is quite good - and Harrison is of course authoritative.

Although she often performed the sonata, Harrison preferred the composer's music with orchestra. "Of Delius's music nothing can to me surpass in beauty and poignancy the end of his Village Romeo and Juliet, or the beginning of Sea Drift. His chamber music is a mere drop in the ocean, so to speak, for he always thought in terms of the orchestra," she said, in a 1945 talk on the composer. The violinist Midori Komachi expands on this with reference to the Sonata: "Delius came back to his initial sketches of the Sonata in 1914, then with a mind full of orchestral sounds. Inevitably, harmonic colours and [a] stream of chromaticism are explored as if the violin and piano could sound like an orchestra."

Delius wrote his Caprice and Elegy for Beatrice Harrison. She recorded it, scored and conducted by Fenby, in 1930. It can be found in a previous collection of historic Delius performances that also includes: the Violin Concerto with Albert Sammons and conductor Malcolm Sargent; the Piano Concerto with Benno Moiseiwitsch and conductor Constant Lambert; and Lambert conducting "On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring," the Intermezzo and Serenade from Hassan, and "La Calinda" from Koanga.

The download includes a 1985 issue of The Delius Journal devoted to the Harrison sisters.

* * *

The sound on all of today's selections is quite good, even though most of them are nearly 100 years old. On a few of the disks there is some background rustle.

Addendum: reader Andrew has kindly provided a link to Ken Russell's classic film on Delius and Fenby, A Song of Summer. It's available under the name Delius as I Knew Him on YouTube.

LINK to the Toye and Barbirolli recordings

LINK to the Harrison-Bax sonata recording

Neville Dilkes Conducts English Music, Vol. 1

The conductor Neville Dilkes, who died recently aged 94, did not make many records, but the ones he did fashion are widely admired both for their performances and their sound.

This is his first record, dating from 1971, where he led his own group the English Sinfonia in 20th century music by George Butterworth, Hamilton Harty, Frank Bridge and Arnold Bax.

Neville Dilkes

Dilkes formed the English Sinfonia as the Midlands Sinfonia in 1961, eventually locating it in Nottingham, although the ensemble played throughout the Midlands. The Sinfonia is still is existence, although it now performs in Chesham, near London. The Sinfonia's website does not mention Dilkes or his passing, as far as I can tell.

The Gramophone's critic Edward Greenfield was pleased by the LP: "The performances are immensely enjoyable, bound as they are by the obvious warmth and enthusiasm of the players, and presented with rich and immediate sound." He does, however, complain about the string tone, which is, as he mentions, is not always ideally sweet and precise.

Hamilton Harty

The first side of the LP contains lighter music, starting with composer-conductor Hamilton Harty's seldom-recorded John Field Suite of 1939, a tribute to the Irish composer who lived from 1782-1837. The work begins with an bouncy polka, moderating to a lovely nocturne and waltz, followed by a lively rondo.

Arnold Bax

The first side is completed by what might be Arnold Bax's cheeriest work, the Dance in the Sunlight, one of his Four Orchestral Pieces of 1912-13.

George Butterworth

The second side begins with the two best known works by George Butterworth, who died in the First World War - the orchestral rhapsody A Shropshire Lad of 1911 and the idyll The Banks of Green Willow of 1913. The latter in particular is now well-known. Both of Butterworth's pieces make skillful use of folk song, with A Shropshire Lad also being inspired by A.E. Housman's poetry.

Greenfield's view: "Neville Dilkes's interpretations are urgent, even thrustful, and though no doubt some Butterworth devotees will prefer something more contemplative, I must say that this approach quickly had me sympathising."

Frank Bridge

Frank Bridge has the indignity of being best known as Benjamin Britten's teacher, but he was a composer of atmospheric, evocative works such as There is a Willow grows aslant a Brook, prompted by Queen Gertrude's description in Hamlet of the death of Ophelia. This work contests with The Banks of Green Willow for the finest music on the LP. It is haunting.

"Bridge's There is a Willow grows aslant a Brook is the subtlest and most difficult of the pieces here," wrote Greenfield, "and it receives the finest performance, a formidable challenge well taken."

As usual with these posts, the download includes the review quoted above; also, an article on Dilkes from the same magazine and year. A second post will include Dilkes conducting more music by Butterworth along with compositions by Walter Leigh, Peter Warlock, John Ireland and E.J. Moeran.

LINK

Christmas Music by Bax, Holst, Rutter and Vaughan Williams

A quick post to conclude the Christmas season here - a very good LP of music by or arranged by the English composers Arnold Bax, Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams and John Rutter.

