Alwyn AlwynConducts

Overture, Derby Day The Magic Island Four Elizabethan Dances Sinfonietta for Strings Festival March

London Philharmonic Orchestra SRCD.229 STEREO ADD The Festival March was commissioned by the Arts Council for the inauguration of the Festival of Britain on the South Bank in May 1951. Alwyn rose to the challenge by writing an extended ceremonial march. Opening fanfares are followed by a broad march set in 12/8 time, resplendant with brass and percussion, contrasted with a trio section WILLIAM ALWYN (1905-1985) scored for unison violins and cellos and then for full orchestra after which the processional music returns and, linked to the trio motive, reaches a triumphant and 1 Overture, Derby Day (1960) ** (6’38”) effective conclusion. Elgar could not have provided better. In fact the march was not played at the ceremonial opening of the Royal Festival Hall when a commemorative 2 Symphonic Prelude, The Magic Island (1952) (10’15”) tablet was unveiled by King George VI in the presence of many dignitaries on 3 May followed by a concert of British music. Here it would have had an electrifying effect and Four Elizabethan Dances (from the set of six) (1957) one can only feel that it fell victim to a great missed opportunity. In reality the work was 3 I Moderato e ritmico (2’48”) first heard, arranged for mass brass bands, at a London Festival of the Arts concert at 4 II Waltz Tempo: Languidamente (2’38”) the Royal Albert Hall on 12 May of that year under Harry Mortimer and, in its full 5 V Poco allegretto e semplice (3’22”) orchestral clothing, it finally reached the newly-opened Royal Festival Hall on 21 May when it was performed bv the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Malcolm 6 IV Moderato (3’40”) Sargent. Sinfonietta for Strings (1970) * (26’24”) RICHARD D. C. NOBLE 7 1st Movement: Moderato e molto ritmico (8’06”) 8 2nd Movement: Adagio e poco rubato (7’19”) 9 3rd Movement: Allegro-Lento-Andante con moto (10’59”) www.lyrita.co.uk 10 Festival March (1950) † (8’20”) Note © 1975 and 1992 Lyrita Recorded Edition. England Copyright Lyrita photos of William Alwyn by LAWRENCE BROOMAN (64’06”) Design by KEITH HENSBY

London Philharmonic Orchestra Also available on Lyrita CDs: conducted by Alwyn: Symphonies 1 & 4……………………………………………………………….. LPO/Alwyn. SRCD.227 Alwyn: Symphonies 2, 3 & 5 …………………………………………………………… LPO/AIwyn. SRCD.228 William Alwyn Alwyn: Lyra Angelica. Autumn Legend. Concerto Grosso No.2……………...Ellis/LPO/Alwyn. SRCD.230

