This is an outstandingly generous compilation. Not only does
it offer a treasure trove of Hallé recordings made over the
last few years but also it includes, in full, the contents of
one very fine disc that was released as recently as 2011. In
fact there are the full contents of three CDs included here
while the fourth is made up from several releases. I’m pleased
to see that the overall programme includes a number of works
that are not from the standard repertoire. This is another great
attraction to the set.
All the recordings included here have been appraised by various
knowledgeable colleagues on MusicWeb International. In the track-listing
at the end of this review I’ve included links to their original
reviews. I will limit myself to brief comments.
CD1 includes some very fine performances of Butterworth.
The playing in A Shropshire Lad is sensitive,
though the climax has strength. The superfine pianissimi
are especially noteworthy. The two short Delius pieces fare
well. I like the idea of a Brigg Fair segment to the
programme though I found it was rewarding to play the Grainger
arrangement of the folksong - James Gilchrist a plangent soloist
- before rather than after the Delius rhapsody. The rhapsody
Brigg Fair, though it sounds an expansive piece – and
it is – is also a minor miracle of compression in that Delius
packs in no less than seventeen variations as well as an Introduction,
an Interlude and the Coda all within the span of some sixteen
minutes. Elder leads a very fine performance: the Interlude
is especially lovely while the climax of the piece, when we
get there, is ardent with bells and horns well to the fore.
It was a nice touch to tag onto the end of the disc a snippet
of Joseph Taylor, the Lincolnshire folk singer whose version
of the song, first heard by Grainger in 1905, fired the composer’s
imagination.
CD2 is informed by a sense of place. Elder’s Tintagel
is one of the best I’ve heard; he captures the majesty and the
fantasy of Bax’s great score. The Hallé brass is superb, especially
the exultant horns. This is rich, passionate music and it’s
splendidly played but Elder’s performance, though properly expansive,
is also taut; there’s no romantic wallowing. The pastoral beauty
of The Lark Ascending offers a striking contrast to
the Bax. Lyn Fletcher, the Hallé’s leader, is a poetic soloist
whose line soars effortlessly above the sensitive orchestra.
It’s good to hear the Hallé Choir on excellent form at the end
of the disc. Often one hears As Torrent in Summer sung
by a smallish chamber choir but it’s perfectly appropriate for
a full-sized choir to sing it; after all, this is how it would
be done in a complete performance of King Olaf. John
Ireland’s short piece is also done well; we shall encounter
very different music by him later in this collection.
CD3 offers the most imaginative programming in the collection
with a selection of less familiar English pieces saluting Spring.
Bax’s Spring Fire is a great rarity and it receives
a splendid performance in a ‘live’ recording before an appreciative
audience. As Spring Fire unfolds the orchestration
is increasingly colourful, detailed and brilliant. The third
of the five movements, ‘Woodland Love’, is particularly gorgeous:
This spacious, erotically charged music is superbly realised
by Elder and the Hallé; the playing has delicacy and refinement
and the various solos are delivered excellently. Sir Mark also
gives us a Delius rarity in the shape of Idylle de Printemps.
Though this is early Delius it was scarcely heard until the
1990s but, as the present, very fine reading demonstrates, it’s
well worth hearing. So is Frank Bridge’s Enter Spring.
This is at least the fourth recording of the work, though you
won’t come across it very often in the concert hall, and it’s
as fine as any I’ve heard and quite possibly the finest of all.
Elder’s is an expansive but not indulgent reading. He’s particularly
successful, I think, in balancing the often teeming detail of
the score. The Hallé’s playing is absolutely superb, as is the
recorded sound.
CD4 is something of a mixed bag – but only in the sense
that the recordings are drawn from several Hallé discs. Elder’s
credentials as an Elgar conductor are very firmly established
and they’re on display in a colourful and vibrant performance
of Cockaigne. In Michael Kennedy’s note we read that
the composer described the work to Hans Richter as ‘honest,
healthy, humorous and strong but not vulgar’. All that can be
heard in this performance to which I’d add that the reflective
passages in the piece are also well done. The performance is
full of flair and dash – not for the first time in this collection
the playing of the Hallé brass is strikingly good – and the
organ of the Bridgewater Hall, separately recorded, makes its
presence felt at the end. It’s a long time since I listened
to Elder’s revelatory recording of the complete incidental music
that Vaughan Williams wrote for The Wasps and the excepts
included here are a reminder of the excellence – and importance
- of that recorded project. In the celebrated overture there’s
abundant brio and deftness in the faster music while the memorable
Big Tune is admirably paced. Sample also the ‘March Past of
the Witnesses’, more familiarly known by the title RVW gave
it for the orchestral suite, ‘March Past of the Kitchen Utensils’.
This is a really cheeky-sounding performance and the pots-and-pans
percussion is delightful.
