Roger Quilter (1877-1953)
Roger Cuthbert Quilter was born into a wealthy, land-owning
household at the maternal family home, 4 Brunswick Square in the Sussex seaside
town of Brighton on November 1, 1877, the third of seven children. Both his
parents, Sir Cuthbert Quilter, Bart. - a leading businessman who, amongst other
things, founded the National Telephone Company in 1881, and who was Member of
Parliament for Sudbury in Suffolk for twenty years - and Lady Quilter, were
artistically cultured and, from an early age, the future composer received a
thorough grounding in all aspects of the arts, especially from his mother, a
lady whose charm and elegance were to emerge in her talented son (although some
psychologically-minded observers have suggested that, in certain respects, the
impressionable young man may actually have been unhealthily affected by her
powerful, dominating personality!). Much of his childhood was spent at the
family's country home, Bawdsey Manor, near Felixstowe in Suffolk, where he
enjoyed the comfortable life of the landed gentry, with a houseful of servants
and several employees to look after the extensive grounds and estate. In a
curious way, he grew up rather embarrassed about this privileged background and
it goes some way towards explaining his extraordinary generosity in later life
when he deployed his riches freely in the service and support of others. It
also seems to have been behind a crisis of confidence which he revealed in a
letter written in early 1911: "I've given up hoping ever to be an artist
myself - I have the English rich upper-middle-class blood in my veins too much,
I'm not strong enough to fight if'. And, as he was to remark to an interviewer
in 1945:"If I had sprung from nothing out of the gutter, there might have
been something more interesting for you to write about".
The family fortunes enabled the young Quilter to become a
pupil, first at a private preparatory school in Farnborough, where he sang in
the choir, and then at that most august educational establishment, Eton
College, where it soon became apparent that music was going to be predominant
amongst his many artistic skills. He enjoyed nothing more than visiting St.
George's Chapel in nearby Windsor Castle to hear the choir sing under its then
distinguished director, Sir Walter Parratt. But it was by no means clear at
first that he would become a professional musician. He was financially
self-sufficient and there was no reason for him to apply his abilities on
anything other than a casual or informal basis. However, the inspirational urge
was stronger than most people imagined and thus it was that, in 1893, Quilter
set off for a course of study in Germany, spending some four and a half years at
the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt-am-Main, working under the celebrated
teacher Iwan Knorr, with Ernst Engesser as his piano tutor.
It is, perhaps, significant, that one of Knorr's passions
was French song and it may well have been his enthusiasm for this art form that
inspired his pupil to take a similar interest. Quilter, incidentally, found
himself in distinguished company, with his classmates including such
illustrious names as Cyril Scott, Henry Balfour Gardiner, Percy Grainger and
Norman O'Neill. In spite of his inherent shyness and natural reserve, his
apparent skill at mimicry made him a most popular companion. And Cyril Scott,
in his autobiography, My Years of Indiscretion, provided a tiny but
delightful anecdote offering another brief glimpse into the otherwise rather
private and secret life of his friend: "Like St. Francis of Assisi
[Quilter] had great compassion for the little birds, and every morning would
put a lavish supply of crumbs for them out on his window-sill. But
unfortunately, having eaten their fill, they would leave their 'visiting cards'
on the slab, which so incensed his house-proud landlady, that one day she
stormed into his room and told him she would stand it no longer. 'Most
unrefined" she exclaimed."
On his return to England in 1898, it didn't take long for
Quilter to become established in musical circles. His Four Songs of the Sea,
Op. 1, settings of his own texts and dedicated to his beloved mother, were
first performed in 1900 by Denham Price at London's Crystal Palace. They were
received with notable enthusiasm but the composer was slow to produce anything
else. Throughout his life, he tended to work quite slowly, rarely finding
composition an easy task. Three years later, only about another five songs had
appeared, but they were of sufficiently high quality to attract eager
attention, including that of the great tenor Gervase Elwes, who gave the first
performance of the Herrick settings, To Julia, Op. 8 in October 1905. It
was Elwes, to whom Quilter dedicated To Julia, who managed to persuade
Boosey & Co. to take an interest in the young composer and publish his
music. (Smaller firms had already issued some songs, including two very early
settings which appeared in 1897 under the name of Ronald Quinton). Thereafter, some
of the leading singers of the day, such as John Coates, Muriel Foster, Ada
Crossley, Harry Plunket Green and even Nellie Melba, Clara Butt and Maggie
Teyte featured Quilter songs in their recitals. And later on, the composer
himself was often to be seen and heard in public accompanying his close friend
Mark Raphael.
