Hanson's opera Merry
Mount has been something of a speciality for Naxos. The
suite from the opera is one of the companions to the First Symphony
as recorded by the Nashville Symphony and Kenneth Schermerhorn
on 8.559012.
The whole opera was issued from acetates of the 1934 Serafin-conducted
Met broadcasts in 1998 as part of the Naxos historic opera
series. Now Naxos is the host to the digital recording of the
Seattle 1996 revival. The suite was also recorded recently by
Telarc with Kunzel, by the composer at least twice, by Schwarz
and by others. Extracts from the opera were issued on a Mercury
LP with the composer conducting; that really should be reissued.
In 1932 Nathaniel Hawthorne’s
novella ‘The Maypole of Merry Mount’ became the subject of a
published poem by Richard Stokes. The poem caught the attention
of the Nebraskan composer Howard Hanson who at that time had
two distinctively romantic symphonies to his name. He had completed
his signature work - Symphony No. 2 Romantic - only two
years earlier and suggestions of that work can be heard in the
grandiloquent love music of the resulting opera.
In this opera the sensual
delights and torments of puritan Pastor Wrestling Bradford are
played out against the backdrop of a New England community in
the 1600s. A ship arrives from England with a contingent of
dissolute Cavaliers. With them is the beautiful Lady Marigold
Sandys who becomes the centre of Bradford’s obsession. On Merry
Mount, with the maypole at the centre of the open-air dancing
ground, Sandys is to be married to Gower Lackland. Bradford
intervenes and carries her off. Finally alone with her Bradford
unveils his love for Marigold. Lackland appears, there is struggle
and Lackland is killed by Bradford. Act II scene 3 is a vision
of hell but because this is in the similitude of Bradford’s
dream it is an erotic vision in which amid the sensuality he
replays his killing of Gower who appears as Lucifer. Bradford
wakes as the RedIndians - who have been treated abysmally throughout
the opera – sack the village and begin to kill and scalp the
setters. The village burns as Bradford and Sandys return. The
settlers put the Indians to flight but Bradford, conscious of
the condemnation awaiting Marigold and himself, sweeps her up
into his arms and strides into the furnace flames of his blazing
church – a suitably Puccinian end to a superheated opera.
No
wonder the subject appealed so strongly
to Hanson. Harking back to the First
Symphony the mood is brooding and fiercely
devotional. This couples well with the
Old Testament ferocity of the words.
Early on in the first act the choral
writing ascends to typically long-breathed
nobility which is wonderfully contrasted
with baritonal string writing. The Sibelian
element is also present. Listen to the
Pohjolan harp underpinning at 7:20 on
tr. 2 for the women's voices. Attend
also to the stertorous stentor of the
horns on tr. 3 1:23. Schwarz gives Hanson's
opera the dolcissima it clamantly
demands and receives from orchestra
and chorus, from Bradford and from the
delightfully named Plentiful Tewke.
Listen to Flanigan’s limning of the
melodic pulse in tr. 7 when she is alone
with Zeller’s Bradford. The rapturous
romantic cantilena of Bradford and Lady
Marigold Sandys in tr. 12 is positively
symphonic in its stride. The hymnal
and romantic meet in tense adversity
- sacred and profane. It’s a potent
mix. This contributes to the Mussorgskian
glowering choral grandeur of end of
act I. It is excitable and noble writing
in line with Ireland’s These Things
Shall Be and Hanson’s own masterwork
Lament of Beowulf. At the end
of each Act – thankfully not each scene
- we are reminded by the applause that
this is a recording of a live event.
There is the occasional and rare cough
as at start of tr. 4. CD1. In Act II
we encounter playful zephyrs with these
breezy gestures developing into a full-blown
Borodin-like climax preceded by jazzy
syncopations. The clapping rhythmic
song rises to Prince Igor abandon.
The Merry Mount scene of the wedding
of Lady Marigold and Gower is carefully
set but the Puritans enter and brutally
end the merrymaking. The innocent maypole
dances will be familiar if you know
The Merry Mount suite from its
many versions. Bradford's dream includes
the most atmospheric of the music. In
tr. 11 aggressively edgy rhythmic material
is emphasised and accented by the brass
with more ruthlessness than lilt - more
hysteria than loving kindness. This
is the Hanson equivalent of Night
on the Bare Mountain. Scene 2 of
Act III has it all: the brutality of
the Indian attack and its repulse. The
villagers turn against Lady Marigold
and superstitiously blame her for the
destruction. Bradford is tormented by
passion and guilt and the music echoes
this in climactic Puccinian ascent as
he strides with the hapless Lady Marigold
into the flames of the church.
Presentational issues:
The two discs are in a single width case. Sadly there is no
libretto. There's no Naxos site for downloading the libretto.
We do get Keith Anderson's meticulously detailed synopsis which
is pretty good. This keys in with the detailed tracking - 12
for CD1 and 19 for CD2.
