What’s the scheme here? The idea is to offer a single
substantial orchestral track for the majority of composers represented
in the Lyrita catalogue. Across these 50 plus tracks whole works
are presented alongside eight single movements extracted from
larger works: symphonies or concertos. Across the two sets composers
are presented alphabetically: Set 1: Alwyn - Ireland; Set 2:
Jacob - Wordsworth. Each set is available separately and will
sell for £24.99 apiece (MusicWeb price £18 post-free
worldwide).
You can sometimes argue with the selection but overall the right
note has been struck - right and bold … or at least it
has once the decision was made to choose two 4 CD sets and restrict
the choice to orchestral works. I note that Holbrooke is not
included but there had to be some omissions to stay within
the practical bounds of the project.
In Set One strong choices are made time after time. Alwyn’s
Magic Island is in fact Prospero’s island - from
The Tempest. The English Dances beguile and enchant.
They are drawn from an LP and then from an extended CD which
found Lyrita orchestral recording standards at their utter peak.
The Russian Scenes are well done although ultimately
they are a collection of exotic postcards and dances. The Benjamin
Overture is a playful piece in the manner of the lighter
examples by Barber and Bax. It comes as no surprise to discover
that it was used as the overture to Benjamin’s opera Prima
Donna. Berkeley’s crisp Serenade for Strings
is presumably authoritative with the composer at the helm. Bliss
conducting a suite from his Adam Zero seems underwhelming
as music and as a performance - Handley’s version is much
better. The delightful Bridge Suite for Strings is lovingly
done by Boult. Similarly sumptuous and achingly poignant is
A Shropshire Lad. Finzi’s Eclogue, Howells’
Merry-Eye and Hadley’s One Morning in Spring
speak for themselves. The Forgotten Rite by John Ireland
is a subtle, poetic and completely convincing piece. It’s
interesting that this first set has only one bleeding chunk
from a larger piece and that is the second movement of Busch’s
Cello Concerto. The Cello Concerto is a strong work and makes
quite a discovery among the rich crop of new Lyritas in 2008.
Although issued on CD in the early 1990s the Foulds Mantras
- of which we here have the Mantra of Bliss - is
amongst the most radical and impressive. Then again Foulds was
an extraordinary composer whose significance is international.
Light music is represented by shapely performances of Coates’
From Meadow to Mayfair, Gibbs’ Fancy Dress and
the Coleridge Taylor Valse. Fredman’s reading of
the famous Delius Walk is to be treasured. He would have
made an estimable Song of the High Hills had the opportunity
been offered. Lyrita are the only label to provide Holst’s
tangy Japanese Suite and, audaciously enough, it’s
here in this set. From the 19th century comes Sterndale
Bennett’s Caprice and the remarkable Variations
on a Hungarian Air by Hurlstone. Henry Wood’s orchestration
of the Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor was originally
presented under a pseudonym, Paul Klenovsky. Oh how those Russian
names legitimise British talent! Gipps’ Horn Concerto
is played by the very talented David Pyatt. Would that Lyrita
had also recorded her other concertos. Don’t forget her
works for Clarinet (1940); Viola (Jane Grey Fantasy,
1940), Oboe (1941), Violin (1943), Piano (1948), Violin and
Viola (1957) and Contra-Bassoon (Leviathan) and the five
symphonies (1942, 1945, 1965, 1972, 1982). Names much associated
with Cheltenham are represented by the Yorick overture,
the Jabez and The Devil and the only recently vinyl-liberated
Hoddinott Welsh Dances (Set 2).
Set Two has a higher quotient of movements extracted from larger
works. This is always an unsatisfactory approach but there was
no alternative once Lyrita had chosen to represent composers
in this way. Thus we have the finales of the impressive Joubert
Symphony and the clean-limbed masculine energy of the Rootham
First Symphony. Bewail the fact that Lyrita and Handley never
got around to recording Rootham’s Second Symphony - once
studio-broadcast by Handley with a BBC Scottish contingent.
