Classical Explorations — February 2024

Constant Lambert
Romeo & Juliet – Finale
Constant Lambert is chiefly remembered for his jazz-inspired choral work The Rio Grande and for Music Ho!, his brilliant study of music in the 1920s. But his greatest achievement was to lay the foundations for English ballet working at the Vic-Wells ballet (known today as Sadler’s Wells). As a child, Lambert was taken to see Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes – the latest artistic sensation sweeping London. He was captivated by the dazzling combination of music, pictorial art and ballet. This was the start of his love affair with ballet and would become the backbone of his musical life. In the early 1920s, the Ballets Russes impresario Sergei Diaghilev was hoping to achieve financial success in London with a ballet based on an English subject, by an English composer. William Walton had been keen to write a ballet for Diaghilev, and in November 1925 a meeting was arranged at the Savoy Hotel for him to play to the impresario. Lambert was invited to offer moral support to Walton. Walton was no pianist and he failed to impress Diaghilev, but when Lambert played his Adam and Eve to him, he showed immediate interest. He crossed through the title in pencil and substituted the more English Romeo and Juliet. This is a brilliant work which should be better known, sparkling wit and vitality are at the fore. The ballet is worth exploring in its entirety, but I’ve presented the Finale for it’s clear melodies, jazzy rhythms and, in places, daring harmonies. It’s just a lot of fun – as was the Ballets Russes!

Edmund Rubbra
Symphony No.1
Edmund Rubbra is not a popular classical music name but at the peak of his fame in the middle of the 20th century, he was well respected for his symphony cycle, vocal and chamber music. At a time when more avant-garde ideas were proliferating the music scene, Rubbra continued with his own unique style. The opening movement of his Symphony No.1 is full of drama and unresolved power. The movement builds in intensity with some colourful wind and brass solos and interjections. The long phrases are wonderfully thought through, taking twists and turns before concluding. I hear these attributes in some of the orchestral masters of the 20th century such as Vaughan Williams and Walton. This is music of monumental intensity and full of narrative and imagination. Each twist and turn of the movement beckons you on through his colourful world. If you listen and it feels a little austere, do persevere, the reward is worth the wait!

Bedřich Smetana
Czech Dances – Skočná
2024 marks the 200th anniversary of Smetana’s birth and it is perhaps a good moment to explore something of his output. Known only for a handful of familiar works, there is a richness and variety to be discovered. Educated in German, Smetana initially struggled with the Czech language and wanted to write music like the European masters Mozart and Liszt. But he knew if he was to make it with Czech opera in particular, he’d need to master the language. But master it he did, moving to the great city of Prague studying with the poet Jungmann, a leading figure in the Czech national revival. In his piano music, Smetana combines the intimacy of solo piano music with Czech dance forms. By the end of his life, Smetana was very sadly writing music unable to hear. The public had however hailed his music as being powerful expression of Czech nationalism. Presented here on the iconic Czech music label Supraphon, the performances from Jitka Čechová are full of energy and warmth. Here I’ve picked the wonderful Skočná, a fast and exciting dance.

Germaine Tailleferre
Arabesque
Germaine Tailleferre was a clearly gifted musician who could replicate melodies on the piano that she heard at the tender age of only 4. She went to the Paris Conservatoire in 1904 studying with Ravel. She became acquainted with a group of composers who would later become known as Les Six. Tailleferre was known as ‘the only woman in Les Six’ and ‘the smile of Les Six’ – a revolutionary group Les Six in the 1920s. Their music was being written when jazz was making an appearance into post-Romantic works but their instance that music should be poplar, beautiful and uncomplicated is illustrated here in this outstandingly beautiful piece for clarinet and piano. The melody starts simply and delicately but as it progresses, the wide leaps make it perhaps more impressive, maybe visions of those ballet dancers by Degas! Although written in the 1970s, this piece is cast in that iconic 1920s French sound which I absolutely adore not least because a former teacher of mine, now dearly departed, got me absolutely hooked.

Anna Clyne
Night Ferry
Anna Clyne is a British born composer now residing in New York. Her music often contains multiple strands from simple folk-like melodies to complex textures, sometimes simultaneously – which is brilliantly displayed here in this colourful and detailed piece. Anna Clyne writes herself: "In its essence, Night Ferry is a sonic portrait of voyages; voyages within nature and of physical, mental and emotional states. Additionally, the title of the piece is from the Irish poet Seamus Heaney's Elegy for the author Robert Lowell, who also suffered from manic depression.” The music is pulsing and exigent with a rather wonderful sense of orchestration, brilliantly performed here by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. I’d highly recommend delving a bit deeper into Clyne’s music.

