Eric Coates (1886-1957)
Orchestral Works, Volume 4
Music Everywhere (Rediffusion March) (1948)
Footlights – Concert Valse (1939)
I Sing to You – Souvenir (1940)
The Three Bears Phantasy (1926)
From Meadow to Mayfair – Suite (1931)
Under the Stars (1928)
Four Centuries – Suite (1941)
BBC Philharmonic/John Wilson
rec. 2023, MediaCityUK, Salford, Manchester, UK
Chandos CHAN20292 [62]
Scintillating is the best and briefest description of this disc. Whether to describe Eric Coates’ endlessly, infectiously, toe-tappingly attractive music or the brilliantly ideal performances they are given here by John Wilson and the excellent BBC Philharmonic. Almost exactly a year on from writing a review of Volume 3 – a disc that would appear in my “Recordings of the Year” selection in 2023 – Volume 4 arrives with all the same qualities that have marked the earlier releases. Hard to think that it was 27 years ago (May 1997) when ASV released Wilson’s first disc of Eric Coates, titled “Under the Stars – 17 Orchestral Miniatures”. That collection – long deleted – is still an absolute treasure trove of rare Coates, stylishly conducted and brilliantly played.
In this new series Wilson and Chandos have skilfully created programmes that on each disc offer examples of the genres for which Coates was best known; Marches, Waltzes, Phantasies and the inevitable Suites. Two of the miniatures from that earlier disc re-appear here; I Sing to You and Under the Stars. Both remain rare, but are such good examples of Coates’ remarkable melodic gift. Interesting to compare the earlier recording of I Sing to You which is a good 30 seconds or so slower – 4:06 to 3:37 – which is mainly down to Wilson pushing the tempo of the central pìu mosso more in the recent recording. Both versions are really rather wonderful and both orchestras play with idiomatic insight, but the newer Chandos recording is just that bit more sophisticated and detailed.
The programme on this new disc is interesting in that it contains only one of the very best known, most familiar Coates scores: The Three Bears Phantasy. A couple of the other works offered would not make my own personal “best of Coates” list, but to be honest, even second tier Coates is better than most composers working at this time in this genre. When considering Coates in the context of the time and field in which he wrote, several things always strike me. Coates has a genuinely remarkable melodic gift. Other “Light Music” composers might during their careers write a catchy melody as good as Coates – not one that I can think of wrote as many. Coates is a proper composer – not just someone with an aptitude for a tune – many of the works on this disc display how well he could handle an orchestra, not just in terms of orchestration but also formally.
Most composers orchestrated (or had their music orchestrated by others) with a flexible view to the works being playable by any sized group from Palm-Court trio up to full orchestra, with just about every line and part playable by other/available instruments. Coates’ scores were published like that, but they really only work best when played by the Full Orchestra. These pieces are tricky to play well – the BBC PO might make light work of them, but I would think the average end-of-the-pier band would surely have struggled. However, Coates had the business acumen to have his works played (and broadcast and recorded) by the best orchestras and ensembles of the day, so not only did they become musically familiar to a wide audience they were well-performed too.
An example of this acumen is the Music Everywhere march that opens the disc. This is subtitled Rediffusion March, which refers to the UK’s first independent (i.e. not part of the BBC) TV and radio service that started in 1948. Coates niftily took their call-sign and expanded it into a toe-tapping march. All the familiar Coates fingerprints are here; exhilarating main theme, flowing trio and brilliant recapitulation. I think this is the first time Wilson has recorded this piece and it sets the tone for the whole disc – the absolutely right feel; a bright-eyed confident swagger with an alert but not rushed tempo. Given its relative rareness, it did turn up on the old EMI (Studio 2)/Warner LP from Sir Charles Groves and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic that still sounds very good indeed – played at an identical 3:10 to Wilson. Groves made a fine From Meadow to Mayfair suite too – so while Wilson is genuinely excellent, he does not erase all fond memories from the past.
Alongside his quick marches, Coates has a genuine gift for writing fast waltzes. Not for him the crinoline-heavy Viennese hesitation waltz. These are brilliant, swirling intoxicated affairs and his Footlights – Concert Valse is a prime example. Wilson finds a greater urgency – to good effect – here than he did in the well-played version he recorded with the RLPO back in 2003. Barry Wordsworth included this as part of his unexpected survey of Coates’ music on Lyrita where an opulent LPO are just a little more staid than the impetuous BBC PO. But the sheer scale of the sound is actually rather wonderful. I Sing to You is one of Coates’ many Wartime works which offers the listener a comforting nostalgia for ‘happier times’ in much the same way that Ivor Novello’s musicals touched a collective emotional nerve during those dark years. Wilson finds the perfect balance between yearning sentiment and melodic elegance.
