EUGENE GOOSSENS 476 7632 ORCHESTRAL WORKS Symphonies No. 1 & 2 ■ The Eternal Rhythm Variations on a Chinese Theme Kaleidoscope ■ Divertissement Concerto ■ Concert Piece Concertino for Strings Fantasy for Winds Tam O’Shanter

SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ■ MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA WEST AUSTRALIAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ■ VERNON HANDLEY Eugene Goossens 1893-1962

CD1 CD2 CD3 * The Eternal Rhythm, Symphony No. 1, Op. 58 (1940) [42’02] Symphony No. 2, Op. 62 (1945)* [38’26] Divertissement, Op. 66 (1956-60) [18’37] Op. 5 (1913)* 20’24 1 I Andante – Allegro con anima 10’22 1 I Adagio – Vivace ma non troppo 12’37 1 I Dance Prelude 5’38 Kaleidoscope, Op. 18 2 II Andante espressivo ma con moto 11’01 2 II Andante tranquillo 8’37 2 II Scherzo and Folk Tune 5’34 (1917; 1933) [9’50] 3 III Divertimento: Allegro vivo 6’43 3 III Giocoso (Interlude) 4’58 3 III Ballet Flamenco 7’25 ( I Good Morning 1’00 4 IV Finale: Moderato – alla breve 4 IV Andante – Allegro con spirito 12’14 (con moto) 13’36 Variations on a Chinese Theme, ) II Promenade 1’29 5 Concertino, Op. 47 (1928)* 13’05 Op. 1 (1911-12) [27’18] ¡ III The Hurdy Gurdy Man 1’12 5 Oboe Concerto, Op. 45 (1927) 12’22 for double string orchestra 4 Theme (Allegro) 0’46 ™ IV The March of the Wooden Soldier 1’03 Joel Marangella oboe Allegro moderato – Andante tranquillo, 5 Var. 1 [(Allegro)] 0’46 # V Lament for a Departed Doll 1’40 6 Tam O’Shanter, Op. 17a (1919) 3’10 ma con moto – Allegro moderato 6 Var. 2 (Scherzando) 0’46 ¢ VI The Old Musical Box 0’45 ‘Scherzo after Burns’ 7 Var. 3 (Moderato) 2’07 ∞ VII The Punch and Judy Show 0’42 6 Fantasy, Op. 36 (1924) 9’58 8 Var. 4 (Allegro) 1’49 § VIII Good Night 1’59 Concert Piece, Op. 65 (1958)* [22’00] for nine wind instruments 9 Var. 5 (Andante quasi Adagio) 2’51 for two harps, oboe, Moderato – Allegro moderato – Total Playing Time 76’12 0 Var. 6 (Scherzando) 1’13 and orchestra Andante – Allegro moderato ! Var. 7 (Andante quasi Adagio) 2’35 7 I Fantasia 4’56 Janet Webb flute; Guy Henderson oboe; 8 II Chorale 9’46 Lawrence Dobell and Christopher Tingay @ Var. 8 (Allegro) 1’15 9 III Perpetuum mobile e burlesca 7’12 ; John Cran and Fiona McNamara £ Var. 9 (Allegro moderato) 1’10 Joel Marangella oboe and cor anglais ; Robert Johnson and Clarence $ Var. 10 (Tempo di Marcia) 1’42 Jane Geeson and Sebastien Lipman harps Mellor horns; Daniel Mendelow % Var. 11 (Semplice – Allegro) 2’04 ^ Var. 12 (Tempo di Valse) 2’40 Total Playing Time 79’55 Total Playing Time 61’57 & Finale (Allegro giusto) 5’34

*WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS

West Australian Symphony Orchestra (CD1) Symphony Orchestra (CD2) Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (CD3) Vernon Handley conductor

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Eugene Goossens (III) is remembered today It was an extraordinary family to start with. Both in September 1913. But his first years as a subsequent stages of his life in the primarily for his work as a conductor. Yet he was his father and grandfather were eminent professional musician, in addition to fairly prolific USA and Australia. Stravinsky, Diaghilev and also a notable composer, and in this regard he conductors, working with the Carl Rosa composition, were spent as a violinist, both in Massine were present at the first concert, on belongs to that venerable tradition of conductor- company fairly continuously from 1873, when quartets such as the Langly-Mukle and the 7 June 1921, for the first concert composers that counts , Wilhelm Eugene I came to England from his native Philharmonic, and in Henry Wood’s Queen’s Hall performance of Le sacre du printemps and Furtwängler, Otto Klemperer and Felix Weingartner Belgium, to 1915. Eugene II’s wife Annie was a Orchestra. A heart condition prevented him from subsequent concerts featured music by in its midst. Fortunately, in the age of recordings, contralto in the company, and with Yorkshire military service during the war, and in January Honegger, Holst, Ravel, Bliss, Schoenberg, Eugene Goossens the composer is beginning to blood and Cook as a surname claimed descent 1916 he took over from Beecham at short notice , Debussy and Rimsky-Korsakov. from the Captain Cook (an ironic twist in the in the first performances of The Critic, an opera gain a stronger posthumous profile. This set of Whilst this venture was a success, and led to tale, considering how Eugene Ill’s last landing in by his erstwhile composition teacher Stanford. recordings gives us the chance to look afresh at conducting engagements with Diaghilev’s Ballets Australia turned out). Of Annie and Eugene II’s Thus began a fruitful, sustained apprenticeship his output – freed, one hopes, from the prejudice six children, four survived the Great War and all as protégé-cum-last-minute-deputy to Beecham Russes later that year and in 1925, Goossens’ and disparaging sentiment that influenced the had distinguished musical careers; Marie and – often taking over from him in the pit without emergence as a major figure in British musical writer of the Goossens entry in the last edition of Sidonie as harpists, and Leon as the world’s any orchestral rehearsals. Goossens thus earned life weakened with an invitation to conduct the that bible of music dictionaries The New Grove leading oboist of his generation. a wholly justified reputation as someone who inaugural concerts of the Rochester Dictionary. His music, we are told, has a ‘singular could quickly master difficult modern scores, Philharmonic Orchestra in upstate New York. unmemorability’, and its eclecticism ‘could not The family was based in Liverpool, but at the and get through performances with panache and Just as many of Beecham’s ventures were age of eight, Eugene was packed off to board at cover a lack of melodic invention and inner confidence. In his autobiography A Mingled funded by the wealth generated by his father’s conviction’. With an ever-growing Goossens St Francis Xavier’s school in Bruges. Two years Chime, Beecham wrote, ‘His coolness and facility pharmaceutical products, the money behind this discography, and from a more objective, post- later he began studying at the Conservatory were phenomenal, and he had good need of both, new American orchestra came from the Kodak avant-garde, early-21st-century viewpoint, we are there – following in his grandfather’s footsteps – as I do not think any man of his age was ever photographic empire. Its founder, George now more enabled to make up our own minds. and subsequently returned to Liverpool. In 1907, subjected to such ordeals as I imposed on him.’ Eastman, whose spare cash also set up the he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and One thing about Eugene Goossens is for sure: Music in London, and studied first the and, Throughout his 20s, chamber and piano works London’s Eastman Dental Hospital, endowed the from the time when he conducted the London from 1910, composition with Charles Villiers and songs held sway in his compositional Eastman School of Music as part of premiere of his Variations on a Chinese Stanford. It was therefore quite an itinerant output. In 1921, Goossens cranked up his University of Rochester – and with it, a splendid Theme when he was only 21, to that terrible upbringing, creating a pattern that persisted in conducting career by forming a hand-picked, new 3,500-seat auditorium and an orchestra. period in early 1956, when conservative later years, and an existence that created in virtuoso orchestra for five concerts of Australian society turned him from principal Goossens qualities of independence that contemporary music. It was a venture of The young Englishman’s success at these deity of their music establishment to a shamed, considerable artistic and financial audacity, and, concerts, in late 1923, led to his being re- perhaps verged on aloofness. pornography-possessing outcast, he led an in its espousal of new music, marked Goossens engaged for the following season. The extraordinarily colourful, diverse and often Goossens conducted whilst at college and, a out as a champion of such repertoire; something attractions of building a career in America charmed existence. year later, at a Queen’s Hall Promenade Concert which could always be said of him in strengthened with the commercial failure of a

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second series of Goossens concerts in London accepted. His 22-concert tour in 1946 was a from London, he was apprehended by customs ‘fall guy’, an expendable victim blackmailed and in 1924. In 1925 he was appointed sole Music great success and, as with his first one-off officials. After searching his baggage, they sacrificed for the sustained reputations of Director in Rochester, and he continued there engagement in Rochester, it led to a return the removed seven parcels containing, according to others? Was he set up, as some have said, by with great success until 1931, when he was following year for a much longer period. As Chief the report at the Court of Petty Sessions the property developers keen to derail the Bennelong offered a two-year contract to succeed Fritz Conductor of the recently expanded Sydney next day, ‘prohibited imports, to wit indecent Point Opera House plan? Or was it simply an Reiner as Chief Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and Director of the New works and articles, namely a number of prints, a unfortunate case of someone’s private life Symphony Orchestra. He stayed there until 1946. South Wales Conservatorium of Music, number of photographs and a quantity of film’. becoming a little too public? Goossens’ influence on Australian musical life During these two decades in the USA, Goossens for the next decade was immense. If his aim of Gossip, prurience and the strangely hypocritical Rehabilitation of his career after the Australian both guest conducted other major American making the Sydney Symphony one of the best fascination of a puritan society raged upon the exit was only partially successful. Goossens was orchestras, in Boston, New York, St Louis, six orchestras in the world was not wholly break of this story in the press. The customs tip- never robust physically, and the scandal had put Pittsburgh, Detroit and Philadelphia, and returned achieved, orchestral standards, repertoire off was, apparently, the climax of a six-month added strain on his health. His third marriage to Europe sporadically for opera, ballet and development and public profile (through a greatly investigation by police. Goossens, it seemed, disintegrated in 1957, and the concerts that he symphonic engagements. And throughout this expanded subscription season and recordings) was just one of cultured, influential Sydney did give – including tours of Hungary, Canada, time, he continued to compose. His facility at were hugely increased. An enterprising series of society involved in acts of ‘plain filth’. The press South America and Scandinavia – showed him to getting notes down on the page enabled him to was staged at the Conservatorium, speculated on Black Mass sex orgies in be in less than peak form. Having contracted squeeze the production of major, large-scale including his own Judith in 1951, which featured downtown Sydney and the Blue Mountains, and pleurisy in January 1962, he gave his last works into an already tight conducting schedule the stage premiere of Joan Sutherland. It was this tied up in some way with Goossens’ concert, with the London Symphony Orchestra (although looking at his output of nearly 80 he who first promoted the need for a major new involvement with the artist and ‘daughter of Pan’ and his brother Leon, on 30 March, and died in a works, close to one half of these were written in performing arts complex in Sydney, recognising Rosaleen Norton, whose weird, lewd painting hospital north of London on 13 June. his 20s and early 30s, before his American career the potential of the tram shed site on Bennelong drew its images from the fantastic orgies she If the word eclectic tends to be used frequently really got under way). His one-act opera Judith Point. At a press conference in March 1950, he held in Kings Cross (close to where the Sydney in reference to Goossens’ music – and invariably was premiered at Covent Garden in 1929 – to no said: ‘I can visualise there by the harbour a Symphony had its rehearsal studios in in a sneering way – it is hardly surprising, given great critical acclaim – and a second, larger- building which will be an architectural triumph Darlinghurst Road). the exposure he had in his youth to a massive scaled opera, Don Juan de Mañara, was written and an asset to the city.’ range of music, much of it brand new. On 1 over the next five years and presented at Covent The illicit Goossens material could have triggered Alas, for Goossens it was to remain just a vision, a run of scandalous disclosures and confessions February 1908 he witnessed Debussy’s London Garden in 1937, with an equally mixed reception. for in 1956, two years after the climactic giant of relating to other figures high up in the worlds of debut in the Queen’s Hall, with Prélude à After World War II, negotiations for Goossens to his composing career The Apocalypse had politics, commerce and the arts. Instead, with his I’après-midi d’un faune and La Mer, and in the return to England as the new Music Director of received its premiere performances in the professional fall from grace and return to England next couple of years he saw productions of the Royal Opera House came to nothing, and in Sydney Town Hall, his golden time in Australia (he resigned from both his posts), the story ran Tristan und Isolde, Samson et Dalila, Elektra and their protracted midst, a guest contract with the came abruptly to a close. Arriving at Sydney out of steam; and many years on there seems to Pelléas et Mélisande. In 1911, he was entranced Australian Broadcasting Commission was airport on 9 March after a long series of flights be no clarity or consensus on it. Was Goossens a by the historic performance of Stravinsky’s The

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Firebird at Covent Garden by Diaghilev’s Although his teacher regarded such piquant featured in one of Goossens’ contemporary brings some change of feel, and an ensuing Ballets Russes. Frenchisms as heretical, Stanford was concerts in June 1921, and at an inaugural Allegro moderato section, where the texture is sufficiently impressed with the work to feature it concert of the International Society of reduced, for the first time since the opening, to All of these important musical encounters are in an end of academic year concert at the Royal Contemporary Music in December 1922, with muted , timpani, bassoons and lower assimilated in some way in his Opus 1, the College on 20 June 1912. Flanked by works such Goossens conducting the Berlin Philharmonic strings. Needless to say, it grows again quite Variations on a Chinese Theme. Western as Weber’s overture to Oberon, Lalo’s Orchestra. Other than that, little is known about quickly! Later, a return to the glassy, mysterious musical interest in the orient and the exotic was Symphonie espagnole and Dukas’ L’Apprenti the work – except that according to Goossens’ opening is heralded by strokes of a tubular bell widespread in the early part of this century – sorcier, Stanford handed over the baton to his 1951 autobiography Overture and Beginners, he and a tentative bass melody. though often poorly informed and patronising. 19-year-old student, for the first of many was under the impression for many years that It is tantalising to wonder why Goossens may The 1889 Universal Exhibition in Paris had instances when Goossens would conduct his he had destroyed it. A copy of the score and have wanted to destroy this work. In the light of brought a gamelan orchestra to Europe and own works. The Times critic was suitably parts turned up unexpectedly, however, at one of accusations from critics that he lacked his own works such as Debussy’s Pagodes reflected this impressed too, writing that the composer his publishers, J. & W. Chester. individual voice, was this a piece that he felt cultural crossover. Goossens’ work merely nods ‘evidently not only knows what to do with his Had Stanford set his pupil the task of creating a more and more would play into their hands and eastwards, its theme taken from a tome on orchestra when he is writing for it, but is well prove their case? Decades on, it seems to Franco-German tone poem, with Debussy, Ravel Chinese music published in Paris in 1776. His able to get it done when it is written…there is a matter less, because, rather fortuitously, we and Richard Strauss glowing on every page, the lessons with Stanford had begun in 1910 with quantity of pleasant melody, a vein of sentiment have instead a world premiere recording of a resulting work The Eternal Rhythm would have the task of writing a theme and 32 variations for which is not afraid of being obvious, and work that, whether original or derived, is an piano; and this discipline clearly prepared him for sufficient harmonic variety to suggest that there fitted the bill magnificently. And if this vast tract immensely attractive, assured (though perhaps these orchestral variations, which feature skilful is plenty of interesting work to come from him of dreamy impressionism was indeed written by somewhat prolonged) essay in orchestral colour. transformations of the theme, a firm grasp of in the future.’ The following year, Goossens Goossens when he was only 20, it is even more Just as the first CD in this set features stepped out of the violin section of the Queen’s of a remarkable achievement. The manuscript orchestral colour and textural contrast, and well Goossens’ first major orchestral work, it also Hall orchestra to conduct the work again at a score, written presumably in Goossens’ own characterised evocations of the march and waltz includes the last that he completed. The three Promenade Concert on 6 September 1913. curly, old-fashioned hand, looks as spacious as (variations 10 and 12) – apparently the set was movements of the Divertissement were the music sounds – the predominantly 6/4 bars supposed to ‘depict the changing moods of a Whereas the circumstances surrounding the worked on in the difficult years after he left of the first half taking up a whole page each Chinese crowd on a festival day’. There may be composition and early performances of these