Category Archives: On record

On Record – The Definitive Eric Coates (Lyrita)

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Various soloists and orchestras / Eric Coates
Lyrita REAM.2146 [seven discs, 8h 53m 13s]
Compilation, Audio Restoration and Remastering Alan Bunting

You can find the full definitive track listing on the Presto website

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Lyrita reissues the set collating all those extent recordings by Eric Coates of his own music, ranging over the greater part of a career when he was established among the leading British composers of his generation, heard here in consistently excellent transfers by Alan Bunting.

What are the performances like?

Even at the height of his acclaim, Coates was often dismissed as a purveyor of ‘light music’ at a time when such populism was frowned upon by the classical establishment, though the fact no less an eminence than Elgar had Coates’ recordings of his own music on permanent order confirms the latter’s success was by no means restricted to the record-buying layman. As did Billy Mayerl in the piano domain, it was Coates’ ability to pick up on current trends and render them with an ageless ‘middle of the road’ stylishness that ensured his popularity.

Although his earlier reputation came through his numerous songs (comparatively neglected today), Coates gradually achieved recognition for orchestral music – notably his suites that, grouped according to descriptive title, attracted informed musicians for their compositional finesse as much as more casual listeners for their melodic immediacy. Such success was by no means restricted to the inter-war era – Coates finding a ready outlet for his newer pieces through to the advent of a New Elizabethan Age, just four years prior to his death. Nor was this standing necessarily diminished with the rise of a new popular music during the 1960s as, unlike that of his contemporaries, his music continued to be played such that, at the turn of this century, almost all his major works were available on recordings other than his own.

The present set was manifestly a labour of love on the part of Alan Bunting – who not only supervised its remastering from a disparate range of sources, but has also arranged the order of tracks on each volume. As he himself notes, a strictly chronological ordering would have been more suited to the afficionado, but the present sequencing avoids duplication of works recorded more than once and so enables listeners to enjoy a varied cross-section on each of the initial five volumes. The sixth volume collates all those recordings made in the acoustic process (up until 1926) and inevitably of more specialist appeal, then the seventh features a selection of recordings by other musicians that, in itself, constitutes a true roll-call of artists from the ‘golden age’ of light music and is an essential supplement to Coates’s own legacy.

Does it all work?

Indeed. The remastering has been expertly carried out so the sound across almost all of the electrical recordings exudes clarity and perspective without sacrificing that ambience which came with the actual acoustic. The set comes with two booklets: one that gives an inclusive track-listing for each of the seven volumes while the other, even more substantial, consists of an extensive contextual essay Eric Coates and the Gramophone by Michael Payne; his detailed study about the composer’s life and music (Ashgate: 2012) being required reading.

Is it recommended?

Very much so. The only proviso would be this edition having been issued as two separate sets rather than as a more economical card-box – thereby saving space and plastic! Note also that a two-disc compilation Coates Conducts Coates (REAM.2146) is available from this source.

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You can explore purchase options at the Wyastone website

Published post no.2,633 – Thursday 21 August 2025

On Record – Sarah Leonard, Xue Wei, BBCSO & BBCSSO / Martyn Brabbins – Naresh Sohal: Lila & Violin Concerto (Heritage Records)

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Naresh Sohal
Lila (1996)
Violin Concerto (1986)

Sarah Leonard (soprano), BBC Symphony Orchestra / Martyn Brabbins (Lila)
Xue Wei (violin), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Martyn Brabbins (Violin Concerto)

Heritage HTGCD133 78’40”
Remastering Paul Arden-Taylor

Live performances at BBC Broadcasting House, Glasgow on 24th October 1992 (Violin Concerto); Royal Festival Hall, London on 13th October 1996 (Lila)

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Heritage follows up its earlier release of Naresh Sohal with this coupling of major orchestral works, both of them heard in their premiere performances.

What’s the music like?

By the 1990s, Sohal was a well-respected if not regularly played figure. Both these works demonstrate his compositional versatility while being wholly characteristic of his maturity. They were also written before and after his move from Edinburgh to London; having spent more than a decade in the Scottish capital, during which period he embarked on numerous multi-media pieces, he subsequently found himself drawn anew to the Punjabi and Bengali writers whose work frequently informed his compositions over the ensuing quarter-century.