Over the years, he became friendly with many of the top
international singers who were drawn towards his inimitable songs. He used to
hold musical parties at his house for them and among the distinguished artists
who accepted his hospitality were Roland Hayes, Paul Robeson and Marian
Anderson.
But he did not confine himself to music for voice and piano.
A Serenade was played at the Queen's Hall in London in August 1907, the
first of a small body of orchestral works including the popular Children's
Overture. Incidental music (most notably that for Where the Rainbow
Ends), two ballets and a light opera Julia constituted his
contribution to the theatre, and piano music manifested itself in the form of
dances and small descriptive pieces. In 1937, his friend Walter Creighton asked
for a work for inclusion in a Pageant of Parliament he was producing. The
result was the splendid Non Nobis Domine, a setting of words by Rudyard
Kipling for chorus, string orchestra and piano.
Turned down for military service during World War Ion health
reasons, Quilter moved house to an address in London's Montagu Street from
where he organised a series of concerts and recitals in a number of hospitals.
These proved very popular and the composer was encouraged to continue this kind
of activity with the cessation of hostilities. He formed a chamber-music club
in the Lindsey Hall in West London's Notting Hill Gate which served as a useful
platform for introducing new up-and-coming artists to the public. He would
often perform at the recitals in the role of accompanist but, even when he was
not actually present on stage, he was always in attendance to offer
encouragement, not to mention his constant financial support.
Although by nature rather shy, the tall, soft-spoken Quilter
was not without a sense of fun, as well as possessing an admirable versatility!
His delightfully eccentric friend, Percy Grainger, quotes several instances
when the aristocratic musician was called upon to demonstrate his musical
prowess in somewhat unconventional areas. On one occasion, we are told that
Quilter played guitar in a Grainger composition; elsewhere, we are informed
that he acquitted himself commendably on the xylophone whilst another account
tells how he participated in a whistling chorus! And Quilter himself loved to
tell the story of how, after a song recital in which he had accompanied Mark
Raphael in a programme of his own music, he was approached by a formidable,
jewel-bedecked lady who, obviously unaware of the status of the gentleman she
was addressing, asked him: "Are you fond of music?" The good-natured
composer, rather amused at the situation, apparently replied to the effect that
he was not averse to the art.
Constitutionally frail from birth, much of his life was
blighted by poor health and bouts of depression, which blocked creative work
for long periods at a time. In 1908, there had been real fears that he would
not survive a particularly serious stomach disorder. An operation was
singularly unsuccessful and an ulcer, which developed not long afterwards,
hastened his physical decline. His mental state deteriorated alarmingly in
later years, primarily through intense grief at the news of the tragic death of
a nephew to whom he was especially closely attached but also, it is thought by
some who knew him well, partly as the result of constant pressure caused by the
incessant underlying concern regarding his homosexuality. He was fully aware of
the consequences should it become public knowledge in a society which, at that
time, was less than tolerant of such matters. His own substantial personal
means staved off privations but it brought home to him the real threat posed to
most musicians by the onset of ill health. He was unceasingly generous in the
financial assistance he provided to fellow artists in need, although he never
made this public. He was particularly magnanimous towards his old
fellow-student Percy Grainger with whom he maintained the warmest of
friendships and used to visit regularly for tea every Thursday afternoon. Many
of the Australian-born composer's works only found their way into print because
all the costs were paid for by Quilter. (In a charming letter which he wrote to
Grainger in April 1906, he stated that "I can't think of any better way of
spending my money than helping to get your work known in the world"). And
with the instigation of the Musicians' Benevolent Fund, formed in 1921 in
memory of his great friend and interpreter Gervase Elwes, killed by a train
while on tour in America, he became a founder-member and served on its
committee for the rest of his life.
As a composer, the style he formulated in his early years
remained with him throughout his working life, with little obvious sign of
development, a feature which has attracted a not inconsiderable degree of
critical opprobrium from some quarters. It can perhaps also be said that his
expressive range was a little restricted but, to his great credit, Quilter was
fully aware of his potential limitations and wisely tended to remain well
within "safe" parameters. In fact, his creative muse more or less
fell silent in his final years, but for most people, he remained a
much-respected figure, albeit a little unfashionable. His seventy-fifth birthday
was marked by a special BBC concert in Broadcasting House devoted entirely to
his music. The composer, although weak - and impaired mentally as well as
physically - attended but it was to prove one of his last public appearances.
He died less than a year later, on September 21, 1953 and was buried in the
family vault at St. Mary's Church in the village of Bawdsey.
