Music for Stage and Screen
rec. 1923-1958
Albion Records ALBCD041 [66]
This pot-pourri of stage and screen music is mostly derived from the recorded material in the personal collection of Stephen Connock MBE, Ralph Vaughan Williams Society’s Vice President. David Mitchell provided Lorna’s Song.
Vaughan Williams’s Prelude to 49th Parallel comes from a 1941 British war drama film directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger: German U-boat survivors evade capture in Canada and try to escape to the neutral United States. The broad tune that dominates the Prelude epitomises Canada’s wide-open spaces and alludes to its people’s bravery. The entire score has been issued on Dutton Epoch (review).
One of two major highlights is Adrian Boult’s recording of Holst’s ballet music from The Perfect Fool, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. It was originally released on Decca LXT5015. This is a thrilling, “crisp, and sparkling” performance of this well-loved work. Boult later made another recording in 1961.
One of the great film scores of the 1940s is William Walton’s Henry V. He wrote it for Laurence Olivier’s iconic production of the play for the silver screen. I have always felt a strong sympathy for Sir John Falstaff. Certainly, it offends me how Prince Hal latterly treated the elderly knight (at least in Shakespeare’s account). Walton has created a beautiful, if modest, miniature Passacaglia commemorating his death. Interestingly, Falstaff does not have a death-scene in Shakespeare’s play: Olivier interpolated it into the film. Along with its sad companion piece, Touch her Soft Lips and Part, it is some of Walton’s finest, most poignant music. It is heard here in the composer’s recording with the Philharmonia String Orchestra.
There are two short numbers by William Alwyn. The main theme from The Cure for Love (1949) takes the form of an exquisite “salon waltz”. Equally attractive is the Malcolm Arnold-esque Calypso from The Rake’s Progress (1945). It perfectly complements Rex Harrison’s portrayal of Vivian Kenway, the roué, when he was a coffee grower in Latin America. Both pieces are performed by the London Symphony Orchestra under Muir Mathieson.
It is unfortunate that Clifton Parker is usually only recalled for his gripping score to the 1944 film, Western Approaches. His other important film scores include Robert Newton’s version of Treasure Island, Kenneth More in Sink the Bismarck! and the Walt Disney feature The Sword and the Rose. Equally interesting are the soundtracks to the British Transport Films, The Elizabethan, the Blue Pullman, Ocean Terminal, and The Long Night Haul. He indulged in other genres, including the delightful Glass Slipper Overture (1944), the Thieves Carnival (1959) and his Two Choreographic Studies (1940).
The present Seascape is a short but effective tone poem which Parker assembled from the score. It is in three sections, beginning tranquilly as the merchant ship leaves its berth in an American port. As the boat reaches the mid-Atlantic, it begins to get stormy, and this is reflected in more expansive music. The last joyful section alludes to the rescue of the mariners and their safe arrival in ‘blighty.’ There are definite hints of Arnold Bax in this wonderful evocation of the sea.
While Cecil Armstrong Gibbs composed the score for the 1934 movie Lorna Doone, the producer Basil Dean asked Rutland Boughton, for an unknown reason, to create a romantic song for the heroine. It is performed here by the film’s star Victoria Hopper. It is very much of its era: I can take it or leave it.
A riveting performance of Arthur Bliss’s March from Things to Come saves the day. This 1936 film was based on H.G. Wells’s novel, envisioning progress, technological leaps and resilience in the face of a war-torn future. This is one of the most imposing, if menacing, “English” marches.
I am an enthusiast of Frederick Delius, but I have never warmed to the incidental music written for James Elroy Flecker’s prose-play, Hassan – except for the Serenade and Interlude. The “plot” does not excite me. The current excerpts from the work include the Serenade ‘la-la’d’ by tenor H. Farrar, and conclude with the almost comic final chorus. Percy Fletcher conducted His Majesty’s Theatre Chorus and Orchestra.
I agree with John Quinn that the most significant recording on this disc is Manuel de Falla’s El amor brujo played by the Studio Orchestra (Rome Radio Orchestra) under Thomas Beecham. This was recorded for use in the film Honeymoon (1959), essentially a travelogue for Spain. The stars included Anthony Steel, Ludmilla Tchérina and the Spanish ballet dancer Antonio, and the renowned Russian choreographer and ballet dancer, Léonide Massine. Sadly, Beecham’s recording was not complete: it omitted five minutes of the Suite.
The present recording is derived from the film’s soundtrack, replete with “noises off”. But do not let that put you off this outstanding performance, especially by mezzo soprano María Carla Alcalá. The liner notes remind us that this ballet exudes “the primitive force, the magic character and the tragic essence of this art, whose roots are buried in a distant past”. It is a great characterisation of Beecham’s account. (I echo John Quinn’s disappointment that Thomas Beecham never made a studio recording of El amor brujo.)
The concert concludes with the Epilogue from the 49th Parallel. Stephen Connock correctly says that “nothing in [RVW’s] film music genre surpasses for breadth and nobility this rousing finale”. It is heartbreakingly beautiful.
Stephen Connock prepared the liner notes. They give details of each piece, and essential information about context. The booklet’s cover features star of Lorna Doone, Victoria Hopper. All the tracks have been “improved” by Pete Reynolds of Reynolds Mastering. They give the best possible account of this worthy music.
Folks may wonder why Albion Records, an offshoot of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, have only included two items by the man himself. It matters not. What is heard here is a valuable contribution to the recorded legacy of British music. It deserves to be heard. RVW would surely have approved.
John France
Previous review: John Quinn (September 2020)
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Contents
Ralph Vaughan Wiliams (1872-1958)
Prelude to 49th Parallel (1941)
London Symphony Orchestra/Muir Mathieson (rec. November 1949)
Gustav Holst (1874-1934)
Ballet Music from The Perfect Fool (1918-1922)
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Adrian Boult (rec. November 1954)
William Walton (1902-1983)
Excerpts from Henry V (1944), Death of Falstaff, Touch her Soft Lips and Part
Philharmonia String Orchestra/William Walton (rec. October 1945)
William Alwyn (1905-1985)
Main Theme from The Cure for Love (1949) (rec. November 1949)
Calypso Music from The Rake’s Progress (1945) (rec. June 1946)
London Symphony Orchestra/Muir Mathieson
Clifton Parker (1905-1989)
Seascape from Western Approaches (1944)
London Symphony Orchestra/Muir Mathieson (rec. June 1946)
Rutland Boughton (1878-1960)
Lorna’s Song from Lorna Doone (1934)
Victoria Hopper (soprano) with Orchestra (rec. November 1934)
Arthur Bliss (1891-1975)
March from Things to Come (1934-1935)
London Symphony Orchestra/Arthur Bliss (transferred from film soundtrack, February 1936)
Frederick Delius (1862-1934)
Excerpts from Hassan (1920-1923)
H Farrar (tenor); His Majesty’s Theatre Chorus and Orchestra/Percy Fletcher (rec. November 1923)
Manuel de Falla (1876-1946)
El amor brujo (1915-1925) (abridged) from Honeymoon (1959)
Studio Orchestra (Rome Radio Orchestra)/Thomas Beecham (rec. 1958, Rome)
Ralph Vaughan Wiliams
Epilogue from 49th Parallel (1940)
London Symphony Orchestra/Muir Mathieson (rec. June 1946)