James MacMillan
Miserere
Sir James MacMillan has written some of the 20th century’s cornerstone orchestral and choral music, but it is the latter which I think he ranks amongst the best. This piece exemplifies that plaudit. You’d think the famous setting of the Psalm 51 by Gregorio Allegri would be hard to beat. But we hear in this rendition perhaps a sort of nod to the original rather than an all-out contemporary sound. Dissonance is expertly judged and interwoven with medieval and bare sounding fifths, a clear Scottish influence with folk-like snaps in the rhythm and stepwise melodic lines which feel so natural. There is a perfect balance between new and more conventional music. To then harmonise and realise the psalm tone elevates music which is used in a biblical context. Sung here by The Sixteen, it is utter perfection. Harry Christophers makes a note of prolonged standing ovations when the piece has been performed live.

Zhou Tian
Sinfonia (ii. Transit)
As a conductor myself of wind music, I am very excited for this new release. The playing, direction and production are all first rate. I have chosen the second movement from Zhou Tian’s piece, but the whole album (including a clarinet concerto by James Mackey, with Julian Bliss as soloist) are captivating. Perhaps also a mention of the producer here Elaine Martone who I am told is grammy award winning producer. The balance in this recording is very tasteful and a great example for the wind orchestra genre. The second movement of Tian’s piece, Transit, is exciting and scherzo-like. The ensemble is tight and detailed. Well-articulated figures are wonderfully contrasted passionate saxophone lines later, with a vibrato which is fully in keeping with this Bernstein-like textures.  

Outi Tarkiainen
Midnight Sun Variations
Another new release on the Ondine label celebrating the orchestral music of Outi Tarkiainen. This piece struck me immediately with its delicate shimmering lines. The language is bold and original right from the outset, slithering from figure to figure, I was sort of reminded of impressionist lustre you might expect from an orchestral work by Debussy. But make no mistake, this is very original material. The playing is very controlled and the climax of the piece is brilliantly placed. This is very inviting music with warm and detailed playing from the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Collon.

Pablo Casals
El Cant dels Ocells (Song of the Birds)
This piece for cello and orchestra captures your imagination quicky. The playing from Dutch cellist Harriet Krijgh is warm and tender with just the right amount of vibrato to really sing the line. Pablo Casals, a historic cellist, composer and conductor would use this piece for almost every encore. He wrote: “It is a tale of the Nativity; how beautiful and tender is that tale, with its reverence for life and for man, the noblest expression of life! In the Catalan carol it is the eagles and the sparrows, the nightingales and the little wrens who sing a welcome to the infant, singing to him as a flower that will delight the earth with its sweet scent.”

Joby Talbot
Suite from Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland: Prologue
Joby Talbot has very recently written music for the latest musical fantasy film Wonka. I set upon doing a little research into Talbot and found this delightful suite, commissioned by The Royal Ballet. By all accounts it was a huge success in the UK as well as in Canada and America. The Prologue is delicately scored, intriguing yet inviting – perhaps all the attributes we might think of in the context of Lewis Carroll’s 1865 children’s novel Alice in Wonderland. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Christopher Austin is wonderfully clear and mastered to bring out all the sparkling detail.

Elizabeth Maconchy
Music for Brass and Woodwind
Born in Hertfordshire in March 1907 of Irish decent, Elizabeth Maconchy’s only outlet for music was the piano. When she entered the Royal College of Music in 1923, as a 16 year old student, she had only heard one symphony concert, one piano recital and one opera. However, she had been composing piano pieces since the age of 6 and once at college, she established herself as a star of her generation. Yet the musical world was still an austere one for women in the 1930s. Publishers were still reluctant to publish anything by young women composers apart from songs. Large scale works were out of the question. Maconchy overcame this problem by sending a score of her orchestral work The Land directly to the conductor Henry Wood, who performed it at one of the Promenade concerts in 1930. It was met with enthusiastic reviews: ‘Girl Composer’s Triumph, Masterly Work’ ran the headlines in one newspaper, which also described it as ‘one of the best pieces of orchestral music written by any woman in recent years’. Music for Woodwind and Brass came much later in 1965 when Maconchy was better known and established. The piece received its premiere in the summer of 1965 at the Thaxted Parish Church with students of Morely College London.  The piece is a wonderful exploration of the wind orchestra. The shape of the piece is cast in sections: the piece starts with brass. Waves of sound like the tide ebb and flow before a proclamation or conch call, building in intensity. Woodwinds follow with more rhythmic figures under sultry harmonies. The final section brings the two sections together along with percussion outbursts. I particularly like how this piece brings such a different voice to the wind orchestra – I hope you like it too!

Witold Lutosławski
Variations on a Theme by Paganini
A number of composers wrote a set of variations on this theme but this version here for two pianos is simply electrifying. He denied the influence of Poland's turbulent 20th-century history but Lutosławski's music, with its unique textures and vivid harmonies, is always dynamic, eloquent and coherent. And the alchemic mix here in this performance is the virtuosic writing of the composer along with the spontaneous an effervescent playing from the amazing Martha Argerich and Nelson Freire. I could listen to this on repeat all day long. Simply breathtaking.