It was canny of Richard
Itter to acquire a stack of 1960s and
1970s stereo tapes. Many of these were
first issued on Decca and Argo LPs and
then sank from sight after a brief ‘after-life’
on Farringdon Records’ mailing lists.
Sound-wise the present collection of
British Council tapes have come up fresh
as new mint. Although much of this music
has been recorded afresh it is a delight
to hear these vigorous documents of
the last two decades of the LP. To hear
them in sound better that the petroleum-derived
originals is a great bonus.
Berkeley's little
Sonatina is an austere war-time
work lightened by a romantic touch from
Hugh Bean's violin. Even so in the first
movement a violence or brusqueness can
be heard – a mark of the times. Ten
years later came the Sextet -
a fastidious and sturdy work with Parisian
leanings. There’s also some carefully
controlled charm; a tight rein is held
on the emotions. Berkeley's style in
the 1930s and 1940s was far more yielding
and romantic - witness the neglected
Cello Concerto. By the 1950s things
had tightened: charm and craftsmanship
alone cannot always guarantee a wish
to revisit music. Try the rather uptight
Lento. Fascinating stuff anyway
but, depending on your taste, the emotional
core can be opaque or distant.
The music of Alan
Bush is deeply serious even when
he smiles. After the earnest angry glittering
Moto Perpetuo of the Three
Concert Studies for Piano Trio comes
the long and musingly chaste Lento.
This develops an emotional engagement
close to romance all achieved through
language that casts sloe-eyes towards
Tippett. The final Alla Bulgara with
its zingharese sway and bucolic pizzicato,
is a lovely piece. Well worth getting
to know. If there were any justice (yes,
I know) it would show up as a regular
on Classic FM. No doubt the Bulgarian
movement ties in with Bush's blended
commitment to communism and folk voices.
The next four tracks
have Bush himself as the pianist. The
Cruel Sea Captain is the first of
two Sea Ballads and is dedicated
to his teacher John Ireland whose
chordal signature can be heard here.
It’s always Bush's angular sentiment
applied to British folk material. The
1960 Suite is represented here by a
Warlockian Galliard with a dusting
of mild Bushian dissonance. It contrasts
with the reflectively romantic and gentle
pastoral that is the Air. Finally
from Bush comes a stern dance piece
of a type he first encountered while
researching for his wonderful opera
Guyana Johnny in British Guyana.
The Kwe-Kwe is a sort of wedding
dance and in it we hear a persistent
rhythmic pattern or undertow rising
to a determined and scrunching angularity.
Rawsthorne's
1948 Clarinet Quartet veers between
stolid emotionally curtailed reflection
to acerbic urgency and strained pastoral
elegy.
Like the Gerhard disc
(SRCD.274) this is also graced with
liner notes by Paul Conway.
A valuable if predominantly
stern collection of chamber music and
solo piano pieces in exemplary performances
and recordings rescued from vinyl oblivion.
Rob Barnett
Also Available
SRCD.249
Lennox Berkeley Symphonies Nos. 1 &
2 LPO / Norman del Mar/Nicholas Braithwaite
SRCD.252
Geoffrey Bush Symphonies Nos. 1 &
2 LPO / Nicholas Braithwaite/Barry Wordsworth
SRCD.291
Alan Rawsthorne Symphonies Nos. 1, 2
& 3 LPO / BBC SO / Sir John Pritchard
/ Nicholas Braithwaite/Norman del Mar
for details
The Music Group of London (Hugh Bean (violin);
Eileen Croxford (cello); David Parkhouse
(piano)); Frances Routh (violin)*; Christopher
Wellington (viola)*; Jack Brymer (clarinet)*;
Alan Civil (horn)*; ** Members of the
Aeolian Quartet: Sydney Humphreys (violin);
Margaret Major (viola); Derek Simpson
(cello); Thea King (clarinet) 
