Coming to Terms with Late-Romanticsm

 

It has taken me many years to do so.

And still, the musical style doesn't always work for me.

30-some years ago, I knew better than to review this recording, for I had trouble with the Late-Romantic style. Probably for the better, really, for I remember feeling tepid regarding this music.

I don't know what issue I might have had back then, for Bantock gives us glorious music here; enough for me to highly recommended this recording.

Sir Granville apparently liked Greek subjects, allowing Hyperion to begin a series of nude cover art for his music. The six sections of Bantock's Pagan Symphony are well varied through his beloved atmospheric opening, which contrasts with a Satyr dance, an antique dance, some long-breathed Romanticisms for strings, and a combustible, brass-laden finale. Really, this is a well thought-out work.

Both Pagan and the following Fifine at the Fair are 30+ minute, one-movement tone poems, and I always worry I will be left out to pasture in this music. Like the Pagan Symphony, Fifine surprises in its quality and pacing. The characters in this 'story of inconstancy' are given solidly memorable musical motives, all of which develop satisfyingly. The titular Fair is remarkable in comparison to Stravinsky, and I love the modal dance of the title character.

If I have a problem with the work, once you get past the recovery of the main character removed from Fifine, there is still 16-odd minutes of music left. This is all over-wrought, Strauss-ian Romantic surges of strings, and could be trimmed down to 5 minutes. It doesn't ruin anything for me, but boy does it go on and on.

One reviewer called Granville Bantock's Two Heroic Ballads as pseudo-Celtic flapdoodle. Well, consider me one fervent fan of flapdoodle! Like the Celtic Symphony (BLOG), the harmonic modal landscape of these two short orchestral pieces are remarkable.

Vernon Handley and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra do Bantock's music full justice. The strings sweep along strongly, the woodwinds are ably balanced, with a terrific clarinet cadenza from Roy Jowitt in Fifine, and the brass gloriously burst forth heroically. Terrific!

 

 

 

 

Works
Pagan Symphony (35.34)
Fifine at the Fair (35.26)
Two Heroic Ballads (8.07)

Performers
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Vernon Handley, conductor

Label: Hyperion
Year: 1992
Total Timing: 79.38

 

 

 

 

 

I have come a long way with late-Romanticism, and this Bantock recording has been allowed to fully flower over the last 30+ years for this listener.

If you enjoy this sort of Richard Strauss-ian orchestral treatment, many treasures should await!