In the period 1850-1920
the British music world was not exactly
starved of religiously-themed cantatas.
They fed the great choral festivals
including the Three Choirs. These were
respectable provender and were not in
short supply. Secular cantatas were
another matter altogether. They existed
and Parry wrote a few but they were
not overflowingly plentiful. Of them
Bantock’s pagan Omar was the
most ambitious and the most successful
in achievement.
Bantock was an eclectic
when it came to beliefs. Certainly he
wrote works with a Christian reference
point but as we know from his daughter
Myrrha's biography of her father he
immersed himself in other languages
and religions and flitted amongst them
like an epicurean butterfly. Remember
one of the classic photographs of Bantock
shows him as Omar Khayyam complete in
Arab dress. When he turned to Christian
themes and texts it was more often for
their exoticism, cruelty and fairytale
otherness rather than for devotion.
Omar has been
recorded before but only once and only
the Prelude and Camel Caravan.
That Hyperion recording was made, again
by Handley, and has been reissued as
part of a Hyperion six-CD Bantock/RPO
box (CDS44281/6). It’s still currently
available also as a single disc: Hyperion
CDA 67250. The wonder is that Frank
Mullings or the other singer-luminaries
of 1930s and 1940s were not engaged
to record just the rapturous Love
Duet from Part I or the many other
highlights.
The performance history
of Omar is not voluminous despite
being a work in three separately performable
parts, some as short as 40 minutes.
The concert history is set out in the
notes at the end of this review (if
you know of any missing events or errors
let me know and we'll add them and make
corrections). The forces required are
large and by the time he reached the
1940s fashion was beginning to tell
against the work. The aging Bantock
must have wondered about the future
of this massive work.
To the review … It's
intriguing that the present Chandos
recording was made with the BBCSO. It’s
the same orchestra - no doubt with major
changes of personnel - who revived the
complete Omar in 1979 with Norman
Del Mar the year after Bantock's centenary;
repeated on Fitzgerald's birthday in
1983. Quite a few people are likely
to be familiar with Omar from
off-air recordings of those broadcasts.
Bantock's language
is sumptuous and lavish but can also
be astonishingly delicate and impressionistic.
It is sometimes referred to as Straussian.
This is misleading as an indication
of the soundworld inhabited by this
work. Then only relevance is in relation
to the massive orchestral specification
which also includes camel bells here
loaned to the BBCSO by Jonathan Del
Mar the son of Norman Del Mar who gave
the complete broadcast of Omar in
1979. Bantock, as a product of the Royal
Academy, favoured a style which sprang
from the wilder ripe romantics. His
vocabulary was derived from Rimsky-Korsakov,
Tchaikovsky, Borodin and d'Indy. Perhaps
he also knew of the similarly inclined
Adolph Biarent in Belgium and Arthur
Farwell in the USA. There are Sibelian
moments too in Omar and in other
Bantock works not least the very late
Chinese Pictures. Pohjola's
Daughter and En Saga (cor
anglais and other woodwind) can be heard
in the music for The Caravan (tr.
6, CD2). Sibelius dedicated his Third
Symphony to Bantock.
His writing for voices
is marked out by his willingness to
indulge repeating lines or part of lines
and by an openness to using lines of
voices in way that is not merely contrapuntal
but as if he was orchestrating a score.
He wrote several purely choral symphonies
including Atalanta in Calydon and
Vanity of Vanities which have
been recorded on Albany; time for a
recording of The Pageant of Human
Life as well. These choir-only works
produce a complex wash of sound in which
the words tend to suffer. Compare this
with Finzi's style where only rarely
are words repeated and where a certain
simplicity is to the fore and where
the words are dominant. Finzi is not
a bad comparison at another level; it's
not an unimaginable step from To
a Poet a Thousand Years Hence to
the poet finding long lost lovers in
Bantock’s mute clay and in the effervescence
of wine. (CD2 tr. 3 2:00). Finzi in
his Hardy song Earth and Air and
Rain recalled that the birds around
him were, but a year ago, earth and
air and rain. If not an exact read-across
there's a commonality there – an earthy
pantheism.
As for the attraction
of the Orient it was widespread at the
turn of the century. In Bantock’s case
the results were not Brummagem shoddy
unlike Ketèlbey's wince-making
kitsch but then again neither was it
as purist as Holst's Savitri or
Foulds' Mirage or World Requiem
(soon to be recorded by Chandos)
or Delius's Requiem but it was
voluptuous, sincere and studied. While
many, it seemed, preferred the Christian-devout
passion of Elgar and Parry, Bantock
certainly touched off other resonances.
