SRCD.318 STEREO ADD DDD * PREMIERS HENRY HUGO PIERSON (1815-1873) 1 Macbeth, symphonic poem Op. 54 (1859) * (20’34”) ALAN RAWSTHORNE (1905-1971) &ENCORES 2 Fantasy Overture. Cortèges (1945) * (14’34”) DAVID MORGAN (1933-1988) Rawsthorne Cortèges Contrasts (1974) ** (21’47”) 3 1st Movement: Lento e solenne — (16’23”) Morgan Contrasts Presto misterioso ma con malizia 4 2nd Movement: Allegro energico (5’24”) Pierson Macbeth FRANCIS CHAGRIN (1905-1972) Chagrin • Arnold • Warlock 5 Concert Overture. Helter Skelter (1949) *** (6’46”) PETER WARLOCK (1894-1930) 6 Serenade for Strings (1922) † (7’44”) MALCOLM ARNOLD (1921-2006) 7 Comedy Overture . Beckus the Dandipratt (1943) †† (7’52”) (79’22”) * Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Barry Wordsworth ** Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vernon Handley *** Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by John Pritchard London Philharmonic Orchestra † London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Braithwaite London Symphony Orchestra †† London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Braithwaite Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

The above individual timings will normally each include two pauses. One before the beginning of each movement or work, and one after the end. John Pritchard * ൿ 2007 ** ൿ 1978 † ൿ 1985 †† *** ൿ 1979 The copyright in these sound recordings is owned by Lyrita Recorded Edition, Nicholas Braithwaite This compilation and digital remastering ൿ 2007 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England © 2007 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. Made in the UK Vernon Handley LYRITA RECORDED EDITION. Produced under an exclusive license from Lyrita Barry Wordsworth by Wyastone Estate Ltd, PO Box 87, Monmouth, NP25 3WX, UK Other works by ALAN RAWSTHORNE available on Lyrita: Symphonies 1, 2 & 3 London Philharmonic Orchestra / BBC Symphonic Orchestra conducted by Sir John Pritchard / Nicholas Braithwaite / Norman Del Mar …………………SRCD.291

Overture Street Corner, Piano Concertos 1 & 2, Symphonic Studies Malcolm Binns, piano, London Philharmonic Orchestra / London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir John Pritchard / Nicholas Braithwaite …………………………………………SRCD.255

Divertimento for Chamber Orchestra English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Norman Del Mar ………………………………………………………………………..SRCD.257

Other works by MALCOLM ARNOLD available on Lyrita: Symphony No. 4 Op. 71 London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Arnold ……………………..………..SRCD.200

English Dances – Set 1 Op. 27, Set 2 Op. 33, Solitaire, Sarabande & Polka, Irish Dances Op. 126, Scottish Dances Op. 59, Cornish Dances Op. 91 London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Arnold ……………………………….SRCD.201

Concerto no. 2 for Horn and Strings, Op. 58 David Pyatt, horn, London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Braithwaite …SRCD. 316

Sinfonietta No. 1 Op. 48 London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Braithwaite ……………………………..SRCD.257

Other works by PETER WARLOCK available on Lyrita: An Old Song London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult ………………………………SRCD.24 5

WARNING Copyright subsists in all Lyrita Recordings. Any unauthorised broadcasting. public performance, copying, rental or re-recording thereof in any manner whatsoever will constitute an infringement of such copyright. In the United Kingdom licences for the use of recordings for public performance may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd., 1 Upper James Street, London, W1F 9DE 11 www.lyrita.co.uk HENRY HUGO PIERSON Macbeth, Symphonic Poem Op. 54 Notes © 2007 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England The reputation of Harrow and Cambridge-educated Henry Hugo Pierson (born Cover: istock photo Henry Hugh Pearson) rests chiefly on a large number of songs with piano accompaniment, though his output also includes works on a more substantial Original recording of David Morgan’s Contrasts was made with the financial support of the scale, including three unpublished , an oratorio, Jerusalem , performed at JOHNSON WAX ARTS FOUNDATION and the RVW TRUST. the 1852 Norwich Festival, and incidental music to the second part of Faust (1854). Morgan Pierson studied music in Leipzig and spent most of his adult life in Germany, even Recording location and date: April 1976, Kingsway Hall, London changing his name to sound more Teutonic. Yet he frequently found inspiration in English poetry and drama, especially Shakespeare, as in his Hamlet, marche Chagrin Recording location and date: January 1976, Kingsway Hall, London funèbre for piano, and three late orchestral works, the concert overtures As You Like It and Romeo and Juliet and the more substantial symphonic poem Macbeth Warlock (1859). Recording location and date: August 1978, Kingsway Hall, London Pierson showered the score of Macbeth with copious quotations and stage Arnold directions in German, though the listener need have no prior knowledge of this Recording location and date: September 1978, Watford Town Hall . detailed programme to appreciate the symphonic poem ’s dramatic inspiration. A Digital Remastering Engineer: Simon Gibson grave and ominous slow unison theme, dripping with portent, headed ‘Hours dreadful and things strange’ introduces the three witches. A lively Scottish-style march, graced with snap rhythms, accompanies Macbeth and his soldiers onto the blasted heath. Timorous tremolo strings herald the three witches’ ‘All hail!’ predictions, each characterised in turn (on trombone, clarinet and cornet, respectively); the First Witch’s prediction assumes great importance throughout the rest of the piece as a doom-laden motto-theme. Another significant recurring motif derives from the start of a gentle and appealing melody, appearing initially on clarinet, depicting Lady Macbeth: an incongruous piece of musical casting. Brisk fluctuations in tone and colour reflect the abundant superscriptions in the score of celebrated quotations: ‘If it were done when ‘tis done…’ appears over skulking strings, whilst ‘Is this a dagger…’ launches an extended passage dominated by staccato triplets. A substantial, eccentric Witches’ Dance enlivens the work’s central section with its quirky changes of rhythm and melodic twists and