Australia, and were to have been premiered from left to right. during a conducting tour of Holland in 1962. His moments that are clumsy or static, but the way Chinese Variations are explicit, those for his death precluded this, and the first performance in which the young Goossens fuses faux second major orchestral work The Eternal The opening clarinet melody, sliding around was given instead by the Sydney Symphony chinoiserie (mallet percussion and shaded Rhythm are rather more vague. It is thought to adjacent semitones, is in essence the thematic Orchestra under Joseph Post, in June 1963. cymbal strokes, as well as parallel fifths here have been written a year later, some time in stuff of the whole work. Goossens passes it and there) and a light Edwardian touch, with a 1913, and the first known performance, with the around the orchestra, through various lush The Dance Prelude was written in 1956, the more dreamy, luscious poise from the other side composer conducting, was on 19 October 1920 climaxes and subtle tempo changes, right Ballet Flamenco in I960, and the central Scherzo of the English Channel, is impressive. at a Henry Wood Prom in the Queen’s Hall. It through to midway, where a Poco sostenuto and Folk Tune is an orchestral re-working, also

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from 1960, of two studies for piano written as rays of the setting sun cast a warm glow over each successively treated. The first – exotically As indicated by the titles, these pieces are far back as 1926. Despite this disparate the elms and fields of the plain below. The hills ‘southern’ (in its scalic structure of B-flat–C–D- colourful recollections of childhood occurrences provenance, the three movements work well to the north are a purple streak on the flat–C–B-flat–A-flat–G) – exhibits a trance-like and, specifically, toys. It is clever music in that it together, bound as they are by dance rhythms horizon; faintly a bell of a village church is quality in its sultry monotony (shades of Ravel’s speaks on different levels to adults and children and sparkling orchestral writing. The heard, and a shepherd leads a flock down the Boléro) and thin line between melody and alike; for the personality of each piece and the Divertissement is, in effect, a dance suite. hillside. The scene is one of intimate yet all- ostinato. A rhythmically based linking passage orchestrations are brilliantly conceived and pervading tranquillity...’ leads to a second, livelier tune, full of Moorish evocative. How better to enter a childish world The taut, mildly astringent Dance Prelude that twiddles (and based around the first fifth of A than with the fresh, charming, tripping-through- begins the Divertissement gains its edge from a Imagine the twisted charm of such a recollection major). Introduced first in the upper woodwinds the-daisies opening movement ‘Good Morning’? motivic preoccupation with the four-note motif many years on when Goossens turned to this and trumpet, it does the rounds of the orchestra ‘Promenade’ is an ingenious, unlikely success, heard first as B–D–C–C-sharp. The movement’s tune again; a slightly broken man harking back to in increasingly expansive combinations until it strolling along as it does in a walking-challenging driving energy subsides briefly for a Tempo di a time fresh out of music college when his own five in a bar, and the slightly wrong-note reaches vigorously to a Presto coda, with Valse section before a condensed, more fully world seemed considerably more innocent and elements conjure well a street scene and hurdy- screaming and crashing above scored recapitulation. The Scherzo section of the promising than it did in 1960. Goossens’ textural gurdy man. Within the generally sentimental everything else into a General Pause. second movement emerges with Ravel-like and harmonic working of this tune is as adept ‘Lament for a Departed Doll’, Goossens works in deftness from the depths of the lower strings and expressive as anything by his friends Another accompanying motif is set up, this time more dreamy, tragic elements with a melancholy and bass percussion. The pervading force here, Grainger, Warlock or Delius; the chromatic the plucked and harp, evocative of a combination of unison clarinet and . as in the first movement, is but a rhythmic sideslips of the harmonisations, the ebb and strumming guitar. The tune that enters is marked Piccolo, glockenspiel, celeste, harp and upper dynamism forged by the constant interchange of flow, the varied alloys of instrumental colour in the score ‘Arbosiana’, an acknowledgement strings bring the old musical box perfectly to life, two notes against three. The scurrying vitality of depicting so touchingly his scene of ‘intimate yet that this is by one of the composer’s mentors at and, after a Stravinskian scuffle of warring partners ‘Punch and Judy’, Goossens closes the this scherzo, enhanced by a swirling diversity of all-pervading tranquillity’. the Royal College, the Spanish violinist, instrumental colours, carries through to the composer and conductor Fernandez Arbos. This book on our childhood visitation with a languid, emergence of a lone clarinet starting up the Castanets, wood blocks and side drum take us tune is worked less than the ostinato that grows blues-inflected ‘Good Night’. second of Goossens’ arranged piano studies, the firmly away from rolling English rusticism to a out of it in the horns – D-flat–A-flat–A–B–A- Goossens was already in his mid-40s when he Folk Tune. A treatment of this quintessentially sultry Spanish bar, or thereabouts. The ‘Ballet flat–B-flat–D-flat – and it is this that grows and began work on his Symphony No. 1, Op. 58. In English pastoral melody appeared as the second Flamenco’ was inspired by Goossens’ encounter, grows to the ecstatic, almost chaotic conclusion. a program note for its first performance in of the Three Pictures for flute and orchestra, through Diaghilev, with the five-year-old Gypsy Cincinnati on 12 April 1940, he explained why he published in 1938. Entitled in that context From dancer Carmen Amaya, whilst in Barcelona with The suite Kaleidoscope is a 1933 orchestration had waited so relatively long (like Brahms and Bredon in the Cotswolds, a note in the score the Ballets Russes in May 1925. Much later, in of eight miniatures from a set of 12 written for others) before ‘inflicting a symphony on a the 1943-44 Cincinnati season, he conducted her piano in 1917. The movements that Goossens explains that the composer heard it from Philip musically jaded world.’ Heseltine (alias Peter Warlock) whilst wandering in Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance. The rhythmic fire of the omitted in the later version are ‘The Rocking through the Cotswold countryside shortly before battery of percussion pervades the movement, Horse’, ‘A Ghost Story’, ‘The Clockwork Dancer’ ‘Perhaps it was that in my 25-year career as a the Great War. Goossens writes: ‘Summer. The and binds three separate melodic elements, and ‘A Merry Party’. conductor I had encountered a surfeit of