His realm was that of the secular self-improver,
the voracious reader, the luxuriant
and philosophical pilgrims and sensuous
adventurers of the Edwardian era.
Omar’s musical
themes are listed by his friend and
secretary H. Orsmond Anderton and by
Ernest Newman. They were separately
available at the time of the work's
publication and later. One among many
keeps returning and that is the sorrowing
sighing melody that is carried by, and
carries, the words Oh what a little
time we have. Omar here taps
into another theme which has provided
sustenance for British composers and
others - the transience of beauty and
the loss of innocence.
It is worth pointing
out that when these words were set and
sung in the 1900s they were part of
the psychological stock-in-trade of
the English-speaking literate masses.
The quotations with which the Ruba’iyat
is littered were as famous as those
of Shakespeare. The book ran into five
editions between 1859 and 1889 and each
time accrued further quatrains. That
final
fifth edition in 101 quatrains\
was the one Bantock set about putting
to music. Now, not all his projects
came to fruition - witness a work setting
Robert Southey's Curse of Kehama
for chorus and orchestra - in 24 parts.
In fact only two
orchestral scenes now survive. However
in the case of Omar the inspiration
came in surging sustained consistency
and the composer ended up fulfilling
his plan to set all 101 quatrains of
a book which in its final edition was
only 12-15 years old.
A towering and substantial
orchestral prelude encapsulates melancholy,
poetry and magnificence. It rises to
a lightning strike climax for the flourish
of the sun’s first rays expelling the
darkness and striking the Sultan’s turret.
The listener’s attention having been
gripped Bantock rarely lets go across
the three hours of this monumental work.
The Tchaikovskian element
is pervasive without taking away from
Bantock’s characteristic sound. Listen
to those signing figures in CD1 tr.
3 at 00.34 ("Before the phantom
…"). Then again the "Battered
caravanserai" (tr. 12 CD1) carries
the mark of Sibelius 1 and Tchaikovsky
in the rattlingly abrasive snarl of
trombones at the end of that section.
Bantock brilliantly
deploys three main characters who appear
throughout. The lovers are The Poet
and The Beloved. The baritone Philosopher
is the protagonist-commentator-hortator
and he has the most significant and
extended singing role. He also represents
something of a sensuous pilgrim who
across the three Parts embraces a blasphemously
libertine Damascus Road experience from
Thinker to Libertine – gradually the
Philosopher becomes The Poet. The Philosopher
and The Poet/The Beloved can be seen
as two facets of Man. Bantock provides
all of three with music of almost Puccinian
lyric richness but on balance being
more lavish with the men than the one
woman. Listen to the golden glow around
the words sung by the baritone: "…
and with my own hand" in "Myself
when young …" (tr. 17, CD1). The
choir also revels in gorgeously liquidly
and fluent writing. Try, in Part 1,
"Earth would not answer …"
magnificent capped by the music for
the words "… nor the seas that
mourn in flowing purple."
The Philosopher acts
as the vehicle for a real anger about
the transitory nature of life. In tr.
18 CD1 The Philosopher figuratively
shakes his fist at God although there
could in the case of this recording
have been more of a snarl by baritone
on the word "insolence". Heard
in the Del Mar version the rasping curl
of the lip is much more apparent. That
futile resentment returns later in the
work when The Philosopher at the end
of Part II addressing "Thou, who
Man of baser earth didst make"
calls out to the Deity ‘Man’s forgiveness
give – – – and take!" preceded
by the defiance of the Deity in "The
Mighty Mahmud" (tr. 26 CD2) further
amplified by the words: "Oh thou
who didst with pitfall and with gin
..."
Catherine Wyn-Rogers
can be a shade too tremulous by the
side of the female soloist in the Del
Mar broadcast. Is that throb in the
voice inculcated through tuition, I
wonder. I am saddened to think that
it may have been taught rather than
a function of strain or wear and tear.
This might be preferred by some over
steady vocal production but it’s not
a preference I share. It is a pity because
Ms Wyn-Rogers sings with evident understanding
and emotional engagement.
The quatrains between
the end of CD1 and CD 2 are not among
Bantock's most inspired but things improve
with the imaginative effervescence conjured
by the words "Millions of Bubble
Like Us" at the end of tr. 3 (CD2).
In tr. 4 there is the pained and dry-mouthed
sadness in the parting of The Poet and
The Beloved: "When you and I behind
the veil are past". Their pain
can be heard with even greater intensity
in the dialogue between Rafi and Pervaneh:
Flecker's words and Delius's music in
Hassan. Indeed in the Flecker
play the voices of the unborn children
(the flowers in the garden) after the
sadistic death of Rafi and Pervaneh
have resonances with Bantock and Fitzgerald's
life philosophy in Omar. In 1922
Bantock set Flecker’s The Golden
Journey to Samarkand from Hassan;
surely another candidate for recording.
