11Th Malcolm Arnold Festival

The Quarterly Newsletter of the Malcolm Arnold Society Issue 102 Autumn 2016 ‘The voice of the people’: 11th Malcolm Arnold Festival t’s a great pleasure to welcome you century wind quintets with a Malcolm to the 11th Malcolm Arnold Festival! connection. IWho would have thought it, when that Sunday morning begins with a pro- first Festival, in 2006, was just intended gramme of orchestral music played by as a one-off to celebrate Malcolm’s 85th the marvellous Northamptonshire County birthday! We’ve called it ‘The voice of Youth Orchestra to include the Sussex the people’, which of course sums up Overture and Second Clarinet Concerto. Malcolm’s intentions as a composer. He This will be followed by Kriss Rusman was always determined to write music (who, amongst many other things, made that could be immediately appreciated the BBC Omnibus programme about by his very considerable following, and Malcolm) giving a talk on our Festival although he embraced many 20th cen- theme: ‘The voice of the people’. Nigel Hess tury ‘isms’, his music remains utterly After lunch, John Griff presents The accessible. St Matthew’s for our afternoon Family Forgotten Documentaries, where we shall We launch, on Saturday 15 October at concert with the Northampton Symphony hear (and see) some of Malcolm’s virtu- 11 am at our regular venue, the excep- Orchestra, conducted by John Gibbons. ally unknown music. This will be followed tional Royal & Derngate in Northampton, Highlights include the world premiere by the return of the wonderful Claire with composer and staunch Arnold sup- of a specially commissioned work by Thompson, who, with Alasdair Garrett porter, Nigel Hess, who follows in the Timothy Bowers to sit alongside Malcolm’s (flute) and pianist Jennifer Redmond, will footsteps of Hayley Mills, Robert Hardy, Carnival of Animals. Tim has called his perform some more songs from the films Tim Rice, John Wallace and all our other piece Carnival of Carnivores and we look and other sparkling miniatures (many distinguished launchers. The launch forward to both works with tremendous arranged or unearthed by Alan Poulton). concert will include a performance of excitement. We’re also including a rare We are very grateful to you, the Malcolm Song of Simeon – Nicolas Chagrin, who performance of Malcolm’s Machines, and Arnold Society, for supporting this event. played the very first Simeon in 1960, the Grand, Grand Overture, which will This will be followed by a very special will be a very special guest – and the include one of the original vacuum clean- concert, which will include another rare world premiere of Malcolm’s unfinished ers. And we’ll be hearing some music by performance, the Piano Duet Concerto, opera Henry Christophe – in fact he only our special guest, Nigel Hess, from his also the Clarinet Concertino, with soloist completed 27 pages of orchestral intro- film Ladies in Lavender. Peter Cigleris, and the Toy Symphony with duction with a few bars of singing. We’ll In the evening, the excellent Jenny the Janus Ensemble conducted by Ben be hearing these pages for the first time Dyson returns with her Wind Quintet to Palmer. ever! present a programme of all of Malcolm’s We are absolutely delighted to wel- At 12 pm the great John Wallace will music for wind quintet, plus other 20th come back the BBC Concert Orchestra for be performing the Brass Quintet with the Gala concert in an Arnold and Walton Craig Ogden the four winners of his Malcolm Arnold programme – the perfect match! – and Fantasies competition, and each of those I’m expecting a sell-out. Among other winners will be performing their respec- items we have the Guitar Concerto and tive Fantasy. John will also be launching Serenade (played by the internationally his new CD of Malcolm’s brass music. It renowned Craig Ogden), Symphony No.6 should be quite an event! and Walton’s Spitfire Prelude and Fugue. After lunch, Alice Pinto returns to talk So there’s a glimpse of what we have about Malcolm’s early music and we will in store. And the Derngate are again of- be including yet more world premieres, fering tickets at fantastically generous notably some hitherto unheard songs prices (Box Office: 01604 624811). from his Kensington Gardens collection. See you there! We then make our annual visit to PAUL HARRIS 1 British Serenade: Solos with String Orchestra hree works by Sir Malcolm Arnold Peter Cigleris proves himself an effective frame this agreeable new compi- and attentive soloist, and his account is Tlation from Heritage Records, in certainly one of the highlights of this new which the violinist Peter Fisher directs release. the London Chamber Ensemble, a col- Sir Malcolm Arnold’s output is best lective of London freelancers who play served here, however, by Philip Lane’s together with commendable vitality and strongly idiomatic and scholarly