Eric Coates (1886-1957)
Orchestral Works – Volume 3
Television March (1946)
The Three Men, suite for orchestra (1935)
Cinderella, a phantasy (1929)
The Dam Busters (1954)
Last Love (1939)
Sweet Seventeen (1954)
The Three Elizabeths (1944)
BBC Philharmonic/John Wilson
rec. 2022, MediaCity, Salford, UK
Chandos CHAN20164 [66]
The third volume of John Wilson’s survey of Eric Coates’ orchestral music is pretty much a flawless release. I use that term with objective care. Much has been made about Wilson’s affinity with this repertoire to the point that the casual reader might infer that no-one has ever played this music this well before. That of course is nonsense – the catalogue is littered with genuinely excellent, insightful, brilliant (brilliance is a term particularly suited to Coates’ effervescent music) performances across the best part of a century. However, the fact that these new recordings are a match for the best of the best is high and well-deserved praise. My choice of the word “flawless” comes from the fact that every element of this recording comes together in joyful unity (joyful is another word that seems to encompass these works):
- Wilson’s musical temperament is ideally attuned to this music. His penchant for brisk tempi and razor sharp ensemble resonates perfectly with the idiom
- The programme on this – and indeed the preceding volumes – is very skilfully chosen to provide the listener with an ideal overview of Coates’ music. So signature marches sit alongside melting waltzes or romances and his life-enhancingly memorable suites.
- The BBC PO has the technical brilliance and stylistic subtlety to play these far from easy works not just with flair but affection.
- The Chandos engineering scales the works very skillfully. Coates’ orchestration is unique, sophisticated and very effective. The recording finds an ideal balance between detail and warmth.
For collectors discovering this glorious music for the first time these recordings can be bought with confidence in the certain knowledge that these are performances that show this music in its finest light. For those adding to their existing Coates collection things are not quite as black and white simply because – as mentioned above – there are many fine older recordings. Choices are further complicated by the fact that Wilson 2023 is in direct competition with Wilson 1997 and beyond. John Wilson’s recording career started back in 1997 with discs for ASV of Coates with the BBC Concert Orchestra. Then in 2008 he produced a disc with the RLPO of more Coates. So the Television March, The Three Men Suite, and Cinderella Fantasy appear on the RLPO disc while Last Love and Sweet Seventeen were recorded with the BBC Concert Orchestra. Now all of those earlier performances are very fine too. Perhaps these new versions combine a dash of extra clarity with a smidgen more brio. What we do get are “first” Wilson recordings of are the iconic Dambusters March and the work I consider Coates’ greatest suite; The Three Elizabeths.
The disc opens with the Television March Coates wrote for the resumption of BBC television broadcasts in June 1946. By his own exceptionally high standards this is a tad formulaic with the melodies not at the very highest level of inspiration that he achieved elsewhere. But formulaic Coates is still better than most others and Wilson and the BBC PO make the best possible case. By not being swept away by the tunes themselves it does afford the listener the opportunity to focus on the details of the performance here and throughout the disc the lift these versions to the highest level. Wilson follows Coates’ own conducting style with very quick but not rushed tempi. But then at the same time he understands the ebb and flow so second subjects can relax just a little with the return to the upbeat openings thrillingly anticipated with a burst of musical adrenalin. Coates wrote superb counter-melodies so when a theme reprises there is often a ‘descant’ above or equally interesting material down in the celli/violas. Wilson handles the balances and phrasing of that secondary material really well giving it significance if not prominence (which is right) but also shaping the material with style and affection.
Within the genre Coates was a brilliant orchestrator. Unlike much light music which was deliberately written with redundant doubling of musical lines (to allow for performances by greatly reduced instrumental line-ups) with Coates every note counts and every instruments’ timbre is valuable. Wilson’s control of the instrumental balance – obviously greatly aided by the quality of the Chandos production and engineering – is again spot-on so detail registers but does not overwhelm.
These qualities are again all evident in the wonderful The Three Men Suite which comes next. This follows Coates’ tried and tested three movement fast/reflective/faster still format. The premise here, in the composer’s own words, is; “describing in music three personalities whom we all know; the Countryman, The Townsman and the Seaman”. Musically this translates into a jig-like opening, a rather suavely foxtrotting nocturne and an orchestral showpiece seashanty with variations. Another example of the real skill and understanding in the performance here comes in the central movement where Coates adds a tenor saxophone. Listen to how Wilson and his excellent but uncredited sax player understand how to emulate the sound of a British player circa 1934. Coates wrote of his dislike of jazz and swing music. He was at pains to write syncopated music not American swing. Likewise the British style of sax playing then was lighter with shorter articulations and a more tremulous use of vibrato. All of these stylistic nuances are present here and to be honest they probably pass a lot of listeners by – which is fine – but if you do listen out for them you will be rewarded by some gorgeous playing. Another characteristic of Coates is how tricky a lot of his music is. Again this would seem to work counter to the needs/abilities of most of the ensembles who would be playing his music in the interwar years. The Man from the Sea is one of the trickiest of all but a movement that shows Coates could develop themes and satisfying musical structures not ‘just’ write a good tune. So Coates takes the shanty “When Johnnie Comes Down to Hilo”, develops it, then turns it into a demanding fugal passage then morphs the first three notes of the tune into “Three Blind Mice” – all within a 4:33 timeframe.
