HERITAGE AND LEGACY
ELGAR Enigma Variations
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Fantasia on a theme
by Thomas Tallis
Frederic AUSTIN
Overture - The Sea Venturers
MACKENZIE Prelude to
Colomba
STANFORD Seamus O'Brien
RLPO/Douglas
Bostock
RLPO LIVE RLCD
301
Crotchet
AmazonUK
AmazonUS
The "heritage and legacy" is that of the so-called English Renaissance: five
works from the period 1883-1934. Two are well known, hackneyed almost; the
very acceptable performances of Elgar's Enigma and Vaughan
Williams' Tallis Fantasia do not supplant the best versions of
each currently available. What makes the issue outstanding and even important
are the three shorter pieces, all in a sense "firsts" for all that these
take up barely a third of this disc. Frederic Austin is best remembered
nowadays as the arranger of The Beggar's Opera, a version enormously
popular in the early 1920s and for long after. He was brought up in Liverpool
and his overture The Sea Venturers (1934) is a tribute to that city
and its mariners. It is written for a large, Richard Straussian orchestra
and begins stormily, even dissonantly, but gradually becomes broader and
more mellow, ending in a blaze of confidence. I am surprised to hear it has,
according to Lewis Foreman's admirable booklet notes, only previously been
performed five times. Surely it is due for another run in the concert hall.
Mackenzie's Prelude to his opera Colomba (1883) is marvellously,
prodigally tuneful and again the RLPO are again good advocates for it.
Stanford's overture to his lightest and probably most popular opera,
Shamus O'Brien (1896) has not been recorded since 78 rpm days and
then not complete. It draws on two traditional Irish melodies and skips happily
along. I applaud Douglas Bostock's and the RLPO's enterprise (and excellent
playing) and recommend the release warmly.
Philip Scowcroft