10 11 immature pomposities labelled symphonies from writing music which didn’t come naturally to me.’ dominated by a driving rhythmic energy – Compared with the ebb and flow of Eugene the pens of youthful composers with a After the sparkling early years, when Goossens sometimes in tightly repeated patterns – and Goossens’ reputation as a composer and the message. Perhaps it was also because until a the composer was a beloved, bright young thing, adroit handling of solo and tutti interchange. This transplantation of his reputation as a conductor very few years ago I felt little urge to project my he was becoming used to the chill wind of press kind of movement is arguably Goossens at his from England via the USA to Australia, his sparse ideas through the medium of a form criticism that seemed mostly to appreciate the best, a rollicking, colourful dance which he did brother Leon had a much more sustained, less which for its successful manipulation calls for a brand new and the daring. Goossens was just as well in his youth with Tam O’Shanter outwardly glamorous career, solidly based cunning hand and real artistic maturity. It has no already being perceived as old-fashioned. as he did later on with his quasi-dance around the London music scene. In 1928, “message”. Neither is there any literary or other suite Divertissement. however, he did travel to North America for a The London BBC Proms premiere, in July 1943, significance in it. Nor does it purport to illustrate taste of the artistic freedoms and admiration was similarly received. The Sunday Times critic The Finale is Goossens at his most expansive and any particular incidents of my life or times. It that his brother enjoyed. Eugene had written the reckoned the work to be ‘a long and laboured prolix. The mottoes are worked into the texture as deals with the old abstractions, or what my bulk of a concerto for Leon, but the and rather pretentious piece of writing’, The well as fresh thematic material and quotations master Stanford rather portentously used to orchestration was not yet complete for this very Times said ‘the symphony, like his previous from the second and third movements. It is a refer to as “The Eternal Verities.”’ grand summation in the grand symphonic successful tour. Nor was it a year later when music, is a matter of skill rather than the tradition, with fugato sections and moments of Leon returned for a rescheduled premiere of the According to the same note, the first movement imagination’ and another writer thought ‘that the repose offsetting successive climaxes. For the concerto in Boston on 25 February 1929. was begun in May 1938, but work was curtailed ideas embedded in it were less significant than ecstatic conclusion, Goossens specifies that Instead, the Goossens brothers performed the at the time of the Munich crisis that September. the treatment they received.’ three extra trumpets and organ should be used – work as a duo with piano. The real premiere of He returned to it in England in June 1939, and ‘to dispense with them,’ he writes, ‘is to the Oboe Concerto, Op. 45, with orchestra, was ‘in spite of alarums and excursions (mostly Goossens begins the symphony with two jeopardise the tonal brilliance of the Finale.’ at a Henry Wood Prom on 2 October 1930, with alarums)’ completed a full sketch at his brother’s recurring ‘motto’ themes, the first an agitated, Wood conducting. Eugene would conduct it for house in Sussex at the end of August. The menacing figure in the lower strings and Tonal brilliance is certainly present in the orchestration was begun on the blacked-out liner bassoons, the second a gentler fragment rollicking scherzo on the Scottish folk tune Ta m the first time on 24 May 1931 with the BBC, and Aquitania, whilst sailing back to the USA, and announced by the clarinet. In this movement of O’Shanter, Op. 17a, written in 1917-18. the brothers performed it many times completed in Cincinnati. strict sonata form, the first main subject appears Goossens’ youthful confidence in handling large subsequently (though they never recorded it first in the flute and oboe, accompanied by an orchestral forces shows itself in the build-up together – on EMI’s 1949 disc Leon performed Performances in Cincinnati, Boston and New undulating string figure, and the second in the from a (Sorcerer’s Apprentice-like) impish with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by York were well received, but press comments horns and trumpets with a more declamatory opening to a central swathe of colour and brass ). hovered around a perceived lack of adventure figure marked by dotted rhythms and triplets. presentation of the tune – and again, with the and individual voice. In one of the many warm, subsequent reduction of material and forces to The work was well received at these early loving letters to his parents in London, Goossens The second movement, Andante espressivo, is its murky beginnings. This brief work shows performances, both in America and England. The wrote (rather defensively) in April 1941: ‘They set off by a warm, closely harmonised string Goossens to be very much in control, and in Boston Globe wrote: ‘Mr Goossens’ concerto for would have liked me to have written something tune and a contrastingly aery subject, dominated touch both with his raw compositional talent and his brother indulges in no far-fetched virtuosities; ultra-modern and full of modern clichés which by high winds, glockenspiel and celeste. The ability to assimilate the music of others for his by concision it avoids tedium; the songful would have enabled them to write that I was Divertimento, effectively the Scherzo and Trio, is own purposes. section has intrinsical musical quality, yet is apt

