Classics

CHAN 10412 X 17

CCHANHAN 10412X10412X BBooklet.inddooklet.indd 116-176-17 229/1/079/1/07 12:34:5712:34:57 Spirit of Scotland

Felix Mendelssohn (1809 –1847)

1 The Hebrides, Op. 26 10:16 Overture © Lebrecht Music & Arts Photo Library

Hector Berlioz (1803 –1869)

2 Waverley, Op. 2 10:21 Grande ouverture

Malcolm Arnold (1921– 2006)

3 Tam o’Shanter, Op. 51 7:53 Overture

Hector Berlioz

4 Rob Roy – Intrata di Rob-Roy Macgregor 13:03 Overture

Hector Berlioz

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CCHANHAN 10412X10412X BBooklet.inddooklet.indd 22-3-3 229/1/079/1/07 12:34:5112:34:51 Giuseppe Verdi (1813 –1901) Spirit of Scotland Macbeth: Ballet Music from Act III 10:10 5 No. 1 2:10 O Caledonia! stern and wild, French edition of Sir Walter Scott’s fi rst novel, Waverley, was also being widely read on the 6 No. 2 – 5:12 Meet nurse for a poetic child! Land of brown heath and shaggy wood, other side of the English Channel. Berlioz, not 7 No. 3 2:43 Land of the mountain and the fl ood, yet out of his teens, picked up a copy in the Land of my sires! what mortal hand early 1820s and at once became fascinated by Scott’s tale of the 1745 rebellion at Can e’er untie the fi lial band That knits me to thy rugged strand! Prestonpans and its effect on Edward * Waverley, a soldier initially more interested in Four Scottish Dances, Op. 59 8:31 From The Lay of the Last Minstrel honour than in the fortunes of either side: 8 I Pesante 1:58 (Canto VI, ii) by Sir Walter Scott …While dreams of love and lady’s charms 9 II Vivace 2:07 Each composer on this disc, as the titles show, Give place to honour and to arms! 10 III Allegretto 2:43 fell at one time or another beneath the spell of The student Belioz wrote his Waverley 11 IV Con brio 1:31 Scotland’s ‘rugged strand’, its poetic children (one of the fi rst concert overtures) towards or those writers to whom the country offered the end of 1827, and although it was inspiration. It was through Scott – notably performed in Paris at his lavish debut Hamish MacCunn (1868 –1916) the ‘Waverley’ novels – that Berlioz came to concert the following year, the work was not Scottish literature, and Malcolm Arnold is published until 1839. The above couplet, 12 9:56 Land of the Mountain and the Flood represented by a cautionary tale of Robert scribbled at the head of the manuscript, Overture Burns. Verdi’s Scottish connection lies with neatly sums up the work’s essence, with its TT 71:15 a great playwright’s response to confl ict in a ardent cello theme in the opening Larghetto Highland setting, while Mendelssohn was one (a section strikingly developed from of a number of young Romantics who included fragments) and the following Allegro vivace Scottish National Orchestra Scotland in their fashionable, if not obligatory, in which the Weber-like style and energy of Sir Alexander Gibson grand tours. Hamish MacCunn, Greenock-born, the violin writing offers a telling contrast Philharmonia Orchestra* had but to look about him. with much that is pure Berlioz: parallel * At about the same time that Macpherson’s woodwind chords in diminished sevenths, Bryden Thomson Ossian translations of Fingal’s Celtic triumphs short full-orchestra crescendo from a whisper were enjoying currency on the continent, a to a fortissimo – and, as ever, fi ne, prominent