The above individual timings will normally each include two pauses. One before the beginning of each movement or work, and one after the end. WARNING Copyright subsists in all Lyrita Recordings. Any unauthorised broadcasting. public ൿ ൿ ൿ †ൿ performance, copying, rental or re-recording thereof in any manner whatsoever will constitute an 1972 * 1975 ** 1979 1985 The copyright in these sound recordings is owned by infringement of such copyright. In the United Kingdom licences for the use of recordings for public Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. performance may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd., 1 Upper James Street, London, This compilation and the digital remastering ൿ 1992 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. W1F 9DE © 1992 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. Lyrita is a registered trade mark. Made in the UK LYRITA RECORDED EDITION. Produced under an exclusive license from Lyrita 7 by Wyastone Estate Ltd, PO Box 87, Monmouth, NP25 3WX, UK lakes (by a geographical coincidence Michael Tippett, a close contemporary of Alwyn, illiam Alwyn was born in Northampton on 7 November 1905. He was the son of a conceived his second symphony in the same part of Italy, and also began with four Wgrocer and while his family shared an enthusiasm for literature and the visual arts, repeated notes - though they are different notes with different implication and results). William alone was attracted to music. His early interest in poetry and painting remained In the event the American orchestra was unable to fulfil the planned tour and the with him as a creative talent throughout his life but it was as a musician that he was Sinfonietta was first performed at the Cheltenham Festival by the English Chamber destined to make an indelible mark. Leaving Northampton Grammar School at 14 in Orchestra, a smaller string force than the composer ideally imagined (for six-voice fugue order to assist his father, he quickly realised that he was in no way cut out for the grocery in the finale, e.g.). Alwyn dedicated the work to the Viennese-born British musicologist business and at 15 he won a Ross Scholarship to study the flute under Daniel Wood at the Mosco Carner who was at work just then on a critical study of Alban Berg’s music. Royal Academy of Music, also studying piano with Cuthbert Whitemore and Carner had given Alwyn some advice about the Don Juan opera; out of gratitude Alwyn composition with Sir John McEwen. He was later awarded the Sir Michael Costa countered with some technical comments on Berg’s work and to clinch the dedication, scholarship for composition. His father’s death compelled him to quit the Academy in quoted some bars from the Lulu Adagio during the second movement of the Sinfonietta.’ 1923 in order to earn a living by flute playing and piano teaching. After a brief but ‘The Sinfonietta is sensuous in feeling, full of magical sounds, but is a closely unhappy period as music master at a private school in Surrey, his fortunes changed on worked musical argument - for instance, the yearning idea which ends the Sinfonietta being appointed a professor of composition at the RAM while at the same time he joined was postulated in the twelfth bar of the first movement (high violins already) and the London Symphony Orchestra as a flautist, for whom many years later he composed constitutes its second subject, after a bridge passage of descending fifths (another much and dedicated his Concerto Grosso No. 1. developed idea).These are the themes which principally occupy the argument of the first Alwyn remained at the RAM until 1955. In 1944 he became a founder-member of movement, an almost textbook example of academic sonata-form in balance and clarity the Composers Guild, serving as its chairman on no less than three occasions. His other of exposition, though the invention always controls the shape, not (as often in academic public activities included service on the Council of the Performing Rights Society; the music) the other way about. And then, academic music is never so impassioned as this.’ committee of the British Film Academy and the BBC Music Advisory Panel. In 1961 he ‘The Adagio is even more passionate in expression, hanging on to cadences longer retired to live at Blythburgh by the Suffolk coast where he spent the last twenty-five years than might be deemed possible, hunting for subtler and more lovely turns of melody or of his life, dividing his time between writing poetry, painting the magnificent views harmony or colour. After a hesitant beginning it discovers confidence with a rapturous overlooking the Blyth estuary and composing. He was created CBE in 1978 and died on tune in B flat major, only to search again for further musical links with the first 11 September 1985 at the age of 79. movement; the Lulu quotation may well pass unobserved, it is so relevant to the context, As a composer, Alwyn was far more prolific than may at first be supposed. His so scrupulously motivated by Alwyn’s own creative preparation of interval and acknowledged concert works are wide ranging and include 5 symphonies, 3 concerti phraseology, rhythm and texture. The B flat major tune resumes predictably.’ grossi, several solo concertos and many shorter orchestral pieces to which must be ‘The third movement erupts with three aggressive repeated notes (as in 1 but more added two large-scale operas, Juan or The Libertine and Miss Julie, a wealth of piano and fiercely). There is a curious, stagnant passage, recalling the first movement’s second chamber compositions and in the last years of his life some notable song cycles. This subject - it always sounds “I want you” - and this familiar set of notes now becomes the represents the music by which his lasting reputation will stand, but Alwyn was very self- start of a fugue, vigorous, generative and sizeable though no stricter than enthusiasm critical. Some would say he was far too self-critical. He began composing very early on would desire.The stagnant section returns and out of it the yearning phrase which soars and first came to public attention with his Five Preludes for orchestra which were into outer space, ending serenely in C major. Alwyn’s “never much in interested ted in premiered by Sir Henry Wood at the Proms in 1927. A piano concerto introduced by harmony” is self-contradicted in this magical extended coda.’ Clifford Curzon in 1930 also made a very strong impression, while his oratorio The

