Tuba Concertos 476 5251 Vaughan Williams | Lovelock | Wilder | Kenny | Danielsson
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TUBA CONCERTOS 476 5251 VAUGHAN WILLIAMS | LOVELOCK | WILDER | KENNY | DANIELSSON PETER WHISH-WILSON Adelaide Symphony Orchestra | David Stanhope RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS 1872-1958 The last decade of the life of Ralph Vaughan movement finish up with elaborate cadenzas, Concerto in F minor for Bass Tuba and Orchestra [13‘26] Williams was a time of great productivity, the which allies the concerto to the 1 I. Allegro moderato 4’42 composer showing no signs of diminishing Mozart–Beethoven form. The music is fairly 2 II. Romanza (Andante sostenuto) 5’42 creative powers. The Seventh, Eighth and Ninth simple and obvious… The orchestration is that of 3 III. Finale (Rondo alla tedesca) 3’02 Symphonies are works of a master composer, the so-called theatre orchestra, consisting of and are interspersed with a rich variety of works woodwinds, two each of horns, trumpets and WILLIAM LOVELOCK 1899-1986 which show that Vaughan Williams, even in his trombones, tympani, percussion and strings.” 4 Concerto for Bass Tuba and Orchestra 13’59 eighties, relished a sense of musical curiosity The piece opens with a scherzo, showing off the ALEC WILDER 1907-1981 arr. Irving Rosenthal and inventiveness. One characteristic of the Tuba Suite No. 1 ‘Effie the Elephant’ [13’10] works of this period is the composer’s agility of the tuba, while the slow second 5 I. Effie Chases a Monkey 0’53 willingness to explore unusual instrumentations: movement is dominated by an alluring melody 6 II. Effie Falls in Love 4’14 the three above-mentioned symphonies feature a which, in a reversal of the usual trend, has since 7 III. Effie Takes a Dancing Lesson 1’24 wind machine, tuned gongs and flugelhorn been taken up and transcribed for cello, bassoon 8 IV. Effie Joins a Carnival 1’35 respectively, and he also wrote concertos for and piano. The mood of the Finale is vivacious 9 V. Effie Goes Folk Dancing 1’47 two very un-standard soloists: a harmonica piece and dance-like, with a cadenza to challenge the 0 VI. Effie Sings a Lullaby 3’17 for Larry Adler, and the Tuba Concerto. soloist’s “chops” just before the work closes. MICHAEL KENNY b. 1939 Vaughan Williams liked the tuba as an The concerto was premiered in 1954 by the Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra [14’53] instrument, and often included parts for it in his London Symphony Orchestra conducted by ! I. Passacaglia and Fugue 7’52 orchestral works. In the concerto he cajoles Sir John Barbirolli, with soloist Philip Catelinet. @ II. Serenade 4’21 melodic gracefulness and agility from an £ III. Gigue 2’40 instrument that battled the pre-conception – in - the orchestral mainstream anyway – that it was CHRISTER DANIELSSON 1942-1989 The English composer William Lovelock came Concertante Suite for tuba and four horns [13’05] strictly a bass-line filler only. To reinforce his own to Australia as the founding director of $ I. Largo – Allegro vivo 3’11 conception of the tuba as a profoundly musical Queensland’s State Conservatorium of Music in % II. Moderato misterioso 3’22 instrument, Vaughan Williams provides two 1956. Although his stint as Director was brief, he ^ III. Andante con sentimento 3’02 cadenzas for the soloist, giving plenty of remained in Queensland until 1981, when he & IV. Alla marcia 3’30 opportunity for virtuoso display. Horns: Philip Hall, Philip Paine, Nelson Green, Sarah Galbraith returned to England for the final years of his life. Vaughan Williams was characteristically He was regarded as an arch-conservative and in Total Playing Time 68’33 straightforward in describing his work, as if no fact relished that reputation, resolutely words were really needed: “The Concerto is championing traditional musical values in a time Peter Whish-Wilson tuba nearer to the Bach form than that of the when avant-gardism and new approaches to Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Viennese School, though the first and last composition were being passionately advocated. David Stanhope conductor 2 3 His insistence on the continuing relevance of Alec Wilder occupied a highly individual place in Crest Records, who introduced Wilder to Adelaide composer Michael Kenny is also highly traditional musical craft and skills suited him to the the American musical life of the 20th century, Phillips. Galehouse wanted to make a children’s regarded as an arranger and conductor. In the role of pedagogue and examiner for institutions restlessly shifting between the worlds of album, specifically one that would describe the 1960s, he played horn in the Adelaide Symphony like the Australian Music Examinations Board, but popular and classical music. An unconventional, adventures of an elephant called Effie: as she Orchestra, during which time he wrote many put him on the outer as far as the mainstream of hard-drinking bachelor, Wilder valued friendship chases a monkey, as she falls in love, has