This CD represents the work of the British Music
Society at its most vital, issuing a splendid disc of the criminally
neglected orchestral music of South African born, Francophile
British composer John Joubert. It couples two 1980s commissions
from the English String Orchestra, purveyors of many celebrated
Nimbus recordings, with the much earlier Sinfonietta. The
Proust-inspired Temps Perdu consists of a theme and four
variations upon it, each given a French subtitle. Its origins
are in a revised and extended piece of the composer's juvenilia.
The relevance of the last comment is only that, like Proust's
famous series of novels, the piece is intimately related to memories.
The connection is strengthened by the incorporation of a theme
from Saint-Saëns' D minor Violin Sonata, one central
to Proust's Swann's Way as the composer explains in his
illuminating booklet notes. The music itself is graceful, restrained,
warm, emotive and suitably nostalgic though not in a saccharine
way. I was reminded at various points of, perhaps unsurprisingly,
Ravel, Berkeley and maybe even Tippett. The string writing is
elegant and skilfully wrought to produce a work that truly sings
and deserves, to my mind, to sit as an equal alongside the best
of British music for string orchestra. The most obvious comparison
is perhaps Britten's great Frank Bridge Variations but
Joubert is bigger on beauty than irony or bleakness. On this recording
the composer was proud to have his son, ESO member Pierre, take
one of the solo violin parts.
The Sinfonietta of 1962 is scored for
chamber forces - two oboes, two bassoons, two horns plus strings.
Although cast in two movements, the second contains two distinct
sections, with the concluding Allegro related to the first
movement. Given the instrumentation, it is unsurprising to find
that the textures are translucent and the music concise. In addition
to the composers mentioned above, late Sibelius, e.g. 6th
Symphony, Tapiola, crosses the mind here in the scurrying
rhythms, although the overwhelming influence remains fairly Gallic-
with a Poulenc-like neo-classicism in the climaxes. The Molto
moderato, the first part of the second movement, opens with
haunting, pastoral oboe music before the horns usher in a more
expansive string section. This increases in urgency until the
piece comes full circle as it revisits its opening themes.
The song-cycle for baritone, The Instant Moment,
is the most recent work and generally adopts tempi slower than
those of the non-vocal pieces, lending it a somewhat more romantic
character. Henry Herford sings the D.H. Lawrence settings as if
his life depends on it and the work as a whole is not quite like
anything else in British music. The particular poems set deal
mainly with Lawrence's developing relationship with his future
wife Frieda when they had eloped to the continent in 1912. Bei
Hennef opens the cycle in blissful fashion, with Joubert's
strings imitating the little River Sieg in the Rhineland perfectly,
but the following Loggerheads is far more animated - a
highly melodic but still disturbed faster piece. The composer
sees the poem as prefiguring "some of Lawrence and Frieda's notorious
rows". December Night is overtly romantic, maybe even erotic
and certainly finds Joubert at his most Wagnerian. The music here
is almost lush, certainly compared to the Sinfonietta.
The closing Moonrise is a fitting climax to both piece
and disc as a whole. Again the composer shows his expertise in
matching musical mood perfectly to the poem, in this case an almost
mystical although emotional meditation on the theme of "true love
as everlasting, as 'a thing beyond the grave'".
The Instant Moment is Joubert's Op. 110
and it is both regrettable and unbelievable that virtually none
of his other music has been made available in recorded form, other
than what is on this disc and the odd compilation featuring his
religious works. There is more than ample evidence here to suggest
that this unsatisfactory state of affairs is long overdue to be
rectified. Anyone out there at Naxos or the rejuvenated Nimbus
fancy taking it on? There is surely an audience just waiting to
hear music of such quality and accessibility. Recommended unreservedly.
Neil Horner
British Music
Society
for
details 
Henry Herford, baritone
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