remodel- flair under his leadership. ling of Arnold’s Opus 84 Five Pieces for Still, it has nevertheless to be said Violin and Piano, in which Peter Fisher is that not all of these pieces are likely to the accomplished and thoroughly engag- recompense repeated listening; some are ing solo violinist. Philip Lane’s ingenious fairly inconsequential, but even if this and evocative string orchestration is new compendium doesn’t always quite excellent, and this spirited and brilliant equal the sum of its parts, the playing performance often casts new perspective from the London Chamber Ensemble and on these well-known pieces, but without guest soloists has more than enough al- ever straightjacketing Arnold’s original Including Arnold Serenade for Guitar; lure and spontaneity to fully engage the design into an awkward new guise. A fine Concertino for Clarinet; Five Pieces for senses for the 65 minutes or so required reading, and with polished and vivacious Violin and Strings. Chamber Ensemble of to listen to this new CD in full. playing from Peter Fisher throughout, London/Peter Fisher (violin/director). Arnold devotees will surely be de- Arnoldians will certainly discover plenty Heritage HTGCD 204 lighted by Michael Butten’s account of to enjoy here! the Opus 50 Serenade for Guitar and is recast with accompaniment for string As for the remainder, the miscellany Strings, which opens this new disc with orchestra and rebranded as a Concertino. of pieces by Clive Jenkins, Paul Carr, Don a strikingly committed and technically Set in three movements, the original Shearman, and Paul Lewis certainly won’t adroit performance of this exacting piece received its first performance from be as familiar as Elgar’s perennial favour- score. Butten’s playing, whilst thor- a then as yet unknown young clarinet- ite Salut d’amour, heard here in a version oughly poised, is also noteworthy for its tist, one Colin Davis, later the now sadly for cello and strings prepared by Levine powerful sense of musical imagery, most lamented British conductor Sir Colin, who Andrade and affectionately played by touchingly and affectingly realised in the died in 2013. Steptoe’s transcription, an Michael Mace. To sum up, this is a pleas- thoughtful central episode. efficiently crafted and intelligent affair, ingly played collection, and the recording Of the two remaining Arnold works works decently enough, though some- itself is brightly lit and reverberant with included here, both transcriptions receiv- times goes a little too far in the direc- a slight tendency towards stridency in ing their first commercial recordings, the tion of re-invention rather than mere upper registers. Well worth hearing, and first is perhaps somewhat less engaging, re-arrangement, and there are moments there’s more than enough here to war- despite being ably performed. Roger in the concluding section (Furioso) which rant further investigation on the part of Steptoe’s re-working (1993) of Arnold’s might strike the listener as owing rather loyal Arnold enthusiasts. Sonatina for Clarinet and Piano of 1951 more to Bartok than to Arnold. Still, MIC H AEL JA M ESON Andrew Penny awarded MBE (sorry we’re late) ndrew Penny was born in Hull and studied clarinet at the Royal Manchester College of Music under Sidney Fell, later taking up conducting with Sir ACharles Groves and Timothy Reynish at the Royal Northern College of Music. Andrew has been Musical Director of the Hull Philharmonic Orchestra since 1982 and is also on the instrumental music staff at Hymers College in Hull, as well as Chairman of the Beverley Chamber Music Festival. His complete cycle of the Malcolm Arnold symphonies for Naxos was released in time for the composer’s 80th birthday in 2001 and became the BBC Music Magazine’s top recommendation. Society members will also recall seeing Andrew at the Derngate in October 2011, conducting powerful performances of Arnold’s Symphonies 7 and 8 with, respectively, the Hull Philharmonic and the East Riding Youth Orchestras: we therefore owe a great deal to Andrew for his devotion to British music and to Arnold in particular. It is a matter of some regret that we as a Society failed to acknowledge his award of the MBE for services to music in 2014. We are happy to correct this At the 2011 Festival: Andrew Penny omission now and send Andrew our belated congratulations and hope he’ll be (centre) with Sheldon Bair and back to enjoy the music-making at the Derngate in October. Alan Poulton 2 Devils, donkeys, and dinosaurs The influence of Gordon Jacob on the young Malcolm Arnold was listening to Gordon Jacob’s witty Jacob’s contribution to the first Hoffnung and highly engaging comedy overture Festival in 1956 was an extraordinary I The Barber of Seville goes to the Devil set of Variations on Annie Laurie for recently.

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