Tag Archives: Eric Fenby

On Record – BBC Philharmonic Orchestra / Rumon Gamba: Overtures from the British Isles Vol. 3 (Chandos)

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BBC Philharmonic Orchestra / Rumon Gamba

Arnell The New Age, Op. 2 (1939)
Brian The Tinker’s Wedding (1948)
Bridge Rebus H191 (1940)
Britten orch. Colin Matthews Overture to ‘Paul Bunyan’ Op.17 (1941)
A. Bush Resolution Op.25 (1944)
G. Bush Yoric (1949)
Fenby Rossini on Ilkla Moor (1938)
Jones Comedy Overture (1942)
Orr The Prospect of Whitby (1948)
Parker Overture to ‘The Glass Slipper’ (1944)
Rawsthorne Street Corner (1944)

Chandos CHAN20351 [77’20’’]
Producer Jonathan Cooper Engineer Stephen Rinker, Philip Halliwell

Recorded 23 May (Arnell, Brian, Britten, G. Bush, Rawsthorne), 20 November (Parker), 21 November 2024 (Bridge, A. Bush, Fenby, Jones, Orr) at MediaCityUK, Salford, Manchester

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Chandos continues its series devoted to British Overtures with the third instalment featuring three first recordings among those eleven works which, between them, demonstrate just how significant to British concertgoing was this now neglected genre throughout the inter-war era.

What’s the music like?

The album gets off to a cracking start with The Tinker’s Wedding – Havergal Brian’s overview of a play by J. M. Synge, by turns uproarious and ruminative, that duly launched his abundant Indian Summer. After this, Geoffrey Bush’s Yorick cannot help sounding well-behaved if with sufficient expressive contrast for an evocative portrayal of Shakespeare’s hapless jester. In his detailed booklet note, Lewis Foreman describes Alan Rawsthorne’s Street Corner as ‘‘largely forgotten’’, which is a pity given its vivid conjuring of time and place has dated as well as the best Ealing Comedy. If Daniel Jones’ take on its subject may be less memorable, his Comedy Overture exudes more than enough humour and intrigue to make its acquaintance worthwhile.

Frank Bridge’s last completed work, Rebus was unheard for decades after its premiere but this third recording confirms it as a minor masterpiece and the finest of all these pieces – not least as an object-lesson in being accessible without diluting individuality. Robin Orr first attracted attention with The Prospect of Whitby, and his bracingly resourceful evocation of the London pub should not have waited so long for its recording. Richard Arnell was clearly out to make a statement of intent with The New Age, which generates real energy between imposing outer sections. Benjamin Britten might not have intended to preface his operetta Paul Bunyan with an overture but, as realized by Colin Matthews, it leaves a pleasing if anonymous impression.

Far more personality is conveyed by Alan Bush in Resolution, derived from an earlier piece for brass band and which continues that dialectical facet evident in much of his earlier music through its contrapuntal dexterity. There could be no greater contrast than The Glass Slipper, Clifton Parker’s overture to Herbert and Eleanor Farjeon’s ‘fairy tale with music’ that found success as a Christmas Matinee in London’s West End. Most appealing for its slightness and knowingly fey charm, it ideally complements Rossini on Ilkla Moor – Eric Fenby’s ingenious homage to the Italian master which came about through (deliberate?) misunderstanding only to enjoyed frequent performance, and which entertainingly rounds off the present collection.

Does it all work?

Yes, whether in terms of the overtures heard individually and a continuous overall sequence. Those who have acquired those previous volumes (or Chandos’s two issues of British Tone Poems) will recall that Rumon Gamba favours predominantly swift tempos and so it proves here, though there is never a sense of this music unnecessarily being rushed, while the BBC Philharmonic is more than equal to the often considerable technical demands of each piece. None of those overtures previously recorded can surely have emerged so effectively as here

Is it recommended?

Indeed it is. The continued absence of overtures from the programmes of most UK orchestras means such pieces have little chance of reaching a new public other than with recordings, and there could be no greater incentive to get to know them than through a collection such as this.

