A brief glance through Paul Conway’s invaluable biography
of Leonard Salzedo
on Musicweb reveals that Salzedo was a composer who maintained a
prolific rate of output until the last years of his life. Indeed, a
catalogue numbering some 143 works with opus numbers together with numerous
unnumbered works and around eighteen film scores is remarkable for a
man who for most of his life had a "full time" job either
as a violinist, or, later on, as music director of Ballet Rambert and
Scottish Ballet amongst others. As a violinist Salzedo spent three years
with the London Philharmonic Orchestra between 1947 and 1950 (one Malcolm
Arnold was the first trumpet player at the time) after which he joined
the Royal Philharmonic subsequently becoming Beecham’s assistant. Beecham
was obviously grateful for the young composer’s efforts for he conducted
the premiere of Salzedo’s Symphony No. 1 (1952) as well as a
number of other works including the highly successful ballet The
Witch Boy.
That said, it is sad to see so many deserving works
in Salzedo’s catalogue that have received few, if any, performances.
There are exceptions, of course, amongst them the score for the Hammer
film The Revenge of Frankenstein, the aforementioned ballet,
The Witch Boy, which received over a thousand performances and
the fanfare from the Divertimento for three trumpets and three
trombones, used for many years as the theme to Open University programmes
on BBC television. Amongst the unperformed works are the late Requiem
Without Voices for large orchestra of 1989, something of a magnum
opus at around sixty minutes. Even the Symphony No. 2 of 1954
had to wait thirty-three years for its first performance in 1987.
Quite why this should be I find difficult to comprehend
for Salzedo was an immensely practical composer with an original voice
(partly emanating from his Spanish Jewish ancestry) and a flair for
dynamic scoring and rhythmic ingenuity. What is equally difficult to
comprehend is that so little of his music has been committed to disc.
Although The Witch Boy and another ballet score, Divertimento
Espagnol were issued on the Classics for Pleasure label many years
ago these have long since been deleted. This new disc is therefore very
welcome and showcases two works from what I suspect may be an exceptionally
fine ten-quartet cycle.
Salzedo’s first string quartet of 1942, his opus one,
won him the Cobbett prize for composition whilst still a student at
the Royal College of Music and he began work on the second quartet almost
immediately, completing it in 1943. It underwent two subsequent revisions,
one in 1944 and another much later in 1995 although as Rodney Newton
points out in his booklet note, the extent of the later revision is
not known. What is clear is that this is a remarkably assured and impressively
characteristic work for a twenty one year old student. The Allegro
Moderato opening movement is restless throughout, the opening motif
providing the material from which the whole movement is constructed.
Both harmonically and melodically this already sounds like Salzedo,
whilst the skill of the string writing, which permeates all of these
works, is in evidence from the outset. A wistful second movement minuet
leads into a mysteriously haunting Andante before the final Allegro
blazes into life. The second subject here is an interesting reminder
of Salzedo’s many apparent references to Sephardic chant and his Spanish
heritage, the movement finally resolving to a calm and peaceful conclusion.
The seventh quartet of 1969 is another of those works
that fell victim to a belated premiere, not receiving its first performance
until some twenty-five years after its completion (a scheduled first
performance in 1971 was postponed and never reinstated). Conceived as
a tribute to the composer’s father, in spite of the fact the he spoke
out publicly about his lack of affection for his son’s music, the work
draws heavily on the conflict between the father’s self declared atheism
and his inability to fully disassociate himself with his Jewish background.
This conflict asserts itself immediately in the opening movement (Moderato),
within which Salzedo draws on an Arabic mode that has become associated
with the music of Spain. As the composer points out in his own introduction
to the piece, the movement is predominantly contemplative in nature,
although the intensity of the emotional climax reached towards its close
is in many ways the pivotal point of the whole work. A relatively brief
waltz like second movement, Allegro vivace, by turns delicate
and motorically driving, precedes the Lento slow movement. Here
Salzedo actually quotes an old Sephardic melody reminiscent of those
played by his father who was a keen amateur string player. Heard first
on the cello, the melody is constantly haunted by ghostly murmurings
from the other instruments in the background and leaves a truly spine
tingling impression. Arthur Butterworth mentioned to me during a recent
interview that Salzedo’s use of moto perpetuo had been a significant
influence on his own work and had led to him working out a form of perpetual
motion in his own music based on a cyclic rotation of the chromatic
scale. Although the final Allegro of this quartet does not adhere
to a strict moto perpetuo tempo, its rhythmic development drives forward
in exhilarating fashion and is a fine example of the sheer impetus Salzedo
was able to generate in his music, bringing the work to a dynamic, breathless
finale.
Judging by these performances, the Archæus Quartet
are magnificent advocates of Salzedo’s work, an opinion obviously shared
by the composer himself for it was in response to their premiere of
his seventh quartet that he wrote his final three quartets, all specifically
for the Archæus. The Sonata for Violin and Viola was also
written for the first violin and viola players of the Archæus,
Ann Hooley and Elizabeth Turnbull. Although not as strong a work emotionally
and structurally as the seventh quartet, Salzedo creates some startlingly
rich textures, so much so that I frequently found myself marvelling
at the fact that I was listening to only two players. Once again, the
final driving Allegro vivo combines thrilling rhythmic virtuosity
with considerable technical demands on the players. Ann Hooley and Elizabeth
Turnbull have the measure of it all and turn in an intrepid performance.
In releasing this disc Mike Dutton and his team have
not only brought a name into the limelight that deserves greater recognition
but have also revealed a ten quartet cycle that on the evidence of the
seventh at least, must rank alongside the likes of Elizabeth Maconchy
and Daniel Jones as a major achievement in the genre. The difference
of course is that the cycles of both of these composers have been recorded
in their entirety. Rodney Newton hints that there may be other discs
of Salzedo’s music in the offing. I certainly hope so but in the meantime
will content myself with the current issue, a disc that will give me
pleasure for a long time to come and will no doubt be there as one my
discs of 2002, come the end of the year.
Christopher Thomas.
Archæus Quartet