Speaking of Delius, remember that Bantock
premiered Delius's Brigg Fair with
the Liverpool Orchestral Society on
18 January 1908. Many of Delius's cues
in the Hassan score find their
parallels and perhaps some of their
stimulus in Omar. The horn calls
in tr. 7 of CD2 can be compared with
similar dawn fanfares that echo around
Delius's and Flecker’s "Baghdad
the beautiful".
Quatrains XLIX-LIII
on CD 2 provide more morose reflection
but the work collects itself for "Waste
not your hour" where The Philosopher
repenting of years of dusty libraries
in the vain activity ("of this
and that endeavour and pursuit")
enjoins the listener to grasp the moment
and immerse themselves in life’s sensuous
joys. In real life Bax, Holbrooke and
Bantock proved more than happy with
being "jocund with the fruitful
grape". Handley is towards the
end of Part 1 a shade staid by comparison
with Del Mar and the music remains richly
enjoyable. There's no holding the Philosopher
in Part 2 when he divorces "old
barren reason" from his bed and
takes the daughter of the vine to wife.
The Verdian griping
and gripping brass of trs 10 and 11
is also memorable provoking thoughts
about Bantock’s sympathy for Tchaikovsky
and the inimical Fate that leers and
jeers in the Fourth Symphony. The great
choral din of "Waste not your Hour"
bring Part I to an end but not before
some decidedly Lemminkainen-like
orchestral shudders.
Part 2 begins in the
middle of CD2. After the grim reminders
of ‘Time’s wingèd chariot’ that
conclude Part 1, its successor celebrates
'the grape'. The BBCSO brass, Handley
and Chandos are happy to bray out in
tr. 15 "the glories of this world"
but there is gentleness too when we
get to tr. 18 in the melancholy of "The
flower that once has blown for ever
dies." Not enough is made of the
rhythmic ingenuity and Verdian malevolence
of "We are no other a moving row
of magic shadow shapes" (tr. 20).
And when The Beloved sings: "The
moving finger writes …" with all
the ecstasy of surrendered resignation
the effect is extremely moving. This
links with the satisfying remorseless
toll and tread of the trio "What
out of senseless nothing …"
CD3 is given over to
Part 3. The orchestral vorspiel is
freighted with regret and marked out
again by those horn-calls. The worshippers
in the Mosque are towards the end portrayed
with yet more of that Tchaikovskian
passion. Then the Philosopher launches
a sequence of nine quatrains which take
the imagery of a store of pots (amphorae)
as a metaphor for the sorts and conditions
of mankind. This at the same time revels
both in the image of the clay to which
generations of philosophers, beloveds
and poets have returned … and will return
and the wine contained in the pots.
There are six pots in Bantock’s schema
each taken by a different member of
the choir although in this case there
are only three named. Much play and
even some sardonic humour is made of
Pot (man) and Potter (God). The Fourth
Pot quatrain is piquant with the challenge
of "Who is the potter pray … and
who the pot." In tr. 6 a sweet
solo violin from the leader leads us
into a moving little vignette of the
pots jogging each other. This escalates
from merriment to a wild dervish dance.
In tr. 7 The Philosopher,
close to death, repents of the wastrel’s
life but it’s a momentary betrayal before
the urgency of spring sweeps him back
into the sensual whirl. The light jocularity
of spring leads to the now equally regretful
Beloved and Poet who in a duet of great
release echo backwards and forwards
cries of "Ah Love!". From
this we move again to heartbreaking
aspirations to "break this sorry
scheme of things entire … would not
we shatter it to bits and then remould
it nearer to the heart’s desire."
Tchaikovskian repetition and development
of these words is done with great artistry
and adroit emotional effect. Even so
Handley is not quite as passionate as
Del Mar was in his BBC broadcast.
We are now in what
amounts to the work’s epilogue where
the orchestral writing invokes the rising
moon and the guests star-scattered on
the grass. The words ‘star-scattered’
are played out with delicate balletic
repetition. Then with prominent parts
for a regretful oboe and poetic horn
the orchestra sings sweetly into a silvery
fading glimmer. Right to the very end
themes interweave and strike emotional
poetry and sparks of each other; an
integral part of the warp and woof of
this grandly conceived work.
There is but one area
of substantive adverse criticism and
this relates to the cuts that have been
made. Chandos, a firm of great integrity,
to its complete credit, does not hide
them; indeed the booklet in addition
to including Lewis Foreman’s lucidly
readable notes also reproduces every
one of the 101 quatrains including those
few omitted. But it’s still a real pity.