It is a surprise it has not made more headway
in opera houses. As it is it remains in the same category as Sessions
Montezuma. Sure it is weakened by an excessive number of characters
and generally by its jejune rocking horse name. However Hanson's
singing and lyrical impulse is heard at full stretch in this opera.
This splendidly representative red-blooded recording should win
the work new admirers.
Rob Barnett
Context and comparative reviews
Wikipedia entry for Merry Mount (well worth reading)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merry_Mount
Serafin historical recording of complete opera - 1934
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/march99/merry.htm
Schwarz – orchestral suite – Delos
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/march99/hanson.htm
Hanson – orchestral suite – Citadel
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2000/may00/hansondemocracy.htm
Hanson – orchestral suite – Mercury
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Oct05/Hanson_47568674.htm
Schermerhorn – orchestral suite – Naxos
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classRev/2001/May01/Hanson1.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classRev/2001/Aug01/Hanson1.htm
Kunzel – orchestral suite - Telarc
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Nov05/Hanson_Kunzel_CD80649.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Oct05/Hanson2_CD80649.htm
Naxos American Classics page
Detailed Tracklisting
Howard Hanson - Merry Mount, Op. 31
CD1
Act I: Prelude 03:01
Act I: Be as a lion, dread Jehovah… From plots of Hell
and witcheries (Puritans, Bradford, Bridget, Plentiful, Myles
Brodrib, Tewke, Desire) 08:09
Act I: Ah - I deny thy Christ (Bradford, Banks, Tewke,
Puritans) 03:51
Act I: A savoury discourse, good Master Bradford (Bradford,
Tewke) 02:49
Act I: Last night came One that paced a - down the stairway
of the sky (Bradford) 02:37
Act I: My son, Thou'rt over - ripe for marriage! (Tewke,
Bradford) 01:44
Act I: The willow keep to thatch our sleep (Plentiful,
Bradford) 03:42
Act I: Plentiful Tewke hath catched the preacher! (Love,
Bradford, Peregrine Brodrib, Prence, Children) 04:48
Act I: Gi' you good night, sir… (Prence, Myles Brodrib,
Marigold, Bradford, Tinker, Morton, Puritans, Cavaliers) 04:59
Act I: Scratch a Roundhead, find a rebel … Thrones of
Earth be idle things (Prence, Scrooby, Tewke, Bradford, Puritans,
Cavaliers) 02:15
Act I: Right rev'rend priest, our holy joy … Respect
the Sabbath day (Prence, Scrooby, Tewke, Bradford, Puritans,
Cavaliers) 02:41
Act I: Marigold! Lady! … Let us be lions of Jehovah (Bradford,
Marigold, Lackland, Myles Brodrib, Tewke, Puritans, Cavaliers)
04:37
CD2
Act II Scene 1: Prelude - I wind and I wind, My true
love to find (Men and Women) 03:48
Act II Scene 1: From forth the hill … I christen 'Merry
Mount' - Maypole Dance (Lackland, Men and Women) 03:56
Act II Scene 1: Long Live the Lady (Men and Women) 00:53
Act II Scene 1: Marigold! When the morning stars together
sang (Lackland, Marigold, Men and Women) 04:23
Act II Scene 1: Methinks I see th'infernal rendezvous
of Satan and his bond - slaves (Bradford, Men and Women, Morton,
Tewke, Puritans) 06:36
Act II Scene 2: O pity me! Thou alone of women Canst
heal this tortured heart (Bradford, Marigold, Lackland, Tewke,
Puritans) 03:05
Act II Scene 2: Let them strike twice, And I will come
to thee! (Marigold) 02:38
Act II Scene 2: Hale her to the village, A prisoner…
(Tewke, Bradford) 00:40
Act II Scene 2: Almighty Father, My King and my God (Bradford,
Mystic Voices) 03:11
Act II Scene 2: Chorus of Mystic Voices 03:11
Act II Scene 3: Alleluia! Alleluia! (Bradford, Lucifer,
Monsters, Witches and Demons) 14:23
Act II Scene 3: Now thou art mine (Lucifer, Monsters,
Witches and Demons, Bradford) 01:47
Act II Scene 3: Rise up, my love my fair one (Bradford,
Astoreth) 04:33
Act III Scene 1: Prelude 07:30
Act III Scene 2: Gird you with Sackcloth (Tewke, Puritans)
02:56
Act III Scene 2: Never more shall prayer ravish these
lips!… (Bradford, Chorus) 03:37
Act III Scene 2: Woe, woe! Lost sheep are we (Puritans,
Bradford, Myles Brodrib) 01:47
Act III Scene 2: No witch am I; But one that long ago
was happy (Marigold) 04:31
Act III Scene 2: Ay, even now thy lover frets at Hellgate - Death
to the Witch (Bradford, Marigold, Ensemble) 05:23