The finale has been recorded as a standalone work but modern recordings of the complete work are relatively rare. Apart from Wilson with the RLPO there was an unexpected Lyrita disc devoted to Coates from Barry Wordsworth and the LPO. Well-played and well recorded as you would expect from that source but it highlights how to play Coates without a real understanding of the idiom. In this movement alone Wordsworth is a full minute slower than Wilson and the music has a kind of plush comfortableness that significantly reduces the joie-de-vivre it should possess. Just in case you are not certain about that, reference Coates’ own recording from the late 1940’s. At the point I wondered if Wilson was pushing the fugal section a fraction too hard, I checked that version which is faster still! This suite is vintage Coates and receives its best modern performance here.
Coates wrote three fairytale phantasies; The Three Bears, The Selfish Giant and Cinderella given here. The first of those remains my favourite but Cinderella runs it a close second. Running just over fifteen minutes of continuous music this again shows the craft behind the melodic inventiveness. Coates takes a group of simple but attractive melodies/motifs and reworks them across the work to make a very effective and satisfying musical narrative. Perhaps over-generously Chandos divide this work into 11 separate tracks which if nothing else makes clear to the listener just how cleverly Coates develops the material. The liner reprints the narrative indications from the score as well; “Cinderella dresses for the ball – Cinderella gets into the carriage – She drives away – Cinderella has misgivings… – She feels reassured.” That is all covered in 45 seconds of music! This might make for enlightening reading once but most of the time I’d be happy to sit back and enjoy. As a performance this is again sparkling – a good minute quicker than Wilson’s Liverpool performance although a handful of seconds slower than Sir Charles Groves also in Liverpool from a collection that was my revelatory introduction to this music. The Phase 4 recording there now sounds rather brash but this is a performance to illustrate that no matter how good Wilson is today so were others before him.
Next comes the superb Dam Busters March. As an aside; Dam Busters or Dambusters? The film is titled the former and the Imperial War Museum pages devoted to the raid the latter. This work is so irrevocably linked to the stirring film of the same name that it is always something of a shock to realise that Coates had written the march – as yet untitled – when he was approached to provide the filmscore for the eponymous movie. He declined and Leighton Lucas wrote the score incorporating themes from the march which was used for the main titles. Wilson is pretty much spot-on the opening crochet = 140 marking with the slight pull back to 120 for the first statement of the trio before a return to the opening tempo. That seems very simple and straightforward but it is amazing how many performances ignore those clear markings and as a consequence mis-characterise the work. This is another example of effective handling of the secondary material too – a great performance of a great march. The 1939 Last Love – Romance occupies more the sentimental ground and lyrical melody more often associated with Albert Ketèlbey. Wilson rightly allows the music unfurl without excess rubato or over-emoting – the sincere emotion and touching sentiment (not sentimentality) does not require more. The piece ends with a sweetly lyrical violin solo from leader Helena Wood beautifully played. The genre of the British Concert Waltz – often called Valse – is quite different from its European let alone Viennese compatriots. Apart from any avoidance of a Viennese ‘hesitation’ before the third beat the tempo is usually quicker with a sense of swirling energy. Here the example is Sweet Seventeen – a late 1954 example touchingly dedicated “For my beloved Phyl”. Coates met Phyllis Black in 1911 and they were happily married for over forty years. This work is one of many works inspired by or reflective of their enduring love. The performance here is almost identical to Wilson’s earlier recording in terms of timing although it could be argued that over the years the Wilson has found just a little extra ebb and flow and extra nuance. Both are delightful performances of a genuinely charming indeed moving English Waltz.
The disc is completed by The Three Elizabeths. As mentioned I consider this Coates’ finest suite if not his finest work bar none. It is also the most substantial three movement suite – here running to 21:03 whereas most of his standard tri-partite suites are around the quarter hour mark. The Elizabeths of the title are the three Queens – the Tudor Elizabeth I, Elizabeth of Glamis (the Queen Mother) and the then Princess Elizabeth. Melodically, even by Coates’ high standards, this is a work rich in toe-tapping, uplifting and moving tunes. The opening Halcyon Days after a heraldically uplifting horn fanfare has a sweeping tune worthy of Elgar – a fact recognised by its use as the theme to the very popular British TV series The Forsyte Saga. No surprise it receives a performance here to stiffen the sinews. Perhaps the CBSO for Reginald Kilbey (best known as Max Jaffa’s cellist) on Warner/EMI are even more heroic. That performance is another great one but for such a wonderful work it has had few modern recordings. Malcolm Nabarro and the East of England Orchestra are OK but without the precision and brio of the BBC PO and Nabarro’s tempi lack the authentic Coatesian vigour – listen to the composer’s own recording which tests his National Symphony Orchestra players to the limit but the spirit is wonderful. The central Springtime in Angus is probably the closest Coates ever got to writing an orchestral tone-poem rather than a slow dance (as in The Three Men) or a lyrical treatment of a melody (as in Covent Garden – London Suite). Again Coates skilfully uses thematic transformation to take the opening fanfare motif, slow it right down and it becomes the introduction to a pastoral reverie featuring the solo oboe beautifully played here by Will Oinn. Wilson finds an ideal balance between expressive warmth but not indulgence. There is a fundamental simplicity and stillness to both the music and its execution that is just perfect. The suite and the disc ends with the March – Youth of Britain. Such an energised and optimistic work – all the more remarkable given its 1944 composition. If it does not quite achieve the level of musical inspiration of the two earlier movements it is still a march to lift the spirits and put a spring in your step. Which is exactly the kind of performance it receives here.
As will be clear this is one of those happy occasions where the musical stars align right down to the attractive booklet cover and excellent liner note from Richard Bratby. I know from direct personal experience this is music audiences enjoy hearing and musicians enjoy playing and these performances exude that sense of life-enhancing well-being. Presumably Chandos will be returning to the studio with the same team to continue with this series – the hope must be that it is sooner than later. Superb.
Nick Barnard
Previous review: Jonathan Woolf (July 2023)
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