Sir Richard Rodney BENNETT (1936-2013)
Letters to Lindbergh (1982) [13.38]*
The Ballad of Sweet William (2003) [7.42]*
The Aviary (1966) [8.20]*
Dream-Songs (1986) [9.05]*
A Song at Evening (2009) [2.58]*
Four American Carols (2010) [8.45]*
Over the hills and far away (1991) [10.27]
NYCoS National Girls Choir/Christopher Bell*
Philip Moore and Andrew West (piano)
rec. Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow, 27-29 April 2012
SIGNUM CLASSICS SIGCD 325 [60.56]
This CD was prepared for issue before the death of the composer earlier this
year - the booklet refers to him in the present tense - but it makes a fitting
tribute to Sir Richard Rodney Bennett. Despite his period of study in the
1950s with Boulez and Messiaen he also retained a foot in the fields of jazz
and popular music. Even the earliest work on this disc, The Aviary
written at the same time he was producing twelve-tone scores for the professional
stage, has a distinctly melodic feel in music and was written for amateurs
to perform - and to find pleasure in performing.
Indeed the vocal performances here are all given by an amateur choir of 67
singers aged between twelve and sixteen, and they sound as though they are
enjoying themselves thoroughly. Given Bennett’s long-term residence
in America during his later years, one might suspect that the NY is an abbreviation
for ‘New York’ - but no, the initials stand for ‘National
Youth Choir of Scotland National Girls Choir’. This tautologically named
group don’t explain this title anywhere in the booklet, but otherwise
the notes by Malcolm MacDonald are a mine of information about the works and
include complete texts, although the excellent diction of the choir is such
that they are not always needed.
Mind you, the texts for Letters to Lindbergh, which give their title
to the CD, are well worth reading in their own right, delightfully flippant
epistles from various sources addressed to the American aviator during his
pioneering solo flight across the Atlantic. Captain Scott (of the Antarctic)
worries about the whereabouts of his stray cat called Penguin, who has become
convinced that he is a bird after reading an encyclopaedia article. The Titanic
wants Lindbergh to collect a load of shopping in Paris to make its life on
the seabed more comfortable. Pluto - the Disney dog, not the erstwhile planet
- is simply worried about his relationships with ‘Mickey’ and
‘Uncle Walt’. Bennett sets all this delightful nonsense in a bluff
straightforward style, not always mirroring the words in detail but giving
the singers plenty of meat to get their young teeth into. The bouncy accompaniment
for piano duet provides a jazzy counterpoint that has all the exuberance of
Gershwin or Cole Porter.
By contrast the Ballad of Sweet William is a setting of an eerie Scottish
ballad about ghostly apparitions. The tone of the music remains light-hearted
nevertheless. The main influence here would appear to be Britten’s male
voice Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard, but Britten is more
adept at ringing the musical changes to reflect the varied action of the text
than Bennett is here. Some of the writing for the children’s voices
indeed recalls Britten’s Spring Symphony.Once again the
writing for piano duet - also mirroring the Britten Ballad of Little Musgrave
- provides plenty of spice and incident.
The settings of Walter de la Mare’s Dream-Songs are for unison
voices and piano solo. Although de la Mare was a popular poet with composers
in the earlier part of the twentieth century and Herbert Howells and Cecil
Armstrong Gibbs persistently returned to his work. This very popularity seems
to have told against the writer is more recent times, and settings of his
words are now comparatively rare. The poems in Dream-Songs are a gloomy
and mysterious collection, with heavily symbolist overtones but Bennett seems
to completely miss the point of the concluding Song of the Mad Prince
with its egotistical refrain “That’s what I said” where
the emphasis should surely be on the word “I” and not as here
on “That”. Apart from that single quibble, these are beautiful
settings - as is the other de la Mare poem here, the Song at Evening,
which combines a number of bedtime nursery rhymes to marvellous effect. By
the way the poet is misprinted as ‘Mere’ on p.14 of the booklet.
Bennett courts difficulties in his settings of Four American Carols,
in particular seeking to find new melodies for such perennial favourites as
I wonder as I wander and Away in a manger.His new tunes
for these are nevertheless very personable, and the other two carols - which
are spirituals rather than carols in the traditional sense - are highly enjoyable
settings with plenty of jazzy swing. It is clear that Bennett found no difficulty
in being approachable throughout his career - as indeed is proved by The
Aviary, with its disparate settings of poets such as John Clare, Tennyson,
Coleridge and Shelley. All this music is highly enjoyable to listen to.
To complete the CD we are offered a collection of popular children’s
songs arranged for piano duet under the title Over the hills and far away.
Here we are in Grainger territory, and the eight brief movements indeed recall
the fresh-faced approach of the eccentric Australian. Only the setting of
Upon Paul’s steeple brings a deeper note, with the ringing of
the bells bringing us into the realm of Debussy’s sunken cathedral.
The playing of Philip Moore and Andrew West is excellent throughout, although
the booklet does not tell who is playing what in the works where only a single
pianist is required.
I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this CD, which deserves to have every
success not only with the families and friends of the choir. It is not deep
music, but it has a freshness and lively response that is always a delight.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
Not deep music but its freshness and lively response is always a delight.
Support
us financially by purchasing this disc from |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|