This will bring back memories to Mancunians, quite
apart from the pleasure it will give generally, for Maurice Handford
was deputy to Barbirolli in his last years at the Hallé. A Manchester
man himself, he was passed over when the time came to choose a successor
to Sir John (and I looked for his name in vain in the history section
of the Hallé’s current website), the feeling being that a "home-boy
grown good" was not quite good enough (who remembers that long
interregnum with its endless waiting and speculation while standards
dropped and dropped?). To tell the truth, my memories of him are from
broadcast performances, for he did the rounds with the BBC regional
orchestras of the day, and nothing I remember made by heart beat any
faster, for all his honest competence. However, after a lapse of time
it is good to return to his art and to discover a fine musician at work.
Though the orchestra’s final choice of James Loughran proved an excellent
one, Handford’s claims were not negligible. For the Hallé, at
the time of these recordings, he also perhaps represented a link with
a glorious past (Mancunians will also feel a tinge of nostalgia on seeing
long-serving leader Martin Milner still at the front desk), and they
play their collective hearts out for him in the two Italian Intermezzi.
Sir John would have been proud of them. No less heart-warming is their
rendering of Remo Giazotto’s immortal monument to spurious religiosity,
the so-called Albinoni Adagio (the title as originally published
is that given above). In a programme of mainly slow pieces Handford
provides unfailingly musical phrasing and pacing and I for one listened
to it at one go with complete enjoyment. He is also excellent at differentiating
the various styles, so his Satie is cool and chaste while the Khachaturian
finds a vernal freshness rather than the hothouse Hollywoodian style
usually favoured. The strings hardly have a Philadelphia-like weight
at the climax but this is a highly attractive rendering. It should be
pointed out, however, that among the conductors who favoured the sultry
Hollywood approach were the composer himself, so evidently he liked
it like that. Not all of his listeners might agree. In the Massenet,
Martin Milner is sweet-toned though it would be idle to pretend that
he had the security of intonation and technical address of certain full-time
soloists who have recorded the piece.
In a different vein, the Copland provides a suitably
brazen start (but the other American work, the Barber, really needs
a Bernstein to make it stay its length) and I heard the once-popular
"Judex" with interest since I had previously known it only
by name and by my own efforts on the organ – also in this latter form
I have always found that it has an effect on the public far beyond the
apparent value of its written notes. The MacCunn perhaps lacks the virile
energy and proud romanticism which Sir Alexander Gibson found in it
(not for nothing did that classic recording achieve a hit as the theme-tune
for BBC’s "Sutherland’s Law") but there is still much vitality.
"Suo Gan" is an affectionate tribute to another conductor,
George Weldon, who gave Midland audiences in particular much to be grateful
for.
As the sound is still vivid it should be added that,
if your interest lies not in the rediscovery of a semi-forgotten conductor
and a slice of regional British musical history, but in a selection
of popular favourites, this will provide at least as much enjoyment
as many a more blazoned name.
Christopher Howell
Hallé Orchestra/Maurice
Handford