This is the first in the Chandos film music series to have two
composers share a single disc. There are compelling reasons for
this. It’s necessitated because neither composer wrote enough
to be allocated a single disc and the music warrants recording.
Also the friendship of the two composers provides the glue if
cohesion is necessary. Do not expect the music to be similar though.
Berners is zany, harum-scarum, polished yet volatile and welcoming
of voices from popular culture. Lambert is the master in this
company writing touching and consistently rewarding music for
a dispensable genre.
The score for Merchant
Seamen represents one aspect of Lambert's war work. The
trumpet-emphasised fanfares are as strident and rebellious as
those in Horoscope. The score's first movement also has
cross-currents from Vaughan Williams despite Lambert’s execration
of the cowpat style. After a very moody and Baxian Convoy
in Fog with little flurries from Ravel comes a fast and
furious Prokofiev-accented storm for Attack. This depicts
one of the merchant ships being torpedoed. Safe convoy is
perfectly peaceful and in its contented Celtic lull reminds
the listener of parts of Bantock’s Hebridean Symphony
and, more plausibly, of Malcolm Arnold's Third Scottish Dance
- Arnold was a trumpeter in the orchestra when the suite
was premiered by them on 15 May 1943. It may even have been
a contributor to the inspiration behind Eric Fogg's orchestral
miniature Sea-Sheen. The final March goes through
the motions but seems empty for Lambert.
Vivien Leigh and
Ralph Richardson appeared in the 1948 film of Anna Karenina.
This is represented by another five movement score magically
recorded by the Chandos team. Far from catching any Russian
flavour the first movement sounded a mite like Malcolm Arnold,
complete with alcoholic slurs - Lambert was no stranger to the
grain. The second movement, Anna and Vronsky's first meeting
has links with Vaughan Williams' score for The 49th
Parallel. Anna and Vronsky on the Train might well
have drawn on his earlier Aubade Heroique; in fact dedicated
to RVW on his seventieth birthday. The Seance Scene and
Anna's Illness take us back into creaking and aching
Bax territory and does so as strongly as in the Convoy in
Fog movement. The Anna's Garden movement returns
us to the Ravel inflections of Convoy in Fog. The rocking
and entrancing rustle of Forlana was later recycled in
the Tiresias ballet.
Lord Berners was
a very different, brilliant and eccentric creature and the change
in the music is something of a crashed gear-change. Mary Carewe
deserves an Oscar for her music-hall pin-sharp Come on Algernon
from Berner's film score for Champagne Charlie. It's
rife with innuendo. Come on Classic FM start playing this track
- people will love it. The Polka from the same film score
is elegant and full of haute-couture sensibility rather like
Barber's Souvenirs suite.
The ten minute suite
from Nicholas Nickleby is in a single continuously-played
track yet with recognisable episodes. This is more in the nature
of a medley yet following the plot sequence. Ravel's La Valse
jostles with the Polka of Champagne Charlie.
The six movements of Berners' score for Halfway House are
much more serious and passionate than the zany Champagne
Charlie and Nicholas Nickleby. The Drowning Scene
is suitably occluded and dank. Philip Lane's adaptation
of the Seance Waltz drifts in a hazed focus between Barber's
Souvenirs and Sondheim. This is flouncy music in the
grand manner. In the finale there is romance and birdsong. The
vocals merge nicely with the other orchestral lines and the
piece ends with a technicolour sunrise.
The notes are by
Philip Lane and are an exemplar of their type.
The recording throughout
is wonderfully palpable yet manages eerieness and the quieter
moods with as much conviction as the demonstrative heroism.
This disc is generously
full and very few of the tracks are anything less than engaging.
I will keep mentioning
the need for a complete Chandos disc of the film music of Brian
Easdale – until then enjoy this latest entrant.
Rob Barnett
Detailed tracklist:
Constant LAMBERT (1905-1951)
Suite from 'Merchant Seamen' (1940) 14:35
1 Fanfare 1:28
2 Convoy in Fog 2:26
3 Attack 4:21
4 Safe Convoy 3:30
5 March 2:49
Suite from 'Anna Karenina' (1948) 30:19 arr. Philip Lane
1 Main Titles and opening scene 3:58
2 Anna and Vronsky's first meeting 2:20
3 Anna and Vronsky on the train 2:39
4 Séance scene 2:35
5 Anna and Vronsky discovered 1:43
6 Anna's garden 3:32
7 Anna's illness 2:50
8 Anna and Vronsky in Venice (Forlana) 4:02
9 Anna and Vronsky part acrimoniously 3:13
10 Finale 3:23
Lord BERNERS (1883-1950)
From 'Champagne Charlie' (1944) 5:44
Come on Algernon 3:08 orch. Philip Lane
Polka 2:34 orch. Philip Lane
Suite from 'Nicholas Nickleby' (1947) 10:23
Nicholas & Madeline Bray - Meno mosso - Kate Nickleby &
the Mantilinis - Ralph Nickleby & Miss La Creevy - Miss
La Creevy - Love Scene (Kate & Frank) - Mr Squeers - The
Cheeryble Brothers - The Death of Smike - Nicholas says goodbye
to Crummles - The Hampton Inn - The Wedding
Suite from 'The Halfway House' (1944) 18:09 arr. Philip Lane
1 Main Titles 1:46
2 The Concert 2:16
3 Bicycle Ride 1:14
4 'Drowning' Scene 2:39
5 Séance Waltz 4:15 orch. Philip Lane
6 Resolutions & Finale 5:57
Mary Carewe
(soprano) 