Written a decade apart, these works could hardly be more different in their nominal concerns. At just under half an hour, the Violin Concerto may appear to be firmly within the lineage of such pieces from the Classical and early Romantic eras yet its three movements are hardly, if at all, beholden to precedent. That each is faster as to its underlying pulse than the one before, what one might loosely call an ‘Andante-Allegretto-Allegro’ progression, is less notable than the transformation of ideas and texture from one to the other; resulting in an overall sequence as convinces in its formal discipline and beguiles in its expressive immediacy. Its inhabiting a neo-Romantic world (with significant precursors by David Blake and H. K. Gruber) does not detract from the individuality and sheer attractiveness of Sohal’s contribution to this medium.

By contrast Lila, it title a Sanskrit term for the play of Nature, is the representation in music of the seven stages of development, in yogic philosophy, from the earthbound to the cosmic. That each of these can be linked to a specific colour, sound and elemental force might imply a multi-media presentation, and one as integrated music with dance and lighting was initially planned, but the work succeeds admirably on its own terms as it traverses seven continuous while increasingly shorter sections with its transformation of salient motifs never less than audible. There is no ultimate climax, yet the passing from ‘Consciousness’ to ‘Yoga’ could   be heard as a culmination; after which – this final section is graced with a soaring vocalise, here the late Sarah Leonard in what was a no doubt unintentional but appropriate memorial.

Does it all work?

Yes, once one has grasped the basis of Sohal’s compositional thinking via the essence of what   he was seeking to convey. It helps that both these performances are fully attuned to his idiom – Xue Wei evincing no indecision or uncertainty in the Violin Concerto, and Martyn Brabbins (who replaced an indisposed Andrew Davis for the first rendition of Lila) securing committed playing from the BBC Symphony and the BBC Scottish Symphony orchestras. Any future performances could hardly hope for more persuasive guides when approaching these pieces.

Is it recommended?

Very much so. Paul Arden-Taylor has once again done a fine job in remastering the original broadcasts while Suddhaseel Sen’s annotations, with a biographical note by Janet Swinney, provide all the relevant background. Further releases from this source will hopefully follow.

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You can explore purchase options at the Heritage Records website

For more on the artists featured, click on the names to read more about Sarah Leonard, Xue Wei, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Martyn Brabbins, and composer Naresh Sohal

Published post no.2,630 – Monday 18 August 2025

On Record – Hallé / Thomas Adès: Adès, Leith, Marsey

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Thomas Adès Shanty (2020); Dawn (2020); Tower (2021); Aquifer (2024)
Oliver Leith Cartoon Sun (2024)
William Marsey Man with Limp Wrist (2023)

Hallé / Thomas Adès

Hallé CDHLL7567 68’20”
Producer Jeremy Hayes Engineers Steve Portnoi, Niall Gault, Edward Cittanova

Live performances at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 21-24 November 2024

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

This latest release on the Hallé’s label focusses on music by or conducted by Thomas Adès during his 2023-25 residency with this orchestra, with works by two younger composers he has championed heard alongside several of his own pieces – including a major UK premiere.

What’s the music like?

Of the three shorter pieces by Adès, Shanty – Over the Sea unfolds as cumulative variants on an archetypal-sounding sea-shanty, with all this may imply in terms of transcending captivity and longing for freedom. Subtitled ‘Chacony for Orchestra at Any Distance’, Dawn conveys in spatial terms a concentric evolution toward a likely epiphany that yet remains out of reach. By contrast, Tower – For Frank Geary envisages a building near Arles by the Canadian-born American architect in terms of a bracing and increasingly effervescent fanfare for 14 trumpets.

Of those works by younger composers, Man with Limp Wrist finds William Marsey drawing on paintings by Salman Toor for a sequence of eight ‘scenes’; the first seven of which are as succinctly descriptive as the titles that inspired them. The eighth piece, which takes its name from the titular canvas, brings culmination of sorts through its collision of old tunes (mainly hymns) in music as feels arresting if curiously uninvolving. Much the same could be said of Cartoon Sun by Oliver Leith, a detailed evocation of which is provided by the composer and whose premise that ‘‘Everything looks different under the sun’’ is related over three sections – the first two relatively brief and primarily gestural, the lengthier third building cumulative intensity which dissipates towards the end as if to confirm that nothing is ever what it seems.

