LPO-0046 Elgar conducted by Vernon Handley

ELGAR

SEA PICTURES SYMPHONY NO.1 VERNON HANDLEY CBE conductor DAME JANET BAKER contralto LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

ELGAR SEA PICTURES SYMPHONY NO.1 Although Elgar’s emergence as a mature composer with the Enigma Variations in 1899 was the culmination of a long apprenticeship, the freshness of his invention and masterly orchestration can still surprise us well over a century later. Hard on the heels of the Enigma Variations came Sea Pictures, which was first performed at the Norwich Festival on 5 October 1899. The qualities that infuse the Enigma Variations are here in abundance, ensuring that these songs have remained in the repertoire and are much loved. One of Elgar’s great skills was the setting of difficult words and this is as apparent in The Swimmer as it is in The Spirit of England, composed over 16 years later.

A gentle swell in the orchestra begins as Sea Slumber Song takes us to a beach at night with the sea drawing gently on the sand. In Haven, a setting of words by the composer’s wife Caroline Alice from 1897, suggests memories of Capri in the accompaniment; its lightness in contrast to the ecstatic imagery of Elisabeth Barrett Browning’s Sabbath Morning at Sea. In following the religiosity of the text Elgar manages to avoid any hint of mawkishness in his use of the orchestra, which he brings to a powerful and direct climax. Restraint returns

in the setting of the most popular song, as the dreamer in Richard Garnett’s Where Corals Lie yearns for the unattainable despite the temptations of the flesh near at hand. The Australian poet, Adam Lindsay Gordon, in his poem The Swimmer, enables Elgar to use the orchestra to the full as the poet’s imagination unleashes the dangerous sea to a theme that urges the singer onward to eternal bliss.

In Rome at the end of 1907 Elgar made the decision to abandon composing a sequel to his oratorio, The Kingdom, which had been premièred at the Birmingham Festival of 1906.

Instead he would concentrate on writing a symphony, basing it initially on music that was originally to be a string quartet. The Elgars did not return to England until the following May and, in the meantime, the composer had allowed himself to be diverted by friends, trips to the opera and the composition of other, smaller pieces. However, Elgar completed his First Symphony at his home in Hereford on 25 September after three months of concentrated work during the summer of 1908.

Elgar wrote of his Symphony to the composer Walford Davies: ‘There is no programme beyond a wide experience of human life with

a great charity (love) & a massive hope in the future.’ Elgar’s hope, although not won easily, is eventually achieved as the Symphony reaches its conclusion which, despite these comments, is not a programmatic work; for in a letter to the critic, Ernest Newman, Elgar hoped that the listener would: ‘identify his own life’s experience with the music as he hears it unfold’. This great Symphony is, therefore, what Elgar would have called ‘absolute music’.

Thus unencumbered, the great Wagnerian conductor and dedicatee of the Symphony, Hans Richter, was able to recognise its importance calling it: ‘The greatest symphony of modern times’ after the first performance in December 1908. It was Elgar’s greatest success in a large work for orchestra and nearly one hundred performances took place around the world over the next twelve months.

comes in a miracle of scoring as the Andante theme (which Elgar’s biographer, Michael Kennedy, calls an idée fixe) returns before the Allegro molto, restless and scurrying, alters the atmosphere. A change to a march-like theme continues the restlessness but the congenial central section at last changes the atmosphere: ‘play it like something you hear down by the river’, Elgar once asked his orchestra. The main theme of the movement scurries off once again before slowly subsiding into a single held F sharp, from which the Adagio sets off using the same theme slowed down to become a movement of profound beauty, providing the listener with a welcome solace that Richter rightly compared to Beethoven. Before the end, a third theme sustains the movement’s intensity and serenity as a solo clarinet brings it to a close.

Cellos and basses fix the key of A flat and support quiet drum-rolls that precede an Andante theme, ‘nobilmente e semplice’ that in its originality of orchestration (woodwind and violas with muted horns) catches the attention immediately. After a repeat for the full orchestra, the theme gives way to the Allegro in D minor and the movement embarks on its long concentrated journey. The end

The Finale begins with hints of the themes to come before the Allegro dashes away.

Slowed down, the theme provides some moments of repose before the Symphony’s opening theme (the idée fixe), begins to emerge once again. Syncopated chords attempt to stop its progress and drag it to earth but, eventually, nothing impedes its apotheosis in the Symphony’s triumphant conclusion.

VERNON HANDLEY CBE (1930–2008)

Inset: illustration of Handley by the conductor’s grandson (aged 5)

structure: ‘I am one of those conductors who believes that every work should be put very firmly on its harmonic base. I even try to search for a harmonic base when I’m looking at avantgarde works that don’t seem to have any.’

Although born in England Vernon Handley (who was always known by his childhood nickname ‘Tod’) was, by inclination, a man of the west.

He felt himself to be a Celt – a mixture of Irish and Welsh. However, Tod was always a British musician with a love for English music. His art and musical interests were established at an early age, first at home and then at Enfield Grammar School. He read English at Balliol College, Oxford, and it was whilst there when he conducted the university orchestra, that he found his vocation. Largely self-taught, Tod had an instinctive appreciation of a work’s

Tod’s technique was honed by studying with his renowned mentor Sir Adrian Boult (1889–1983) who had been Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (1951–1957).

