With the second volume in this series already at edit
stage on Richard Hughes' work-desk, Bush's music is undergoing a steadily
incremental rebirth in which Meridian is playing a crucial part. Their
similar role with the orchestral music of Bernard Stevens (a composer
of similar political sympathies) should not be forgotten either. During
the Summer of 2002 Claudio reissued the Violin Concerto and Dialectic
tapes previously doomed to Hyperion vinyl. Before that there were the
Twenty-Four Preludes, the Redcliffe Recording, the organ music on Pipework
and the songs on Musaeus.
That said, I suspect that the future of Bush's music
will only be unassailable when his most compelling works are recorded:
the Busonian Piano Concerto, the Third Symphony Byron and the
vigorously attractive opera The Sugar Reapers.
The Three Concert Studies unlike the
other works here are not new to disc. They were recorded on a Decca
LP. Despite the composer's rather cold description of the music at least
two of the three pieces display warm humanity. The second is quietly
lyrical and the third (alla bulgara)is a triumph of Eastern European
folk rhythms with delicate smilingly lyrical writing interlaced. The
'set' of the themes and sometimes their treatment remind me of Janis
Ivanovs' Violin Concerto. The furious Bartókian Moto Perpetuo
is impressive but rather icy and ends as abruptly as the Nocturne
it precedes. The Two Easy Pieces were designed to please
and yet to avoid undue technical challenge. They are certainly pleasing
in an easygoing reticently tuneful way. The Two Melodies are
of a piece with the Easy Pieces. In none of these is there any
sign of the toughness of utterance of the First Symphony (now there's
a work that would have upset Krennikhov and Zhdanov). Rather the approach
stands in the cooling stream of lyrical miniatures written by Moeran
and Bridge. The Dance Melody is related to VW's simplest
folk style but with tangy harmonic adventures. Eric Chisholm's Scottish
folk-pieces are not far distant nor are Grainger's folk music essays.
We leap forward from the ’fifties to the ’seventies
for the Viola Sonatina. Here the manner becomes more serious
though still bound up with lyricism this time of the 'Coloured Counties'
sort (Howells, RVW). The Lark Ascending is a reference point
in both the epilogue and the central Quasi Menuetto. The lyrical
writing looks back thirty years also to the quieter contemplations of
his Second Symphony 'The Nottingham' - try the Sherwood Forest
movement if you can track down an off-air tape.
More than forty years before the Sonatina came the
Concert-Piece. Bush was prompted to write the work by
the up-rearing of fascism across 1930s Europe. It has more in common
with the Moto perpetuo of the Three Concert Studies than
with any other work here. A dark epiphany of a piece - a lament
[9.35] as well as a depiction of the reason for lamentation. It is reminiscent
of the protesting manner of that fine work for cello and orchestra,
the Soliloquy by Edmund Rubbra and would be, in orchestral form,
an ideal companion to Bloch's Schelomo.
The disc ends with Summer Valley which, with
a title like that, reminds us of Michael Head's songs and instrumental
pieces (Bush married Head's sister). Summer Valley, though written
in 1988, is in the same undemonstrative Anglo-lyrical stream as the
middle movement of the Sonatina, the Melodies and the Easy
Pieces.
The notes are by John Amis who writes with engaging
candour. My only criticism is that Meridian do not tell us where and
when these recordings were made.
Meridian's artwork and quality of printing has not,
in the past, been of the best. There need be no concerns on that front
for this disc. Meridian's quarter century in the business is resoundingly
celebrated with this disc.
This is an engaging anthology illustrating Bush's styles
from restrained pastoralism to tragic intensity. You will surely also
want volume 2 which should emerge within the next twelve months.
Rob Barnett
MORE DETAILS BELOW
Volume 2 (due out 2003)
Meditation on a German Song; Lyric Interlude; Raga Melodies; Two preludes
and Fugues; Song and Dance; Le Quatorze Juillet; Two Ballads of the
Sea; Distant Fields; Spring Woodland and Summer Garden; Meridian CDE
84881
NOTES
The superb Alan Bush Music Trust site is at:-
www.alanbushtrust.org.uk
see also ALAN
BUSH'S PIANO CONCERTO - A SUITABLE CASE FOR FAIR TREATMENT? by Paul
Conway
Other Alan Bush CD reviews here:-
Redcliffe CD
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/march99/bush.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/Redcliffe/rr008.htm
Claudio CD (Violin Concerto)
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Oct02/Bush_violin.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Sept02/Bush_Violin_concerto.htm
Organ Works - Pipework
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/May01/bush.htm
Musaeus - songs
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/Feb01/Bush.htm
Adam Summerhayes (violin/viola)