For the last couple of pieces the baton is taken over by John
Wilson. He’s particularly noted for his work with Broadway and
Film Music scores (review)
but here he proves equally adept in John Ireland’s music. He
generates excellent atmosphere in The Forgotten Rite
and leads a stirring performance of the Epic March.
The latter piece, to coin a phrase, does what it says on the
tin. It can stand proudly in the lineage of Pomp and
Circumstance and Crown Imperial and here it provides
a rousing finale to this set that celebrates English music at
its best.
I haven’t mentioned every piece that’s included here. Please
don’t take that as an indication that either the music or the
performances are on a lesser level compared with the items that
I’ve mentioned. Nothing could be further from the truth. Performances
and music are consistently excellent throughout this collection.
In fact, there isn’t a dud anywhere to be heard. I said at the
outset that this is a generous compilation. That generosity
extends to the presentation. So far as I can see the original
booklet notes have been retained. All are excellent but since
the majority are by Michael Kennedy, doughty champion both of
English music and of the Hallé over so many years, one would
expect nothing less. The recorded sound is consistently excellent.
Even if you have some or most of these pieces in other recordings
I would urge you to hear Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé. I don’t
believe that, currently, this partnership can be bettered as
champions of English music. This outstanding compilation shows
them at their considerable best.
John Quinn
See also review
by Rob Barnett
Full track-listing
CD 1 (from CD HLL 7503 – see
review by Gwyn Parry-Jones
)
George BUTTERWORTH* (1885-1916)
A Shropshire Lad: Rhapsody for Orchestra (1911) [11:36]
Two English Idylls (1910-1911) [9:08]
The Banks of Green Willow (1914) [5:51]
Frederick DELIUS * (1862-1934)
Irmelin: Prelude (1931) [5:22]
The Walk to the Paradise Garden (1907) [9:52]
Brigg Fair: An English Rhapsody (1907) [16:43]
Percy GRAINGER †
(1882-1961)
Brigg Fair (1906)* [2:45]
Trad. Brigg Fair (rec. 1908) ** [0:39]
*James Gilchrist, tenor, **Joseph Taylor, singer
*Hallé Choir
Hallé Orchestra/Mark Elder
Recorded 11-12
th October 2002, BBC Studio 7, New Broadcasting House, Manchester, UK (*), 17
th October 2002, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester (†)
CD 2 (from CD HLL 7512 – see
review by Em Marshall
)
Arnold BAX (1883-1953) Tintagel [16.57]
Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958) The Lark Ascending [15.18]
Gerald FINZI (1901-1956) The Fall of the Leaf [11.08]
Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958) Norfolk Rhapsody no. 1 [10.23]
Frederick DELIUS (1862-1934) Summer Night on the River [6.06];
On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring [6.03]
Edward ELGAR (1857-1934) As Torrent in Summer (from
King Olaf) [2.11]
John IRELAND (1879-1962) The Hills [2.54]
Lyn Fletcher (violin)
The Halle Choir
Halle Orchestra/Sir Mark Elder,
rec. 5-6 November 2005, BBC Studio 7, New Broadcasting House, Manchester
CD 3 (from CD HLL 7528 – see
review by Rob Barnett
Arnold BAX (1883-1953) Spring Fire (1. In the Forest before Dawn; 2. Daybreak; and Sunrise; 3. Full Day; 4. Woodland Love (Romance); 5. Maenads) (1913) [32:33]
Frederick DELIUS (1862-1934) Idylle de Printemps (1889) [10:45]; North Country Sketches:
The March of Spring (1914) [10:08]
Frank BRIDGE (1879-1941) Enter Spring (1927) [20:50]
rec. 18 March 2010, 14 October 2010, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester (Bax; Idylle); 23-24 June 2010, BBC Studio 7, New Broadcasting House, Manchester (March; Bridge).
CD 4 (from CD HLL 7501; *from CD HLL 7509; **from CD HLL 7530; ***from CD HLL 7523 – see reviews by
Christopher Fifield,
Gwyn Parry-Jones,
Rob Barnett and
John France)
Sir Edward ELGAR (1857-1934)
Cockaigne Op.40 (1901) [14.45]
Serenade for Strings Op.20 (1892) [12.47]
Chanson de matin Op.15 No.2 (1899) [3.26]
rec Bridgewater Hall/BBC Studio 7, Manchester in July/October 2002
Dream Children, op.43 [6:50]
rec. 22-24 March 2005, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.
Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958)
The Wasps (1909)
No. 1: Overture [9:43]
No. 9: Entr’acte and Introduction [2:51]
No. 11: March Past of the Witnesses [1:38]
No 13: Entr’acte [4:36]
rec. 26-28 July 2005, Albert Halls, Bolton
John IRELAND (1879-1962)
The Forgotten Rite (1913-1918) [7:09]
Epic March (1942) [8:18]
The Hallé Orchestra/John Wilson
rec. 24-25 March 2007, BBC Studio 7, New Broadcasting House, Manchester
Hallé/Mark Elder; Hallé/John Wilson (Ireland) 