The performers are the Plymouth Festival Chorus and Orchestra, a Minneapolis organization, under their long-time director Philip Brunelle. This record dates from 1984. It is a follow-up to a 1983 LP I shared last year.

Philip Brunelle conducts

The most interesting music on the LP is the contribution by Arnold Bax, his "Five Fantasies on Polish Carols." The carols themselves are lovely, and are set off by Bax's heavily chromatic orchestral style, such a contrast to the simple carols. The effect is heightened by the charming performance of the Bel Canto Voices, a choir of high school-age girls.

Sir Arnold Bax

The Holst carols come from 1907 and were originally set with piano accompaniment. Producer Cary John Franklin contributed the effective orchestrations heard here.

John Rutter is famous for his carol settings today; even 40 years ago he was renowned for his music. This LP adds seven of his works to the like number contained on the 1983 album I mentioned above. Also, a few weeks ago I shared a "Carols for Choirs" LP that includes five of his compositions.

Today's album share is completed by that Vaughan Williams seasonal staple, the "Fantasia on Greensleeves."

My best wishes to everyone for a fine holiday!

LINK

A Garland for the Queen

To celebrate a coronation 70 years ago, the Arts Council of Great Britain commissioned 10 leading composers to provide choral works in honor of the new Queen, Elizabeth II. In doing so, it was in effect recreating the famous choral compilation, The Triumphs of Oriana, that had attended the accession of Elizabeth I nearly 400 years earlier.

Sheet music

The resulting Garland for the Queen is unlikely to leave such a lasting impression, and was not particularly well received following its premiere by the Cambridge University Madrigal Society in the Royal Festival Hall. As critic John France noted, "it is conventionally regarded as being a generically substandard work from its ‘composer collective’."

That said, it is hard not to enjoy the works as prepared by the "collective" - Arthur Bliss, Arnold Bax, Michael Tippett, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Lennox Berkeley, John Ireland, Herbert Howells, Gerald Finzi, Alan Rawsthorne and Edmund Rubbra. The first performance was led by Boris Ord, who recently appeared here leading music for an Easter service. He and his choir then recorded the program for a 1953 UK Columbia LP.

Today's post is devoted to what I believe to be the second recording of the "garland," as done by the Exultate Singers, conducted by Garrett O'Brien. That ensemble was previously heard here in a program of choral music composed for the 1953 coronation. (Both records were issued to commemorate the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977.) The Singers also have appeared on the blog in a Vaughan Williams choral program.

Ad in The Gramophone, June 1977

In his Gramophone review, Roger Fiske wrote that the Singers "have a clean fresh youthful quality, especially the two soprano soloists. They have all been meticulously trained and agreeably recorded." He did complain about the sameness of the settings and the inability to understand the texts.

The latter complaint is a valid one, especially so in that RCA did not include texts with the LP. It's a shame because the words are by notable poets of the time - Henry Reed, Clifford Bax, Christopher Fry, Ursula Wood, Paul Dehn, James Kirkup, Walter de la Mare, Edmund Blunden, Louis MacNeice and Christopher Hassall. I have partially remedied the text void by hunting down the words for six of the 10 compositions.

Southwark Cathedral

I believe this program was recorded in London's Southwark Cathedral, where O'Brien was on the music staff.

In the process of posting three of the Exultate Singers' LPs, I have yet to find a photo of the group or its conductor. There is an ensemble with the same name today, but it doesn't seem to be related. RCA managed to misspell O'Brien's first name on the cover of this LP. Sic transit gloria mundi musicale.

ADDENDUM - A friend of the blog found a photo of Garrett O'Brien and the Exultate Singers, dating from a program in Grimsby, England in 1972 and taken from the local Evening Telegraph. He admits it is "laughably poor," but we can see O'Brien at the left and note that he wore sideburns in the fashion of the time, also glasses. See below.

More British Film Music of the 40s

A few years ago I put up a fairly extensive compilation of British film music from the 1940s in vintage performances. Here is a supplement, covering some notable pieces left out of the first collection, including music by Hubert Bath, Richard Addinsell and Arnold Bax.

Bath - Cornish Rhapsody

Hubert Bath wrote many film scores and much other music, but will be remembered most for his "Cornish Rhapsody," one of the best of the quasi-concertos that followed the success of Richard Addinsell's "Warsaw Concerto" of 1941.

Bath wrote the "Cornish Rhapsody" for the 1944 film Love Story, a wildly melodramatic love triangle set in Cornwall, with one character dying of heart disease and another going blind. Margaret Lockwood is the former party, a composer-pianist who writes and performs the Rhapsody during the proceedings.

