Morton Gould fared
best when concise. Symphonically he
was somewhat unconvincing but when dealing
with taut structures he was capable
of considerable refinement and tangible
nuance.
The Jekyll and Hyde
Variations were premiered by Mitropoulos,
who’d commissioned them, in 1957. If
they show a deferment to the Schoenbergian
model then one can also note that Gould
was never able entirely to suppress
his gift and such moments of beauty
as there are in the score owe everything
to his inherent broadmindedness. There
is a theme and thirteen variations,
lasting a good twenty-one minutes in
this performance under the late Kenneth
Schermerhorn, one of whose last recordings
this must have been. Timbrally Gould
is alert to texture and refinement,
to colouristic opportunities. So the
clarinet dominates the second variation
and the third is generously lyric. String
vigour is answered by communal chatter
in the fourth and the expressionist
moments of the fifth clarify into more
overt impressionist lyricism. So it
goes, with darker models and lighter
ones coalescing throughout. Those darker
moments are exemplified by the grotesque
dance of the eighth, the snarling brass
of the twelfth, the fractious brass
and percussion outbursts of the seventh.
Equally there is the quiescent, unresolved
unease of the last and the genuinely
compact but attractive colours Gould
evokes throughout.
The companion work
Fall River Legend is much better
known, albeit usually in the shape of
the concert suite (such as in Howard
Hanson’s wonderful old recording). Here
the Lizzie Borden-based scenario is
enacted in full ballet guise. It’s a
much more amenable score stylistically
than its disc companion. It includes
the narration in the Prologue (James
F Neal) and covers a great deal of timbral
and colouristic ground, from the piano-laced
aesthetics of the Waltzes, the warm
coursing trumpet of the Elegy and plenty
of tense music depicting the psycho-drama
enacted in the story-line. There’s a
sinister little lullaby for instance
to go alongside the diaphanous, refined
scoring of the Serenade and mounting
string tension with the religiose and
hymnal buffeted by a swirling string
melos. The influence of Copland is apparent
(I sense it most overtly in the brassy
Church Social) but also some
impressionist fingerprints that so atmospherically
point the spectral delicacy of the flute
– so powerful and compact – in the Cotillion
Coda. The tolling bells and drum
roll at the end may be an alternative
historical construct - Borden famously
escaped the gallows - but the internal
logic of the ballet has its own perfect
symmetry. It’s a splendid score and
how pleasurable to hear it in full,
not least under the sympathetic direction
of Schermerhorn and his Nashville forces.
The contrast between
the two scores adds its own dimension
and allows us to see Gould in greater
perspective than he is generally allowed.
With good notes and a gimmick-free recording
this is a more than handy addition to
the catalogue.
Jonathan Woolf
see also review
by Patrick Gary
James F Neal (narrator) 