arrangements for the ABC Light Entertainment Australia’s creative community was concerned. ahead of possessions, enjoying close dancing lessons, joins the circus, goes folk- Department. He also studied composition with acquaintance with people from diverse musical dancing and sings a lullaby. As Phillips told J.V. Peters, Antony Hopkins and Henk Badings at Nevertheless, Lovelock’s years in Australia were worlds, such as Judy Holliday, Marian Wilder’s biographer Desmond Stone, “Alec was the Elder Conservatorium of Music at the good for his creativity, and he composed more McPartland, Mitch Miller, Gunther Schuller and – successful in musically documenting these University of Adelaide. His list of serious works works during his 25 years here than he had most famously – Frank Sinatra (who conducted imaginary events without the usual insult to the includes more than a dozen compositions for composed during the rest of his life in London. an album of Wilder’s chamber music for instrument occasioned by almost every other ensembles ranging from chamber group to What’s more, his music has survived better than Columbia Records). application of the tuba as a hippopotamus, full orchestra. many predicted. While his pieces seemed like whale, elephant or other large creature.” anachronisms at the time, nobody ever accused Among the many friendships of Wilder’s life, one The composer has provided the following note him of lacking anything in terms of the quality of of the most enduring was that with the tuba Originally for piano and tuba, the suite was for his piece: his musical craftsmanship, and his pieces can player Harvey Phillips. Phillips had joined the arranged for string orchestra by Irving Rosenthal, “The Tuba Concerto was written for Peter Whish- now be judged on their own terms, regardless circus, playing tuba in the band, to escape a who, like Wilder, enjoyed a career that traversed Wilson in 1981 and uses material derived from of their relevance or not to the fashions of the childhood of poverty in Missouri, before winning the worlds of jazz and classical music. As a some of my earlier works. The first movement is period. Performers are now grateful for the a scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music and french horn player, he not only performed and a reorchestration of A Symphonic Study for series of well-written and approachable from there pursuing a “legit” performing and recorded classical repertoire, but was also a core symphonic wind ensemble (1965), the other concertos he composed for saxophone, teaching career, balanced with stints in the jazz member of the famous Stan Kenton Orchestra at movements being expanded versions of parts of trombone, trumpet, tuba, harp, viola, horn and domain (notably the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra). the height of its ambitious endeavour to create a my Divertimento for violin and viola (1964). organ, all of which exemplify his mission to A large and gregarious man, he connected with new music from the melding of jazz and classical techniques and aesthetics. He also made many “provide entertainment rather than cold-blooded Wilder both as a personality and as a musician. “The first movement, entitled Passacaglia and arrangements for brass instruments and brass intellectual abstractions.” Fugue, begins with a short orchestral flourish Inspired by such friendships, Wilder took up the and wind combinations. Rosenthal came to during which the solo tuba plays a brief The Tuba Concerto (1967) is a short work, cause of composing for “underdog” instruments Adelaide late in his life to teach, and there heard declamatory motif. The flourish quickly subsides “known of” amongst tuba players, but omitted – like the tuba. For Harvey Phillips, Wilder wrote Peter Whish-Wilson perform the Effie Suite in its and links with the passacaglia theme stated by from most records of Lovelock’s œuvre. The a Sonata (1959) and two Suites (1959 and 1975), original version with piano, and proposed to Peter the tuba in its bottom register, accompanied by present recording will serve to restore it to the of which the first is known as “Effie the that he would like to arrange the work for strings the harp. There follow nine variations culminating repertoire, and assuage the curiosity of the Elephant” or the “Effie Suite”. and harp. It is this arrangement that is recorded in a repeat of the opening flourish and motif. The world’s tuba-lovers! here for the first time. The piece came about as the result of a request fugue is set in basic sonata form in which its - from one Clark Galehouse, owner of Golden - first subject matter is a fugal exposition of a 4 5 theme grown from the declamatory motif, whilst Swedish trombonist and composer Christer Peter Whish-Wilson with the Sydney, Melbourne, West Australian the second subject is a brief variation on the Danielsson began playing in a Salvation Army and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, Adelaide Born in Tasmania in 1958, Peter Whish-Wilson passacaglia theme.