Listen / Buy

You can hear excerpts from the album and explore purchase options at the Chandos website, or you can listen to the album on Tidal. Click to read more about the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Rumon Gamba

Published post no.2,794 – Tuesday 10 February 2026

In concert – Laurence Kilsby, Christopher Parkes, Sinfonia of London / John Wilson: Serenade @ Barbican Hall, London

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Laurence Kilsby (tenor), Christopher Parkes (horn), Sinfonia of London / John Wilson

Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910)
Britten Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings Op.31 (1943)
Bliss Music for Strings B66 (1935)
Delius arr. Fenby Late Swallows (1916, arr. 1962)
Elgar Introduction and Allegro Op.47 (1904-05)

Barbican Hall, London
Wednesday 22 October 2025

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

One can only commend John Wilson and Sinfonia of London for, in addition to an ambitious recording schedule for Chandos, frequently taking its programmes on tour – as has been the case with this judicious selection of works for string orchestra tonight being heard in London.

There could hardly be an acoustic less suited to Vaughan Williams’s Tallis Fantasia than that of Barbican Hall, yet Wilson went a good deal of the way toward making it succeed by having the main string body – and solo quartet – to the front of the platform with the subsidiary group arrayed along its rear. The outer section were taken slowly and almost impassively, but there was no lack of impetus or fervency as the central phase built cumulatively towards its climax.

The relatively modest number of strings seemed ideally suited to Britten’s Serenade. Laurence Kilsby (who made a fine contribution to Bliss’s The Beatitudes at this year’s Proms) brought real tenderness to Pastorale and ardour to Nocturne, while Christopher Parkes was suitably plangent in Elegy and dextrousness itself in Dirge. Tenor and hornist joined delightfully in Hymn, then Wilson drew playing of fastidious poise in Sonnet. Just a little unsteady in the Prologue, Parkes excelled in the offstage Epilogue with its ethereal reprise of that opening music – so rounding off a performance that proved affecting and unaffected in equal measure.

Live and in the studio, Wilson has affirmed a commitment to the music of Bliss which could hardly have been more evident than in Music for Strings which formed the centrepiece of this concert. It had been written for the Vienna Philharmonic to premiere at the Salzburg Festival and, if its formidable technical demands no longer sound forbidding, there can have been few performances of this virtuosity or insight. Trenchant and impulsive, the opening Allegro was followed by an Andante whose sustained eloquence never excluded lightness of touch – with the speculative transition into the final Allegro as deftly handled as the Presto with which this work surges to its headlong close. Not merely a timely revival, this was no less a vindication.

Introducing this second half, Wilson had remarked how Delius’ music needs to be coaxed into yielding up its secrets as surely as it needs selling to the musicians. Late Swallows succeeded on both fronts. As arranged by Eric Fenby from the composer’s only mature string quartet, it takes its place among the latter’s most haunting evocations, and not least in a central section whose rapt intensity brought an emotional frisson that tangibly held its listeners spellbound.

Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro may, by contrast, be a piece that plays itself but it still calls for interpretive input of a high order. Wilson responded with an unusually swift reading such as emphasized its nervous intensity and often volatile changes of mood, though there was no lack of cohesion or underlying momentum in a performance that took such testing passages as the central fugato assuredly in its stride prior to a glowing apotheosis then decisive close.

A performance, moreover, as set the seal on a memorable evening’s music-making. All these pieces, save the Britten, have been recorded by Wilson and Sinfonia of London for Chandos, their advocacy of Bliss hopefully continuing well beyond this 50th anniversary of his death.

Click here to read Arcana’s review of English Music for Strings, the Chandos album containing the Bliss and Vaughan Williams works performed in this concert.

Click also on the links for more information on the Sinfonia of London and their conductor John Wilson, along with soloists Laurence Kilsby and Christopher Parkes. For more information on Bliss, you can visit the Arthur Bliss Society

Published post no.2,697 – Friday 24 October 2025