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CCHANHAN 10412X10412X BBooklet.inddooklet.indd 44-5-5 229/1/079/1/07 12:34:5312:34:53 scoring for brass, less weighted in favour of While at the Academy there, he wrote, or hurt Berlioz, for he was driven to destroy a cavern in the body of these columns. trombones than in subsequent years. The recast, no more than a handful of works. the score immediately after the concert Such is Fingal’s Cave… For solemnity score bears the heading ‘À Moris. Le Colonel Among these, apart from the overture, was (although, characteristically astute, he kept a and grandeur it far surpasses the fi nest F. Marmion’, an uncle of the composer whose the ‘Scène aux champs’ from Symphonie duplicate). cathedral. namesake provided the title for one of Scott’s fantastique, and there is something of the On 7 August 1829, after arriving at After jotting down those opening poems. To the twenty-three-year-old Berlioz pastoral atmosphere of this movement, with Tobermory on the Isle of Mull, Mendelssohn twenty bars (later halved to ten, quavers to it must have been an irresistible choice of its plaintive cor anglais and oboe calls, in the wrote to his parents: semiquavers, the better to convey the fl owing dedication. central cor anglais melody of Rob Roy. The In order to make you understand how movement of the sea), Mendelssohn took The febrile Berlioz was to convalesce in melody itself, however, played over a harp extraordinarily the Hebrides have affected nearly three years to complete the overture Nice on more than one occasion during his accompaniment, looks directly forward two me, I have written down the following to his satisfaction. The fi rst draft, headed life, and while resting there, free of worry, he years to the more rugged Byronic landscape which came into my mind. Die einsame Insel (The Lonely Island), was often sketched, revised or completed several of Harold in Italy, in which Harold’s theme ‘The following’ turned out to be the fi rst fi nished in Rome shortly before Christmas works at a time. quotes it in full. In Rob Roy, as in the Byron- twenty bars of The Hebrides overture, 1830, yet over a year later we still fi nd And so I drink deep draughts of the inspired work, the harp is much in evidence. inspired, claimed the young composer, reservation in Mendelssohn’s correspondence sunny, balmy air of Nice, and life and joy Blended with trumpet and bassoon, it while standing in Fingal’s Cave on the to his sister. After much reworking, and a return to me, and I dream of music and lends the opening bars, with their soft horn uninhabited island of Staffa. If, as the London performance in May 1832, the score the future… I live entirely alone. I write motive, a unique sonority, and it is silent for error-free handwriting and recent research was fi nally completed. the overture to King Lear. I sing. I believe any length of time only during the vigorous suggest, the theme had lain in Mendelssohn’s Even by Mendelssohn’s standards, the in God. Convalescence! second group (the overture is in sonata subconscious for some while beforehand, orchestration (two each of fl utes, oboes, form) on bassoons and lower strings. Those its return to the composer’s mind amid clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets, From Mémoire by Hector Berlioz quick on the uptake will spot a minute later a such magnifi cent scenery is not hard to and strings and timpani) is of exceptional The overtures Rob Roy, King Lear and Le more fl eeting pre-echo of Harold, again from understand. Keats, similarly awestruck by beauty and transparency, the art of transition Corsaire were conceived during that stay in the cor anglais, though here the melody is the view some ten years earlier, offered an seamlessly achieved. Although at fi rst no 1831 when he drank ‘deep draughts of the without the harmonic sting in the tail which it eloquent description of the cave, named after more than a repeated one-bar fi gure, the sunny, balmy air’; though only the latter two possesses in the symphony. The connection Ossian’s Celtic hero whose life was devoted opening theme soon proves as changeable were composed in Nice itself. Rome, several between the two works is principally to driving the Norsemen out of the Hebridean and pliant as the surface of the sea itself. months later, was the scene for Rob Roy. The thematic, however: if the overture is a tribute islands: Twice it broadens out, inverted, over a city and its musical academics depressed to the Scottish warrior, then its rollicking 6/8 Suppose, now, the giants who came swelling timpani roll and a surging string Berlioz, metre refl ects neither menace nor darkness down to the daughters of men had a bass line before ushering in the cantabile …the anti-musical atmosphere… reduced in his nature, merely the liveliness of a whole mass of these columns and bound second subject on cellos and bassoons. A me to a state in which I found it almost roving character. The hostile reaction of the them together like bunches of matches, little further on it re-appears, ff and thrown impossible to compose… work’s fi rst, Parisian, audience must have and then with immense axes had made into jagged relief, over agitated semiquavers