Premiered in Munich by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Aquifer is Simon Rattle’s third major commission from Adès (after Asyla for the City of Birmingham Symphony then Tevot for the Berlin Philharmonic). Its title referring to ‘‘a geological structure which can transmit water’’, the piece unfolds across seven continuous sections, though the outline of a sonata design can be sensed not as the dynamic means of change but rather (and more appropriately) as a fluid construct from which ideas emerge and mutate – as might water as it passes between different vessels. In terms of content, it ranges widely over styles and allusions before culminating in a vivid while hardly epiphanic coda, yet its overall cohesion along with its assured handling of sizable orchestral forces ensures an impact which audibly commended it to all those present.

Does it all work?

Whether or not it does so is much of the fascination. The works by Marsey and Leith offer no mean indication in terms of where these composers (in their mid-30s) are headed, while those by Adès afford intrigues aplenty. Neither is there any doubt as to the commitment of the Hallé in presenting these pieces to best advantage, nor of Adès’s ability to get the most out of these players. If a sense persists of his music having an essence that beguiles more than it conceals in intrinsic substance, no living composer has reinvented the wheel quite so skilfully as Adès.

Is it recommended?

Yes, not least as the programme makes for a cohesive and engaging listen throughout. Sound makes the most of Bridgewater Hall’s evident clarity and spaciousness, with annotations as informative as usual from this source. Adès is undeniably a defining presence in new music.

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You can explore purchase options at the Hallé online shop

For more on the artists featured, click on the names to read more about The Hallé and album conductor Thomas Adès – and click on the names for Thomas Adès as a composer, Oliver Leith and William Marsey

Published post no.2,629 – Sunday 17 August 2025

On Record – Havergal Brian: Symphonies nos. 29 – 32 (Heritage Records)

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Havergal Brian
Symphony no.29 in E flat major (1967)
Symphony no.30 in B flat minor (1967)
Symphony no.31 (1968)
Symphony no.32 in A flat major (1968)

Philharmonia Orchestra / Myer Fredman (nos.29 & 32), Sir Charles Mackerras (no.31), BBC Symphony Orchestra / Lionel Friend (no.30)

Heritage HTGCD130 73’20”
Recorded 12 March 1979 (nos.29 & 32) and 16 March 1989 at Maida Vale Studio One, London (no.30), 9 January 1979 at Henry Wood Hall, London (no.31)

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

The enterprising Heritage label continues its coverage of Havergal Brian with this volume featuring the last four of his 32 symphonies, three of them in pioneering studio broadcasts that were organized by Robert Simpson during his last years as music producer at the BBC.

What’s the music like?

The 29th Symphony is the culmination of a classicizing tendency Brian pursued throughout the 1960s, falling into four continuous if clearly demarcated sections whose formal poise is matched by their lucidity of expression. Thus, a ruminative Lento then genial Allegretto are balanced by the rumbustious though not unduly truculent Allegros either side but it is those framing Adagio sections, launching the piece before bringing it full circle in a mood of rapt contemplation, which leave the deepest impression and so set the seal on an eloquent work.

Barely four months later, the 30th Symphony inhabits a wholly different and fractious world. Likely drawing on material for an abandoned opera on Sophocles’ Oedipus Coloneus, its two continuous parts unfold from a restive, increasingly ominous Lento into the most disjunctive of Brian’s numerous Passacaglia movements; its inherent logic countered at every stage with a visceral and even assaultive impetus prior to the suitably implacable apotheosis. Definitely a work for all times, and among a select handful of orchestral masterpieces from this period.

Five months later and the 31st Symphony emerges as among its composer’s most enigmatic statements, abetted by its single movement being the most seamless of Brian’s symphonies and the one whose key-centre is most difficult to discern. Evolving almost intuitively from casual gestures, it builds with unsparing focus towards a climax whose dynamism is thrown into relief by the inevitability of those final bars. Easy to underestimate in context, it might be considered a rule-book for Brian’s late maturity did it not break those rules at every turn.

Completed six months later, the 32nd Symphony is the longest work here – pursuing a sustained evolution across its four movements divided into two parts. Its thoughtful while not untroubled Allegretto is followed by an Adagio of keen inner strength, its seriousness of purpose subtly offset by a leisurely, often capricious scherzo then finale whose contrapuntal ingenuity underpins the determined onward course to a coda defiant in its resignation. Brian was to finish no further works, so leaving this symphony to stand as an inimitable testament.

Does it all work?

