Elizabeth Poston (1905-1987)
Carols and Anthems
Oliver Morell (organ), St. Albans Cathedral Girls Choir, Lay Clerks of St. Albans Cathedral/Tom Winpenny (piano)
rec. 2023, St. Albans Cathedral, UK
Naxos 8.574576 [79]

I was surprised to realise that this welcome and attractive recording is in fact the first to be wholly devoted to the music of Elizabeth Poston.  Although titled “Carols and Anthems”, its release as we approach the Christmas season is apt and intelligent as all but roughly twenty one minutes of music on this generous disc are Carols or Christmas-linked.  Tom Winpenny – familiar to collectors for his various excellent organ recitals – here  fulfils his role as assistant master of the music at St. Albans Cathedral conducting the Cathedral girls choir alongside the Lay Clerks who have appeared on several previous Naxos releases as well.  The organ accompaniments are provided by the cathedral’s young organ scholar Oliver Morrell who does a very fine job indeed.

Winpenny also contributes the informative liner note.  My surprise at this being the first disc devoted to Poston’s music was simply because hers is a familiar name, although on further reflection I realise that this familiarity is born out of her work as editor and musical animator rather than as the creator of major musical scores – her two modest volumes of “Penguin Books of Christmas Carols” from the late 1960’s remain models of their kind.  Winpenny points to two personal characteristics that determine this.  Firstly, he quotes Poston as saying; “I’m really a littlemonger…. I dislike the colossal, never wanted to write any big works and never have.  My loves are folksong, carols, nursery rhymes, the English hymnal tradition…. Blake’s ‘World in a grain of sand’….”  Then he points to her preference to be an artistic collaborator, part of a team working towards a collective goal.  This served her particularly well during the years of World War II when she worked tirelessly at the BBC overseeing music for the European Service.  Add to that a considerable reputation as author, musical scholar – she wrote extensively about Peter Warlock – editor and broadcaster and it will be clear that Poston belonged to that elite group of talented all-round musicians.  Given the quality – and indeed quantity – of her choral works in general and especially the carol settings it is something of a shock to see everything bar two of the tracks on this CD marked as “World Premiere Recordings”.  So in effect this disc offers the listener seventy two minutes of little-known gems.

Tracks 1-21 are the Carols/Christmas settings with tracks 22-27 the anthems. The two previously recorded carols are track 1 The Boar’s Head Carol and Poston’s best known work by some distance; track 4 Jesus Christ the Apple Tree.  Fine as these two carols are they are by no means the stand-out settings.  What is evident from the outset is how fine every aspect of this recording is.  The singing is freshly alert and with an attractively natural sound well-suited to the often folk-derived material.  Adrian Lucas has acted as Producer, engineer and editor and his work is to be applauded as he finds a near-ideal balance between solo and group voices alongside the organ (or piano) within the resonant acoustic of St. Albans Cathedral.  The choir are joined for some items by five solo singers all of whom again have ideally clear and unmannered voices that suit this music very well indeed.

In the notes Winpenny references the fact that Poston was meticulous in her handling of original folk-based musical material as well as Medieval sources.  Her particular skill is at fusing these elements together alongside newly composed passages so for the innocent ear it is all but impossible to know where the original music ends and the newly composed begins.  Of course this comes at a price of potentially losing sight (or sound) of the composer’s own voice but clearly this was a choice that Poston was willing to make.  Separating the two carols mentioned above are Two Carols in Memory of Peter Warlock.   Poston had met the charismatic Warlock when she was just nineteen and – in the words of Winpenny –“became enamoured of him and his music…”.  This endured for her entire life with these two setting dating from a full quarter century after his death.  The subtle way Poston weaves the melody of Pieds en l’air from Warlock’s Capriol Suite into O Bethlehem [track 2] into the sung textures is a measure of her understated skill.