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CCHANHAN 10412X10412X BBooklet.inddooklet.indd 66-7-7 229/1/079/1/07 12:34:5312:34:53 on cellos and basses (in such writing as exclusively, for there are many serious, even roars encouragement: ‘Weel done, Cutty-sark!’ in 1865 for little reason other than to provide this, it is as if the sea is boiling over). bitter pages among the symphonies). Like His words, uncannily mimicked by a solo Parisian opera audiences with the traditional This fi rst theme has the lion’s share of the Beckus, Robert Burns’ Tam is also something trombone, ring out in silence: they have seen ballet sequence. This, and a fair number of development too, calmly appearing in distant of a dandipratt (roughly translatable from him. The chase is on, Tam driving his mare other revisions some eighteen years after keys or, during some part exchanges between the old English as ‘urchin’ or ‘rogue’). The forward with terrifi ed ferocity (imaginative use the opera’s fi rst production (Macbeth marked strings and woodwind, almost as a distant beginning of the tale fi nds this ‘blithering, of low percussion here to suggest the thunder Verdi’s fi rst approach to Shakespeare) caused cousin to the Midsummer Night’s Dream blustering, drunken bellum’ at the end of of hooves and myriad feet). A stream looms the composer more than a few headaches. Scherzo: here perhaps, suggests Roger a market day, cosily ensconced with his ahead and, with inches to spare, horse and At the beginning of Act III, he reminded his Fiske, can be heard the chugging of the little cronies in a local hostelry. Some decidedly rider leap to the opposite bank, safe now, for librettist, ‘the only characters on stage are paddle steamer which took Mendelssohn and uncouth brass comment, quiet chromatic spirits cannot cross water. Only the horse’s the witches, and to have these delightful his companion from Oban to Tobermory. In string tremolandi (Sibelius, says Arnold, was tail remains on the other side, a grisly trophy creatures cavorting about for fi fteen or terms of bars the recapitulation is ingeniously another formative infl uence) and bassoons, plucked at the last moment by Nannie, owner twenty minutes will make a rather frenzied concise, yet now there seems all the time Scotch-snapping, all help to portray of the cutty-sark and ‘far before the rest’ in divertissement’. In the event, the ballet in the world to unfold the second subject, Tam’s fuddled state as he weaves his way pursuit. music took a rather more concise form than intoned by clarinets before the magnifi cent outside for the homeward journey through The Four Scottish Dances employ of Verdi had envisaged; it was, he insisted, to coda, a concluding return to pianissimo and a a rainswept night on which ‘a child might course traits and timbres derived from Scottish be a mixture of dancing and mime in order fragment, on fl ute, of the second subject. understand/The Deil had business on his folk music, but differ in other ways also from to achieve variety of tempo and mood. The Unlike his hero Berlioz – ‘the greatest han’. For Tam, halfway through his journey, their English forbears. The fi rst, a , music begins at a rapid pace with trumpets musical infl uence in my life’ – Malcolm the ‘business’ in question takes the form of alternates slow and fast tempi with some adding a grotesque, lolloping presence to the Arnold developed his remarkable orchestral a ghoulish knees-up at the ruined Kirk- exciting effects of fast-tonguing in trumpets melodic line. Suddenly the phantoms pause instinct from the inside; at twenty-one he was Alloway – ‘Warlocks and witches in a dance… and trombones in the fast section. The second, to invoke Hecate, goddess of the night and appointed principal trumpet of the London hornpipes, jigs, strathspey, and reels/Put life a , alternates quick and slow tempi (this witchcraft. She appears, followed by string Philharmonic Orchestra, a tenure temporarily and mettle in their heels’. Arnold’s macabre movement originated in some music written in writing of an unexpected, soft radiance (and unhappily; Arnold was a conscientious crew are rather more grotesque than this: 1949 for the fi lm The Beautiful Country of Ayr). (the bars might almost be a discarded objector) interrupted by the war. At much the their strathspey is heavily weighed down by The third is part love-song, part nature-poem, idea from the Requiem) while the company same time, Arnold completed the work which braying ‘bagpipe’ horns, Dies irae rumblings and features a long-breathed romantic melody stand, entranced and silent, in an attitude brought him to the notice of the general from lower brass, and Scotch fi ddle music. in the manner of Hebridean folksong, while of fervent devotion. During a gentle melody public, the overture Beckus the Dandipratt, Burn’s hornpipe is here, though, perky if a the fi nale is a brief whirlwind impression of a on cellos and bassoon, she tells them that which, like Tam o’Shanter written a little over shade coarse on piccolos, trombones and . she knows of their work and is aware of the ten years later, represents the lighter side tuba. Unseen by those within, Tam’s eye is The assorted sprites, devils and witches reason for their having invoked her presence. of a musical personality which as it is tends drawn to a ‘cutty-sark’ (short skirt) worn by who dance around the cauldron at the She announces, to a majestic theme for towards the burlesque (though by no means one of the revellers. Forgetting himself, he opening of Act III of Verdi’s Macbeth did so trombones, that King Macbeth is coming

