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Foulds was a figure distant from the charmed circle
we associate with the Academy and the College in London. His music is
amongst the most voluptuously liberated in the English scene from the
first half of the last century; the least Victorian of voices.
Manchester-born, he was the son of a Hallé bassoonist.
He joined his father's orchestra in 1900 as a cellist and his insight
into that instrument can be heard in the mastery of the Cello Sonata
(superbly recorded on the BMS label by Jo Cole and John Talbot
review)
as well as in a compact Cello Concerto (awaiting a recording premiere;
broadcast by Raphael Wallfisch during the 1980s).
With Holst he was among the first composers to take
a possessed interest in Indian music. Whether he would have destroyed
his opera Avatara if he had discussed his work with Holst many
of whose pieces were inspired by Indian fabulous culture (Savitri,
Sita, the Rig Veda hymns etc) or perhaps with Cyril Scott
we will never know. However on the evidence of Three Mantras the
opera must have been an extraordinary work. Borne of the 1920s, it is
modern in 'feel' and boiling with activity in the first Mantra
which has jazzy overtones and something close to a ‘big city’ Bernstein
feel. The action is a blend of Stravinsky and Ravel, objective yet sensuous.
sample The Celestial Awareness
Mantra has the orchestra joined by female chorus gently vocalising
to ‘aaaah’ in a confiding and silvery dream-skein related partly to
Holst's Venus and Neptune and to the Keatsian dream of
his Choral Symphony 'Underneath large bluebells tented .... where
the lilies are rose-scented.' The choral writing acquires a transient
ardour at 7:03 (tr. 2) in much the same way as in Flos Campi.
If you are looking for music that is still and balmy yet is not soporific
go no further. sample I can imagine
this second Mantra working well on BBC Radio 4's meditative-reflective
programme 'Something Understood'. By contrast the final ‘panel’ is marked
Inesorable (inexorable) which conjures the effect perfectly.
I wondered at first if Oramo was abandoned enough for this but he builds
up to barbaric wildness gradually. The music is always tonal and astonishingly
there is no sign of Foulds' penchant for microtonal experimentation.
This is a maelstrom of a piece wheeling and streaming with activity
yet never as chaotically or relentlessly piled high as Mossolov's Iron
Foundry or as Prokofiev's Ala and Lolly - more akin to modernised
Francesca da Rimini. There is a Brucknerian pause at 5:03 then
a pendant whirlwind bids farewell. sample
Foulds’ mature orchestral music is as enigmatic as
Havergal Brian's, as lambent as that of Ravel, as delicate as Holst,
as ecstatic as Scriabin and as non-conformist as mid-late Frank Bridge.
There is light and air in this man's music as well as lyrical release.
While Holst's occasional debt to Wagner is apparent Foulds largely stands
clear of that.
The Lyra Celtica is a concerto for vocalising
mezzo and orchestra. It comes from a small corner of the repertoire
shared by the Gliere concerto, the Medtner Sonata-Vocalise, movements
from the Third Symphonies of Vaughan Williams and Nielsen, the Fourth
Symphony of Hugo Alfvén and Rachmaninov's Vocalise. It
is a work that transcends Highland shoddy and tartan curiosities and
reaches out towards the lonely places, deserted strands and skerries,
seas alive with silvery fish and seals, crashing breakers and the sunset
dreams of Hy-Brasil. This beautiful work is incomplete although
the two movements presented here take on a finished sense. I hope that
Foulds expert Malcolm Macdonald will proceed to realise the remains
of the final movement. Susan Bickley sings most beautifully. In this
demanding score her voice is called on to perform like a violin; no
words are sung. There are moments when the vocal line recalls Barber's
Knoxville - an ecstatic innocence, a knowing sensibility not
yet turned into commonplace. Highlights are numerous but I loved the
transformation into carefree song at 8:51 (tr. 4) sample
and the easy languid dance figure at 1.32 (tr. 5). sample
This, by the way, is a work in which microtonal sways and slides are
used as a perfectly natural extension of the aural palette. While Foulds
wrote some skilled consumer music (he had to live!) such as the Keltic
Suite, this work counts as one of the glories of challengingly
imaginative art.
The Apotheosis, like Lyra, here
receives its first recording. Good to see Daniel Hope taking a role
in the long slow ‘burn’ of the Foulds revival. This overture-length
piece for violin and orchestra is dedicated to the memory of Joachim
although the brooding quality brought to it by Hope reminded me instantly
of Sarasate and Saint-Saëns' Iberian pieces. It rises several times
to a clawing heavyweight statement and then falls away to Beethovenian
and Brahmsian Olympian gravitas. This is a work in handsome tribute
to the German romantic mainstream. sample
Mirage has also been recorded before
although without the polish of this performance. In any event that Forlane
double CD set (UCD 16724/25) with music by Parry and Havergal Brian
is no longer available (unless you know better). The ADD Forlane recording
was made in July/August 1981 and was first issued in a 3 LP box. I played
it again for comparison purposes and despite a gentle rain of hiss this
is not a performance to be dismissed completely. Hager does wonders
with the Luxembourg Radio Symphony Orchestra but Oramo and the Birmingham
players are more secure and confident. Not that they are always to be
preferred e.g. at 3.25 the brass call out more imperiously with Hager.