12 13 for the voice that sings it. Mr Leon Goossens, the Chelsea Chamber Orchestra on 3 February Goossens the composer always sounds to be in second, hymn-like subject is developed with escaping both dryness and acidity, played it in 1958, with their 91-year-old father Eugene II in the command of his idiom – there is an ease and great fluidity, often against the sprightly smooth, rounded, moist and transparent tone, audience. Alas, he died before the work was fluency in everything he did, perhaps too much backdrop of the fanfare tune which opened the outflowing with technical skill transmuted into performed again later that year in the Proms season. so, for the heart of his musical personality work. The solos in the slow section are apt, felicity and imagination.’ The great British music remains elusive in all but a handful of major polished vignettes for each instrument. The critic Ernest Newman wrote that ‘there is a According to the composer, the three works. The two short pieces on the second disc transition from this section to the finale is slimness and grace about it that is very charming, movements of this deftly scored, colourful work in this set provide a vivid contrast in this respect: achieved by a concise, pithy dialogue between and the concerto should prove popular.’ are ‘entirely based on the pizzicato and trumpet the Fantasy strives for a French lightness of horn and trumpet. motives heard in the two opening bars’. colour and mood, while the Concertino, although The Concertino for double string orchestra, With a duration of only 12 minutes, this one- Whereas Goossens was resistant 20 years in places acknowledging its indebtedness to Op. 47, is also a work of the 1920s, but is movement rhapsody is certainly concise and slim. earlier to make concessions to modernism in his earlier English works for strings, inhabits its own emotionally more complex than the Fantasy. The virtuosities may not be ‘far-fetched’, but it first symphony, there are hints of such influence emotional world and is harmonically individual. It While it might appear on first hearing to be a was firmly intended that the work would be a in this later work – what he describes as is one of his most involving works. neo-classical exercise in reinvigorating the showpiece for Leon’s matchless technique as well ‘decorative atonal figures’ for the harps in the Concerto Grosso, the outward form of the work as lyrical facility. Indeed, for the Prom premiere, first movement. The writing for his two sisters is The Fantasy, Op. 36 (1924), for nine wind is transcended by an intense set of ideas that the soloist requested of the composer extra particularly beautiful and idiomatic, often instruments, is in four sections that are played still speak with great power. ‘twiddles’ and acrobatics in the cadenza; and the featuring shimmering ostinati. In the centre of without pause. The canonic presentation of brothers subsequently joked that this passage the opening Fantasia, a singing oboe line similar themes and the brisk tutti punctuations that Like the Fantasy, it is in three sections played as characterise the first section are reminiscent of one unbroken movement, but it is a work of was based on Leon’s warm-up exercises. to the graceful opening of the concerto is the Stravinsky of this period, and the highly greater internal contrasts. The motoric, toccata- accompanied by plucked, under-the-arm strings. This extended cadenza is accompanied by syncopated final Allegro combines Classical like opening has tremendous energy and within shimmering tam-tam and lightly booming bass The chorale-like subject of the middle movement wind sonorities with a sense of up-to-dateness two pages of score Goossens establishes his drum, imparting to this section a snake-charming is first stated by the oboe, and then goes that brings some of the pasticherie of Walton’s understanding of string sonorities and the exoticism that is hinted at in the soloist’s subtleties of counterpoint: the two themes are through a number of delicately scored variations Façade to mind. In the central Andante, the arabesques and whole-tone inflections of the played against one another with inventive before running into cadenzas, first for the two sinuous, Borodin-ish tune first heard con fantasia preceding section. The cadenza finishes in on the oboe is developed by a kind of varied assurance. The slow section is heralded by a harps and then for the cor anglais. The ‘perpetual pastiche-Classical mode, running into a brisk, repetition, a technique employed frequently by solo playing a folk-like tune, which leads to motion’ of the final movement once again march-like coda. 19th-century Russian composers, and one with an ethereal con fantasia passage in which the catches Goossens in good-humoured scherzo which Goossens would have been familiar from bass line is dispensed with completely. The mode, and towards the end we hear snatches of Composing again for family members – this time his exposure to Russian opera and ballet. boisterous finale includes a recollection of the three siblings – Goossens produced one of his familiar symphonic works in honour of the slow section’s main theme, this time played in last works, the Concert Piece, Op. 65, for oboe soloists’ orchestral backgrounds. And, to quote Goossens brings to these diverse elements a octaves on the violins and , to rapturous (doubling cor anglais) and two harps. It was Goossens’ note again: ‘a final circus polka puts distinctive and serious chromatic idiom and a effect. The whole work has an emotional premiered by Leon, Sidonie, Marie, Eugene and the whole company through its paces.’ high technical confidence. In the first section the urgency unusual in Goossens’ output.