Boult, who was befriended by Elgar and Vaughan Williams, was nevertheless a great interpreter of the Austro-German symphonic repertoire. Tod thus had a direct link to the great German conducting tradition through to Arthur Nikisch (1855–1922) with whom Boult studied in Leipzig before the Great War. In his book on the technique of conducting Boult wrote that: ‘...this book is founded on the practice of Arthur Nikisch, who was the greatest technician in my experience’. Boult went on to say: ‘The object of technique in all art is the achievement of the desired end with the greatest simplicity and economy of means.’ Few musicians who performed under Tod’s direction will forget his clear beat and his long, flexible stick; the point unequivocally conveying his wishes.

Although Tod was at home in the ‘standard repertoire’, it was as an interpreter of British

music that he will be remembered. It is likely that Tod’s recorded legacy will show that he recorded more British music than any other conductor, and most of this legacy is preserved forever on disc. Some of his finest recordings were made in the 1970s and 1980s with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in which the music of Elgar figured prominently. Most notable of these were the two Symphonies, the Violin Concerto (with Nigel Kennedy), Sea Pictures (with Bernadette Greevy), the five Pomp and Circumstance Marches, The Starlight Express and Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf.

With the death of Sir Adrian Boult in 1983 there was no doubt in the minds of all those involved that Tod should conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the concert in 1984 that commemorated the 50th anniversary of Elgar’s death. Part one of the concert ended with Sea Pictures and part two consisted of Elgar’s First Symphony, which is now released commercially for the first time on this CD. Tod is remembered with affection by those in the London Philharmonic Orchestra who performed under his direction. Keith Millar, the percussionist, recalls how ‘he knew, or got to know, everyone in the Orchestra, but brooked no favouritism, treating us all

the same... He was indeed underestimated (he once asked me directly: where had he gone wrong – by not being foreign?) and probably never really appreciated the respect and affection that he inspired amongst performers and audience alike’. For Tod, the music was everything: he was the conduit through which the composer’s wishes were channelled. The British violinist Tasmin Little recognised this as well: the duality in Tod’s personality being crucial to his make up: ‘He never took a bow, or very rarely...

What he did was stand with his arm out and gesture to the orchestra, and make the audience clap them... He did crave and want recognition, and yet he would never take it’.

Tod’s work with the London Philharmonic Orchestra formed an important part of the contribution he made to the musical life of his country. He conducted and recorded a wide range of music with the Orchestra, championing rare British music as well as composers such as Dvořák, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky. These performances, preserved on disc, are evidence of why all those who love the music that Tod loved are the poorer for his passing.

Andrew Neill (2010)

ELGAR SEA PICTURES 01 Sea Slumber Song Sea-birds are asleep, The world forgets to weep, Sea murmurs her soft slumber-song On the shadowy sand Of this elfin land; ‘I, the Mother mild, Hush thee, O my child, Forget the voices wild!

Isles in elfin light Dream, the rocks and caves, Lulled by whispering waves, Veil their marbles bright, Foam glimmers faintly white Upon the shelly sand Of this elfin land; Sea-sound, like violins, To slumber woos and wins, I murmur my soft slumber-song, Leave woes, and wails, and sins, Ocean’s shadowy might Breathes good-night, Good-night!’

The Honorary Roden Noel

02 In Haven (Capri) Closely let me hold thy hand, Storms are sweeping sea and land; Love alone will stand.

Closely cling, for waves beat fast, Foam-flakes cloud the hurrying blast; Love alone will last.

Kiss my lips, and softly say: ‘Joy, sea-swept, may fade to-day; Love alone will stay.’

Caroline Alice Elgar 03 Sabbath Morning at Sea The ship went on with solemn face; To meet the darkness on the deep, The solemn ship went onward.

I bowed down weary in the place; For parting tears and present sleep Had weighed mine eyelids downward.

The new sight, the new wondrous sight!

The waters around me, turbulent, The skies, impassive o’er me, Calm in a moonless, sunless light, As glorified by even the intent Of holding the day glory!

04 Where Corals Lie Love me, sweet friends, this Sabbath day The sea sings round me while ye roll Afar the hymn, unaltered, And kneel, where once I knelt to pray, And bless me deeper in your soul Because your voice has faltered.

And though this Sabbath comes to me Without the stoled minister, And chanting congregation God’s Spirit shall give comfort. He Who brooded soft on waters drear, Creator on Creation.

He shall assist me to look higher, Where keep the saints, with harp and song, An endless Sabbath morning, And on that sea commixed with fire, Oft drop their eyelids raised too long To the full Godhead’s burning.

The deeps have music soft and low When winds awake the airy spry, It lures me, lures me on to go And see the land where corals lie.

By mount and mead, by lawn and rill, When night is deep, and moon is high, That music seeks and finds me still, And tells me where the corals lie.

Yes, press my eyelids close, ’ tis well; But far the rapid fancies fly To rolling worlds of wave and shell, And all the lands where corals lie.