The Hager version plays for 25:22 against Oramo's 23:49.
The basic ideas of this grandiloquent 1910 tone poem
are derived from Foulds' Vision of Dante cantata. The year before,
his Cello Sonata had included microtonal episodes; in Mirage
he uses them again at tr.12 1.35 and 2.32 as emblematic of man's 'ever-unattainment'.
sample
The music has its Straussian and Wagnerian edge sample
but listen also for Scriabin and Miaskovsky at tr. 12 (2.22; 3.22).
There is some saw-toothed Tchaikovskian brass as well as traces of Ravel
(Rapsodie Espagnole) and Rimsky (Antar) (13.00). At 15:00
the crippled splendour of the music, where textures growl and grind
against each other, is memorable and is redolent of very early Havergal
Brian such as To Valour. The delirious birdsong at tr. 13 recalls
Bridge's Enter Spring. sample
The piece ends in a lullingly repetitive lapping figure ultimately finding
a peculiarly lonely and lovely major key peace. sample
This grows on you with repeated hearings.
The notes could not be more authoritative. They are
by Malcolm Foulds whose Triad Press (later Pro-Am) book kindled the
Foulds interest in the earliest 1970s. There is also a valuable and
humanisingly biographical sketch by Foulds' son Patrick (b. 1915).
There is no direct competition for this disc. The Mantras
can still be had in their Lyrita recording (SRCD 212) from Harold
Moores in London. The Lyrita disc has Le Cabaret (a flouncy ebullient
gem of an overture), April-England (a masterpiece of the standing
of Enter Spring), the Pasquinade No. 2 (No. 1 is in the
Forlane set) and Hellas as well as the Mantras. Barry
Wordsworth conducts the LPO. review
By a slight whisker Wordsworth makes something more impactfully turbulent
of the final Mantra than Oramo; the Finnish conductor is a noticeable
minute slower in the Mantra of Bliss. Timings are not drastically
adrift from each other:-
Wordsworth Oramo
Mantra 1 5:23 6:04
Mantra 2 13:01 14:08
Mantra 3 6:44 6:57
However the two discs are pretty much complementary
in repertoire terms. If you have to have just one orchestral Foulds
disc on your shelves the Warner is the one to choose. It is a triumph
and offers one major work after another in inspirational performances
spanning 78 minutes as opposed to the 61 minutes of the Lyrita. Lyra
Celtica, for all of its severed torso, is a work soused in
quintessential folk melody: it crowns this treasurable release. When
will we hear Foulds’ World Requiem or its a cappella counterpart,
Julius Harrison’s Requiem of Archangels?
Rob Barnett
See also review
by John Talbot
also of interest
John
FOULDS (1880-1939)
Le Cabaret, Op. 72a (1921) [3’31]. April – England, Op. 48
No. 1. Hellas, A Suite of Ancient Greece, Op. 45 (1932) [18’03].
Three Mantras, Op. 61b (1919-1930) [25’49]. London Philharmonic
Orchestra/Barry Wordsworth. No rec. information given. DDD LYRITA SRCD212
[61’07] [CC]
A
remarkable disc, and an essential introduction to a composer whose music
cries out for greater recognition … For the Mantras alone, this
disc deserves the highest recommendation possible.
Ralph
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958) Piano Concerto in C (1926-33 with
revised 1946 ending) [27’45]. John FOULDS (1880-1939) Dynamic
Triptych, Op. 88 (1929) [29’16]. Howard Shelley (piano); Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra/Vernon Handley. No rec. info. DDD LYRITA RECORDED
EDITION SRCD211 [57’05]
If
you are buying this for the Vaughan Williams, you will not be disappointed.
And you may just find your mouth agape at the marvels of the Foulds.
JOHN FOULDS
(1880-1939) Works for string quartet Quartetto Intimo
(1935) 32.32 Quartetto Geniale (1935) 7.33 Aquarelles
(1921) 12.51
Endellion Quartet rec St Peter's, Notting Hill Gate, 25/26 July 1981
PEARL SHE CD 9564 [53.39] [RB]
Do
not forget this simply superb Foulds disc. Foulds captured in all his
dangerous and tumultuously inventive lyricism.
JOHN
FOULDS by Malcolm Macdonald - a pre-concert talk
Concert
review Foulds, Prokofiev, Stravinsky; Akiko Suwanai (violin) Leon
McCawley (piano), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo,
Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 10th February 2004 (CT)
Concert
Review Richard Strauss and John Foulds, CBSO/Sakari Oramo, Symphony
Hall, Birmingham, Wednesday 25 February 2004 (RB)
City of Birmingham SO/Sakari Oramo 