This
was the third concert in the Nash Ensemble’s
series of British music from the first half
of the 20th century, evocatively titled ‘Those
Blue Remembered Hills’ from Housman’s ‘A Shropshire
Lad’ and it was the now – expected mixture
of the well – loved and the unfamiliar, with
the latter being seen this time in a premiere
public performance of a very early Vaughan
Williams work.
Delius’
second Violin Sonata began the evening, a
little tentative in the hands of Marianne
Thorsen and Ian Brown, but both warmed to
the lyrical second part where the violin’s
music is lush and redolent of the natural
scenery which the composer so loved. Warlock’s
Songs for tenor and string quartet followed:
these settings of 16th century
poems are perhaps mostly familiar from their
piano and voice versions, especially in the
lovely Hyperion recording of Warlock’s songs
by John Mark Ainsley and Roger Vignoles. That
recording features a striking performance
of ‘My Lady is a Pretty one’ or as it is called
there, ‘That Ever I Saw,’ a piece which this
evening’s programme note informs us does not
exist as a version with piano. Mark Padmore
sang them carefully and accurately but without
much sense of their special quality.
Vaughan
Williams was 26 when he wrote the C minor
String Quartet, receiving here its first public
performance. It’s such a slight work that
one wonders about the merits of exhuming it:
true, Keats, say, died at 26 after writing
a handful of immortal poems, but I’m not sure
that it’s quite fair to assume that every
creative artist is so mature at so young an
age, and to say that Vaughan Williams developed
his art in the years to come is an understatement.
It’s charming enough, especially in the Andantino
section and the Intermezzo, and
I’m glad to have heard it – but I won’t rush
to hear it again.
The
second half was composed of Bax’s Concerto
for flute, oboe, harp and string quartet,
played with confident ease by the ensemble,
especially in the cases of Philippa Davies’
flute and Bryn Lewis’ harp. Those odd programme
notes again – we’re informed this time that
Bax was ‘soaked’ (does this mean ‘steeped?’)
in Irish history…I’m unsure as to the relevance
of this except insofar as the piece is of
a folksy nature.
And
so to the evening’s major work, ‘On Wenlock
Edge’ which is something of speciality of
this ensemble, their recording of it – again
on Hyperion, and again with Ainsley as the
soloist – being as near to perfection as can
be imagined, although Ian Partridge’s eloquently
lyrical version also gives much pleasure.
Mark Padmore is not in the same league as
these tenors: he sings with taste and style,
for the most part (save for an unmusical ‘H’
before ‘I will come’) but he entirely lacks
the fire, passion and poetry required by this
work. He was at his best in the quiet, direct
sections such as ‘From far, from eve and morning’
and he sang ‘Clun’ with thoughtfulness and
care for the words, but ‘Is my team ploughing’
and ‘Bredon Hill’ both lacked drama and contrast:
the latter’s first line should be floated
out ecstatically, and its final utterances
should feel like a frank release, but here
both were merely pleasant. Marianne Thorsen
played with verve and engagement, her violin
often supplying the passion which the singing
lacked.
Melanie Eskenazi
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