The Three Bears Phantasy is quite a bit earlier, dating from 1926 and is something of a miniature masterpiece. I say that because within its 9:31 timeframe Coates packs a huge amount of musical incident, clear narrative, witty effective orchestration and actually a rather sophisticated handling of the orchestra. Superficially this is a simple retelling of the Goldilocks story; Girl finds house, enters uninvited, eats food, falls asleep, disturbed by owners (3 Bears), chased away, happily ever after. Coates’ brilliance here is to make the entire work a kind of miniature set of variations on the basic “who’s been sleeping in my bed” motif. Just about everything in the work audibly leads back to that, but Coates makes it work, whether as a sleepy waltz, dramatic chase, warning bird-calls and all moods in between. Because it was by Coates and because it is based on a children’s fairy tale, the work was rather snobbishly received, but here all involved have a ball. But that said, Adrian Boult’s Lyrita recording is rather good and Groves’ RLPO version again is excellent, to name but two of many versions. The BBC PO played if for Chandos under Rumon Gamba’s “The Symphonic Eric Coates” back in 2002 where it was a highlight of a disc that somehow did not delight as one hoped it would.
On the new disc, Chandos have chosen to underline the detailed narrative by splitting this brief work into 11 separate tracks – inaudible unless you are listening to an MP3. They did the same for the Cinderella Phantasy included in Volume 3 – for me, it’s a fairly pointless exercise that the curious might refer to once, but Coates’ illustrative gift is so acute that the narrative is very clear without them. The performance itself is again splendid – perhaps the chase sequence [track 11] feels a fraction too aggressive and fractionally rushed, but there is no doubting the brilliance of the playing and the fidelity of the recording.
From Meadow to Mayfair is one of those three movement suites that Coates made his own. As Richard Bratby in his helpful liner points out; dance is always at the centre of Coates music and indeed his life. So this suite is a sequence of contrasting dances; a rustic In the Country, a lyrical elegant A Song by the Way and another swirling Evening in Town. Coates was too much of a craftsman to produce anything that was not attractive and effective, but this suite – of his mature works – would not be near the top of my preferred list. The earlier Coates suites; Summer Days or From the Countryside amongst others show the influence of Edward German and this is the last suite which clearly reflects that. Just two years later in 1933 Coates found his true original voice in the famous London Everyday Suite. Groves offered the full suite while Boult recorded the outer movements and Coates himself was able to call on the LSO. So Wilson is in very esteemed company, but it is hard not to hear this new version as the best all round performance yet. Again it is simply a question of ideal tempi, characterful and virtuosic playing caught in excellent detailed sound.
After the graceful sentiment of Under the Stars, the disc is completed by another suite; Four Centuries. This is one of only two four movement suites Coates wrote – the other being the Four Ways, which Wilson recorded for Dutton with the BBC Concert Orchestra in 2008. Bratby again points out that dance is central to the ‘idea’ here; a 17th Century Prelude and Hornpipe, 18th Century Pavane and Tambourin, 19th Century Valse and closing 20th Century Rhythm. It does rather sound as if Coates easily identified with the latter two and had to rely on his compositional skill to make something of the first two. So the earlier movements are very well executed in compositional terms, but distinctly lacking the verve and memorability of Coates at his best. Complete performances on disc are rare – Malcolm Nabarro and his scratch East of England Orchestra recorded an energetic if slightly unpolished version for ASV and Wordsworth included just Rhythm (probably the best movement?) for Lyrita with the LPO. Coates recorded it complete with the National Symphony Orchestra. Bratby suggests that Coates was an admirer of American jazz, referencing a quote from the composer; “when I first heard Duke Ellington, I was quite fascinated”. To my mind, that is a carefully chosen phrase that does not indicate any personal enjoyment at all. Coates famously preferred English “syncopation” to American “jazz” and in this closing movement the choice of the title “rhythm” underlines the idea of crisply articulated off-beats rather than big band swing. But in its own right this closing movement is great fun and played to the absolute hilt by the BBC PO with wonderful muted trumpets and a queasy bank of saxophones. Likewise the preceding Valse is a prime example of Coates’ style with a lovely violin solo played here by Yuri Torchinsky still leading the BBC PO more than two decades on from the Gamba disc of this composer.
As I wrote regarding the earlier volume, the excellence of this new disc does not erase memories of other genuinely fine and stylish performances – many conducted by Wilson himself. However, as this series builds given the top drawer quality of every aspect of its production, it is hard not to feel this is the current preferred choice for this composer’s orchestral works. Given Coates’ productivity there are still several discs-worth of material available to record and the hope must be that this series of life-enhancing, heart-warming recordings will continue to grow.
Nick Barnard
Previous review by Jonathan Woolf (July 2024)
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