Yes, once the essence, recalcitrant but never intractable, of Brian’s symphonism in this final creative decade is grasped. It helps when performances of the 29th and 32nd were entrusted to Myer Fredman, his appreciation of Brian’s music evident elsewhere in this Heritage series, and the 31st to Sir Charles Mackerras who made a fine studio recording eight years on. The 30th is heard in a reading by Lionel Friend far more assured than its premiere by Harry Newstone, but it was not until Martyn Brabbins’s 2010 studio account that this work came into its own.

Is it recommended?

It is. The sound of the older performances has been cleaned up and opened out, much to their advantage, and that of the 30th offsets the dryness of the Maida Vale acoustic. John Pickard’s insightful booklet notes are further incentive to acquiring this welcome and necessary release.

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Published post no.2,627 – Friday 15 August 2025

On Record – Grace Williams: The Parlour (Lyrita)

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The Parlour (1960-61)

Comic Opera in One Act (two scenes)
Libretto and music by Grace Williams, after En Famille by Guy de Maupassant

Grandmama – Edith Coates (contralto)
Papa – Edward Byles (tenor)
Mama – Noreen Berry (mezzo-soprano)
Louisa – Anne Pashley (soprano)
Augusta – Janet Hughes (soprano)
Aunt Genevieve – Jean Allister (mezzo-soprano)
Uncle Steve – David Lennox (tenor)
Doctor Charlton – John Gibbs (baritone)
Rosalie – Marian Evans (soprano)
Welsh National Opera Company, Welsh National Opera Chorus, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Bryan Balkwill

Lyrita REAM.1147 [79’32”, Mono/ADD] Producer John Moody
Broadcast performance from Odeon Theatre, Llandudno on 18 August 1966

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Lyrita continues its coverage of Grace Williams with this first commercial release of her only opera, taken from its first run by Welsh National Opera and so adding another major work to the discography of one who, almost half a century after her death, is finally receiving her due.

What’s the music like?

Although she was, by her own admission, brought up in a ‘singing tradition’ and experienced opera from an early age, it was only in 1959 that Williams was approached with a commission for one. Written to her own libretto, after the short story by Guy de Maupassant, The Parlour was completed two years later but not premiered until May 1966 – a subsequent performance being broadcast and heard here. There have since been semi-professional stagings in London (1974) and Cardiff (1993), but no further production from one of the main British companies.

Relocating this story away from Paris to an unspecified Victorian seaside town, Williams was mindful to maintain the petit-bourgeois conservatism and mendacity from that original setting. As a narrative it makes for pretty dispiriting reading, but the liveliness and wit of her libretto is rarely less than engaging, while her music hardly falters in bringing out the essence of the situation at hand. Eight out of nine singing roles get a turn in the spotlight, and though their profiles might not be sharply drawn, the interplay of characters as of voice-types is astutely managed. Orchestrally the score may lack the intensity of Williams’ other large-scale works, but its dextrousness and intricacy seem ideally suited to a domestic drama; with that pathos which frequently surfaces in her music being no less evident during the opera’s final stages.

Vocally there are strong contributions by Edith Coates as the implacable grandmother, from Edward Byles as her always put-upon son and from Noreen Berry as her perennially hapless (and luckless!) daughter-in-law. Anne Pashley and Janet Hughes become one as her witless grand-daughters, with Jean Allister and David Lennox ideally cast as her favoured daughter and her wheedling son-in-law. John Gibbs makes the most of her doctor in all his contrived bluffness or feigned disinterest, and Marian Evans chips in as the dim-witted family servant. The Welsh National Opera Company and Chorus betray occasional tentativeness, but swift-moving passages for the neighbours lack little of focus or discipline – from a time when this organization was in the process of making its transition from amateur to professional status.

Does it all work?

It does, not least owing to the excellence of this performance. WNO did not then have its own orchestra, but the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is more than equal to the task of projecting Williams’s eventful score with the necessary clarity and verve, while it responds with alacrity to the direction of the company’s then music director Bryan Balkwill. The mono broadcast has come up more than adequately in its remastering, and this set comes with the full libretto and insightful annotations from Paul Conway in what is a typically excellent Lyrita presentation.

Is it recommended?

It is. The Parlour is unlikely to have a professional staging any time soon, making this release of more than archival interest. Could Lyrita acquire the 1963 broadcast of Daniel Jones’s The Knife, intended to be staged with the Williams in what would have been a weighty double-bill.

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Published post no.2,626 – Thursday 14 August 2025