He was, as has already been mentioned, an immensely
cultivated man and several friends paid tribute to his deep knowledge and
appreciation of the arts. His musical tastes ranged far and wide; as he put it,
"I am glad to say I can appreciate any kind of music which is sincere and
vital - from Bach to a good ragtime. I enjoy immensely the music of Patience,
and can also keenly relish Stravinsky's Petrushka." His
love of English poetry was second to none - he once said that his passion for
it was "greater even than music" - and it explains the extraordinary
sensitivity with which he set a bewildering variety of texts in his almost 120
songs. Although, as he said, "I have no gift for writing it", he
produced a substantial amount of verse himself, one poem appearing under the
extraordinary pseudonym of Romney Marsh! He could talk knowledgeably about
painting and architecture and yet he wore his learning lightly. For an almost
exclusively city dweller - he lived most of his life in London, first, as
already mentioned, in Montagu Street near Marble Arch and then in Acacia Road,
St. John's Wood - he had a profound affection for the countryside, and felt
very much at home with rural folk, understanding and respecting their ways and
traditions. Indeed, one of his very last creative ventures was the arrangement
in 1947 of sixteen folksongs for The Arnold Book of Old Songs.
Perhaps the final word can, in a way, be left to Quilter
himself for it is surely significant that, to all intents and purposes, his
composing career ended with the setting of Christina Rossetti's A Song at
Parting (When I am Dead) with its lines:
When I am dead, my
dearest,
Sing no sad songs for
me;
Plant thou no roses
at my head,
Nor shady Cypress
tree:
Be the green grass
above me
With showers and
dewdrops wet:
And if thou wilt,
remember,
And if thou wilt,
forget.
[1] A Children's Overture, Op. 17
This work was originally intended as a Prelude to the 1911
children's Fairy Play, Where The Rainbow Ends, for which Quilter
provided the incidental music, but it got no further than the rough draft stage
before the composer abandoned it and replaced it with another introductory
piece. Not until 1919 did Quilter once again turn his attention to the score
when he fashioned it into a full-length concert overture. It received its first
performance on September 18 of that year at a Henry Wood Promenade concert at
London's Queen's Hall, conducted by Sir Henry Wood himself.
It is, in fact, a skilfully-wrought Fantasy on well-known
British nursery tunes, Quilter having taken the themes from Baby's Opera, an
illustrated anthology compiled by the one-time Principal of the Royal College
of Art, Walter Crane. The composer parades before the listener about a dozen
melodies in all, dressing each one up in simple but effective orchestral
colours and avoiding all hint of pretentiousness by not trying to overwork the
unassuming little tunes.
The first nursery rhyme - albeit just a brief excerpt - is Baa!
Baa! Black Sheep, announced right at the outset by muted horn and muted
trumpet, accompanied by avian imitations from the flute. A bridge passage
gradually speeds up the tempo, preparing the way for Boys and Girls, Come
Out to Play, while the eventual arrival of Upon Paul's Steeple Stands a
Tree will be immediately recognised by its introductory bell-ringing
sequence of 'Rounds' and 'Queen's'. Then come two Christmas-inspired pieces -
Dame, Get Up and Bake Your Pies, identifiable by its minor mode tune in 6/8
rhythm, and I Saw Three Ships, led at first by a solo viola. Woodwinds
and pizzicato strings usher in Sing a Song of Sixpence, after which
comes the relatively unfamiliar but extremely beautiful There Was a Lady
Loved a Swine, Quilter marking this section of the score to be played
"Andante con moto ed amoroso".
The flute quickens the tempo with Over the Hills and Far
Away which is developed into a sort of English country dance. A bit of a
gear change is then required to effect the introduction of the next piece, The
Crow and the Frog, which eventually gets under way courtesy of the oboe.
After that comes the most ambitious episode of the whole work - a brisk fugato,
in the minor mode, of A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go, sounding at times
remarkably like the Fuge à la Giga, attributed to Bach! The tune
eventually appears in its customary major tonality before Baa! Baa! Black
Sheep gets a chance to be heard in its entirety. This leads into Here We
Go Round the Mulberry Bush, with piccolo leading the way, before the
trumpets enter upon the scene with Oranges and Lemons. There is then the
briefest of development passages in which memories of Girls and Boys, Come
Out to Play, Upon Paul's Steeple Stands a Tree and Baa! Baa! Black Sheep
are fleetingly recalled. Finally, Oranges and Lemons comes chiming
in again with renewed splendour and the Overture ends in a mood of jubilation.