Margaret Lockwood in Love Story

Hubert Bath

Lockwood could play piano, so she reportedly is convincing in the part. The performance heard on the soundtrack, however, was by Harriet Cohen, a distinguished pianist who also features in the Bax score discussed below. 

The composer conducts the London Symphony for this well recorded performance.

Addinsell - Music from Blithe Spirit

Noel Coward's 1941 stage fantasy, Blithe Spirit, was adapted for the screen in 1945. Margaret Rutherford, Fay Compton and Kay Hammond returned from the West End cast, but Rex Harrison replaced Cecil Parker. The American poster above claimed it was a "spicy screen comedy" and "in Blushing TECHNICOLOR," although it is hardly spicy and would make no one blush. It is witty and diverting, however.

Director David Lean and Richard Addinsell

This supernatural comedy did not call for the sort of pianistic dramatics that Richard Addinsell had employed for Dangerous Moonlight's concerto. These two excerpts - the Prelude and a Waltz - are much lighter in tone while conveying a bit of unease, in keeping with the goings-on in the film.

These recordings are again from the London Symphony, with the ubiquitous Muir Mathieson at the podium.

Bax - Music from Oliver Twist

David Lean was also the director for the 1948 film adaptation of Dickens' Oliver Twist. The film turned out to be both highly influential and controversial for what was considered to be an anti-semitic portrayal of Fagin.

The music for Oliver Twist was by Sir Arnold Bax (1883-1953), who wrote relatively little towards the end of his life, but did score a few films. The recorded excerpts include the "Oliver Theme," "The Pickpocketing," "The Chase," "Fagin's Romp" and "The Finale." Muir Mathieson conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Harriet Cohen and Arnold Bax in 1921

Harriet Cohen is featured in the "Oliver Theme," which is lovely but diffuse, as Bax's music tended to be. "The Pickpocketing," "The Chase" and "Fagin's Romp" are largely busy music. "The Finale" is Elgarian, which would seem suited to the tale's uplifting ending.

Muir Mathieson in commanding form

The sound is very good in the Bath and Addinsell pieces, which come from 78s. The Oliver Twist music is from a 10-inch LP that also includes the "Cornish Rhapsody" and the "Warsaw Concerto." I've chosen to use a 78 transfer for the Rhapsody because it had better sound. The "Warsaw Concerto" can be found in my first compilation of British film music, taken from 78s. That collection also incudes my personal favorite of the quasi-concertos, Charles Williams' "Dream of Olwen" from While I Live.

The 78s are remastered from Internet Archive sources. The LP can be found in my collection. The download includes labels, cover scans and reviews.

Music for 1940s British Films, Plus Songs for a Change of Seasons

Muir Mathieson

This post supersedes and builds on one from the early days of the blog devoted to music from British films of the 1940s. It now is more than twice as extensive - including 16 examples drawn from the best films composers of the era - Vaughan Williams, Rosza, Addinsell, Mischa Spoliansky, Allan Gray, Bax, Alwyn, Ireland, Charles Williams and Arthur Benjamin - all in vintage performances. These come primarily from two albums, as detailed below.

Also today, to mark the transition between seasons, David F. has provided us with two of his fine compilations.

Summer Turns to Autumn

David has prepared a set of songs both for the waning of summer and for the coming of fall - "A Farewell to Summer" and "Autumn Auguries." These total 60 selections by artists known and obscure, as always well programmed and carefully considered. The downloads (links in comments) include David's thoughts on the music and the seasons.

One of our readers recently called his compilations "brilliant" - and I won't disagree!

'Music for Films' - the Columbia Entré LP

My 2009 post was mainly devoted to an early 50s Columbia Entré LP, Music for Films, which was almost entirely composed of British releases of the 1940s. The various recordings originated with EMI, and included performances by the Queen's Hall Light Orchestra as conducted by Charles Williams or Sidney Torch, and the Philharmonia conducted by Ernest Irving.

Here is what I wrote about these recordings a decade ago, much augmented.

The only well-known item on the record is the one American item, Miklos Rózsa's music from Spellbound, here in a performance led by Charles Williams.

The best-known composer represented is Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose beautiful score for the Loves of Joanna Godden was almost unknown until a more recent re-recording. Here the music is performed by the Philharmonia and Irving, the music director of Ealing Studios.

 

Ernest Irving and Ralph Vaughan Williams at a recording session

The little-known composer Allan Gray appears with two very effective items - the memorable prelude from Stairway to Heaven and the theme from This Man Is Mine. These pieces are apparently all that was ever recorded of Gray's film music. The composer left Germany after the ascension of the Nazis, as did Mischa Spoliansky, also represented in the collection.

