This CD derives from
an unusual source and I would direct
readers to the information above; distribution
is likely to be limited. Pared to the
bone with no notes and a bare minimum
of discographic information this disc
nevertheless enshrines two important
premieres – the first New York performance
of VW’s Sinfonia Antarctica and
the first ever American performance
of Robert Simpson’s Third Symphony.
As a pendant we have Elgar’s Elegy.
All these performances are conducted
by Ainslee Cox, a most talented Stokowski
protégé, who continued
to shine illuminating light in North
American musical life.
There are considerable
aural problems to surmount in the case
of the VW, which seems to have been
recorded privately, most probably on
a hand-held cassette recorder. As a
result the superscriptions are well
nigh inaudible and the speaker (and
soprano soloist) are anonymous. There
is also a great deal of tape hiss and
slight dropouts and the sound is very
congested. These are the associated
hazards of such a recording but one
should take a broader view. This was
an important occasion and the performance
has considerable interpretative stamp.
True there is less sweep here than there
is in the classic 1953 Boult, who maintains
an implacable, incremental and monumental
drive. Cox cleaves seemingly closer
to a Brucknerian view of the opening
movement, and continues with bluff urgency
in the second and a slightly greater
urgency in the third movement. Despite
the hiss and a few blips the brass and
percussion register with serious insistence.
In the fourth movement he takes a near
identical tempo to the Boult, being
warm and fluent, though he differs in
the long finale. Boult explicitly relates
this to the first movement – measured,
inexorable and non troppo. Cox
scents another route; he’s quick, animated,
and decisive.
Coupled with the VW
is Simpson’s Third Symphony. Dedicated
to Havergal Brian this was premiered
by the City of Birmingham Symphony and
Hugo Rignold in 1963. Its first recording
was the famous LSO/Horenstein of 1970
in which he cleaved to the written timing
of 31 minutes. Cox is significantly
quicker, shaving off some two and a
half minutes, and taking a more determined
direction. The recording is a significant
improvement over the VW though it remains
boxy and constricted. The Oklahoma City
Symphony Orchestra lacks the heft to
do full justice to the punchier moments
in the score though it’s instructive
to hear Cox take the contrapuntal passages
faster than Horenstein, heightened by
the rhythmically charged drama he brings
to the first movement generally. In
the second there is real tension but
not quite the level of depth that Horenstein
brings, though Cox certainly catches
the skirl and theatrical drive of the
vast accelerando as it surges in motion.
It’s against Horenstein that Cox should
be measured here; Simpsonites will have
the Handley-Hyperion which offers an
altogether different listening experience.
The Elgar Elegy makes for a charming
encore.
So two important American
performances led by a conductor of strong
and determined viewpoints. The recordings
are certainly crude in places but the
experience is visceral and in part tactile.
This is a specialists-only release of
course, but they will find it full of
compelling detail and incident. It may
also be salutary to become re-acquainted
with Cox who veered off the British
radar for many years and a visit from
whom, before his untimely death in 1988,
would have been welcome.
Jonathan Woolf
THEO VAN DER BURG [77.34] 