Suite: "Where The Rainbow Ends"
[2] No. 1a Rainbow land
[3] No. 1b Will o'the Wisp
[4] No. 2 Rosamund
[5] No. 3 Fairy Frolic
[6] No. 4 Goblin Forest
The Fairy Tale for children Where the Rainbow Ends was
written by Clifford Mills and John Ramsey (the latter better known as the actor
Reginald Owen, and who appeared in the show as St. George of England). It was
first performed on December 21, 1911 at London's Savoy Theatre (of Gilbert and
Sullivan fame) with a cast largely made up of children from the Italia Conti
Stage School, and including the twelve year old Noel Coward in the part of
William - who apparently told the composer, with admirable directness, "I
like your music, Mr. Quilter". This seasonal entertainment proved a great
success and was to grace the stage each Christmas for many years, usually
conducted by Quilter's one-time secretary, Leslie Woodgate. The latter recalled
in a Musical Times article many years later how Quilter himself would take the
rostrum for a couple of performances and he also described how it became
"an annual ritual to have a 'Rainbow' party at his [Quilter's] house
where, after tea, musical chairs and other frolics of a similar nature took
place, with Quilter at the piano".
It was Charles Hawtrey who commissioned the composer to
write the incidental music for the production. Quilter duly extracted five
movements from the score to make up a concert suite, the first being the warmly
romantic Rainbow Land, a rhapsodic andantino that casts more than an
occasional nod in the direction of Delius. It sets the scene for the tale of
Rosamund who, with the help of St. George, sets off on a magic carpet with her
brother and two friends in search of her lost mother and father in the land
where the rainbow ends. This is followed by Will o'the Wisp which, in
the words of the splendid Rosa Newmarch, "is a dainty, freakish little
sprite who helps to bring the children and parents together, and incidentally
lures the wicked uncle and aunt, who are in pursuit, into a very unpleasant
bog". If Quilter's music is to be believed, the Will o'the Wisp is a
fairly civilised individual, given to moments of reflection!
Rosamund is a little gem, representing Quilter at his
most appealing. A simple, song-like melody, played at first by a clarinet
before being taken over by the violins, is accompanied by the most tasteful
harmonies and scored with the utmost refinement. Fairy Frolics is one of
those good-natured, intrinsically 'polite' dance movements that the English
have made quintessentially their own since the time of Sir Arthur Sullivan and
Sir Edward German. Moon-fairies have assembled at the behest of Will o'the
Wisp. We are told by Rosa Newmarch that they have "advanced tripping over
the lake ... (and have emerged) from trees and rushes, some in the form of
dragon-flies, others like bats". With Will o'the Wisp "superintending
from the bank", they all perform a Fairy Frolic. "The dance finished,
they vanish once more into the shadows, and all is quiet as before".
In Goblin Forest, "the children have to pass
through a dark forest belonging to the Dragon King, inhabited by many wicked
little elves, goblins and wild beasts. The elves are heard laughing and playing
in the depths of the forest. Suddenly there is a silence, as a fearsome black
leopard walks stealthily across a moonlit patch of ground. He is no sooner gone
than a lot of elves, some pretty and dainty, but all freakish and
untrustworthy, emerge from their hiding-places; these are joined by other elves
and then by gigantic toads, and a wild dance ensues".
Thus is set the scene of the final movement of the Suite but
anyone expecting graphic pictorialism in the music is likely to be
disappointed. The wild beasts are about as terrifying as those to be found in
Pets' Corner, while the elves come across as nothing more than mildly
mischievous. But we must not forget that this was Edwardian children's
entertainment and, as such, Quilter performs his task admirably. It would be
nice to think that Where the Rainbow Ends could resume its place
each year as part of the Christmas festivities, but it is hard to imagine
modern-day audiences, brought up on harsher fare, accepting such light and
charming diversion.
Suite: "As You Like It", Op. 21
[7] No. 1 Shepherd's Holiday
[8] No. 2 Evening In The Forest
[9] No. 3 Merry Pranks
[10] No. 4 Country Dance
Quilter's literary taste, as has been mentioned earlier,
was, to say the least, wide-ranging. His songs cover the work of about forty
poets but it is not hard to discern a favourite amongst them - William
Shakespeare, nineteen of whose texts receive a setting. So, an invitation to
provide incidental music for a production of the Bard's As You Like It at
London's Old Vic came as a pleasant challenge to the composer. The commission
seems to have gone to him at the express wish of that grande dame of the Old
Vic, Lilian Baylis - it certainly wasn't at the behest of her Musical Director
Charles Corri who, according to Leslie Woodgate, on meeting Quilter at a
rehearsal of the incidental music, coolly remarked, "I only know one song
of yours, O Mistress Mine, and I don't think much of it".