The most substantial work here is The Nativity written for a BBC Christmas broadcast in 1950.  This is a sequence of carols either newly composed or adapted from folksongs and Medieval manuscripts that tells the Christmas Story in a disarmingly direct and touching manner.  Poston deploys the soloists to act as either narrators or specific characters.  Alongside that the choir, whether the upper voices alone or full comment on the narrative or provide a reflective counterpoint to it.  Poston chose two of the carol texts to be spoken; track 8 I sing of a maiden and track 13 A lovely lady thus did sing.  I am not sure this is completely successful for no other reason than it is not clear why these specific texts are spoken.  In this performance the two speakers do well although by sticking to the rhythmic pattern of the verse and adopting a slightly sing-song speaking style the result is not wholly convincing.  Also, the voices are placed quite close (and loud) within the church acoustic and as such sound unbalanced compared to every other track on the disc.  However, what is most striking about this work is the brilliance with which Poston weaves together the various sources and influences to create a timeless tapestry of often rapturous music that is genuinely beautiful and moving.   The cumulative effect of this work remains very effective and it certainly deserves to be better known and more often performed.

The remaining six carols are each stand alone works but of considerable diversity and range.  For the first four of these Winpenny takes over the accompanist’s role on piano; Sheepfolds, Balulalow, The Dormouse’s Carol and Salve Jesus, Little Lad.  A recurring feature of Poston’s writing is textural simplicity both in the voices – often in unison of two fairly simple parts – and indeed the accompaniment.  But within this simplicity there is a musical and expressive depth.  This is particularly evident in Balulalow which is genuinely stunning.  This is of course the same text that Warlock famously and successfully set so it was quite a statement of confidence that the young Poston should make her own setting in 1928.  This does not deserve to be overshadowed by the great Warlock setting.  An even earlier work is Salve Jesus, Little Lad which is unique within this collection as being for two solo voices alone.  Here Nina Vinther and Izzi Blain sing quite beautifully – again the unforced naturalness of their voices serve the music perfectly even if the writing is consciously more complex and demanding than elsewhere. 

The anthem settings all date from the 1950’s and there is a distinct difference in Poston’s compositional voice.  These settings lie within the main Anglican tradition of church music as composed by British composers such as Howells or Leighton.  Certainly the folksong influence if not wholly absent is less clearly present.  Texts are again quite traditional drawing on the Old Testament in the King James version.  As in the Carol settings Poston’s writing is always pragmatic and practical and sounds as if it must be a pleasure to sing.  A highlight is the most extended work; Song of Wisdom (Pavane, Passacaglia and Descant on Gosterwood) which runs just shy of eight minutes.  This was written for Yardley Grammar School in Birmingham and represents Poston’s great skill at fusing together her favourite influences into a unique but appealing work.  The disc is concluded in uplifting fashion with Antiphon and Psalm – Laudate Dominum (1955).  Not only is this an exuberant and impressive work it demonstrates for one final time the all-round excellence of this disc.  Poston might well have been a practical composer aware of possible technical limitations in her performers but as ever her music benefits and sounds best for being performed as here with sensitivity, energy and considerable skill.  There is a little tonal edge to the sound of the St. Albans Girls Choir that again ‘feels’ wholly appropriate given the folk/early music influence of much of the writing.

Over the years Naxos has produced many fine discs celebrating the British Choral tradition.  This is a worthy and indeed important addition to that series not only because of the quality of the music, recording and performances but because it places front and centre the work of a composer who all too often was happy to position herself at the service of the project or work in hand rather than take the credit her music was due.  Elizabeth Poston might have preferred to work within a fairly narrowly defined musical field but this disc triumphantly proves just how effective and attractive her music is.

Nick Barnard

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Contents
The Boar’s Head Carol (1960)
Two Carols in Memory of Peter Warlock (1956)
Jesus Christ the Apple Tree (1967)
The Nativity: A Sequence for Christmas (1950)
Sheepfolds (1957)
Balulalow (1928)
The Dormouse’s Carol (1954)
Carol: Salve Jesus, little lad (1924)
The Princesses’ Carol (1948)
In Bethlehem Town (1958)
Sing unto the Lord (1959)
The Queen of Sheba’s Song: It was a true report (1956)
Happy are they men (1958)
Song of Wisdom (Pavane, Passacaglia and Descant on ‘Gosterwood’) (1956)
Antiphon and Psalm – Laudate Dominum (1955)

Soloists
Alexandra McPhee (soprano), Nina Vinther (mezzo-soprano), Izzi Blain (alto), Oliver Martin-Smith (tenor), Ciaran Yeo (bass)