Naxos has done itself a disservice in
featuring the familiar Pomp and Circumstance
marches on the box and in the blurb.
Intrepid collectors mightn't think to
check out the remainder of the program
and that’s where the real interest lies.
Ominous brass calls
get the Coronation March, commissioned
for the coronation of George V in 1911,
off to an uncharacteristically grim,
portentous start. The music soon settles
into the sort of affirmative whirling
flourishes later adopted by Walton and
Bliss for their own occasional pieces.
We don't frequently hear anything from
the cantata Caractacus or the
incidental music for Moore and Yeats'
play Grania and Diarmid; the
funeral march from the latter is particularly
striking, its peculiar half-tints suggestive
- as Keith Anderson notes in the booklet
- of the Celtic twilight. And Polonia,
written for a 1915 concert in aid of
the Polish Victims' Relief Fund, is
a find. Elgar described it as a "symphonic
prelude", but it's really a compact,
gripping tone-poem, making a far greater
impact, to my mind, than the discursive
Falstaff - admired though the
latter is in many quarters. The other
pieces, if less distinctive, are appealing
make-weights.
Three cheers for the
repertoire, then; but only two for the
performances. The program, like some
real concerts, takes a while to build
a head of steam; were the selections
recorded in order? The ceremonial splendor
of the first two works exposes the tonal
shortcomings of the understaffed New
Zealand Symphony string sections: too
many passages sound unduly subdued,
though the eerie woodwind blends of
the Grania and Diarmid selection
are nicely realized. It doesn't help
that James Judd, on this outing at least,
suffers from the Leonard Slatkin Disease,
in which the strings don't carry full
tonal weight from note to note, thus
sapping their sonority of interest and
life. Interpretatively, the conductor
rather botches the Pomp and Circumstance
set, setting skittish, unstable tempi,
imposing arbitrary unmarked holds, and
passing a fair amount of nervous, approximate
execution.
To my surprise, the
following performances improved exponentially.
The brass chording that introduces and
dominates the Caractacus march
sounds splendid: firmly grounded, pillowy
in tone, well-balanced, and resplendently
recorded in the bargain. In the trio
section, the woodwinds manage to suggest
delicacy and solemnity at once. And
Polonia gets precisely the rhythmic
alertness and logical phrase shaping
that's missing elsewhere. With its lovely
poignant woodwind soli and full-throated
tuttis, it's the highlight of
the disc.
A small cavil: a number
of the pauses between tracks are chintzy,
as if the producers were afraid of exceeding
the disc's space limits. Still, at Naxos
prices, you can buy this for the latter
half of the program. I'd look elsewhere
for Pomp and Circumstance, however:
Norman Del Mar's colorful, vibrant accounts
- on a Polydor LP or a Deutsche Grammophon
CD - are well worth seeking out.
Stephen Francis
Vasta
see also review
by Patrick Waller
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra/James Judd