I certainly lament the absence of the
slithering and boozily swaying haunted
music for "They say the lion and
the lizard keep the courts where Jamshyd
gloried and drank deep …". Also
there is nothing inferior in the whirling
dance for orchestra and female voices
for "And we that now make merry
in the room they left and summer dresses
in new bloom ….". Yet it would
be churlish to do anything other than
recommend strongly this tremendous project.
By now Handley knows
the Bantock idiom inside out and the
results are not at all disappointing
even if Del Mar does score over him
at one or two points and plays the score
complete. I doubt that anyone in history
has conducted as many different Bantock
works as Handley and Hyperion’s box
of all six of their Bantock series is
blessedly timely in coinciding with
this new recording.
This is a magnificent
project – overall fearless and splendid
in its many aspects - planning, documentation,
pricing and presentation - 3 CDs each
in own sleeve and handsomely illustrated
68 page booklet all in a hard-card wallet.
This set opens the door to enjoyment
not just appreciation; Bantock demands
emotional engagement from his listener.
It at last presents to the world one
of the living musical treasures of the
early twentieth century.
Rob Barnett
COMPACT DISC ONE
Part I (beginning)
1 [Prelude –] [5:54]
2 I Chorus: ‘Wake! For the Sun, who
scattered into flight’ – [2:08]
3 II Chorus: ‘Before the phantom of
false morning died’ – [2:28]
4 III The Poet: ‘And as the cock crew,
those who stood before’ – [2:20]
5 IV The Poet: ‘Now the new year reviving
old desires’ – [1:45]
6 V The Poet: ‘Iram indeed is gone with
all his rose’ – [2:25]
7 VIII Chorus: ‘Whether at Naishápúr
or Babylon’ – [2:14]
8 IX The Beloved: ‘Each morn a thousand
roses brings, you say’ – [1:34]
9 XI The Poet: ‘With me along the strip
of herbage strown’ – [6:49]
10 XIII Chorus: ‘Some for the glories
of this world; and some’ – [2:06]
11 XIV The Beloved: ‘Look to the blowing
Rose about us – "Lo"’ – [1:32]
12 XVII Chorus: ‘Think, in this battered
caravanserai’ – [2:09]
13 XIX The Poet: ‘I sometimes think
that never blows so red’ – [1:59]
14 XXI The Poet: ‘Ah, my Beloved, fill
the cup that clears’ – [1:55]
15 XXIV Chorus: ‘Ah, make the most of
what we yet may spend’ – [2:57]
16 XXV The Beloved: ‘Alike for those
who for To-day prepare’ – [2:46]
17 XXVII The Philosopher: ‘Myself when
young did eagerly frequent’ – [2:33]
18 XXX Chorus: ‘What, without asking,
hither hurried Whence?’ – [1:21]
19 XXXI The Poet: ‘Up from earth’s centre
through the seventh gate’ – [2:51]
20 XXXIII Chorus: ‘Earth could not answer;
nor the seas that mourn’ – [2:25]
21 XXXIV The Poet: ‘Then of the THEE
IN ME who works behind’ – [0:52]
22 XXXV The Poet: ‘Then to the lip of
this poor earthern urn’ – [2:34]
23 XXXVI The Philosopher: ‘I think the
vessel, that with fugitive’ 2:23]
COMPACT DISC TWO
Part I (conclusion)
1 XL The Beloved: ‘As then the tulip
for her morning sup’ – [3:39]
2 XLIII The Beloved: ‘So when that Angel
of the darker drink’ – [2:18]
3 XLV Chorus: ‘’Tis but a tent where
takes his one day’s rest’ – [2:32]
4 XLVII The Beloved and the Poet: ‘When
you and I behind the veil are past’
– [4:01]
5 [Interlude:] The Desert – [1:35]
6 The Caravan – [2:58]
7 XLVIII Chorus: ‘A moment’s halt –
a momentary taste’ – [3:35]
8 XLIX The Philosopher: ‘Would you that
spangle of Existence spend’ – [2:37]
9 LII The Philosopher: ‘A moment guessed
– [then back behind] the fold’ – [2:34]
10 LIV Chorus: ‘Waste not your hour,
nor in the vain pursuit’ – [4:09]
