Sir Malcolm Arnold (1921–2006)
Music For Brass Band
Foden’s Band/Michael Fowles
The Choir of Chetham’s School of Music
rec. 2024, Sandbach School, Cheshire; Stoller Hall, Manchester, UK
Texts included
Beckus MAF003 CD [72]
I met Malcolm Arnold twice. On the second occasion he was frail and taciturn, a shadow of his former self. Decades of ill health, mental and physical, had taken their toll. The first time was very different. It was over half a century ago when I was a music undergraduate at Birmingham University. He came to talk to us about his music. What he said I do not recall. My lasting impression was of a jovial character, rather flushed and overweight, who asked us afterwards where the nearest pub was. That’s students for you! That was the outgoing Arnold, composer of award-winning film music, bracing overtures and some brilliant symphonies. His music, like Mahler’s, embraced a world of emotions – the irreverent humour, tender sentiment, deep emotion, joy and despair, with a penchant for high drama and colour. I had no idea then but have learned since that the 1960s and early 1970s was peak brass band time for Arnold. That side of his personality shines through each of the pieces.
His original works for the brass band mediums form the spine of this fabulous celebration of Arnold band classics from Foden’s Band and their musical director Michael Fowles. The Malcolm Arnold Society, whose idea this album is and who have issued it on the own Beckus label, are to be congratulated for complementing his much-loved brass band originals with a selection of less familiar orchestral works sympathetically reimagined for the band. The booklet design is strikingly colourful. The notes by Arnold authority Piers Burton-Page provide comprehensive background, context and musical commentary – a proper job, as Arnold would have heard countless time during his Cornwall years.
So to the music. Foden’s Band and Michael Fowles approach the first two Little Suites with serious intent but a delightful lightness of touch. Nothing is over-played, but the range of character leaps off the page with razor-sharp detail, rhythmic definition and engaging colour. The Siciliano (Suite No. 1) and Cavatina (Suite No. 2) are beautifully shaped and expressed, but not over sentimentalised.
Of the two big pieces, Fantasy (1973) has been a regular on the contest stage and in the recording studio for 50 years. I’m afraid it is not my favourite Arnold. It all seems rather underdeveloped and short-winded. You can hear that Arnold was constrained by the 10-minute time limit imposed on him by the organisers of the National Championships. Having said that, Foden’s Band makes a really convincing case for it because of the sheer quality of the playing – the dynamic range, the deft details in the Dance and Scherzo and the heart-on-sleeve emotions in the central Elegy, which for me is the work’s saving grace!
Song of Freedom (1972) is here receiving its CD premiere. Recorded in the warm acoustic of Manchester’s Stoller Hall, Foden’s Band is joined by the Choir of Chetham’s School of Music. The musicianship of these talented young specialist students shines through. Their sound is surprisingly mature in places given that the work was commissioned by the National Schools Brass Band Association, for performance by the average school choir and band. The texts were selected by Arnold from submissions by school-aged children on themes of freedom. The results are strikingly direct, touching issues that are as relevant in the 21st century as they were in 1972. Arnold was impressed by the sadness of some of them. He responded appropriately in a haunting Elegy. The other movements, Prelude, Hymn and Postlude are uneven in quality, but Arnold is at pains to make the text audible. The diction of the choir, trained for this assignment by Marcus Farnsworth, is exemplary.
It is refreshing to hear some ‘new’ transcriptions. In 2002 life-long Arnold enthusiast Neil Richmond (a retired music teacher and co-founder of Harrogate Town Band) scored the fresh and invigorating overture to the film The Roots of Heaven (1958). This could be a real winner – five minutes encompassing so many Arnold musical fingerprints. The March Overseas (1960), also transcribed most effectively by Neil Richmond, sounds as though Arnold still had Alford’s Colonel Bogey on his mind after incorporating it into his music for Bridge on the Kwai (1957). It’s none the worse for that – a spirited alternative to Padstow Lifeboat perhaps. From the same vintage, Phillip Littlemore’s 2006 suite from the ballet music to Sweeney Todd (1959) is notable for its juxtaposition of the eerily sinister with Edwardian charm and slapstick comic capers – a delight.
Philip Sparke’s burnished 1986 transcription of Fanfare for a Festival opens the celebration is colourful fashion. The final track is, for me, the album’s highlight. Andrew Duncan’s superb reimagining of the Peterloo Overture (1967) is an object lesson in the transcriber’s craft – knowing what to omit, what to retain and what to highlight. Foden’s performance and Michael Fowles’ reading had me on the edge of my chair. They convey the undercurrent of danger and threat with such intensity. The visceral energy and violence that Arnold captures so vividly is matched in the power and drama of the playing. The triumphant final theme, with all its ‘bells and whistles’, brings the album to a fitting conclusion.
The recording is balanced up close, so every detail can be heard. What a good job they are all in the right place. I enjoyed this a lot, as you can probably tell!
Paul Hindmarsh
This review was previously published on the Malcolm Arnold Society website and is reproduced here with permission.
Availability: Arnold Society
Contents
Fantasy for Brass Band Op 114 (1955) arr. for brass band by Philip Sparke (1986)
Overseas: MarchOp.70(1960)arr. for brass band by Neil Richmond (2008)*
The Roots of Heaven: Overture (1958) arr. for brass band by Neil Richmond (2002) *
Little Suite No.2 for Brass BandOp.93(1967)Fantasy for Brass Band Op.114 (1973)
Song of Freedom Op.109(1972) *
Little Suite No.1 for Brass Band Op.80 (1963)
Sweeney Todd: BalletOp.68 (1959) Suite arr. for brass band by Phillip Littlemore (2006) *
Peterloo: Overture Op.97 (1967) arr. for brass band by Andrew Duncan (2002)
*First Recordings