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CCHANHAN 10412X10412X BBooklet.inddooklet.indd 88-9-9 229/1/079/1/07 12:34:5412:34:54 to interrogate them about his destiny and Crystal Palace concerts, and seems likely Royal Patronage in 1991. Many conductors season with renowned German maestro that they must satisfy his curiosity; then, to to have been its composer’s freshest and have contributed to its success, including Karl Christoph von Dohnányi as Principal gentler music decorated by fl ute, she advises most accomplished work, notwithstanding Rankl, , , Conductor. That post was fi rst held by Otto them to summon the spirits of the air to many subsequent operas and other vocal Sir Alexander Gibson, Bryden Thomson Klemperer, and the Orchestra has since revive him should the fearsome sight of so compositions (an enterprising revival of and Neeme Järvi. Currently, had important collaborations with Lorin many apparitions prove overwhelming. But, a choral setting of Scott’s The Lay of the is Conductor Emeritus, Maazel (Associate Principal Conductor), she concludes, the ruin that awaits Macbeth Last Minstrel in Edinburgh in the 1970s is Principal Conductor, Marin Alsop is Riccardo Muti (Principal Conductor and Music cannot be delayed. She disappears amid enjoyed only moderate response, although Principal Guest Conductor and Garry Walker Director), Giuseppe Sinopoli (Music Director) thunder and lightning, and the gruesome the opera Jean Deans has been produced is Associate Conductor. The Orchestra gives and, currently, Kurt Sanderling (Conductor company link hands and dance a macabre several times in the UK). Little analysis more than 130 performances each year in Emeritus) and Vladimir Ashkenazy (Conductor waltz around the cauldron. is necessary to the appreciation of this Scotland, appears regularly at the Edinburgh Laureate), besides such eminent fi gures as By contrast, glowing colours surround clear-eyed music. Its sonata form embodies International Festival and the BBC Proms, and Furtwängler, Richard Strauss, Toscanini and Hamish MacCunn’s concert overture Land of two memorable subjects: an opening cello has toured abroad through Austria, Croatia, Karajan. Resident Orchestra at the Royal the Mountain and the Flood, music which melody of appealing simplicity (and the Slovakia and Spain. It has recorded a varied Festival Hall, it also has regional residencies, prompted a contemporary to the happy inevitable Scotch snap) and a lyrical theme range of works, including fi lm soundtracks providing an ideal opportunity to expand comment that ‘it is all done in daylight’. Of in the relative major, heard fi rst on violins. such as Titanic, Superman, Star Wars, Jaws its dynamic educational and community- Highland descent, MacCunn was the son Scoring is unfailingly accomplished and often and Vertigo. based programme. Winner of several major of a shipowner and grew up in a highly more than that, especially where the horn is The Orchestra’s education programme awards, it has garnered unanimous critical cultured atmosphere. The latter part of his concerned; it would be a hard heart indeed continues to develop musical talent and acclaim for its innovative programming short life was devoted largely to conducting which failed to respond to that instrument’s appreciation by working with people of all policy of commissioning and performing new for the Beecham and Carl Rosa Opera tender conclusion to the exposition, or to ages and abilities throughout Scotland, music by the world’s leading composers. Companies (for whom his performances its quiet call-to-arms a bar or two later and has earned the Orchestra the Royal The Philharmonia Orchestra undertakes included Siegfried and the fi rst performance at the beginning of the fi ery, minor-key Philharmonic Society’s prestigious Education frequent international tours in addition to in English of Tristan) and at the Savoy. development. Award. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra its prestigious residencies at the Théâtre du Something of a star pupil among Parry’s was recently awarded a Classic FM ‘Red Châtelet in Paris, the Megaron in Athens and © Andrew Keener fi rst intake at the newly-opened Royal F’ award for outstanding contribution the Lincoln Center in New York. College of Music, he emerged at the age to classical music in 2002, through its of nineteen with a handful of compositions Considered one of Europe’s leading recording, performance, education and Born in Scotland in 1926, Sir Alexander which included a cantata The Moss Rose symphony orchestras, the Royal Scottish outreach work. Gibson studied at Glasgow University and at and a pair of overtures, of which The Land National Orchestra (formerly the Scottish the Royal College of Music where in 1951 of the Mountain and the Flood is the second. National Orchestra) was formed in 1891 as One of the world’s great orchestras, the he was awarded the Queen’s Prize. He went It was an immediate success at one of the the Scottish Orchestra, and was awarded the Philharmonia Orchestra is now in its ninth on to attend the Salzburg Mozarteum before

