The name of Stephen
McNeff may not as yet be a particularly familiar one to classical
CD buyers. The only other full CD of his music that I've encountered
previously is a recording of his novel stage work, Passions,
written for and performed by the vocal group, Cantabile. However
the growing catalogue of increasingly diverse and substantial
works from this 55-year-old composer will doubtless bring
him more firmly into the public eye over time, and this new
Chandos issue should do his reputation no harm whatsoever.
Currently composer-in-residence for the Bournemouth Symphony
Orchestra, McNeff has written a significant amount of music
for children in recent years, including a number of Beatrix
Potter-related productions which are represented on this Chandos
CD.
The music has a somewhat unusual background, having begun
life as accompaniment for a stage production. A dozen of Beatrix
Potter's famous Tales were adapted into three separate dramatisations
for the stage within the last decade by Adrian Mitchell, commissioned
by and performed at the Unicorn Theatre for Children. The
three separate productions featured music by Stephen McNeff
with a narrator giving voice to Beatrix Potter herself. Originally
written for seven performers who would sing, dance, act and
play on the stage, the music from the stage version was adapted
and orchestrated by McNeff for Radio 3, and this new recording
presents it in the latter format with the BBC Concert Orchestra
providing a rich background to the voice of Imelda Staunton,
who provides all the necessary vocal acrobatics.
In other words,
what was originally a highly visual production has been transformed
into a purely sonic experience which is vaguely reminiscent
of Peter and the Wolf in terms of its format and presentation.
However, comparisons with Prokofiev should be held in check,
as the approach is quite different. The Prokofiev piece is
much more obviously programmatic, with a memorable instrumental
leitmotif for each character. McNeff's approach is to produce
programme music which is evocative rather than explicit, and
which accompanies and punctuates the narration rather than
blending with it; thus, the result isn't quite so overtly
tuneful as Prokofiev's music.
The interesting notes in the CD booklet (written by the artistic
director of the Unicorn Theatre, Tony Graham) claim that McNeff's
music attempts to capture the complexity and nuances of Beatrix
Potter's world and to depict the individual foibles of her
characters. Whether this is successful or even apparent rather
depends, I feel, on the listener; my own impression was that
such subtleties would go over the heads of the target audience
of children, at least without repeated listening. However,
the booklet notes were clearly written by a man who appreciates
Beatrix Potter's work, and I agree strongly with his point
that Potter does not talk down to children, but rather encourages
them to learn by using language that may be beyond them. She
presents, in essence, the antithesis of the modern approach
of 'dumbing down' for children. Perhaps this is one of the
reasons why her little books are so enduringly popular. If
McNeff's music is intended to complement that approach, then
it is to be applauded.
If the preceding
paragraphs present the impression that McNeff's music is challenging
or hard to digest, then nothing could be further from the
truth; my point is just that the music isn't inherently simplistic
or overtly childish. Whilst it certainly isn't memorably tuneful
in the way that Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf is,
and its songs are unlikely, for the most part, to provoke
children to sing along to them, as their melodies are somewhat
angular and unpredictable, at least it gives a wide berth
to the potential trap of descending into banality. The music
is charming, appealing and apt, and is based on just a few
themes in each Tale.
The Tale of
Jemima Puddle-Duck, for instance, has a 'pit pat paddle
pat' theme, presented initially as a rather over-simplistic
song, that recurs whenever Jemima is the centre of attention.
The other main element in this Tale is the much more melodically
interesting song, 'With my feathery wings...'. The large majority
of the music in this Tale is derived from these two elements,
but their frequent repetition helps to tie everything together
rather than becoming tiresome, and so this particular Tale
is a good opener for the CD.
The Tale of
Peter Rabbit is much less closely tied to obvious musical
themes, with the orchestra being used more to punctuate the
action of the exciting chases with appropriately urgent fragments
that illustrate the action musically. The Peter Rabbit Tale,
though, features some of the best songs in the set: in particular,
the rambunctious song of Mr McGregor, performed in an amusingly
uncouth Scots accent.
In the next Tale,
that of Squirrel Nutkin, the BBC Singers provide a
lush choral background to the depiction of squirrels boating
across Windermere in autumn, using their tails as sails, to
visit the island of the old brown owl. This is one of the
musical highlights of the disc, and yet quite a lot of the
Tale of Squirrel Nutkin is music-less: much of the
straight narration is unaccompanied. The Tale of Samuel
Whiskers is similar: the music is, for the most part,
incidental to the story-telling, and aside from a few simple
songs it just provides an appropriate background to the narration.
Overall, though, throughout all four Tales, the music is very
well written: highly accessible to the listener, very English-sounding,
expertly orchestrated and entirely suitable for the action
of each story.
So, whilst the music is clearly very important, it is, for
the most part, definitely secondary to the story presented
by Imelda Staunton. Happily, both adaptation and narration
have been handled expertly, and Adrian Mitchell's dramatisation
is very faithful to Beatrix Potter's original text. Although
I did notice the occasional slight simplification of language,
perhaps to modernise it and make it seem less old-fashioned
(for example, "on account of those eggs" has become
"because of those eggs" in the Jemima Puddle-Duck
story, and there are various other similar changes), there
are large chunks of text that have not been altered from Potter's
original at all. The changes that have been made are sensible
rearrangements and modifications that transmute the book sensitively
from a story for reading into a story for dramatic telling.
As for the dramatic
presentation, Imelda Staunton was an excellent choice. Seen
over the Christmas 2005 holiday playing Mother in the BBC's
new production of Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other
Animals, the award-winning actress seems extremely well
suited for this narration. This requires the performer to
speak, sing and produce a wide range of voices and accents;
not to mention some very realistic cat miaou sounds in a couple
of places! Although Imelda Staunton may not have the world's
most spectacular singing voice, her vocal range is wide, her
command of accents (including feline) impressive and her speaking
voice clear and pleasant. She imbues the characters with great
vitality and verve, and provides ample excitement and enthusiasm
without overstating her contribution. This is with the possible
exception of some occasionally high and squeaky songs for
squirrels and kittens. In other words, she gets the balance
just right and thus provides an engaging performance.
Overall, then,
this disc comes across as a high-quality production from all
points of view. The CD itself comes very attractively packaged
in a regular jewel case within a cardboard slip-case, necessitated
by the size of the accompanying booklet which gives the entire
text in three languages. The front cover has been designed
in an appropriately Potterian style, with one of Beatrix's
charming pictures of Peter Rabbit on the front. It did strike
me as rather curious that this front picture should have come
from the Tale of Benjamin Bunny, which is not one of
the stories presented on the CD, but it's an attractive picture
of Peter in his little blue jacket, and that's clearly what
matters!
So, this is a
most entertaining CD for lovers of Beatrix Potter's stories.
However, although the music and overall performances can certainly
be enjoyed by grown-ups, it isn't the sort of disc that the
average adult would buy for personal amusement; it's definitely
aimed at children, and the repetitive nature of some of the
songs - particularly Jemima Puddle-Duck's pit-pat-paddle-pat
song - may make them seem tiresome to older listeners. But
for what it is, it's charming. If your child loves Beatrix
Potter, or has grown tired of Peter and the Wolf, look
no further!
Richard Hallas
Imelda Staunton (narrator)
