|
Making
a Donation to MusicWeb
About MWI
Site
Map
More
Reviews
How to find a review
Books
Film
Music (Archive)
Interviews
Nostalgia
Records Of The Year
Monthly Best Buys
Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes
Phil
Scowcroft's Garlands
Classical
blogs
Reviewers
Logs
Announcements
Don't
Go Here!
Community
Bulletin Board
Web
Ring
Reviewers
Helpers
invited!
Resources
How
Did I Miss That?
British
Composers
British
Light Music Composers
Other
composers
Review Indexes
By
Label
By
Masterwork
Discographies
Composer
National
Themed
Review pages
Complete Books
Programme
Notes
External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Performers
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc
Editorial
Board
Classical Editor
Rob Barnett
Seen & Heard
Editor and Webmaster
Bill Kenny
MusicWeb Webmaster
Len Mullenger
Assistant Webmaster
David Barker
PotPourri
A
pot-pourri of articles
MW
Listening Room
MW
Office
Helping
MusicWeb
Advice
to Windows Vista users
Questionnaire
Site
History
What
they say about us
What
we say about us!
Where
to get help on the Internet
CD
orders By Special Request
Graphics
archive
Currency
Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed
Web Ring
Translation Service
Rules
for potential reviewers :-)
Do
Not Go Here!
April Fools


|
 |
 |
|
alternatively
Crotchet AmazonUK
AmazonUS
|
Alan
RAWSTHORNE (1905-1971)
Street Corner Overture (1944) [5:36]
Madame Chrysanthème - ballet suite (1957) [8:25]
Practical Cats - An entertainment for speaker and orchestra
(1954) [22:48]
Theme, Variations and Finale (1967) [15:13]
Medieval Diptych for baritone and orchestra (1962)
[14:09]
Coronation Overture (1953) [5:33]
Simon Callow
(narrator)
Jeremy Huw Williams (baritone)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/David Lloyd-Jones
rec. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, 4-5 September 2007; Abbey
Road, Studio 2, 17 December 2007. DDD
DUTTON EPOCH CDLX7203 [72:35]  |
|
|
The Rawsthorne Trust vies
with the Finzi Trust in how much has been achieved for their
respective composers in such a short time. Film royalties
have continued to provide the funding for studio session
after session. The mature Rawsthorne works have been recorded
since the late 1990s principally by Naxos and latterly by
Dutton. The linkage between the two is conductor David Lloyd-Jones
who featured heavily and sympathetically on the Naxos recordings.
He now conducts this assemblage of the rare and the familiar.
Two overtures
of pretty much equal length bookend this collection which
also fills several gaps in the Rawsthorne discography.
The Street
Corner Overture goes with a real swing goaded
on to grand effect by Lloyd-Jones. There is no escaping
the picaresque raucous bombast of some of this music.
It smacks of a collision between Cockaigne and Beckus
the Dandipratt. The rare Coronation Overture has
a Handelian weightiness in its veins relieved by an eerie
distant cavalcade at 1:10. It's a strange piece with
some splendid moments amid the Handelian references.
Also intriguing are the edgy fanfaring passages at 3:20
and the capricious soloistic writing at 3:55 onwards.
What we hear is John McCabe's reconstruction from the
orchestral parts. The original MS full score was lost.
The complete
ballet of Madame Chrysanthème has been recorded by
ASV. The subject is taken from the novel by Pierre Loti (not
Lotti, Dutton). The four movements here are a sensationally
lyrical Procession with Lanterns which is more RVW
than Rawsthorne, a Bernstein-like Sword Dance which
is impressive and strongly rhythmic, the Hornpipe is
echt-Rawsthorne in its surging lyrical line and the Les
Mousmes links back to the mood of the first movement.
This is a most attractive character suite.
Practical
Cats is
well known from the classic Robert
Donat recording on EMI. The orchestral overture has
all the street urchin impudence and Offenbach and Auric
flutter that we expect. You can hear it again in Jellicle
Cats (tr.12). Simon Callow is suitably stately, ingenuous
and artfully artless in his delivery. This is a Practical
Cats for the new century. The booklet does not reprint
the words but their is no need: Simon Callow is clear as
a bell yet unaffected and full of character.
The Theme,
Variations and Finale dates from 1967 but presumably
because it was written for Graham Treacher and Essex Youth
Orchestra it is softer in language than we might expect
from late Rawsthorne. There is an angularity to this writing
but it's gentle and the turmoil is comparable with that
of Cortèges and Street
Corner. The triptych is presented here as a single
track.
The Medieval
Diptych is a little known work and this is its world
premiere recording as was the triptychal work for Graham
Treacher. The language is fully accessible and there is
little sign of the dissonance associated with Rawsthorne
scores of the 1960s – for example the Third
Symphony. He wrote little for the human voice with
orchestra although there is the central movement of his Second
Symphony 'Pastoral'. The two poems have the Virgin
Mary as their focus. The pattern of two poems of interlinked
subject matter was established by Finzi in his A
Farewell to Arms and his Two
Milton Sonnets. These two are powerful if rather
bleak and volatile settings. If the music of the first
part is predominantly haunted with a sense of horror lurking
over the shoulder Adam Lay yBounden is more playful
but it feels more like the Grand Guignol of Lambert's King
Pest. The mood becomes more frankly celebratory
as the piece ends. Anyone concerned with British music
for voice needs to hear this.
The words
for Medieval Diptych are provided on the Dutton website.
The notes are by John Belcher who on occasion seems with
John McCabe to have instigated, piloted and provided momentum
and sustenance for the Rawsthorne revival of fortunes.
A well
presented collection in excellent performances and recordings
filling gaps in the Rawsthorne discography with panache.
Rob Barnett
|
|
Advertising
Rates
Visitor
stats
MusicWeb
International
has over 30,000 Classical CD reviews on offer

Gerard
Hoffnung Concerts &
The
Bricklayer Story
MusicWeb
DOWNLOADS
MusicWeb
can now offer
you discs from the following catalogues:
Prices include postage
Musicweb
Special
Offers

New
Releases

New
Releases




MusicWeb
sells the Polish
catalogue CDAccord
£10.50 post free W-W

MusicWeb sells the
Arcodiva catalogue
£12.00 post free W-W

£11.75
post-free world-
wide
Google Ads -
for information about privacy matters, click here.
|