Omar Khayyám
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REAM.2128 STEREO*/MONO SIR GRANVILLE BANTOCK (1868-1946) OMAR KHAYYÁM OMAR KHAYYÁM Part One (1906) Part Two (1907) Part Three (1909) The Beloved, contralto……………………….Sarah Walker The Poet, tenor ……………………Anthony Rolfe Johnson The Philosopher, baritone …………….Brian Rayner Cook BBC Singers (director John Poole, chorus-master Nicholas Cleobury) BBC Symphony Orchestra (leader Bela Dekany) Sappho (1906) Johanna Peters, contralto Fifine at the Fair (1912) The Pierrot of the Minute (1908) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (leader Tom Rowlette) Conducted by Norman Del Mar *Omar Khayyam, Broadcast 26 March 1979 Sappho, Fifine at the Fair & The Pierrot of the Minute, Broadcast 7 August 1968 The BBC wordmark and the BBC logo are trade marks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence. BBC logo © BBC 1996 c © Evening, Peer of gods he seems, who sits in thy presence, thou bringest all that bright morning scattered, Hearing close thy sweet speech the tender lamb to the ewe, and lovely laughter, the babe to its mother; I beholding, all the life in my bosom Then Hesperus shines, of all stars the fairest, Fluttering, fails me. Around the cool breeze wanders through apple boughs, For to see thee only, yea, but a little, And slumber streams from quivering leaves, Breaks my voice, my faltering soul is silent, While sweeter far than harp, Swiftly through all my veins a subtle fire runs, than gold more golden, All my life trembles. Singeth Spring’s messenger the sweet-voiced nightingale. Sight have I none, nor hearing, cold dew bathes me, Paler than grass I am, and in my madness The moon has set, and the Pleiades; Seem as one dead, yet dare I, poor and suppliant, It is midnight; time is going by, Dare I to love thee. And I sleep alone. I yearn and seek— Muse of the golden throne, O raise that strain, I know not what to do— Which once thou used to sweetly sing: And I flutter like a child after her mother, Come, Cyprian Goddess, and in cups of gold For Love masters my limbs, and shakes me, Pour forth thy nectar of delight, Thou and thy servant, Love! Fatal creature, bitter-sweet— Yea, Eros shakes my soul, Come, rosy-armed, pure Graces, A wind on the mountain falling on the oaks. sweet-voiced maidens, come With winged feet, dance round the altar fair, Alas! I shall be ever maiden; Trampling the fine soft bloom of the grass. Neither honey nor bee for me. Hither now, Muses, hither, come! Tape transfer and restoration by Mike Clements cover image : photograph of Norman Del Mar at a Lyrita recording session by Hans Wild 99 Then thou, blest one, with lips immortal smiling, Granville Bantock and Norman Del Mar at the BBC Ah Love! could you and I with Him conspire Didst ask— To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire, ‘Why weepest thou? What is befallen? Granville Bantock - An Introduction Would not we shatter it to bits—and then Whom wouldst thy heart and beauty Re-mould it nearer to the Heart’s Desire! draw to love thee? Who wrongs thee, Sappho? Born in London in 1868, Granville Bantock was the child of an affluent family from the literate 100 Victorian professional classes. Neither of his parents laid any claim to artistic sympathies. His Yon rising Moon that looks for us again— She who spurns gifts shall give; father was an illustrious gynaecologist who rose to the platinum echelons of his profession and How oft hereafter will she wax and wane; who flies shall follow; whose works can still be found on the internet. Quite naturally he presided over the births of How oft hereafter rising look for us If she loves not, unwilling soon shall love thee.’ Granville’s children. For many of Bantock’s musically formative years, the father was Through this same Garden—and for one in vain! antipathetic to his son’s career in music. Finally won around, he financed some of the earliest Ah, come, from care release, fulfil my yearning; 1 101 Help, I beseech thee. premieres and musical activities. And when like her, oh Saki, you shall pass Among the Guests Star-scatter’d on the Grass, Daughter of Zeus Bantock wrote musicals in his early years and toured one of these worldwide. He was for a while And in your joyous errand reach the spot Immortal Aphrodite, a music journalist who inaugurated and edited The New Quarterly Music Review for a year or Where I made One—turn down an empty Glass! Queen of the broidered throne, two2 and served on the Editorial Committee and contributed articles to “A Dictionary of distress’d I pray thee, Modern Music and Musicians”3. Bantock’s