Foulds was a figure
distant from the charmed circle we associate
with the Academy and the College in
London. His music is amongst the most
voluptuously liberated in the English
scene from the first half of the last
century; the least Victorian of voices.
Manchester-born, he
was the son of a Hallé bassoonist.
He joined his father's orchestra in
1900 as a cellist and his insight into
that instrument can be heard in the
mastery of the Cello Sonata (superbly
recorded on the BMS label by Jo
Cole and John Talbot review)
as well as in a compact Cello Concerto
(awaiting a recording premiere; broadcast
by Raphael Wallfisch during the 1980s).
With Holst he was among
the first composers to take a possessed
interest in Indian music. Whether he
would have destroyed his opera Avatara
if he had discussed his work with
Holst many of whose pieces were inspired
by Indian fabulous culture (Savitri,
Sita, the Rig Veda hymns
etc) or perhaps with Cyril Scott we
will never know. However on the evidence
of Three Mantras the opera
must have been an extraordinary work.
Borne of the 1920s, it is modern in
'feel' and boiling with activity in
the first Mantra which has jazzy
overtones and something close to a ‘big
city’ Bernstein feel. The action is
a blend of Stravinsky and Ravel, objective
yet sensuous. The Celestial Awareness
Mantra has the orchestra joined
by female chorus gently vocalising to
‘aaaah’ in a confiding and silvery dream-skein
related partly to Holst's Venus and
Neptune and to the Keatsian dream
of his Choral Symphony 'Underneath
large bluebells tented .... where the
lilies are rose-scented.' The choral
writing acquires a transient ardour
at 7:03 (tr. 2) in much the same way
as in Flos Campi. If you are
looking for music that is still and
balmy yet is not soporific go no further.
I can imagine this second Mantra
working well on BBC Radio 4's meditative-reflective
programme 'Something Understood'. By
contrast the final ‘panel’ is marked
Inesorable (inexorable) which
conjures the effect perfectly. I wondered
at first if Oramo was abandoned enough
for this but he builds up to barbaric
wildness gradually. The music is always
tonal and astonishingly there is no
sign of Foulds' penchant for microtonal
experimentation. This is a maelstrom
of a piece wheeling and streaming with
activity yet never as chaotically or
relentlessly piled high as Mossolov's
Iron Foundry or as Prokofiev's
Ala and Lolly - more akin to
modernised Francesca da Rimini.
There is a Brucknerian pause at 5:03
then a pendant whirlwind bids farewell.
Foulds’ mature orchestral
music is as enigmatic as Havergal Brian's,
as lambent as that of Ravel, as delicate
as Holst, as ecstatic as Scriabin and
as non-conformist as mid-late Frank
Bridge. There is light and air in this
man's music as well as lyrical release.
While Holst's occasional debt to Wagner
is apparent Foulds largely stands clear
of that.
The Lyra Celtica
is a concerto for vocalising
mezzo and orchestra. It comes from a
small corner of the repertoire shared
by the Gliere concerto, the Medtner
Sonata-Vocalise, movements from
the Third Symphonies of Vaughan Williams
and Nielsen, the Fourth Symphony of
Hugo Alfvén and Rachmaninov's
Vocalise. It is a work that transcends
Highland shoddy and tartan curiosities
and reaches out towards the lonely places,
deserted strands and skerries, seas
alive with silvery fish and seals, crashing
breakers and the sunset dreams of Hy-Brasil.
This beautiful work is incomplete although
the two movements presented here take
on a finished sense. I hope that Foulds
expert Malcolm Macdonald will proceed
to realise the remains of the final
movement. Susan Bickley sings most beautifully.
In this demanding score her voice is
called on to perform like a violin;
no words are sung. There are moments
when the vocal line recalls Barber's
Knoxville - an ecstatic innocence,
a knowing sensibility not yet turned
into commonplace. Highlights are numerous
but I loved the transformation into
carefree song at 8:51 (tr. 4) and the
easy languid dance figure at 1.32 (tr.
5). This, by the way, is a work in which
microtonal sways and slides are used
as a perfectly natural extension of
the aural palette. While Foulds wrote
some skilled consumer music (he had
to live!) such as the Keltic Suite,
this work counts as one of the glories
of challengingly imaginative art.
The Apotheosis,
like Lyra, here receives its
first recording. Good to see Daniel
Hope taking a role in the long slow
‘burn’ of the Foulds revival. This overture-length
piece for violin and orchestra is dedicated
to the memory of Joachim although the
brooding quality brought to it by Hope
reminded me instantly of Sarasate and
Saint-Saëns' Iberian pieces. It
rises several times to a clawing heavyweight
statement and then falls away to Beethovenian
and Brahmsian Olympian gravitas. This
is a work in handsome tribute to the
German romantic mainstream.
Mirage has
also been recorded before although without
the polish of this performance. In any
event that Forlane double CD set (UCD
16724/25) with music by Parry and Havergal
Brian is no longer available (unless
you know better). The ADD Forlane recording
was made in July/August 1981 and was
first issued in a 3 LP box. I played
it again for comparison purposes and
despite a gentle rain of hiss this is
not a performance to be dismissed completely.
