English Oboe Concertos
Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006)
Concerto for oboe and strings, Op.39 (1952)
William Alwyn (1905-1985)
Concerto for oboe, strings and harp (1943)
Rutland Boughton (1878-1960)
Concerto No.1 for oboe and strings (1936)
Michael Berkeley (b.1948)
Concerto for oboe and strings (1977)
Janet Craxton (oboe)
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/George Malcolm (Arnold)
BBC Welsh Orchestra/John Carewe (Alwyn)
BBC Concert Orchestra/Owain Arwel Hughes (Boughton)
BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra/Raymond Leppard (Berkeley)
rec. 1966 (Arnold), 1970 (Alwyn), BBC Studio recordings 1978 (Boughton), BBC Studio recording 1979 (Berkeley)
Oboe Classics CC2039 [78]   

Twenty years ago, Oboe Classics released a disc of British chamber works for oboe and strings played by Janet Craxton and preserved in broadcast performances. There have been a small number of discs over the years that have supplemented the commercial discography of Craxton, who died far too early in 1981 but this latest one is particularly significant for its restoration of four concertos from the BBC Archives now in the British Library.

They are presented in order of recording, from the earliest (Arnold, in 1966) to Michael Berkeley’s Concerto, broadcast in 1979. In general Craxton takes somewhat slower tempi than others in Arnold’s Concerto which was composed in 1952 and dedicated to the leading British oboist of his time, Léon Goossens. She ensures the music’s expressive oscillation between gravity and insouciance is well maintained, intimations of darker, more malign influences ever present. The central Vivace’s crispness is rhythmically incisive and not merely a function of speed, as Craxton is consistently slower in the first two movements than more recent exponents such as Michael Messiter (Arte Nova), Jennifer Galloway (Chandos) and Gordon Hunt (Warner). The terse instability of the finale is splendidly authoritative, its bleak mood sustained throughout. The BBC Scottish Symphony is directed by George Malcolm.

William Alwyn’s Concerto was recorded four years later in 1970, with John Carewe conducting the BBC Welsh Orchestra. It had been composed in 1943 but was premiered by Evelyn Barbirolli in 1949. Though its pastoral element is clear, it’s never an ‘easy’ pastoralism and is invariably shrouded in expressive mists. That said, the harp chords seem to signify bell chimes which inspire decided evocations of A Lark Ascending. The second of the two movements encodes a delightful dance rhythm, related to the folk-like swirl of the first movement, before the calming resolution of the Andante espressivo section brings peace. Craxton is consistently faster here than Nicholas Daniel (Chandos) and plays with a more penetrating tone, which suits the ambivalence of some elements of the music.   

The earliest concerto in this quartet is Rutland Boughton’s, which was composed for his daughter Joy in 1936. It’s a lively, fluid, engaging work finely written for the oboe in rather old-fashioned style but replete with attractive thematic writing. Craxton sings eloquently in the central slow movement, taking more time than Sarah Francis in her Hyperion recording with Vernon Handley, and finds a joyful drive in the finale. This is music of warm charm, well accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra and Owain Arwel Hughes.

Michael Berkeley’s much later concerto, though, is, in part at least, an elegy. Its opening echoes, probably unconsciously, Warlock’s forlorn The Curlew though growing increasingly urgent, terse and assertive with Mahlerian cadences briefly drenching the writing. The dance motifs are ambiguous but in the central Scherzo the music relaxes into celebratory mode, frolicsome and country dancing, the oboe piping away with arcadian lyricism. The elegiac element is the finale, dedicated to Berkeley’s godfather, Benjamin Britten, who had died the previous year. This is a miniature Mahlerian threnody, gently laced with evocations of Britten in the use of lower strings, and ends aptly – quietly and gently. Nicholas Daniel’s much more recent recording on Chandos is similar in tempi to Craxton’s in the first two movements but it’s noticeable that there is a significant divergence in the finale. Craxton, as so often, takes a firmer, faster tempo that give the music a sense of inbuilt nobility of utterance without any semblance of sentimentality. Not that there’s any of that with Daniel, either. It’s simply a different conception of time. A fourth BBC orchestra, the BBC Northern is conducted by Raymond Leppard.

I found this a consistently stimulating and rewarding disc that pays proper respect to Craxton’s illuminating and much-missed musicianship. Jeremy Polmear’s booklet notes are particularly incisive and knowledgeable and the restorations have been accomplished with no little skill.  

Jonathan Woolf

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