6 3 Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1936) earned him the Collard Fellowship of the Worshipful orchestra’. It is a work bustling with life and activity which exactly reflects Frith’s Company of Musicians in succession to Constant Lambert in 1938. crowded Derby Day scene. But Alwyn later withdrew all his early work, his first acknowledged composition The Symphonic Prelude The Magic Island is a much earlier work, completed in being the Rhapsody for piano quartet of 1938 and the Divertimento for solo flute of 1939. March 1952 to a commission from Sir John Barbirolli, a life-long champion of Alwyn’s He felt his early works lacked the technical perfection which he strove for and eventually music. Here we encounter music far removed from the boisterous activity of Derby Day. found in his maturity. He progressed from neo-classically styled music to a warmer, It is inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest, a favourite play of Alwyn’ and indeed the romantic vein, while in his later music he dabbled in atonality, but never in a way that inspiration of many operas and ballets by composers through the centuries. The Magic prevented it from being entirely approachable. His one desire was to communicate and Island is Prospero’s island; the island of Caliban whose enchantment is conjured up in a to find something new and vital to say within a traditional framework. In this he masterly way by Alwyn in a most delicately scored and sensuous sound world. Here we succeeded brilliantly. encounter Alwyn’s skills as a film composer in creating the atmosphere of this island, ‘full There is also another side of Alwyn that has brought his name before a much wider of noises, sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not’, to quote Caliban. The audience. Between 1936 and 1963 he contributed music to no less than 116 film music ebbs and flows and finally dies away leaving one with a sense of mystery; of secrets productions. Some were ephemeral documentaries and wartime propaganda films, but left untold. he provided powerful scores for many feature films that have stood the test of time. We Alwyn’s Elizabethan Dances show yet another side of the composer’s skill in may mention The Rake’s Progress; Odd Man Out; The Fallen Idol; The History of Mr. providing just the right music to suit a particular occasion.The work was commissioned Polly; The Mudlark; Mandy - the list could go on and on. Yet Alwyn never considered for the BBC Light Music Festival in 1957 where it was performed at the Royal Festival making concert suites out of any of this music and is reported to have claimed without Hall on July 6th of that year by the BBC Concert Orchestra under the composer’s any sign of regret that most of his original scores perished in a fire at Pinewood Studios, direction. The suite was designed to alternate dances set in the style of the time of so the music can only live on in the films. Perhaps Alwyn knew what he was about. He Elizabeth I and our present Queen, but the early dances are by no mean a pastiche.The was too big an artist to have relished the idea of being dubbed a film composer who also music relies on the rhythm and meter of the early dance forms but is orchestrated in the wrote concert music, a fate which some talented composer have had to endure. Some of manner of our own time. Each dance is self-contained and may be performed separately. his film music is of very high quality and his experience in the film studios undoubtedly For the present recording the composer chose four dances from the set of six. The first served to widen his horizons. We may gain a glimpse of his versatility in being able to suggests the pipe and tabor of the first Elizabeth; the second is set as a slow and lilting provide just the right music to suit certain situations from some of the shorter works modern waltz. Next we hear one of the most staple dances of the Elizabethan period, a included on this disc. pavane (dance No.5 of the original suite) and we conclude with the fourth dance which The Overture Derby Day was a BBC commission, first performed at the Proms by is a somewhat indeterminate modern dance with a bluesy feel to it. the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Malcolm Sargent on 8 September 1960. It The Sinfonietta for Strings, a much more substantial work, was completed in provides a stimulating introduction for this programme and was inspired by the famous February 1970.When this recording was originally released the late William Mann wrote: painting now in the National Gallery by William P.Frith.The composer himself has said ‘It had been a relaxing avocation from the long labours with an opera based on the Don of this work, ‘though it still makes use of my personal conception of 12-note technique, I Juan legends. It was commissioned for the Arts Council of Great Britain by John used this with the greatest freedom and out of the brilliant scoring for full orchestra a Manduell, then Professor of Music at Lancaster University in northern England for first tune unashamedly in C major on the strings competes triumphantly with the galloping performance by the strings of the San Francisco Symphony who were due to tour rattle of wind, brass and percussion until it take possession fortissimo of the whole England in that year. Alwyn began work on the Sinfonietta while holidaying on the Italian

4 5 WILLIAM ALWYN: SINFONIETTA LONDON PHILHARMONIC LYRITA MAGIC ISLAND • DERBY DAY… WILLIAM ALWYN SRCD.229 after the end. SRCD.229 (6’38”) (8’20”) (26’24”) (64’06”) (10’15”) STEREO ADD (1952) (1905-1985) (1905-1985) (from the set of six) (1957) the set of six) (1957) (from (1970) * conducted by (1960) ** † William Alwyn William 1992 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. Edition, Recorded 1992 Lyrita (1950) ൿ WILLIAM ALWYN WILLIAM London Philharmonic Orchestra 1985 The copyright in these sound recordings is owned 1985 The copyright in these sound recordings ൿ † 1979 ൿ I e ritmico Moderato II Languidamente Tempo: Waltz V e semplice Poco allegretto IV(3’40”) Moderato (2’38”) (3’22”) (2’48”) Sinfonietta for Strings Sinfonietta for Strings Festival March Overture, Derby Day Overture, Island The Magic Prelude, Symphonic Dances Four Elizabethan 1st Movement: Moderato e molto ritmico 2nd Movement: Adagio e poco rubato Movement: 3rd con moto Allegro-Lento-Andante (10’59”) (8’06”) (7’19”) 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 10 1975 ** ൿ 1972 * 1992 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. Lyrita is a registered trade mark. Made in the UK is a registered Edition, England. Lyrita Recorded 1992 Lyrita by Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. Edition, Recorded by Lyrita This compilation and the digital remastering ൿ © The above individual timings will normally each include two pauses. One before the beginning of each movement or work, and one before The above individual timings will normally each include two pauses. One LYRITA RECORDED EDITION. Produced under an exclusive license from Lyrita Lyrita under an exclusive license from RECORDED EDITION. Produced LYRITA UK by Wyastone Estate Ltd, PO Box 87, Monmouth, NP25 3WX,

WILLIAM ALWYN: SINFONIETTA LONDON PHILHARMONIC LYRITA MAGIC ISLAND • DERBY DAY… WILLIAM ALWYN SRCD.229