conducting tenures included the Liverpool TAMAM. Weaver of wiles, break not my heart with anguish, Orchestral Society. In the case of his New Brighton post he expanded the ensemble from a ballroom band to a full-blown orchestra but after three years outwore his welcome there. SAPPHO O Goddess, hear me! With dizzying ambition he lead the Birmingham and Midland Institute from the front. He was I loved thee once, Atthis, long ago. appointed Principal of the Institute in 1900 and, seven years later became Professor of Music Thou loved’st another more than me, Daughter of Zeus, Immortal Aphrodite, Scornful wert thou, none like to thee. at the University of Birmingham. He planned to make Birmingham ‘a new Weimar’ and was Queen of the broidered throne, the leading musical figure in the city for approaching four decades. He was knighted for his Distress’d I pray thee, Weaver of wiles, Me thou forgettest— services to music in 1929 at the age of 61. Latterly he journeyed the world as an examiner for break not my heart with anguish, As thou wilt— Trinity College. O Goddess, hear me! Thou art nought to me. Now hither come, as once before thou camest, I loved thee once, Atthis, long ago. Prokofiev, Sibelius, Holbrooke, Boughton and Delius were all championed and befriended by Hearing my voice afar, and lean to listen; him. Sibelius dedicated his Third Symphony to Bantock who reciprocated with his Overture to Camest with golden chariot, leaving swiftly In the hereafter shall I be remembered, a Greek Tragedy.4 It was at Bantock’s invitation that Sibelius came to the United Kingdom to Thy father’s dwelling. But thou shalt die, nor live in memory, conduct his First Symphony and Finlandia. For thou didst not gather the roses of Pieria; Beautiful, fleet thy sparrows drew thee hither, Alone and obscure thou shalt wander, Bantock’s success often came in the UK’s second and third tier cities with premieres displaying Round the dark earth Even in the house of Hades, from heaven’s height descending, Flitting among the shadowy dead. Whirled they with wings 1 Vincent Budd, "Bantock - A Forgotten Composer", 'draft' unpublished DVD, 1st-Take Productions, circa 2000 through deeps of middle aether, I loved thee once, Atthis, long ago. 2 It sputtered out of existence in 1896 Fluttering came they. 3 Dent, 1924. 4 It can be heard conducted by Nicholas Braithwaite on Lyrita SRCD269. a dependency on provincial festivals. The Three Choirs Festival may not have been a naturally 85 92 apt venue for a composer with Bantock’s taste for the pagan and the gaudy but he did rather Then said a Second—“Ne’er a peevish Boy That ev’n buried Ashes such a snare well there.5 While there were some notable Bantock concerts in London they were by no means Would break the Bowl from which he drank in joy; Of Vintage shall fling up into the Air as numerous as those outside the capital6. And He that with his hand the Vessel made As not a True-believer passing by Will surely not in after Wrath destroy.” But shall be overtaken unaware. Bantock married Helena (or Helen) Francesca von Schweitzer in 1898 having met her two 86 93 years earlier. She was, according to Henry Wood, a fine linguist and guided her husband when After a momentary silence spake Indeed the Idols I have loved so long it came to selection of words to set. Even while Granville Bantock was alive she was not averse Some Vessel of a more ungainly Make; Have done my credit in this World much wrong: to writing to the BBC in his support. One of her letters to Clarence Raybould in the mid-1930s “They sneer at me for leaning all awry: Have drown’d my Glory in a shallow Cup, What! did the Hand then of the Potter shake?” And sold my reputation for a Song. is worth quoting: “So many people judge his music only from the outside, its rich tone, melodious sweetness, strong rhythms, but few realise a strange otherworldliness which sings in 87 94 the faint overtones and penetrating silences.”7 Whereat some one of the loquacious Lot— Indeed, indeed, Repentance oft before I think a Sufi pipkin—waxing hot— I swore—but was I sober when I swore? Some measure of Bantock’s personality can be gathered from an ‘at-home’ article dating from “All this of Pot and Potter—Tell me then, And then and then came Spring, and Rose-in-hand Who is the Potter, pray, and who the Pot?” My thread-bare Penitence apieces tore. 19128 where the author reports Bantock as saying: “You may charge me with selfishness and artistic sensuality … but the truth is that I compose to please myself. The impulse to create 88 95 music is upon me and I write to satisfy my impulse.