Madeleine Dring (1923-1977)
Complete Works for Oboe
Nicholas Daniel (oboe)
Antonio Oyarzábal (piano), Amy Harman (bassoon), Adam Walker (flute)
rec. 2024, Potton Hall, Dunwich, England
Chandos CHAN20344 [73]
Madeline Dring was a prodigiously gifted musician who died far too young of a cerebral haemorrhage. Born with perfect pitch and synaesthesia, she demonstrated her musical skills at an early age, joining the junior Royal College of Music on a violin scholarship aged nine. She stayed there as an adult and worked on composition with Howells, Jacob and occasionally Vaughan Williams. Lengnick took her on in 1948, publishing the Fantastic Variations on Lilliburlero, (review)and the Fantasy Sonata, a marvellous work which she had written when she was just fifteen. There are many songs, of which the Song of a Night Club Proprietress fromher John Betjeman settings, is popular. She tended to avoid large forms, though there is an amusing opera called Cupboard Love, which I had the pleasure of seeing a few years ago and a dance score, The Fair Queen of Wu.
After WW2 she married Roger Lord (1924-2014 ) who from 1953 to the early 1980s was oboist with the LSO and even played on the Beatles Sergent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club album. It is he who, thankfully, inspired many of the marvellous works on this disc. He also acted as arranger for some of the works originally conceived for other instruments but which he felt, and indeed do, work well on the oboe.
Dring had, by all accounts, a great sense of humour and like the French composers of Les Six her writing often seems to want to épater la bourgeoisie. There are unexpected key changes, spiky harmonies, often jazz inflected and ever-changing time signatures. Of Les Six, her closest relation would be Francis Poulenc, and like him she could write melodies to make angels weep.
She was erratic, careless even, in putting dates on her manuscripts and even with two books written about her music there is still much conjecture as to when certain works were composed, so you will see the works list at the end of the review has a number of speculative dates.
Shortly after her untimely death BBC Radio 3 broadcast a tribute concert; this was the first time I heard any of her music and the first time I heard the Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Harpsichord. That performance, I still have the tape, used harpsichord which was the instrument it was conceived for and on which it works best. Since then any performance or recording I have heard has used piano which while satisfactory does not give the harmonies the bite of the plucked strings of the harpsichord. I live in hope that someday some enterprising performers will go back to the original. However, when the performance is as good as this, I am merely observing not complaining. At around eighteen minutes, it is the longest work on the disc. I would have been happy were it longer.
The first movement begins with some dramatic baroque flourishes but is fundamentally a jolly march. I say fundamentally but the interruptions of bars of asymmetrical metres would make it awkward to actually march to. All the instruments get a chance to shine in idiomatic fashion. The lyrical slow movement entitled Dialogues, is just that, all three instruments in gentle dialogue the stepwise melodic material passing serenely between the three players. There is some marvellous breath control from the oboe and bassoon and some carefully planned fingering from the pianist produces a perfectly smooth line. The brilliantly exhilarating last movement bursts in with the piano pounding out some jazzy chords in 5/8 rhythm soon interrupted by bars of 6/8 and 7/8. The wind introduce some wide-ranging melodic material, and the stage is set for a playful romp of contrasts between the two ideas. It is also the movement where the change from harpsichord to piano is most keenly felt. The textural variety that the harpsichord brings to the repeated chords is entirely missing on the piano. This is a wonderful, rare, life-affirming work that gets better with repeated listening.
Her other – and far better-known – trio is for the combination of flute, oboe and piano, and is one of the key works for that combination of instruments. It is easy to see why. The spiky outer movements are full of knowing humour and sense of fun particularly in the finale where passages seem to pay homage to the virtuoso fantasies of the Romantic era. In contrast the serene slow movement is based around melodies of such exquisite beauty that time seems to stand still while listening to them. It had an auspicious start, being played in Miami in 1969 with Roger Lord, on oboe, Peter Lloyd of flute and Andre Previn on piano. There have been quite a few recordings of this work and most have tended to take to the outer movements too fast. Here, the speeds seem just right particularly in the finale which has a tongue in cheek elegance about it.
The punningly titled Three-Piece Suite was originally for harmonica and piano but, rightly seeing it would have a limited life for that not very popular instrument, Roger Lord made the arrangement here. It works brilliantly on the oboe. The three very contrasted movements have a wonderfully organic feel, though I would probably prefer the punchy first movement to come last and the more laid-back finale to come first. The lyrical central movement entitled Romance has an elegiac feeling to it. At eight minutes, it is substantial and gives Mr Daniels the opportunity to show off flawless breathing technique.
The earliest work on the disc is another arrangement. The Idyll from 1948 was originally for viola and in that form was rejected for unknown reasons by Lengnick and lay unloved. It is hard to see why as it is an engaging lullaby type movement. The languid jazzy chords which are a feature of the work are beautifully handled by Mr Oyarzabal.
The shorter pieces on the disc are all stamped with Dring’s unique sound. Indeed, she was one of those composers who could make her unique presence felt in a few bars. Mr Daniel’s helter-skelter speed of the ever-popular Italian Dance, a tarantella in all but name, would surely guarantee recovery from the spider’s bite.
The recording and playing are exemplary throughout with all three performers entering wholeheartedly into Dring’s magical sound world. The notes by Lewis Foreman are up to his usual high standard as is the overall production by Chandos.
Paul RW Jackson
Previous review: Nick Barnard (May 2025)
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Contents
3 Pieces for Oboe & Piano No.2 Tango, No.1 Waltz
Italian Dance
Trio for Oboe, Bassoon & Piano [Harpsichord]
Danza gaya (arr. oboe & piano by Roger Lord)
Cole Porter (1891-1964)
In the Still of the Night from Rosalie (arr. for Oboe & Piano by Madeleine Dring & Nicholas Daniel]
My Heart Is like a Singing Bird (Arr. For Oboe & Piano by Nicholas Daniel)
Three Piece Suite (arr. oboe & piano by Roger Lord)
Trio for Flute, Oboe & Piano
Idyll (arr. oboe & piano by Roger Lord)
3 Pieces for Oboe & Piano: No.3 Sarabande
Polka
