David Lloyd-Jones
continues his impressive series of British music recordings
for Naxos with two ballets by Sir Arthur Bliss.
Mêlée Fantasque
is a short score, which was prompted by Bliss’s enthusiasm for
Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. It was inspired by the work of the
painter and theatrical designer, Claude Lovat Fraser. It’s an
abstract work but the apparent lack of a plot didn’t inhibit
Bliss from writing a vital and often energetic piece. I think
it’s significant that the work dates from the same period as
the marvellous Colour Symphony, premièred at the
1922 Three Choirs Festival. Mêlée Fantasque displays
the same confidence, boldness even, in handling an orchestra.
The piece is excitingly done here and it’s easy to see why this
attractive and colourful work was one of the composer’s own
favourites.
Checkmate is
a more substantial work in every respect. Composed between 1936
and 1937 it was first seen in Paris in June 1937.That première
must have been a glittering occasion for the cast included many
leading British dancers enacting choreography by Dame Ninette
de Valois and Constant Lambert was in the pit to conduct. The
music has been recorded before but mostly in incomplete form.
Vernon Handley made a fine recording of some of the movements
for EMI and Lloyd-Jones himself recorded the Prologue and five
dances for Hyperion (now on Helios CDH 55699). However, I was
surprised to find that there has only been one other recording
of the complete score. That was made back in 2001 for ASV by
Barry Wordsworth conducting the Royal Ballet Sinfonia. It comes
on a two-disc set, entitled “A Tribute to Madam”, containing
four ballet scores by different composers, all of which were
written for Dame Ninette. That’s a recording that I haven’t
heard.
So this present
performance represents my first exposure to the complete score
and mighty impressive it is. I was smitten with the extracts
that I’d heard previously but everything makes so much more
sense when heard in the context of the full ballet. And I don’t
think I could have hoped to encounter it for the first time
more auspiciously than through this masterly and vital performance.
Lloyd-Jones, as
an experienced man of the theatre, albeit more in the opera
house, obviously has an excellent feel for dramatic pacing and
he shapes the music superbly. In his hands the Prelude has brooding
tension and ample power but the following Dance of the Red Pawns
is completely different in character. This is an exuberant and
almost light-hearted dance and Lloyd-Jones catches the change
of mood splendidly in his lively, well-sprung reading. I admired
the tremendous swagger and panache with which the RSNO plays
the Dance of the Four Knights while the Red Knight’s Mazurka
has great verve.
Moving further into
the drama we encounter music not usually heard on disc. The
Attack is played with tremendous drive. Bliss scoring in this
section is particularly vivid and Lloyd-Jones presents the music
marvellously. This movement contains some really thrilling and
brazen climaxes and the Naxos engineers report these passages
very well and truthfully. The movement that follows, the Duel,
in which the Red Knight and the Black Queen tussle for supremacy,
has tremendous dramatic thrust in this performance. After the
ferocity and tension of the fight and the treacherous slaying
of the Red Knight by his adversary there’s a moment of real
pathos in the plangent cor anglais solo. The Finale is dispatched
with real bite and drive, with the brutality of the Red King’s
death conveyed with enormous power.
This ballet must
be one of the very finest to be produced by a British composer.
It’s superbly served here. I don’t know if this release was
designed to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Bliss
but whether intentional or not this performance of Checkmate,
indeed the whole CD, is a most fitting tribute to a composer
who is still grossly underrated.
The playing of the
RSNO is most exciting. They sound really committed to the music
and that, of course, is due in large measure to the leadership
of David Lloyd-Jones, who is being revealed, with the support
of Naxos, as a doughty champion of British music. The sound
is full, red-blooded and detailed and presents Bliss’s exciting
and resourceful orchestration quite magnificently. Finally,
the liner note by Andrew Burn is first rate. His synopsis of
Checkmate is an excellent guide to the score and, very
sensibly and helpfully, Naxos have tracked each of the twelve
dances separately.
This is an absolutely
splendid release, which will be indispensable listening for
all admirers of Sir Arthur Bliss and which should be investigated
urgently by all enthusiasts for British music. I recommend this
CD without reservation. I’m sure it will be on my shortlist
of Recordings of the Year.
John Quinn
Royal Scottish National
Orchestra/David Lloyd-Jones