10 3 turns. The final pages are packed with incident, including a rakish March for the austere textures of Arnold’s haunting Ninth Symphony (1986): the roots of his English army, the death of Lady Macbeth and a swift but fierce battle ( con brio , impressive symphonic legacy are planted in Beckus as firmly as those of Andrjez tutta forza ). The quiet, resigned ending incorporates brief references to work’s Panufnik in the Polish master’s Tragic Overture of 1940. opening theme and the First Witch’s ‘All hail!’ PAUL CONWAY Writing in the Musical Times on 1 June 1881, Archer Gurney described Henry Hugo Pierson as “a composer of peculiar power, a tone-poet, if ever there was one”. That “peculiar power” drives Macbeth , with its Berliozian splashes of orchestral colour, restless fluctuating rhythms and episodic construction overlaid with recurring motto themes. Pierson is in his element charting the rapidly shifting musical landscapes, cutting from one graphically illustrated scene and character to another with an almost cinematic sensibility. In his latest Grove entry on Pierson, Nicholas Temperley singles out Macbeth , along with the incidental music to Faust , as “the most successful” of Pierson’s large-scale works. It is to be hoped this recording’s release will reawaken interest in a highly individual and progressive talent. ALAN RAWSTHORNE Fantasy Overture. Cortèges In the ‘Britain, Scandinavia and the Netherlands’ edition of the ‘Twentieth Century Composers’ series, Humphrey Searle commented on Alan Rawsthorne: “I feel that his contribution to English music is as important as that of any composer working in England today, and that this will be realized more and more as time goes by.” In the thirty five years since Searle wrote those words, Rawsthorne’s music has been better served on disc than in the concert hall, but such fine orchestral works as his Symphonic Studies, two piano concertos, two violin concertos and three symphonies are merely awaiting champions to bring them before the public once again. Dedicated to Constant Lambert, Cortèges was commissioned by the BBC and premiered by the London Symphony Orchestra under Basil Cameron at the 1945 Proms. The title alludes to “processions”, and we are presented with two distinct,

