Lyrita did not shy
from British light music and there was
always an anthology strand within the
Lyrita vinyl line-up. Some may recall
two Lyrita Lollipops LPs and
two albums of British concert overtures.
Those recordings are now being split
up and reallocated to go with the same
composer’s major works to produce substantial
single-composer CDs. From that point
of view they have proved a very useful
lode.
The present disc continues
and re-establishes the anthology tradition.
If you were being less benevolent you
might say that these are the bits that
would not fit anywhere else. You might
also plausibly theorise that this is
evidence that Lyrita will not be making
any more new recordings with which to
provide alternative couplings for these
short items.
The present tracks
have not previously seen light of day
since those recording sessions in 1988
and 1989. Not quite true - a couple
of stray tapes found their way onto
the tantalising Lyrita-Quad promotional
sampler – a memento of Quad’s collaboration
with Lyrita in the early 1990s. It was
among the last Lyrita CDs before the
long silence. The disc, issued in 1993,
was LYRI QUE 001; there was no 002.
It offered a mix of reissues and extracts
from new recordings: the new items included
Bantock’s Russian Scenes (i)
At the Fair – Nijni Novgorod;
Lutyens’ En Voyage (iv) Paris
Soir; and Tate’s London Fields
(iv) Hampstead Heath – Rondo
for Roundabouts. All appear in this
collection but complete with their surrounding
movements.
The notes are by Lewis
Foreman, that exemplary scholar and
promoter of the British musical heritage.
Like Elisabeth Lutyens,
Phyllis Tate was a pupil of Herbert
Farjeon at the RAM. She wrote the London Fields
suite for the BBC Light Music
Festival of 1958. There's a flight of
the bumble-bee hell-for-leather romp,
xylophone the fore, in The Maze at
Hampton Court movement. St James's
Park is a tender lover's serenade
for oboe seemingly over the misty dawn
of the lake. There are times when this
movement is very close to Bax. The wittily
overblown Hampstead Heath waltz
is subtitled Rondo for Roundabouts.
It spins along with a gap-toothed smile
and the sophistication of Barber's Souvenirs.
It would make a very good companion
piece to the Barber with some intriguingly
memorable dissonances and something
of Malcolm Arnold about it too.
Coleridge Taylor's
Valse de la Reine is the third
of the Four Characteristic Waltzes.
It is sweetly and tenderly done with
its Tchaikovskian charms registering
affectingly. The Elgarian affekt of
the brief andante makes a nice
complement to the kindred spirits of
Elgar's various chansons - again with
Tchaikovskian flavouring. It is rather
a pity that we did not get the complete
opp. 22 and 71 suites.
No complaints on that
front about Bantock's Russian Scenes.
These were also recorded on Marco Polo
also in the 1980s. Bantock was a cosmopolitan
ready to absorb sympathetic idioms from
across the world. It is fitting that
he chose a Russian milieu because Bantock
and others from the RAM leaned more
strongly in that exotic direction than
the droves of RCM pupils. The five
scenes are sparky and full of flavourings
that we know from Rimsky, Borodin and
Mussorgsky. Stunning abrasive brass
playing in the the first movement trounces
the CSR Radio Orchestra version on Marco
Polo. The Mazurka however does
not completely shake off its Edwardian
fustian. More successful is the whirling
Polka. The well upholstered Valse
looks to Tchaikovskian balletic examples.
In the Cossack Dance the accent
is more Borodin Prince Igor than
Tchaikovsky.
Armstrong Gibbs' Fancy
Dress suite is in four movements
of which Dusk - the third - became
phenomenally successful. The mood is
varied with the first Hurly Burly
being knockabout prokofiev-like
stuff while the Dance of the Mummers
doffs a hat and a deep bow towards Capriol
and RVW’s English Folk Song Suite.
Dusk is a delectably emotional
slow Delian waltz - light yet searching
but not deep. Are those cuckoos I hear.
Pageantry - Processional is a
cheery light march with a touch of Moeran's
Sinfonietta about it and then
a splash of Coates and Elgarian nobilmente.
Lutyens' En Voyage
might be a bit of a surprise if
you expect Lutyens' to be always dissonant.
Here she essays a four movement suite
evoking a journey by train and boat
from London to Paris via Dieppe. The
first movement Overture has a redolence
of Binge’s Elizabethan Serenade about
it - the sort of mock tudor also to
be found in RVW's The England of
Elizabeth. Channel Crossing has
some of the jazzy disruption and stamping
terpsichore of Constant Lambert and
even of Aaron Copland. If the first
two movements are the English Tudor
part of the Entente Cordiale equation
then Yvette, with its gentle
tambourine and pipe and drum suggests
French villageoise as does Paris-Soir
which starts surprisingly desolate
but soon swings into the carousel of
Parisian street-life. For the last two
or so minutes Lutyens forgets the Parisian
locale and comes away with a sighingly
lovely and yearning grandeur looking
out across the Seine.
This is a fascinating
collection which offers some surprising
and always engaging perspectives on
British light music.
Rob Barnett
for details
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Barry Wordsworth
(Bantock; Tate; Coleridge Taylor); Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra/Simon Joly (Gipps,
Lutyens) 
