That Sweet City
Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988)
Veris Gratia Op.6, cantata based on medieval Latin lyrics (1950)
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
An Oxford Elegy (1947-1949)
Rowan Atkinson (narrator), Nick Pritchard (tenor), David Cuthbert (flute), Alaw Grug Evans (soprano)
Choir of the Queen’s College Oxford
Britten Sinfonia / Owen Rees
rec. 2023, SJE Arts, St John the Evangelist Church, Oxford, UK
Texts included.
Signum Classics SIGCD917 [62]
The liner notes sum up the effect of this programme: “Both [works] are evocations of the pastoral and bucolic, Leighton’s […] celebrates young love in the spring […] while Vaughan Williams’s is filled with nostalgia for an idyllic past”. There is a connection: both pieces were premiered in the early 1950s at the same venue and by the same ensemble and conductor.
Kenneth Leighton’s Veris Gratia is a celebration of the coming of Spring. He published two compositions with this title. The present Cantata, completed in December 1950, is a setting of classical and medieval verse. Earlier that year, he wrote the other piece, Veris Gratia Op.9 for oboe, cello and strings.
The Cantata was inspired by the Latin poet Catullus and by poems chosen from Helen Wadell’s Medieval Latin Lyrics (1933). Leighton dedicated it to his teacher, Bernard Rose, and to the Eglesfield Musical Society. The dedicatees gave the premiere performance at Queen’s College, Oxford on 8 June1951. The title Veris Gratia can be translated in many ways: Grace/Beauty of Spring or For the sake of spring or, as Wadell put it, O Spring most fair.
A short instrumental Prelude suggests dawn and the break of day. The first chorus, Aubade, is a panegyric to love and to the arrival of summer. There follows a setting of Catullus’s Lament on the death of his mistress, Lesbia’s sparrow. The two millenia since he penned the poem have kept the pathos undiminished, and revealed an incipient eroticism. The tenor solo sings sympathetically.
A short instrumental Elegy leads to the Eclogue for choir, an adaptation of Leighton’s Coventry Carol. This meditation for chorus and solo soprano considers the coming of the muse with a “sweet melody”, and observes various birds in the countryside, parodied by the solo flute. An “earthy and energetic” Paean follows, the most dramatic part of the cantata, with nods toward Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. The Hymn to Cypris is a gentle, lilting Arcadian idyll for women’s voices.
In Erotikon, the saddest part of the cantata, the tenor soloist laments unrequited love. Finzi’s vocal style is apparent here. An orchestral Nocturne is “brooding and impassioned”. Here one can glimpse some of Leighton’s future development. The cantata has travelled the whole swing of the day. The last chorus, an Epilogue, gives a long summation of the foregoing thoughts. It evokes “Diana’s crystal lamp [which] rises at dusk”, leading to the “Blessed […] antidote of sleep”, yet not before the peroration where the choir “applaud the novelty of things” and gives thanks that “Happy is he who is loved / And has achieved his welcome desire”.
The music in Op.6 also appears in Leighton’s glorious Op.9. It is fair to say that these are the last of his works to explicitly exhibit the debt to Vaughan Williams, Edmund Rubbra and Gerald Finzi. The disc cover does not say that this is a premiere recording of Op.6, but I could not find any reference to an earlier edition. It is a major contribution to Leighton’s discography.
Ralph Vaughan Williams’s appealing choral composition An Oxford Elegy brings together elements of narration, choir and a small orchestra. The text inspiration comes from two poems by Matthew Arnold, The Scholar Gipsy (1853) and Thyrsis (1865). The work reflects nostalgia and acceptance, evoking the spirit of Arnold’s time and place. The first poem examines the life of a young scholar who leaves his studies at Oxford University to seek wisdom and truth beyond conventional education. The titular character, the Scholar-Gipsy, encounters a group of Romani who have their unique way of learning and understanding life. Amongst other things, Arnold examines the fast-paced, fragmented nature of modern life in the Victorian period. He portrays the Scholar-Gipsy’s rejection of the “sick hurry” and “divided aims” then (as now) widespread in society. There is a sense of weariness about the verses. Thyrsis is an encomium for the poet Arthur Hugh Clough. Both poems vividly celebrate the beauties of the landscape.
On 20 November 1949, An Oxford Elegy had a private performance at RVW’s home, White Gates, Dorking. There was a public premiere at Queen’s College, Oxford on 19 June 1952. The narrator was Steuart Wilson, and, like in Leighton’s work, Bernard Rose conducted the Eglesfield Musical Society.
Listeners will associate Rowan Atkinson with a variety of personas. One thinks of the recent sadly truncated Maigret series, or of one of the incarnations of Blackadder. Children of all ages will love Mr Bean. Johnny English, a parody on the spy genre, was deservedly popular. And then there was the satirical Not the Nine O’clock News which ran 1979-1982. Atkinson’s alma mater was Queen’s College, Oxford, so the connection is clear.
It was with great interest that I listened to Atkinson’s performance of An Oxford Elegy. His diction and timing are perfect. His style is tentative and intimate rather than declamatory. He is suffused with wonderment with the Scholar’s story and the Oxfordshire landscape. It is beautiful, and often brings a tear to the eye. The Choir of the Queen’s College sing nonintrusively, and act as a perfect foil to the narration. Where necessary, they can be expansive, but mostly they offer an impressionist take on “all the live murmur of a summer’s day”.
Owen Rees’s liner notes provide a major essay with detailed analysis of each piece’s progress. All texts and translations are included. There are the usual resumes of the performers. The splendid recording is well balanced, especially between the narrator and the choir in The Scholar Gypsy.
Listeners of a certain vintage may recall John Westbrook’s narration of An Oxford Elegy, ably accompanied by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge and the Jacques Orchestra under the watchful eye of David Willcocks. That was released in 1970 on HMV ASD 2487. Later, there have been several recordings; narrators included Jack May, Simon Callow, Gerard Killebrew and Jeremy Irons. I guess those who love this composition will have their favourite.
For me, Westbrook’s was the first recording of An Oxford Elegy I heard, and it will always be my go-to version. That said, I can highly recommend this recording for its sense of tenderness and reflection. The coupling. Kenneth Leighton’s outstanding Veris Gratia, makes it a must buy for enthusiasts of British music.
John France
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