A German sniper shot Lt George Butterworth, of the 23rd Division
the 13th Durham Light Infantry through the head on the night
of 5 August 1916 during the battle of the Somme. With his death
he became one of the “lads who will never be old”, to quote
Housman, and one of those composers about whom speculation as
to their subsequent development was rife. This kind of supposition
is futile, but with such a loss, one is bound to mourn and wonder.
At the time of his commission he was seen as one of the brightest
talents in British music, and even though his output is slender
- he destroyed many of his works - it’s easy to understand why.
This disk contains his complete vocal music with piano – for
the rest of his works, there’s three orchestral works and a
song cycle, Love Blows as the Wind Blows, for baritone
and string quartet (subsequently orchestrated). He is one of
the handful of composers about whom one can say his total output
is perfect with not a note out of place.
As a young musician, just out of college, I gave a number of
recitals, with a fantastic pianist, and, as often as possible,
we performed the Six Songs from A Shropshire Land, so
I have a very personal interest and involvement with this work.
To say that it’s the greatest song-cycle in the English language
is no understatement. With a Webern–like concision, years before
Webern commenced the total serialisation of his music, Butterworth
penetrates to the very core of Housman’s slight poems, and fills
them with a strength and poignancy lacking in all other Housman
settings I know – and there are many. Published in 1896, Housman’s
poems were intended to resonate with the feelings brought about
by the First Boer War (1880/1881) and seem to presage the Second
Boer War (1899/1902), However, Butterworth’s death, among too
many others, not to mention his heartbreaking settings, have
lead many to believe that the poems were written some twenty
years later. Certainly, emotionally, they appear perfectly to
reflect the feelings of that later time. Surprisingly, the cycle
hasn’t had as many recordings over the years as one would have
thought. My favourites are Roy Henderson’s 1941 version and
John Carol Case’s fine 1976 disc, for Pearl; this is almost
as fine; what puts the disk ahead of them is the coupling. Williams
is a singer who has impressed me more and more since I saw,
and heard, him in Opera North’s production of Peter Grimes
a couple of years ago. He has intelligence and insight, understands
the musical line, displays marvellous breath control, and his
diction is magnificent. This latter is handy as there are no
texts in the booklet.
The simple folksong arrangements are split into two groups,
either side of the Bredon Hill set and the three separate
songs. They are given in a straightforward way, with no attempt
to “interpret” them, as befits the simplicity of the originals.
The accompaniments are equally simple. I can understand why
Butterworth, after writing the Six Songs from A Shropshire
Land, would wish to set more Housman, but good as they are,
Bredon Hill and Other Songs don’t reach the ecstatic
heights of its companion cycle. These are more consciously concert
“art” songs, lacking the folksong effortlessness of the earlier
set.
Quite simply this is a great disk of great music in very fine
performances. If I have a complaint at all, it is that Williams
fails to vary his tone colour as much as one would like, making
everything sound too alike, and he misses the great interpretive
challenge of the final song of the Six Songs from A Shropshire
Land – Is my team ploughing? – a conversation between
a ghost and his best friend. That said, this is a disk well
worth having. The recording is good but the notes are perfunctory.
Bob Briggs
see also review by Jonathan
Woolf
Roderick Williams (baritone); Iain Burnside (piano)