14 15 The Concertino was written in Rochester in 1928, World War II – it is tough, angry and nostalgic by Yet the lugubrious subject heard at the The finale scans the progress of the original originally for performance by string octet. turns – and speaks powerfully to us as we look outset of the work is a lengthy statement; and bassoon theme from a menacing unison Goossens added the bass part a year later, and back at a century of international turmoil. as a key motive is encountered elsewhere, proclamation to the sublimation of a march taken the work can be played by chamber ensemble or particularly in the finale, where it undergoes a up by the whole orchestra. During this Goossens wrote the following note on the piece orchestral strings. In the orchestral version, the complete transmogrification. The lengthy movement a kaleidoscope of introduction, when he performed it with the Sydney violins are divided into four parts and the violas introduction which it initiates – alternatively fugato-like principal subject, rhythmic figuration and cellos each into two. The piece requires Symphony Orchestra in November 1950: brooding and agitated – gives way to the and final reminiscence of the folk-song subject virtuoso playing of the highest order, and because (rhythmically strident) first subject proper, which My Second Symphony was begun in 1943 at consolidate, rather than confuse, the issue. The of its origins as chamber music, the orchestral is given out by unison violins, to be followed structure of the finale will thus appear in its Beddeford Pool, in Maine, USA. The version is in some respects the more challenging. later by the slower second subject in the cellos, whole design for the listener, for whom a ‘play- orchestration was finished two years later in over an undulating clarinet figure. This material, by-play’ description of the four movements of With Symphony No. 2, Op. 62, we move forward Cincinnati and the score bears place-inscriptions with counter-themes, is subjected to a stormy nearly 20 years, for Goossens completed it in this work would prove mostly a bewilderment as far afield as Seattle and New York. The war development, and leads to a recapitulation in 1945. While it shares some of the characteristics and exasperation. had already lasted three years, and I suppose it which a bass flute despondently reminisces over of the Fantasy and Concertino – notably a richness must be said that this work reflects deeply the the second subject, followed by an unexpected Meurig Bowen and Phillip Sametz of texture, and instrumental writing that requires stress of its conflict. fanfare to bring the movement to an uneasy, virtuosic playing – it inhabits an altogether more Vernon Handley on Eugene Goossens: violent finish. complex, equivocal world of feeling. As in the case of my First Symphony – a pre-war When I was in my teens and a would-be product – the principal subjects of the Second Two subjects make up the slow movement, a If Goossens’ composerly personality is elusive in conductor, working hard at counterpoint and had obsessed me for so long that I was impelled kind of nostalgic and climatic pastoral wherein his earlier works, some critics have dismissed his score reading, the local record library offered my to mould them into the only shape I felt the oboe rhapsodises on a plaintive theme and music post-1930 as being too eclectic to be only contact with some of the exotic scores appropriate – a full-sized symphony. This in spite the muted trumpet sings an English folk-song important – his exposure to so much music as a which invariably attract the young musician. It of the fact that large pieces of music, unlike called The Turtle Dove. Enough that the setting conductor supposedly by this time having was approaching the end of the war; concerts exerted too great an influence on his own music. large paintings, often suffer the handicap of a of a Connecticut farm house and its local were few, and getting to them forbidden by my That this view is in part a convenient excuse for lengthy revelatory process before the meaning is thrush (a ubiquitous bird in these parts) forms parents, because of the threat of flying bombs not listening to his music too deeply is confirmed a background for the mingled emotions of sensed by the listener. On the other hand, and V2 rockets. I soon came to trust the exciting by the uneasy grandeur of this symphony. It is a an expatriate. composers and painters only use big canvases but truthful performances of Eugene Goossens. work of large ambitions and, inevitably, is when they feel that their subject demands The scherzo might be thought escapist if its Truthful because the same local library provided sustained by compositional techniques that, only spaciousness of treatment. In my own case, I machine rhythm weren’t so inexorable and rather scores for me, and I was able to check a few years later, the international avant-garde waited till my fiftieth year to make sure that this ominous. Its naive commencement soon gives idiosyncrasy against integrity amongst different would consider to be irrelevant. was warranted, for prior to that I tended to way, however, to complexities which tax the conductors. When eventually I heard Goossens As a work of its time, the symphony has much telescope subject matter and its development to resources of all the instruments. (It was originally in the flesh, all my admiration was confirmed: to say about the human condition in the years of avoid excessive garrulity. written as a test piece for any virtuoso orchestra.) authoritative, passionate, individual, but never

16 17 indulgent. I determined to look up this man’s He has been outright winner twice of the Vernon Handley was appointed Musical Director West Australian Symphony Orchestra own compositions and found the same Gramophone Record of the Year, as well as to the Borough of Guildford in 1962, staying for The West Australian Symphony Orchestra has a characteristics in evidence. Fashion has being runner up twice and nominated eight 21 years to establish a new professional unique place within the Western Australian temporarily buried Goossens’ works but I hope times. He has won the BPI Classical award orchestra, the Guildford Philharmonic. During his community as the State’s most active arts their vitality and personality have been captured twice and his recording of Walton’s First tenure the Guildford Concerts Scheme was one organisation. The Orchestra has a strong and on these discs, and will engage the interest of Symphony was declared ‘Collectors Choice’ in of the most successful in the country, playing an proud history of achievement and in 2003, modern listeners. It has been a moving extraordinarily wide repertoire and making Classic CD. He won a Grand Prix du Disque for a celebrated its 75th anniversary. Its Chief experience for me to repay in part my debt to several first-ever recordings of unfamiliar British recording of French repertoire with the Conductor is Matthias Bamert. him with these recordings. works. In recognition of his great contribution