Hager does wonders with the Luxembourg
Radio Symphony Orchestra but Oramo and
the Birmingham players are more secure
and confident. Not that they are always
to be preferred e.g. at 3.25 the brass
call out more imperiously with Hager.
The Hager version plays for 25:22 against
Oramo's 23:49.
The basic ideas of
this grandiloquent 1910 tone poem are
derived from Foulds' Vision of Dante
cantata. The year before, his Cello
Sonata had included microtonal episodes;
in Mirage he uses them again
at tr.12 1.35 and 2.32 as emblematic
of man's 'ever-unattainment'. The music
has its Straussian and Wagnerian edge
but listen also for Scriabin and Miaskovsky
at tr. 12 (2.22; 3.22). There is some
saw-toothed Tchaikovskian brass as well
as traces of Ravel (Rapsodie Espagnole)
and Rimsky (Antar) (13.00). At
15:00 the crippled splendour of the
music, where textures growl and grind
against each other, is memorable and
is redolent of very early Havergal Brian
such as To Valour. The delirious
birdsong at tr. 13 recalls Bridge's
Enter Spring. The piece ends
in a lullingly repetitive lapping figure
ultimately finding a peculiarly lonely
and lovely major key peace. This grows
on you with repeated hearings.
The notes could not
be more authoritative. They are by Malcolm
Foulds whose Triad Press (later Pro-Am)
book kindled the Foulds interest in
the earliest 1970s. There is also a
valuable and humanisingly biographical
sketch by Foulds' son Patrick (b. 1915).
There is no direct
competition for this disc. The Mantras
can still be had in their Lyrita
recording (SRCD 212) from Harold Moores
in London. The Lyrita disc has Le
Cabaret (a flouncy ebullient gem
of an overture), April-England (a
masterpiece of the standing of Enter
Spring), the Pasquinade No. 2
(No. 1 is in the Forlane set) and
Hellas as well as the Mantras.
Barry Wordsworth conducts the LPO. review
By a slight whisker Wordsworth makes
something more impactfully turbulent
of the final Mantra than Oramo;
the Finnish conductor is a noticeable
minute slower in the Mantra of Bliss.
Timings are not drastically adrift from
each other:-
Wordsworth Oramo
Mantra 1 5:23 6:04
Mantra 2 13:01 14:08
Mantra 3 6:44 6:57
However the two discs
are pretty much complementary in repertoire
terms. If you have to have just one
orchestral Foulds disc on your shelves
the Warner is the one to choose. It
is a triumph and offers one major work
after another in inspirational performances
spanning 78 minutes as opposed to the
61 minutes of the Lyrita. Lyra Celtica,
for all of its severed torso, is
a work soused in quintessential folk
melody: it crowns this treasurable release.
When will we hear Foulds’ World Requiem
or its a cappella counterpart, Julius
Harrison’s Requiem of Archangels?
Rob Barnett
See also review
by John Talbot
also of interest
John
FOULDS (1880-1939)
Le Cabaret, Op. 72a (1921) [3’31].
April – England, Op. 48 No. 1.
Hellas, A Suite of Ancient Greece, Op.
45 (1932) [18’03]. Three Mantras,
Op. 61b (1919-1930) [25’49]. London
Philharmonic Orchestra/Barry Wordsworth.
No rec. information given. DDD LYRITA
SRCD212 [61’07] [CC]
A
remarkable disc, and an essential introduction
to a composer whose music cries out
for greater recognition … For the
Mantras alone, this disc deserves the
highest recommendation possible.
Ralph
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958)
Piano Concerto in C (1926-33 with revised
1946 ending) [27’45]. John FOULDS
(1880-1939) Dynamic Triptych, Op. 88
(1929) [29’16]. Howard Shelley
(piano); Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Vernon
Handley. No rec. info. DDD LYRITA RECORDED
EDITION SRCD211 [57’05]
If
you are buying this for the Vaughan
Williams, you will not be disappointed.
And you may just find your mouth agape
at the marvels of the Foulds.
JOHN FOULDS
(1880-1939) Works for string
quartet Quartetto Intimo (1935)
32.32 Quartetto Geniale
(1935) 7.33 Aquarelles (1921)
12.51
Endellion Quartet rec St Peter's, Notting
Hill Gate, 25/26 July 1981
PEARL SHE CD 9564 [53.39] [RB]
Do
not forget this simply superb Foulds
disc. Foulds captured in all his dangerous
and tumultuously inventive lyricism.
JOHN
FOULDS by Malcolm Macdonald - a
pre-concert talk
Concert
review Foulds, Prokofiev, Stravinsky;
Akiko Suwanai (violin) Leon McCawley
(piano), City of Birmingham Symphony
Orchestra, Sakari Oramo, Symphony Hall,
Birmingham, 10th February 2004 (CT)
Concert
Review Richard Strauss and John
Foulds, CBSO/Sakari Oramo, Symphony
Hall, Birmingham, Wednesday 25 February
2004 (RB)