4 9 PETER WARLOCK but thematically connected examples. An imposing introductory passage hints at Serenade for Strings the main subjects of both processions, the first of which is a noble Adagio , whose Though the Capriol Suite (1926) is Peter Warlock’s most celebrated work for string solemn tread and major/minor ambiguities evoke the opening funeral march from orchestra, his earlier Serenade is a work of subtle, elusive distinction. It was written Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. The strings’ melancholy lament, answered by between 1921 and 1922 and published in 1923, dedicated “to Frederick Delius on keening woodwind, is haunting and poignant, subtly combining the epic with the his sixtieth birthday”. Warlock audibly pays tribute to his dedicatee with rich intimate as William Walton did in the funeral march from his incidental music Delian harmonies achieved through frequent divisi writing and lavish double- (1947) for Laurence Olivier’s film of Hamlet . stopping. Yet when the texture becomes spare and fragile, Warlock’s gently melancholic voice is revealed. The main themes, dominated by their 12/8 rhythms By contrast, the second procession is a brilliant fugal rondo in the form of a and an all-pervasive rocking figure first heard in the opening bar, flow like a limpid whirling tarantella of elfin grace and agility. In the midst of this dazzling English stream and are developed with considerable contrapuntal virtuosity. A contrapuntal parade, Rawsthorne launches a new theme, which he described in his climax of Delian intensity is followed by a varied recapitulation of all the thematic own programme notes as containing ‘certain temporary and ephemeral military material. characteristics’. After a climactic contrapuntal tour de force in which both processional themes are presented together (an electrifying, reconciliatory MALCOLM ARNOLD moment), the ending is wistful rather than celebratory: the parade has passed by, Comedy Overture. Beckus the Dandipratt leaving only fragmentary memories. Teeming with invention, Cortèges is one of Beckus the Dandipratt (1943) signalled the start of Malcolm Arnold’s maturity as Rawsthorne’s most accomplished scores, no less appealing than the composer’s a composer: a London Philharmonic Orchestra performance under Edward van popular Overture Street Corner (1944), though more ambitious and wide ranging. Beinum in November 1947 and a subsequent recording by the same artists marked Arnold’s arrival as a fresh new voice in post-war British music. Though entitled a DAVID MORGAN ‘Comedy Overture’, Beckus displays far more psychological substance than this Contrasts label would suggest. The ‘dandipratt’, an archaic name for ‘urchin’ is represented In 1961, at the age of twenty-eight, David Morgan entered the Royal Academy of by two blithely droll themes, first heard on cornet and flute, respectively. These Music, studying composition with Alan Bush and orchestration with Leighton themes are ripe for development and suffer from a variety of distortions and Lucas. During his time there, he wrote a number of chamber and instrumental transformations, as Beckus becomes the subject of a series of misadventures. works for different instrumental groups, such as Trio for Seven (1962) for Some episodes are playful, others more menacing, but in the end the dandipratt woodwind, String Quartet (1964) and Divertimento for Brass (1964), and, in emerges from his ordeals unreformed and apparently unscathed, preserved by his March 1965, he became the first composer honoured by a concert given at the own inconsequence. RAM devoted entirely to pieces written while still a student. Upon leaving the Academy, he went to study in Prague on a British Council Scholarship. His most Vividly scored and deftly constructed, Beckus is the work of a natural symphonist. significant work from this period is a Violin Concerto (1966), premiered to great Though written for large orchestra and incorporating characteristically full- success at the Dvorak Hall, Prague in 1967. The compelling, emotionally charged blooded tuttis , much of the scoring has a chamber-like delicacy, anticipating the Sinfonia da Requiem , described by Morgan as “a personal, not a political reaction to the events of August 1968”, was completed in 1972. 8 5 Written between October and December 1974, Contrasts is dedicated to the sonorous, including tam-tam, bass drum, slung cymbal and tubular bells, whilst memory of Shostakovich. It was first performed on 2 January 1975 by the Royal the brilliance of the second movement is aided by the use of tambourine, maracas, Philharmonic Orchestra under Vernon Handley at a workshop of twentieth triangle and glockenspiel, even including a brief solo for the latter instrument. century music at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London. Morgan has described Contrasts as a deliberate study in duality: it consists of two disparate Contrasts is part compact two-movement symphony and part vividly scored movements, each based on the same two themes, constantly varied throughout the concerto for orchestra. It juxtaposes two distinct sides of the composer’s creative piece. personality: some of the Sinfonia da Requiem ’s aggressive bitterness sours the first movement’s central scherzo, while the second movement shares a breezy The first movement, Lento e solenne , is sombre and sepulchral, with a waspish, exuberance with Morgan’s tuneful and energetic Overture: Spring Carnival , occasionally brutal scherzo at its heart. It opens with a hushed and mysterious dedicated to his wife on their wedding. introduction flecked by harp and glockenspiel, with soft bell-like chords. Appearing initially as a sustained melody on flute, the first theme features the FRANCIS CHAGRIN Shostakovich musical monogram D-S-C-H (or D-E flat-C-B natural). Also quietly Concert Overture. Helter Skelter expressive, the second theme is first heard on the horn. An increase in intensity In addition to his concert music, including two symphonies and a piano concerto, leads to a powerful climax, which recedes to a desolate, hushed repetition of the D- Francis Chagrin was also a prolific composer for films such as The Colditz Story S-C-H motif. The central scherzo is in rondo form; its ritornello includes aleatoric (1954), An Inspector Calls (1954), Danger Within (1959) and Greyfriars Bobby techniques previously used by Morgan in his Sinfonia da Requiem . The scherzo’s (1961), and television, including the incidental music for the Doctor Who story The first episode highlights woodwind (including scabrous flutter-tongued flutes) and Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964). The Overture Helter Skelter , first published in pizzicato strings, whilst the second contains an expressive clarinet solo. A vigorous 1951, is based on themes from the 1949 film of the same name, a would-be climax leads to a varied reappearance of the atmospheric opening material. screwball romantic comedy involving a tall story of an heiress whose attack of hiccups is cured after various adventures at the BBC’s Broadcasting House. The Allegro energico second movement is an upbeat toccata, antithetical to the Helter Skelter is a stranger to our television schedules and its piffling plot hardly first movement in its mood of buoyant optimism. Material from the previous suggests a rival to the sophisticated Ealing comedies of the time. Lento appears, but in a much swifter tempo. Unfolding in sonata form, the movement takes in a passage in carnival-style dance-time and a slower, archaic- The overture starts with a brief four-bar crescendo introducing the swaggering, sounding episode with the air of a Respighi tone poem, marked Amabile , on muted energetic Allegretto scherzando opening tune, whose hiccupping rhythm has an upper strings and woodwind. The development exploits the second half of the openly slapstick quality in stark contrast with the richly lyrical dolce string melody exposition, setting up a vigorous pizzicato ostinato punctuated by harp chords. in thirds, reminiscent of Richard Strauss at his most calorific, that follows. The The flamboyantly rowdy conclusion of this study in duality ends in an emphatically tempo changes to Allegro for a quirky staccato theme, laced with grace notes. unambiguous triple forte tutti . 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PREMIERS & ENCORES WORDSWORTH / PRITCHARD LYRITA PIERSON / RAWSTHORNE / MORGAN… BRAITHWAITE / HANDLEY SRCD.318