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CCHANHAN 10412X10412X BBooklet.inddooklet.indd 110-110-11 229/1/079/1/07 12:34:5512:34:55 going to Siena to work at the Accademia 1977, and became president of the Royal Chigiano, and at the 1952 Besançon Festival Scottish Academy of Music in 1991. Sir was awarded the Enesco Prize for young Alexander Gibson died in 1995. conductors. Between 1951 and 1957 he held posts as repetiteur and later Staff Conductor Born in Scotland, Bryden Thomson studied at Sadler’s Wells Theatre; from 1951 to 1954 at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Also available he was Assistant Conductor of the BBC Drama and in Europe with Hans Schmidt- Scottish Orchestra, and in 1957 became Music Isserstedt and . He worked Director of the Sadler’s Wells Opera Company. with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Two years later he was appointed Principal as assistant to Ian Whyte after whose death Conductor and Artistic Director of the Scottish he undertook some 250 engagements in two National Orchestra, and tours through Europe years. He was Principal Conductor of the BBC and North America and many recordings Northern Symphony Orchestra from 1968 to contributed greatly to raising that Orchestra’s 1973, Principal Conductor and Music Director international prestige. Having founded Scottish of the from 1977 to 1985, Opera in 1962, he began to appear more and undertook guest conducting engagements widely as a symphonic conductor with British with orchestras such as the Philharmonia and international orchestras. He made his Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, London debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in Philharmonic, Scottish National and Scottish 1970 and became Principal Guest Conductor Chamber orchestras. His work in the operatic of the Houston Symphony Orchestra in 1981. fi eld included posts with Norwegian Opera and He was made a CBE in 1967, knighted in Scottish Opera. Bryden Thomson died in 1991.

Bax • Bridge • Britten • Stanford Sea Music CHAN 10426 X

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CCHANHAN 10412X10412X BBooklet.inddooklet.indd 112-132-13 229/1/079/1/07 12:34:5512:34:55 Also available You can now purchase Chandos CDs online at our website: www.chandos.net For mail order enquiries contact Liz: 0845 370 4994

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Recording producers Tim Oldham (Scottish Dances), Brian Couzens (other works) Sound engineer Ralph Couzens Assistant engineer Peter Newble (Scottish Dances) Mastering Jon Cooper Recording venue St Jude’s Church, Central Square, London NW11; 7 & 8 February 1990 (Scottish Dances), Henry Wood Hall (SNO Centre), Glasgow; 29 & 30 June 1981 (other works) Front cover Ring of Brodgar at sunrise © Alfi o Ferlito/istockphoto Design and typesetting Cassidy Rayne Creative Booklet editor Elizabeth Long Copyright MCPS p 1982 and 1990 Chandos Records Ltd This compilation p 2007 Chandos Records Ltd Bax Digital remastering p 2007 Chandos Records Ltd Orchestral Works, Vol. 8 © 2007 Chandos Records Ltd CHAN 10366 X Chandos Records Ltd, Colchester, Essex CO2 8HX, England Printed in the EU

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CCHANHAN 10412X10412X BBooklet.inddooklet.indd 114-154-15 229/1/079/1/07 12:34:5612:34:56 7 0 SPIRIT OF SCOTLAND - Scottish National Orchestra/Gibson CHAN 10412 X : 4 3 : 2 1

7 0 9 / 1 / * 9 229/1/07 12:34:07 2 2 1 4 * 1 5 1 1 5 9 CHAN 10412 X 10412 CHAN 24-bit/96 kHz digitally remastered 24-bit/96 kHz digitally 0 Printed in the EU MCPS LC 7038 DDD TT 71:15 Scottish National Orchestra National Scottish Sir Alexander Gibson Philharmonia Orchestra Bryden Thomson 2007 Chandos Records Ltd 2007 Chandos Records p England

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Chandos Records Ltd Ltd Chandos Records (1921– 2006) 2007 Chandos Records Ltd Digital remastering Ltd Digital remastering 2007 Chandos Records (1813–1901) p CHANDOS CHANDOS (1803 –1869) Spirit of This compilation 1

d d TT 71:15 Four Scottish Dances, Op. 59 TT Rob Roy – Intrata di Rob-Roy Macgregor (Overture) Macbeth: Ballet Music from Act III The Hebrides, Op. 26 (Overture) Op.Waverley, 2 (Overture) o’Shanter,Tam (Overture) Op. 51 n SCOTLAND i . y Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Land of the Mountain and the Flood (Overture)

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2 1 8 4 5 1 2 3 12 Hamish MacCunn Hamish Hector Berlioz Hector Arnold Malcolm Felix Mendelssohn Felix Berlioz Hector Arnold Malcolm 4 0 1

N A H CCHAN 10412X Inlay.indd 1 SPIRIT OF SCOTLAND - Scottish National Orchestra/Gibson CHAN 10412 X