English String Orchestra
English Symphony Orchestra
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
William Boughton conductor
NIMBUS RECORDS NI 1712
This is a budget-priced four-disc set in celebration of the conductor’s distinguished career. The tracks were recorded in different venues over many years, although the sound quality is uniform enough; but in this age of easy online access to a vast amount of repertoire, I remain slightly perplexed as to the target purchaser.
Largely a sampler disc along the lines of the old Decca series, The World of…, many substantial pieces are represented by single movements that are quickly succeeded by something else entirely. Perhaps the most jarring juxtaposition is Britten’s Cakes and Ale (from his Suite on English Folk Tunes, ‘A Time There Was’), immediately followed by the last movement of the Nocturne, op. 60, thus making little sense of either. However, if this problem can be ignored, there is much of interest here.
British music makes up just over half the collection. Of the complete scores, I much enjoyed Thea Musgrave’s Loch Ness: a postcard from Scotland, an evocative watery impression, featuring the characterful tuba of Daniel Trodden as the leviathan who takes his pastime therein.
Vaughan Williams’ Five Variants of ‘Dives and Lazarus’is given a warm but slightly brisk rendition that misses the tension before the final return of the great theme. It is good to have Parry’s rarely heard From Life to Death: mors et vitae, and Elgar’s May Song, as well as the latter’s more familiar Sospiri and Nursery Suite.
Frank Bridge’s piquant arrangements of Sally in our Alley, Cherry Ripe and An Irish Melody (this being Londonderry Air, of course, though the theme is slow to appear, perhaps because it was originally intended as a composite work) are a delight. The accounts of Butterworth’s The Banks of Green Willow and Finzi’s Eclogue are accomplished enough, although lack something of the poise of rivals. This is also notable in a few titles from earlier ages, such as Boyce’s Sixth Symphony, presented, of course, on modern instruments, although without the finesse of Marriner and the ASMF.
Excerpts include the Scherzo from Maconchy’s rarely heard Epyllion for cello and orchestra; Holst’s Mercury; the first movement of Elgar’s Dream Children; the fourth from Delius’s Florida Suite; the first from Vaughan Williams’ Oboe Concerto; the third from Tippett’s Concerto for double string orchestra; and one of Finzi’s Soliloquys from Love’s Labour’s Lost. Greatly welcome is the fourth movement of Joubert’s late-flowering lyrical Third Symphony, on themes from his opera Jane Eyre, a fine work that deserves much greater currency.
With thanks to Boughton for his championing of such neglected repertoire, these discs may be recommended to those who wish to cherry-pick, or broaden their interest before acquiring complete issues.
Review by Andrew Plant