The Concerto for seven wind instruments, percussion and strings [21.29] was premiered in 1949 and in its pawky humour owes somewhat to Stravinsky. The soloists imbue it with its full meed of character. I single out Celia Chambers for her delightful way with the flute part bringing out its relation with the Nielsen Flute Concerto. Philip Tarlton's bassoon serenading is chortled with great style. Ravel's Valse flickers alight at 5.23 in the Allegro but the second movement (typically of calmer character), in fact, is quite troubled among the undoubted elegance. A sour darker note recalls Kurt Weill's wind writing.
The Allegro Vivace is lively and the trumpet's roulades even suggest a Genevan Arnold but there is yielding emotion as well as an anxious glance cast over the shoulder. Nightmares from the last war were still alive. The work was premiered in 1949.
The Studies for String Orchestra (1956) [20.47] was given its first performance by the insatiable Paul Sacher many of whose commissioned works have formed mainstays of the repertoire. This work is clean of line, troubled, varied and severe. There is a flighty tranquillo, a grandly satisfying pizzicato (brilliantly recorded by Chandos) seeming to picture an orchestra of wavering balalaikas in Spanish dress. The Allegro giusto is limber but does not give way to any overt romance.
Erasmi Monumentum (1969) is scored for organ and orchestra. The title reference is to Erasmus. The Homo pro se movement takes its title from the name by which Erasmus was known by his contemporaries. Dignified and slowly swelling its clean yet unglamorous counterpoint builds steadily. The organ comments discreetly and ending all in an ocean of calm. The Stulticiae Laus is almost knockabout - cackling and goading along the way. Querela Pacis (plea for peace) does not shrink from protest but its resolves into tranquillity. This was written, presumably, as a response to Vietnam.
The recording quality is in the reliably pellucid Chandos house style for the 1990s. This is an indispensable series neatly flanked by Richard Langham Smith's notes.
These works are not similarly coupled on any other disc.
Rob Barnett, musicweb-international.com
Erasmi Monumentum (1969) is scored for organ and orchestra. The title reference is to Erasmus. The Homo pro se movement takes its title from the name by which Erasmus was known by his contemporaries. Dignified and slowly swelling its clean yet unglamorous counterpoint builds steadily. The organ comments discreetly and ending all in an ocean of calm. The Stulticiae Laus is almost knockabout - cackling and goading along the way. Querela Pacis (plea for peace) does not shrink from protest but its resolves into tranquillity. This was written, presumably, as a response to Vietnam.
The recording quality is in the reliably pellucid Chandos house style for the 1990s. This is an indispensable series neatly flanked by Richard Langham Smith's notes.
These works are not similarly coupled on any other disc.
Rob Barnett, musicweb-international.com
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