to Philharmonia Orchestra. music in the South East, the University of Surrey From its humble beginnings in 1928, the West Vernon Handley In 1983 the London Philharmonic made Vernon awarded him a doctorate. Australian Symphony Orchestra has grown to an Handley its Associate Conductor, in recognition orchestra of 83 full-time professional musicians Vernon Handley C.B.E. Vernon Handley is currently Conductor Emeritus of his long relationship with the orchestra. He and, accompanied by a variety of guest of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Associate For 40 years Vernon Handley’s career has been has been Chief Guest Conductor of the BBC performers, presents varied programs of music Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. unique amongst front rank conductors in that he Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Chief Conductor to a broad cross-section of the Western has unashamedly championed British repertoire He was appointed Conductor Laureate of the of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Chief Australian community. before that of all other countries. Recognised as Ulster Orchestra in 2003. He was created Conductor and Artistic Director of the Ulster ’s protégé, he has held steadfastly Honorary Fellow of the Royal Philharmonic WASO performs more than 180 concerts to in Orchestra, Chief Guest Conductor of the Royal to two principles that might have proved Society in 1990 and was elected an Honorary excess of 175,000 people each year, and tours Liverpool Philharmonic, Chief Guest Conductor detrimental to a successful career: the Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford in 1999. Vernon to remote and regional areas of the state, both of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Chief undemonstrative technique and the Handley was appointed Commander of the British as a full orchestra and with its 15-member Conductor of the West Australian Symphony Empire for services to music in the Queen’s unfashionable repertoire. education ensemble. Orchestra and Chief Guest Conductor of the Birthday Honours, June 2004. Vernon Handley has probably recorded, BBC Concert Orchestra. The West Australian Symphony Orchestra performed and broadcast more British music performs with many of the major arts than any other conductor, living or dead. In some During this time Vernon Handley was Professor companies in Perth including the Perth 150 discs, over 90 are British, including 87 of Conducting at the Royal College of Music and International Arts Festival, as regular guests at works which have not been recorded before. He was created Hon R.C.M. & F.R.C.M. by Her the annual Leeuwin Estate concerts, and with has given over 100 premieres. In his recorded Majesty the Queen Mother. He was also the West Australian Ballet and West Australian output are all the symphonies of Vaughan regularly conducting the National Youth Opera in their seasons at His Majesty’s Theatre. Williams, Stanford, Malcolm Arnold and Robert Orchestra and the World Youth Orchestra and is Simpson, all the major works of Elgar and the widely known for his encouragement of young whole of Moeran’s orchestral music. professional players.

18 19 Sydney Symphony Orchestra Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Degrees of Separation, Babe II – Pig in the City Executive Producers Robert Patterson, Lyle Chan, and The Dish. The Melbourne Symphony Matthew Freeman The Sydney Symphony is the nation’s largest and With a reputation for excellence, versatility and Orchestra was also involved in an interactive Recording Producers Ralph Lane (CD1), busiest orchestra with a season of some 100 innovation developed over almost 100 years, the Christopher Lawrence (CD2), Murray Khouri (CD3) information technology games project based on concerts in the Sydney Opera House Concert Melbourne Symphony Orchestra attracts total Recording Engineers Karl Akers, Chris White (CD1), the Jurassic Park movies. Hall, regular performances at the City Recital annual audiences of more than 250,000. This Allan Maclean (CD2), Jim Atkins (CD3) Hall, Angel Place, as well as frequent fine orchestra is renowned for its performances Editorial and Production Manager Hilary Shrubb Booklet Editor Richard King appearances in the regional centres of New of the great symphonic masterworks with Cover and Booklet Design Imagecorp Pty Ltd South Wales. leading international soloists, and for its appearances with The Three Tenors, Frank CD1 Recorded in March & November 1996 at the Established in 1932, the Sydney Symphony has Sinatra, Kiri Te Kanawa, Elton John, John Perth Concert Hall evolved into one of the world’s finest orchestras Farnham, the rock band KISS, Dionne Warwick as Sydney has become one of the world’s CD2 Symphony No.2 and Concertino for Strings and Meat Loaf. greatest cities. Many of the world’s finest artists recorded live in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House (Symphony 19-20 November 1993, have appeared with the Sydney Symphony With Chief Conductor and Artistic Director Concertino 30 November 1993) including such legendary figures as George Szell, Markus Stenz – currently in his seventh year Thomas Beecham, Otto Klemperer, Igor with the Orchestra – the Melbourne Symphony Fantasy recorded 30 November 1993 at the Eugene Stravinsky, Lorin Maazel and Charles Dutoit. Orchestra has taken an even more prominent Goossens Hall, ABC Ultimo Centre, Sydney position on the world stage. As Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the CD3 Recorded in October 1995 at the Melbourne Concert Hall Sydney Symphony from 1993 to 2003, Edo de The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has Waart took the Orchestra to a new level of received international recognition with its tours to ABC Classics would like to thank Pamela Main of the excellence. In 2004 the baton was passed to the United States, Canada, Japan, Korea, Europe, Sir Eugene Goossens Archive, London. Maestro Gianluigi Gelmetti. China and most recently St Petersburg, Russia. This compilation ൿ 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. CD1 ൿ 1998, CD2 ൿ 1993, CD3 ൿ 1999 Australian With Gianluigi Gelmetti’s reputation for profound The Orchestra’s concerts are broadcast regularly Broadcasting Corporation. © 2005 Australian Broadcasting musical insight and mastery of orchestra colour on ABC Classic FM and some performances are Corporation. Distributed in Australia by Universal Music Group, combined with his passionate and spontaneous presented through ABC TV. In addition, members under exclusive licence. Made in Australia. All rights of the performance style, the Sydney Symphony is set of the Orchestra have featured on numerous owner of copyright reserved. Any copying, renting, lending, diffusion, public performance or broadcast of this record without for an exciting new phase in its history. movie soundtracks, including those for feature the authority of the copyright owner is prohibited. films such as Babe, IQ, Hotel Sorrento, Six

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