Mischa Spoliansky

Much of the Entré LP, in fact, is devoted to three pieces by the now little-known (but very talented) Spoliansky. His "A Voice in the Night," from Wanted for Murder, is one of the most effective of the many quasi-romantic film concertos that turned up following the 1941 success of Richard Addinsell's "Warsaw Concerto." The album also contains Spoliansky's music from Idol of Paris and That Dangerous Age.

Lord Berners in repose

Finally, the Entré LP includes the Nicholas Nickleby music from the eccentric composer-novelist-painter Lord Berners (Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson), who wrote concert as well as film music and was a friend of Constant Lambert and William Walton. I don't care for Berners' music, but he cut quite a figure!

'Film Music' - the 1947 Decca-London Album

Like EMI, UK Decca was active in the film music realm during the 1940s. I have included a new transfer of a six-sided 78 album, Film Music, from the London Symphony and Muir Mathieson, the music director for a large number of British films.

Mathieson's set is largely given over to composers better known for concert than film music. It leads off with one of the most beautiful themes ever written by Vaughan Williams - the hymn-like Epilogue from the film 49th Parallel.

Arthur Benjamin

Next is what is possibly Arthur Benjamin's greatest hit - the "Jamaican Rhumba" of 1938, which doesn't seem to be film music at all [thanks Boursin for the tip!]. Benjamin's other popular favorite ishis "Storm Clouds Cantata" (not included here), featured at the climactic moments of both versions of Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Sir Arnold Bax's music for the short film Malta G.C. was one of his few scores for the screen. It concludes with an Elgarian march.

William Alwyn

We return to Jamaica for another well-known use of its music, as captured in William Alwyn's score for The Notorious Gentleman. Neither the Alwyn nor Benjamin pieces were what you would call authentic, but are enjoyable nonetheless. Alwyn was equally renowned for his film and concert scores.

The final composer in this set - John Ireland - only composed for one film, The Overlanders, which involved a cattle drive in Australia. (One wonders how they attracted people into the theaters for that scenario.) Ireland was an uneven composer, and this is not among his best work, although it has enjoyed several recordings, all of which I seem to own.

Bonus Items

Richard Addinsell

The talented Richard Addinsell was not represented on either album above, but I have added two of his finest themes as a bonus. First is the original recording of music from Passionate Friends by the Philharmonia Orchestra and Muir Mathieson, which comes from another Entré album that otherwise does not contain film music. (Parenthetically, I saw David Lean's Passionate Friends a long time ago, and remember it as excellent.)

I also wanted to include perhaps the most popular and influential piece of film scoring from that period - Addinsell's "Warsaw Concerto" from Dangerous Moonlight. Here from the original 78, Muir Mathieson conducts the London Symphony with uncredited pianist Louis Kentner.

As a final bonus, I have included the "Dream of Olwen" music from While I Live, another notable quasi-concerto of the period. The composer was Charles Williams, who conducted several of the works on the Entré LP above. In this recording William Hill-Bowen was the pianist, with George Melachrino leading his orchestra on an HMV 78.

All transfers are from my collection, except for the bonus items, which are remastered from lossless needle-drops from CHARM and the Internet Archive. The sound is good in all cases.

20th Century Music for Clarinet and Piano

Stanley Drucker is one of the best known clarinet players of the recent past but he has made relatively few solo recordings. Here is one from 1971 with five excellent works from eminent 20th century composers. The Odyssey LP pairs Drucker with pianist Leonid Hambro, himself a distinguished figure.

Stanley Drucker

Drucker, born in 1929, was the principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic for an amazing 49 years, from 1960 until 2009. He was with the orchestra for more than 62 years - his entire working career.

Leonid Hambro

Hambro (1920-2006) made a number of recordings early in his career for such labels as Allegro, but later became known for his comedic bent. He spent a decade as the sidekick of Victor Borge, and appeared on P.D.Q Bach and Gerard Hoffnung programs. He also collaborated with synthesizer player Gershon Kingsley for a record of Switched-On Gershwin. He was a talented accompanist as well.

For this LP, Drucker and Hambro programmed Leonard Bernstein's early and enjoyable Sonata, Sonatinas from Darius Milhaud and Arthur Honegger, Debussy's brief Petite Piece for clarinet and piano, and a typically discursive but lovely sonata by Sir Arnold Bax.

I suspect that this was an independent production that Drucker and Hambro brought to Columbia, which put it out on its budget Odyssey label, mainly devoted to reissues. The sound is vivid but it does compress the dynamic range of the performance.

I transferred the LP is response to a request on a classical sharing site, but I thought some readers here might enjoy it as well.

Circa 1970s ad