Rubbra could have been instanced by the cuttingly atmospheric
Soliloquy for cello and orchestra but instead we have
a movement from his toweringly potent Fourth Symphony which
in its cogency and emotional impact overshadows most of the
RVW symphonies. Still’s Third Symphony is there too -
represented somewhat eccentrically by the originally Saga-produced
recording of the outcast Goossens conducting the LSO. Jacob’s
wartime First Symphony is also referenced as is Wordsworth’s
Third. George Lloyd’s Fourth Symphony - an expiation of
horrifying experiences on the Murmansk convoys - is dazzling,
surprisingly dance-inflected and sometimes bafflingly good-natured.
The RCM doyens Parry and Stanford are represented by the meaty
Brahmsian Symphonic Variations which Boult later re-recorded
in 1977 for EMI. Here he is heard with the LSO. The EMI project
used his more accustomed partners, the LPO. Stanford is heard
in ‘Oirish’ mode with the Irish Rhapsody No.4
- it’s a nice piece but the conductor is Braithwaite
not Boult. Outstanding are Jones’s vivacious Dance
Fantasy and Lambert’s glorious Music for Orchestra.
Look past the John Major-like greyness of the Lambert title
and you will find a work of symphonic bearing and memorably
moving melodic concentration. I have high hopes that when someone
gets to record Cecil Gray’s Syllogism we will find
a work of similar attractions hiding behind its academically
bleached title. Major works, presented whole, include Leigh’s
neo-classical crystal-cut harpsichord Concertino, Rawsthorne’s
Symphonic Studies, RVW’s stirring Tallis Fantasia
and a stunning display of devastating mastery by Grace Williams
- her Ballads for Orchestra. The Williams is on no account
to be missed. The Walton Music for Children is intriguing
in prospect but ultimately faceless. Bushier-tailed are the
Moeran Rhapsody No. 2 from amongst the earliest Lyrita
Recorded Edition LPs and the flamboyant Santiago de Espada
overture by Malcolm Williamson. Back in time we go to Warlock’s
An Old Song - and we must again thank Lyrita for avoiding
obvious choices; delightful to hear something off the beaten
track rather than another Serenade or Capriol both
of which beckoned from the Lyrita coffers. Wind forward to that
magician of the impressionist-expressionist genre, Cyril Scott.
When Early One Morning was first issued Scott was a very
great rarity and the Herrmann-Ogdon partnership was even more
exotic even if Bernard Herrmann was a well known Anglophile
who conducted Rubbra, Finzi, RVW, Delius and many others. From
later generations we hear the Maconchy Music for Strings,
which now just fails to engage me, the more attractive Mathias
Sinfonietta and at the lighter yet polished end of the
spectrum Phyllis Tate’s London Fields suite. Tate
is another composer deserving of more recording projects: I
recommend her Saxophone Concerto (1944) but there is much more
including many works for voice with orchestra or smaller instrumental
ensemble.
The documentation for these sets is a joy. Each booklet starts
with a two page personal recollection by Edward Greenfield of
‘Lyrita Recorded Edition’ and a three pager by Lewis
Foreman: ‘Meeting Richard Itter’. After this comes
four pages of photos - some (Braithwaite, Wordsworth) not seen
before. The highly detailed track-listing follows this. I only
regret that although (p) dates are given there are no dates
and locations of recording sessions. Last but not least there
are extended yet succinct background notes on each composer
and each featured piece. These are by the astute and knowledgeable
Paul Conway. Mr Conway has appeared on the Lyrita scene only
since 2007 but he has, through his writings, already made himself
part of Lyrita’s resplendent achievement.
Rob Barnett
see also review
by John France
Message received:
Dear MusicWeb
Thank you for the in-depth review of the Anniversary sets. We
are offering a free limited edition poster to people who purchased
the sets. Inside each box will be a bounce back card and as
long as people fill in their postal address we will send them
a copy.
The Poster is A3 in size and features eleven rare and unique
photographs taken at Lyrita recording sessions including Kenneth
Wilkinson, Sir Adrian Boult, Tod Handley, Joy Finzi, Norah Kirby
(John Ireland's house-keeper), John Ogdon, Elizabeth Maconchy,
and even Richard Itter.
Antony Smith
