Previn Conducts Britten's Spring Symphony

My recent upload of William Mathias' This World's Joie was surprisingly popular. Mathias had at least two inspirations - the Vaughan Williams choral works that have appeared in this series (notably Hodie and Sancta Civitas) and in particular Benjamin Britten's brilliant Spring Symphony from 1949.

Britten himself led the first commercial recording of the work in 1960, but today we have a transfer of André Previn's 1978 reading, beautifully performed and recorded. It has been a favorite of mine since it was issued. This transfer is from an original EMI Electrola pressing.

André Previn and Benjamin Britten in 1976

As with the other recordings in this series of choral works, this production offers some of the finest artists then active in Britain - soprano Sheila Armstrong, contralto Janet Baker and tenor Robert Tear. Previn conducted the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the St. Clement Danes Boys' Choir.

The recording also is notable for its superb late-analogue sound, as derived from Kingsway Hall by producer Christopher Bishop and engineer Michael Sheady. To pick one example, I like the way the important tuba part is notably clear while remaining part of the ensemble. (Edward Greenfield in his Gramophone review identified the tuba player as John Fletcher, who is not credited.)

Front: Janet Baker, Sheila Armstrong, Robert Tear. Rear: Christopher Bishop, André Previn 

Britten called the work a symphony, but it actually is a song cycle with texts chosen primarily from the 13th to 19th century - "Sumer is icumen in" through to John Clare. The 20th century is represented by "Out in the lawn I lie in bed" from W.H. Auden's 1933 poem A Summer Night. The Auden piece, sung by Janet Baker, takes up the central portion of Britten's work, which points up its ominous reference to "Where Poland draws her Eastern bow," adding, "Now ask what doubtful act allows / Our freedom in this English house / Our picnics in the sun." Greenfield notes, "Both Previn and Baker are children of the inter-war years, Previn in Berlin very immediately so."

The London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Kingsway Hall

But the majority of the work is notably sunny, appropriate to one celebrating spring. "Previn goes farther [than Britten] in realizing the dramatic-evocative aspects of the work, as shown in the pointing of instrumental witticisms and the unrestrained enjoyment of the open-end cadenza or bird sounds in 'Spring, the sweet spring'," writes Richard Freed in the Stereo Review. "The overall effect is one of mystic fantasy, evoked to a degree that Britten did not attempt in his own recording." It is this atmosphere that makes the Previn recording such a source of delight.

Britten's music has appeared several times on this blog - vintage recordings of his Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge and A Simple Symphony are newly remastered.

1979 Gramophone ad

Robert Tear in Songs by Vaughan Williams, Elgar and Butterworth

This recording dates from 1979,  somewhat later than my usual time frame. I transferred it for another forum; in the end it wasn't needed there, but I thought it might be of interest to some here.

Robert Tear
by William Bowyer (1986)

I remember being very excited to acquire the LP when it came out. It was the first recording of a favorite work, Vaughan Williams's "On Wenlock Edge," with orchestral accompaniment in place of the usual piano and string quartet. It also included Elgar and Butterworth songs that had not been recorded before. And it featured an artist I much admire, tenor Robert Tear. I wrote about Tear soon after his death in 2011.

Even so, I must admit that this is not one of his best records. I felt that way nearly 40 years ago and my recent audition has confirmed that belief. Tear adopts a declamatory approach to the Vaughan Williams songs. This probably was because of the orchestral accompaniment replaced the usual chamber ensemble. But the inward Housman settings in particular don't benefit from this extrovert manner.

You may disagree with this assessment, of course. Trevor Harvey in The Gramophone thought that Tear "quite rightly brings out its [i.e., the orchestration's] more dramatic quality." (The download includes the review along with EMI's advertisement from the same issue.)

Harvey also was impressed by the Butterworth settings of W.E. Henley, and by some of the Elgar works. He liked Elgar's settings of his own words that were based on Eastern European folk songs,  but was less taken by the composer's settings of Sir Gilbert Parker's poems. All of these are well handled by Tear.

Vernon Handley

The orchestral accompaniments are beautifully done by the City of Birmingham Symphony, conducted by Vernon Handley, an English music specialist. The late analogue recording is fairly good, although the upper strings can be a bit glassy.

Oddly, Tear re-recorded the Vaughan Williams about three years later with the same orchestra and Simon Rattle. Presumably this was to replace the analogue recording with the new digital variety. EMI has reissued the Rattle version more than once, but the Handley recording not at all.

"On Wenlock Edge" in its piano and string quartet guise has appeared here twice before: the first recording with Gervase Elwes (the work's dedicatee), pianist Frederick Kiddle and the London String Quartet; and in a 1953 effort by Alexander Young, pianist Gordon Watson and the Sebastian String Quartet. Both are excellent.

Robert Tear

I did not want the recent death of Welsh tenor Robert Tear to go unremarked. Although he has not appeared on this blog before, he was one of my favorite artists, with a particular affinity for English music.

While I am not in the habit of posting material that is in print, in this case I can think of no better tribute than Tear's performance of the quasi-folksong The Captain's Apprentice, here in Vaughan Williams' arrangement for voice and piano. This is one of the most doleful songs in the English language, sung by a sea captain whose cruelty had killed an impoverished boy who had been apprenticed to him out of penury. Tear's interpretation of this extraordinary (and extraordinarily beautiful) song is deeply affecting.

Robert Tear at a 1970s recording session

The Captain's Apprentice may remind you of the story of Peter Grimes. Britten's opera is based on a verse narrative by George Crabbe, which was modelled on a early 19th century broadside that told the tale of a cruel sea captain who had killed an apprentice and was tried in King's Lynn. This broadside also was apparently the source of the song that Vaughan Williams gathered in 1905 from a King's Lynn fisherman, and published in 1908.

The haunting Captain's Apprentice was a favorite of Vaughan Williams and appeared more than once in his orchestral music. The Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1 makes use of the tune and another from Norfolk called On Board a Ninety-Eight, also gathered from a fisherman, and also based on a broadside from a century before. (You can find Adrian Boult's mid-50s recording of the Norfolk Rhapsody over at my friend Fred's blog, Random Classics.)

On Board a Ninety-Eight (that is, a 98-gun ship) tells the droll tale of a young man so bad that his parents gave him up to a pressgang looking for "recruits" to go to sea. (Pressgangs were paid bounties both to secure such "recruits" and also to round up deserters - goodness, what a time). This post also includes Tear's perfect performance of the song. This time, the unwilling sailor turns into a hearty tar who survives Trafalgar and getting an arm shot off, and eventually retires a pensioner.

The pianist on these recordings is Philip Ledger. Here is a link to a review in The Gramophone of the original 1978 issue.