11 Chorus: ‘Better be jocund with the
fruitful grape’ [2:59]
Part II
12 LV The Philosopher: ‘You know, my
Friends, with what a brave carouse’
– [2:11]
13 LVII The Philosopher: ‘Ah, but my
computations, people say’ – [1:40]
14 LVIII The Philosopher and Chorus:
‘and ’twas – [the Grape!’ –]
LIX Chorus: ‘The Grape that can with
logic absolute’ – [2:42]
15 LX Chorus: ‘The mighty Mahmúd,
Allah-breathing Lord’ – [3:38]
16 LXI The Philosopher: ‘Why, be this
Juice the growth of God, who dare’ –
[1:29]
17 LXII The Philosopher: ‘I must abjure
the Balm of Life, I must’ – [1:42]
18 LXIII Chorus: ‘Oh threats of Hell
and hopes of Paradise!’ – [3:17]
19 LXV Chorus: ‘The Revelations of devout
and learn’d’ – [1:47]
20 LXVIII Chorus: ‘We are no other than
a moving row’ – [3:19]
21 LXXI The Beloved: ‘The Moving finger
writes; and, having writ’ – [1:41]
22 LXXII The Beloved and the Poet: ‘And
that inverted bowl we call the sky’
– [1:36]
23 LXXIII The Poet: ‘With Earth’s first
clay they did the last man knead’ –
[2:10]
24 LXXV The Philosopher: ‘I tell you
this – [when, started from the] goal’
– [3:30]
25 LXXVIII The Beloved, the Poet and
the Philosopher:] ‘What! out of senseless
Nothing to provoke’ – [4:41]
26 LXXX Chorus, the Beloved, the Poet
and the Philosopher: ‘Oh Thou, who didst
with pitfall and with gin’ – [1:46]
27 LXXXI Chorus, the Beloved, the Poet
and the Philosopher: ‘Oh Thou, who Man
of baser earth didst make’ [2:36]
COMPACT DISC THREE
Part III
1 Introduction ‘The Fast of Ramazán’
– [2:47]
2 Worshippers in the Mosque – [4:10]
3 LXXXII The Philosopher: ‘As under
cover of departing day’ – [1:00]
4 LXXXIII Chorus: ‘Shapes of all sorts
and sizes, great and small’ – [2:07]
5 LXXXIV First Pot: ‘Said one among
them – "Surely not in vain"’
– [6:36]
6 XC Chorus: ‘So while the vessels one
by one were speaking’ – [1:55]
7 XCI The Philosopher: ‘Ah, with the
grape my fading life provide’ – [2:26]
8 XCIII The Philosopher: ‘Indeed the
idol I have loved so long’ – [1:48]
9 XCV The Philosopher: ‘And much as
wine has play’d the infidel’ – [2:14]
10 XCVI The Poet: ‘Yet ah, that Spring
should vanish with the rose!’ – [2:35]
11 XCVII The Poet: ‘Would but the desert
of the fountain yield’ – [6:34]
12 C Chorus, the Beloved, the Poet and
the Philosopher: ‘Yon rising moon that
looks for us again’ – [1:33]
13 CI Chorus, the Beloved, the Poet
and the Philosopher: ‘And when like
her, oh Sáki, you shall pass’
[4:15]
BANTOCK : LIST OF
OMAR PERFORMANCES
8 Oct 1909
Omar Khayyam Parts
II and III
Birmingham Fest
22 Oct 1909
Omar Khayyam Part I
Newcastle on Tyne
Feb 1910
Omar Khayyam complete
London Ch Soc / Fagge
14 Feb 1912
Omar Khayyam Part I
Vienna - first continental
performance / Franz Schalk
1914-1918
revised Omar as Opera
Ballet
25 Feb 1918
Desert Scene and Duet
- Omar Khayyam
Edna Thornton / Bessie
Tyas / Frank Mullings / Norman Allin
/ Beecham National Opera Chorus / RPO
/ Beecham, QH
13 Mar 1918
Ballet of the Pots
FP
1 Dec 1921
Omar Khayyam
Manchester / Harty
31 Jan 1924
Omar Khayyam Parts
II & III
Manchester / Harty
10 Mar 1925
Omar Khayyam cpte
Liverpool Phil Soc
21 Apr 1926
Omar Khayyam complete
Fagge
19 Mar 1930
Omar Khayyam Part I
Dorothy Dorsay / Stuart
Wilson / Roy Henderson / CBO / Boult,
Birmingham
27 November 1968 (Bantock
centenary year)
Part III only BBCSO/Del
Mar, Pamela Bowden, Alexander Young,
John Noble, first broadcast performance
5-6 Jan 1979 – repeated
1983
Complete BBCSO/Del
Mar, Sarah Walker, Anthony Rolfe Johnson,
Brian Rayner Cook
BBC Symphony Chorus/Stephen Jackson 
CHANDOS
CHSA 5051(3) [3 CDs: 58:14 + 73:08
+ 40:09]
