It says much for Lyrita
that their presentation both visual
and aural encourages exploration. High
standards achieved by them in the 1970s
and sustained into the 1980s are one
of the label’s hallmarks. However one
of their fingerprints has been smudged.
The label used to be famed for its conservative
repertoire at a time when the likes
of Bax, Finzi, Bridge and Ireland were
desperately out of fashion. With the
rebirth of the label earlier this year
we are getting an influx of the very
dissonant and avant-garde works that
were in the ascendancy when the label
was fighting its rearguard action with
the Bax symphonies, the Finzi songs
and the Ireland and Bliss orchestral
works. It's not that Lyrita ever completely
ignored such works; there were famous
LPs of pairs of symphonies by Searle
and Still. Later however, in the early
1990s, came the Welsh Arts Council supported
works some of which were unafraid of
dissonance.
Gordon Crosse is from
Bury, Lancashire. In 1962 he studied
with Petrassi in Rome. In 1976 he won
the Cobbett medal and returned to his
new found home in Suffolk to dedicate
himself fulltime to composition. His
music encompasses many genres. There
are four operas and many concert works.
In 1990 his work Sea Psalms was
premiered by the Scottish National Chorus
and Orchestra in Glasgow. A CD of the
Cello Concerto, Memories of Morning:
Night and Some Marches on a Ground
was released on NMC in 1999. Since
the late eighties Crosse has moved towards
computer technology and away from composition.
Here are two pieces
by Gordon Crosse: one to all intents
and purposes an oboe concerto; the other
a big anthologising choral work for
the Three Choirs Festival.
Crosse's Ariadne
is for oboe with twelve players.
It was premiered at the Cheltenham Festival
on 11 July 1972 with Sarah Francis and
Contrapuncti conducted by Michael Lankester.
It was written as a result of a commission
from Michael Johnson, the husband of
Sarah Francis. Without being programmatic
the work bears the imprint of Crosse's
holiday in Crete in 1970 - listen to
the Greek ‘ethnic’ sounds at 16:00 -
and the Ariadne legend. It is lucidly
orchestrated, sometimes dissonant, tensely
lyrical and full of dramatic incident.
The Greek flavour becomes very assertive
towards the end then fades into a taut
shimmer through which the wise oboe
muses and sings. It is a brother under
the skin to Malcolm Arnold's oboe concerto.
Gordon Crosse and the
Three Choirs Festival? Oil and water?
Yet the 1966 Changes was
written for that Festival when the composer
was 29. It was written in large part
in Birmingham the previous year. It
is in two Interludes and four parts
each subdivided and here separately
tracked - a total of fourteen tracks.
Part I is a lengthy bell-influenced
piece for choir and a mighty heaving
orchestra. It is alive with the volcanic
jangle of church bells and the sung
words are a tangle of inscriptions from
bells. This is followed by the first
interlude which opens in brusque ruthlessness
and then curves quickly down to a soulful
cello. A rather recessed John Shirley-Quirk
intones the Sir Thomas Browne words
The Night is Come. The drama
is in the vivid orchestral interjections.
God be in my head is taken by
the unison chorus around a figure in
staccato which follows the outline of
the words. The Children's Chorus sing
another anonymous text: Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John ... Bless the Bed
that I lie on. For me this recalls
Mathias's writing for children' choir
in This Worldes Joie. Nurse's
Song shivers and shimmers amid Penderecki-groaning
work in the bass. The words here are
sung by Jennifer Vyvyan and are by William
Blake.
The Second Interlude
is again brief with mournful meditation
in the bass section of the strings and
punched out protesting brass figures.
This contrasts with the calming avian
chatter of the woodwind. This ushers
in the men's chorus with orchestra for
Herrick's Bellman's Song. Poet
and composer address darkness and the
night, and offer their own intimations
of universal mortality. The Round -
Hey nonny no! is for women's
chorus with orchestra. This is a rowdy
episode in rude health with a nose thumbed
at death and moves directly into the
baritone solo to words by William Davenant,
Wake All The Dead. This is a
nicely celebratory invocation to clear
grave space for the new generations.
This spirit once established continues
with Like to the Lightning in
which soprano solo and children's chorus
in awe hymn death; this time secure
in the promise of resurrection.
Part IV begins with
the raw golden fanfares of Part I. The
soprano takes the words The door
of death is made of gold (Blake)
and at the words 'I give you the
end of a golden string ...' makes
a predictive link with Ariadne lying
six years in the future. A New Year
Carol rounds out this major work
with a meeting of pagan sun and the
worship of God. The chorus and children's
choir fanfare the shine of the new year
aided by bells and brass. The work strides
purposefully forward to the glow of
renewal and of the very change referred
to in the title.
There were moments
in the first section when I wondered
if the accent was more a matter of charnel
(try Constant Lambert's Summer's Last
Will) than new growth. In fact the trajectory
is from darkness to light - from unredeemable
death to shining light and the green
shoots of renewal. This is cleverly
and movingly limned by the bell sounds
of chaos in Sancte Thomas trounced
by the golden bells of rebirth in the
slow aureate farewell of a triumphant
but not rowdy epilogue.
If you enjoy Mathias's
This
Worldes Joie and Fricker's Vision
of Judgement (awaiting a premiere
recording) then have no doubts about
Crosse's Changes.
Two minor criticisms.
I missed the sort of biographical overview
you get with other Lyritas. I also wish
that Lyrita would move away from using
this olive green text; it’s appalling
to read.
A generous CD then
... which both affirms and denies Crosse's
reputation as a disciple of the cutting
edge avant-garde.
Rob Barnett
Also Available
SRCD.267
Maw Scenes & Arias; Milner
Roman Spring
for details
* Sarah Francis (oboe) 
