Alfred Noack, view of Alassio, credit Wikipedia
Endnotes, September-October 2025
In this edition: Vintage Elgar * An Evergreen symphony * Sir Andrew Davis – ‘King of kings’ * Community music-making * E.J. Moeran – a man for a season, by Stuart Millson
‘We have such food, such wine – at last we are living a life!’ exclaimed Edward Elgar on his 1903 holiday to the elegant little town of Alassio, on the north-west coast of Italy. Despite inclement weather, the composer was captivated by the landscape, the result being the Overture, In the South (subtitled ‘Alassio’). Despite its title of ‘overture’, the piece is more in the style of a dramatic symphonic poem, its rich orchestration, ebullience and breathtaking forward-drive reminiscent of such works as Richard Strauss’s Don Juan. Resurrected from the BBC vaults comes a 1944 performance of In the South from the BBC Symphony Orchestra in its wartime home of Bedford, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult. Produced by Siva Oke, with an astonishingly clear digital remastering by historic recordings technician, Lani Spahr, this mono recording dazzles the listener; not least because the Elgar is conducted by an august figure from the concert podium of years ago, Sir Adrian Boult (1889-1983) – often thought of as an elder statesman of British music, but in his day, a young, pioneering, passionate conductor and artist, steeped in the music of the English Musical Renaissance, championing the composers he knew personally: Holst, Vaughan Williams and Elgar.
The creation of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1930 under the aegis of Boult, was one of the great cultural achievements of a corporation which, in those days, was bound to the principles of Sir John Reith – the BBC founding-father – who consecrated his organisation to the raising of public taste and the promotion of high-culture. Yet it is strange to think that the Boult-Elgar performance from 1944 is not actually issued by the BBC, but by the private CD label, SOMM Recordings. We are indeed grateful to SOMM for giving us this fine account of a classic Elgar work, not to mention a glimpse into the playing style and sound of the BBC SO from over 80 years ago. It seems that the responsibility for the nation’s musical heritage is increasingly passing from the BBC (obsessed as it is by ‘playlists’, mass-entertainment, cookery programmes etc) to committed, private individual curators.
Alassio, credit wikipedia
In the South is well served by Boult’s orchestra, and those of us who know and love his later stereo performances of Elgar on EMI with the London Philharmonic, may – with this CD – pick up on a more idiomatic, ‘quicker step’ to the conducting. Also on the album, you will find a noble reading of Elgar’s valedictory Symphony No. 2 in E flat, Op. 63 of 1911, taken from a 1963 stereo record (Waverley Records), with Boult wielding the baton, this time before the Scottish National Orchestra in Glasgow. In the 1970s, Sir Alexander Gibson went on to make many recordings of Elgar and Walton with the Scottish National (later, Royal Scottish National) thus putting Caledonia’s major orchestra on the musical map. Yet the Boult/SNO record, made ten years or so before the Scots musicians’ heyday of exposure on RCA and Chandos, reminds us of what an excellent ensemble audiences ‘north of the border’ have always had.
Sir Adrian shapes an energetic first movement, ploughing through Elgar’s choppy, unpredictable waves; taking us into the emotional semi-funeral march (for Edward Vll) which is the slow movement. Fiery and frenetic, the scherzo is handled with terrific pace but never gets out of control (Elgar likened the music to a fierce throbbing in the head); and we soon then arrive at the ‘maestoso’ finale, satisfied and calm as the sun sets, radiantly. But perhaps, in this symphony, there is a nagging feeling of the world on the brink of change: the certainties and confidence of the First Symphony and Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 having evaporated. Could Elgar sense the Great War that was to come, just three years later? Elgarians and audiophiles will love SOMM’s new CD, as will those who enjoy radio history – as also presented are recordings of conversations with Sir Adrian and Elgar’s daughter, Carice Elgar Blake.
More late-romantic music, but this time from the Austro-German tradition, and the composer, Franz Lachner (1803-1890) whose music (as you might expect) owes much to the sound-world of Schumann and Brahms. Yet Lachner seems to have been overlooked, lagging behind the confirmed ‘old masters’ of those years of post-sturm und drang, and later, Prussian pride and nationalism: just listen to the strains of the German National Anthem in Lachner’s Festouvertüre, to appreciate a true Teutonic musician, steeped in a sense of statehood. The piece can be found on the CPO label, in a bright, sharp, ‘silvery’ recording by Taiwan’s highly-gifted musicians of the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra. Conducted by Gernot Schmalfuss – a student of the great Rudolf Kempe – Lachner’s music is given persuasive readings, the main work on the CD being the nearly-50-minute-long Symphony No. 3. Suffice it to say that if you enjoy the titanic weight of Brahms and the mercurial motion of Schumann, Lachner’s music will not disappoint.
Chandos Records have presented the last-ever studio sessions of the late Sir Andrew Davis, on a CD entitled King of kings: an array of orchestrations of Bach, made by Sir Andrew, who began his life as an organ scholar at King’s College, Cambridge. A short, sharp musical ‘shock’ awaits listeners at the beginning of Davis’s astringent orchestration of the famous Toccata and Fugue – a version that seems far removed from Stokowski’s more expansive reworkings. Yet precision and detail work well here, and the Chandos sound is, of course, laser-strong and perfect. In Dulci Jubilo, BWV 608 from 1713, and Heut’ triumpheret Gottes Sohn, BWV 630, however, are much smaller in scale, and Sir Andrew brings a delicacy and ‘inwardness’ to his treatment of Bach’s church music. Very sadly, this well-loved conductor did not live to complete the recording project, which was taken over by that equally fine and sensitive conductor, Martyn Brabbins.
Community music-making, recitals and concerts by retired professionals, gifted students and teachers given in local halls and churches may yet provide a mainstay for live music, in an age in which some of our larger artistic institutions – Welsh National Opera, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Mid-Wales Opera – struggle for official funding (from a state and arts bodies that seem to have forgotten about culture). In July, at St. Mary’s Church, Cardigan, some 30-40 local people gathered for an afternoon recital by pianist, Rosalind Powell. Rosalind is a teacher and composer of songs (some in the Andrew Lloyd Webber style) who is passionate about local music-making and choral singing. Her performance of Mozart, Bach, Debussy (with many extracts from sonatas and famous works) made for an enjoyable, relaxed, free-flowing – and free-of-charge – afternoon. Surely, in an age in which we fear for the future of high culture, such events as Rosalind’s recital could enable us to reach out to new audiences?
And finally… as the month of August faded, your reviewer found himself enjoying walks along the Welsh coast, looking out across Cardigan Bay to the horizon and Irish Sea. A piece of music that seems to complement this world of Celtic seascapes and hilly coastal paths is the String Quartet in A minor by E.J. Moeran, a composer who settled for a while in Kent, but whose forebears were Irish. The quartet has a serious, brooding, opening, but is never slow or wrapped up in misery – the music stepping out into fresh air and late-summer light, with the hint of a cool autumnal breeze at its edge. May we recommend the fine Naxos CD, with Moeran faithfully served by the Maggini String Quartet.
CD details: Elgar, In the South etc, SOMM ARIADNE 5037-2; Lachner, Symphony No. 3, cpo 555 081-2; Bach, arr. Sir Andrew Davis, Chandos, CHAN 20400; E.J. Moeran, String Quartets, Naxos, 8.554079.
Stuart Millson is the Classical Music Editor of The Quarterly Review