Thy lips are like a sunset glow, Thy smile is like a morning sky, Yet leave me, leave me, let me go And see the land where corals lie.

Richard Garnett

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

05 The Swimmer With short, sharp, violent lights made vivid, To southward far as the sight can roam, Only the swirl of the surges livid, The seas that climb and the surfs that comb.

Only the crag and the cliff to nor’ward, And the rocks receding, and reefs flung forward, Waifs wreck’d seaward and wasted shoreward, On shallows sheeted with flaming foam.

A grim, grey coast and a seaboard ghastly, And shores trod seldom by feet of men – Where the batter’d hull and the broken mast lie, They have lain embedded these long years ten.

Love! when we wandered here together, Hand in hand through the sparkling weather, From the heights and hollows of fern and heather, God surely loved us a little then.

The skies were fairer and shores were firmer – The blue sea over the bright sand roll’d; Babble and prattle, and ripple and murmur, Sheen of silver and glamour of gold.

So, girt with tempest and wing’d with thunder And clad with lightning and shod with sleet, And strong winds treading the swift waves under The flying rollers with frothy feet.

One gleam like a bloodshot sword-blade swims on The sky line, straining the green gulf crimson, A death-stroke fiercely dealt by a dim sun That strikes through his stormy winding sheet.

O, brave white horses! you gather and gallop, The storm sprite loosens the gusty reins; Now the stoutest ship were the frailest shallop In your hollow backs, on your high-arched manes.

I would ride as never a man has ridden In your sleepy, swirling surges hidden; To gulfs foreshadow’d through strifes forbidden, Where no light wearies and no love wanes.

Adam Lindsay Gordon

DAME JANET BAKER contralto Dame Janet Baker was born in Yorkshire in 1933. She began her singing studies in 1953 with Helen Isepp, and three years later claimed victory in the Kathleen Ferrier awards, making her professional opera début in the same year as Miss Róza in the Oxford University Opera Club’s production of Smetana’s The Secret.

Janet Baker was a member of Benjamin Britten’s English Opera Group, and went on to appear regularly at Glyndebourne, and with English Opera Group, the Handel Opera Society, English National Opera, Scottish Opera and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, where she made her début in 1966. Her opera repertoire ranges from Purcell, Bach and Handel to Berlioz, Britten and Walton, whilst her interpretations of Mahler and Elgar are particularly renowned.

She has been equally active as a song and oratorio singer, appearing frequently with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and ensembles in Europe and the United States (where she made yearly tours until her retirement). On record Janet Baker worked with conductors including Sir John Barbirolli and Sir Simon Rattle, and made a number of acclaimed recordings for Decca. She performed in her final opera season before retirement in 1982, and became a Companion of Honour in 1994.

London Philharmonic Orchestra

© Patrick Harrison

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is known as one of the world’s great orchestras with a reputation secured by its performances in the concert hall and opera house, its many award-winning recordings, its trail-blazing international tours and its pioneering education work. Distinguished conductors who have held positions with the Orchestra since its foundation in 1932 by Sir Thomas Beecham include Sir Adrian Boult, Sir John Pritchard, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt, Franz Welser-Möst and Kurt Masur. Vladimir Jurowski was appointed the Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor in March 2003 and became Principal Conductor in September 2007, succeeding Kurt Masur.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has been resident symphony orchestra at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall since 1992 and there it presents its main series

of concerts between September and May each year. In summer, the Orchestra moves to Sussex where it has been Resident at Glyndebourne Festival Opera for over 40 years. The Orchestra also performs at venues around the UK and has made numerous tours to America, Europe and Japan, and visited India, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Australia, South Africa and Abu Dhabi.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra made its first recordings on 10 October 1932, just three days after its first public performance.

It has recorded and broadcast regularly ever since, and in 2005 established its own record label. These CDs are unique: amongst them are archive, studio and live concert recordings including world-première performances. These are also available as high quality downloads. www.lpo.org.uk

Highlights from the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s label

For more information or to purchase CDs telephone +44 (0)20 7820 4242 or visit www.lpo.org.uk

– LPO-0016

0020

LPO-0041

LPO-0039

Elgar Box Set

Ireland 70th Birthday Concert

Tchaikovsky Symphonies Nos.1 & 6

LPO-0043

LPO-0045

LPO-0044

Brahms Symphonies Nos.1 & 2

Brahms A German Requiem

Mahler Symphony No.2

23:50

EdWARD ELGAR (1857–1934) Sea Pictures, Op.37

01 5:00 02 1:53 03 5:53 04 4:20 05 6:44

48:28

Sea Slumber Song In Haven Sabbath Morning at Sea Where Corals Lie The Swimmer

06 07 08 09

Andante: nobilmente e semplice – Allegro Allegro molto Adagio Lento – Allegro

19:10 7:00 10:24 11:54

Symphony No.1 in A flat major, Op.55

VERNON HANDLEY CBE conductor DAME JANET BAKER contralto LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA David Nolan leader

Recorded live at Southbank Centre’s ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL, London

LPO – 0046