How ironic! The composer's
professional commitment to writing film
music has at once excluded his music
from the concert hall and provided
the funding for this the third cycle
of his symphonies since the 1970s. In
fact all three cycles (Lyrita; Chandos,
Naxos) were/are supported by Alwyn film
revenues.
Alwyn's five symphonies
will all appear on Naxos by the end
of the year (2005) making them accessible
at bargain price. They join the first
cycle recorded by the composer for Lyrita
(1972 onwards) and the Hickox cycle
on Chandos (1990s). None are coupled
in the same way as this CD. All three
series are still available. Comparison
is therefore an issue.
The composer's analogue
recordings on Lyrita Recorded Edition
sound splendid still. Mr Itter’s 1970s
vintage recording team comprised Decca
staff. They preserved a silky Sibelian
blade on the strings (Symphony No. 2
II 11.10 Symphony No. 5 12.07) as well
as spectacular analogue depth and impact.
To this day those recordings have the
speakers shuddering with the Shostakovich-style
assaults of the second movement of the
Second Symphony. Alwyn conducting Alwyn
revels in his own music steering just
the right side of self-indulgence. No-one
can touch the composer in the meek tenderness
of the valedictory pages of the Second
Symphony. The music there looks to the
epilogue of Bax's Seventh and Copland's
Tender Land. This is all perfectly
paced music-making; an impression that
will again hit you as you listen from
11.15 in the Fifth Symphony. Hearing
the Second Symphony after several years,
as conducted by the composer, reminded
me with some force of what a superb
work this is.
The composer in the
Fifth Symphony takes us through spectral
realms. He opens the symphony with an
upward sweeping, and trembling shudder
of sound. It is as if a great stone
has been lifted from a grave to reveal
something fearfully awesome yet with
a certain humbling grandeur. Baxian
manners bump up against passages having
the bleak majesty of Vaughan Williams's
Sixth Symphony. The work resounds with
the slow tolling of bells mixed with
a flowering Mahlerian adagio-paced
march. The monumentalism and sheer passionate
voltage of this music is quite overwhelming
prompting the drawing of parallels with
other fine succinct symphonic statements
such as Rubbra 4 and 11, Bridge's Enter
Spring (compare Alwyn's epic march
from 10:11), Havergal Brian 6 and 22,
Sibelius 7 and Lambert's Music for
Orchestra. Add to this the creepy
batwing flutter at 7:40 and the biting
presence of the brass at 9.22 and you
have what I consider to be one of the
finest British symphonies of the last
century.
Hickox's Chandos cycle
includes much more than the symphonies
and is still the most extensive survey
of Alwyn's orchestral music. He is accorded
the most forward and refulgently intense
sound. The listener is brought into
lapel-contact with the orchestra. It's
one of Chandos's best efforts though
Lyrita's is the more refined item. And
when I say 'refined' it delivers a more
natural sound image with a greater variety
of dynamic contrast. Hickox has a tendency
to lumber at moments such as the glorious
peak of the Second Symphony second movement
(9:23) but the massy sound of the LSO
violins certainly impresses.
Hickox is again slower
than both the composer and David Lloyd-Jones
in the Fifth Symphony. He does however
offer the unique advantage of having
each of the four sections of the Fifth
separately banded - a practically useful
aid to study and growing familiarity.
Lyra Angelica
is a harp concerto (with string orchestra)
inspired by the seventeenth century
English metaphysical poets such as George
Herbert (RVW Five Mystical Songs), Thomas
Traherne (Finzi Dies Natalis), Henry
Vaughan, John Donne and Richard Crashaw.
Each of the four movements carries a
superscription by one of the least known
of these metaphysicals, Giles Fletcher.
The Naxos recording places the harp
very close to the listener. In fact
comparing the refined naturalistic approach
of Lyrita's engineers and the gripping
sound achieved by Chandos the latest
Naxos leans more towards Chandos. The
harp sounds the most sumptuous in the
Naxos which is apt given the composer’s
aim to radiate sensuous imagery and
mystical fervour. Without being effete
this work needs to have an elusiveness
and mystery to work best.
At last here is a harp
concerto that has drama and substance
as well as a focus on beauty. Harp concertos
often take on a limpness and all-purpose
charm. Alwyn's is at least three steps
forward from that. It's a memorable
work and the Liverpool forces certainly
do it justice. Although in the ideal
world I still prefer the more openly
ambient Lyrita recording of Lyra
Angelica given by Osian Ellis.
Back in the real world
you need to bear in mind that the Chandos-Alwyn-Hickox
is available only at full price unless
you buy the 3CD box of the symphonies
- and then you will not have Lyra
Angelica. For all the virtues of
the Alwyn-Lyritas they are only to be
had at very full price from Harold
Moores. Lloyd-Jones' discs are the only
ones accessible at bargain price. Given
the considerable flair and drama brought
by Lloyd-Jones this particular disc
is the best single CD introduction to
the major works of Alwyn. In the real
world of household budgets, mortgages
and families it is the place
to begin your Alwyn collection. The
mix of the Second and Fifth Symphonies
with Lyra Angelica finds the
poise between beauty and drama.
Timings are not everything but here
they are:-
Symphony No. 5
Naxos [14:27]
Lyrita SRCD228
[14:55] review
Chandos CHAN
9196 CHAN 9429(3) [16:27]
Symphony No. 2
Naxos [27:22]
Lyrita SRCD228
[29:31] review
Chandos CHAN9093
CHAN 9429(3) [31:04]
Lyra Angelica
Naxos [28:12]
Lyrita SRCD230
[31:29] review
Chandos CHAN9065
]30:25]
The major lacuna in
any of these projects remains Alwyn’s
grand secular oratorio of the 1930s
- the monumental Blake choral work for
soloists, chorus and orchestra The
Vision of Heaven and Hell. All in
due time.
You can safely use
this recording to represent the orchestral
Alwyn on your shelves. It is a stronger
and more substantial mix than the valuable
two piano concertos Naxos CD issued
last month. The present CD represents
an exciting harbinger for the rest of
the series including symphonies 1, 3
and 4 ... and watch out because 4 is
a real sonic spectacular.
Rob Barnett
Alwyn
web-site
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/David
Lloyd-Jones 
