Vaughan Williams and Delius seems an obvious enough
coupling - and the programme on this disc works very well - but it’s
important to remember that the personalities of these two composers,
and indeed their whole outlook on life, were diametrically opposed.
Delius the atheist, disillusioned with most aspects of his life; Vaughan
Williams, on the other hand, motivated by deep humanitarian feelings,
and essentially a great optimist. The contrast between them is perfectly
demonstrated by the two works that give this lovely disc its whimsical
title – Vaughan Williams’ Lark and Delius’ Cuckoo. The
latter is shot through with a contemplative nostalgia, while the former
simply breathes with the wonder of nature.
Many people will be drawn to this issue by the inclusion
of the ‘Wasps’ Suite. The overture is much recorded, but the
delightful suite has been hard to come by for many years. Vaughan Williams
composed the music in 1909, quite early in his slow burning career,
for a staging of Aristophanes’ drama in Oxford. You might try a bit
of an ‘innocent ear’ experiment with some of this music. I suggest playing
the first Entr’acte and the March Past to a musical friend,
simply asking them to name the composer (assuming they aren’t already
familiar with it – the March Past is quite well-known). My hunch
is that the names of Prokofiev, Kabalevsky, Bliss, or even Ravel will
come up long before VW! Anyway, it’s charming, humorous and inventive
music, and receives alert and sharply characterised performances from
Handley and the LPO. Before that comes a workmanlike and musical version
of The Lark Ascending. The soloist is the LPO’s leader at that
time, David Nolan. Handley accompanies sensitively, allowing the poetry
of the music to emerge, though, for my taste, Nolan misses some of the
ethereal, faraway mystery of the piece; he’s undoubtedly a fine violinist,
but this performance lacks magic as compared, say, with Louis Lane with
Szell, or Hugh Bean with Boult. The Vaughan Williams section of the
disc is completed by a rarity – the Prelude and Fugue in c minor, an
interesting enough piece, if not one of the composer’s most obviously
attractive.
Handley takes a refreshingly straightforward approach
to Delius, allowing the music to flow naturally, and not overloading
it with expression. The downside of this is that we miss some of the
intensity of interpreters such as Barbirolli and Beecham; compare Handley
and Barbirolli in, for example, the opening of On Hearing the First
Cuckoo in Spring. There’s nothing wrong with Handley’s reading,
but Barbirolli invests the music with an ineffable tenderness that is
very special. Yet as the piece develops, Barbirolli seems to me to linger
too much, so that the music never achieves a convincing sense of movement,
and some of the string playing is rough and untidy. On the other hand,
you do need wind soloists of the highest calibre in Delius, and the
oboe playing cannot match Phillip Hill’s radiant tones for Barbirolli,
or of course Leon Goossens’ equally wonderful playing on many of Beecham’s
recordings. (By the way, why is it that David Nolan is credited by name
for his solo, as is David Bell for the relatively unimportant organ
part in the Vaughan Williams Prelude and Fugue, yet the demanding
oboe solo in Fennimore and Gerda, for example, receives no mention?
There is a weird kind of unwritten protocol about this, though some
record companies are better than others). The jolly Sleigh Ride gets
a lively performance, as does the famous La Calinda from Koanga,
though both of these suffer from irritatingly persistent percussion,
jingles in the first and tambourine in the second – Delius’s fault,
not the performers. There is also a sensitive version of one of Delius’s
loveliest miniatures, the prelude to Irmelin.
The quality of the recording is variable; the Lark
and Wasps performances are the most recent, and they undoubtedly
have the best sound. The least convincing is the Prelude and Fugue,
which sounds very boxy and congested. Nevertheless, this is an enjoyable
CD, which lovers of English music would do well to add to their collections.
Handley is always worth hearing in this repertoire.
Gwyn Parry-Jones
See
other Handley Classics for Pleasure releases
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Vernon
Handley