Precisely when he was asked to provide a score to accompany
the play is not clear for, although the first night of the production did not
take place until October 17, 1921, most of the score seems to have been in
place in 1920 and a piano selection of the music appeared that year. The suite
recorded here, laid out for small orchestra, was published by Boosey & Go.
in 1921. What we do know for certain, however, is that the composer himself was
in the pit for all the Old Vic performances, watching Wilfrid Walter as the
Duke, Alan Watts as Orlando, Andrew Leigh as Touchstone and Florence Buckton as
Rosalind. It would seem that his music was received quite favourably.
The Suite consists of four movements, beginning with Shepherd's
Holiday, set in a lightly syncopated 6/8 with a somewhat sturdier
constitution than most English dances in this rhythm. Evening In The Forest provides
a pleasant lyrical interlude while Merry Pranks is characterised by
its contrasting moods. It starts in quasi-folksong fashion but quickly adopts a
much more sophisticated demeanour, with Quilter employing some quite cunning
phrasing. To finish, there is the Country Dance, an absolute gem with
the catchiest of melodies which could be described as Edward German meets Percy
Grainger. Those who sometimes feel that Quilter can be a little staid and
unexciting will certainly be given cause to rethink their views.
Country Pieces, Op. 27
[11] No. 1 Shepherd Song
[12] No. 2 Goblins
[13] No. 3 Forest Lullaby
[14] No. 4 Pipe and Tabor
Although a fine pianist, Quilter left comparatively little
solo music for the instrument, using it, in the main, as accompaniment for the
solo voice. All we have are two sets of Three Studies, Three Pieces which
appeared in 1916, Two Impressions which, like the second set of Studies,
appeared in 1920, a few delightful arrangements of traditional songs, including
Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes, and Country Pieces, which
were published in 1923. The latter, bearing a dedication to a Mrs. Fabian
Brackenberry, represent Quilter's gentle pianistic style to perfection, yet
they have taken to the orchestra extremely well in this arrangement by Ernest
Tomlinson, which he made in 1991 especially for the present recording.
Tomlinson, who had known and loved the work for many years, has said of his
adaptation, "When I arrange anything I always try to think into the
composer's mind. I don't want people to notice my arrangement, but just to
enjoy another delightful Quilter piece. It's lightly scored - e.g. no
trombones".
Shepherd Song sets a gentle pastoral scene, the music
infused with a delicate touch of wistfulness. In some respects, it is almost
like a Quilterian 'Song Without Words'. The Goblins, on the other hand,
have a slight touch of the Orient about them, thanks to a liberal use of open
fourths and some vaguely exotic chromaticisms. Ernest Tomlinson subtly
underlines this element with a few discreetly-judged applications of
appropriate instrumental colour, especially the distinctive sonority of the
xylophone.
Forest Lullaby is a simple, straightforward movement
whose quiet lyrical flow is unstrained and unhurried, with just a hint of
urgency towards the end of the central section. Finally, it's difficult to
imagine in what village Quilter heard such rhythmically subtle Pipe and
Tabor playing, but it's certainly not your conventional English country
dance. The piece is set in 3/4 though, for the most part, this is well
disguised and Ernest Tomlinson has pointed up the 'tabor' element in order to
emphasise the composer's often ingenious cross-rhythms.
Suite: "The Rake"
[15] No. 1 Dance at the Feast
[16] No. 2 The Light-Hearted Lady
[17] No. 3 The Frolicsome Friend
[18] No. 4 Allurement
[19] No. 5 Midnight Revels
The Rake was commissioned for inclusion in Charles B.
Cochran's revue On With the Dance which opened at the Palace
Theatre in Manchester on March 18, 1925 (immediately following an extraordinary
27 hour long dress rehearsal) before transferring to the London Pavilion on May
30, where it ran until the end of the year, notching up 229 performances. At
least three-quarters of the entertainment was provided by Noel Coward who wrote
the book and lyrics and collaborated with Philip Braham on the music. For Scene
8 of the evening's extravaganza, Roger Quilter teamed up with the great
choreographer Leonide Massine to provide what was described as "A Hogarth
Impression". Following hard on the heels of a rendition of 3 a.m. by
Percy Val which itself had been preceded by the hit of the show, Poor Little
Rich Girl, a sketch starring Hermione Baddeley, The Rake was described
in the following terms:
"Massine has taken a number of Hogarth's (William
Hogarth: English painter, satirist and engraver, 1697-1764) characters -
symbolic and realistic. William Nicholson (who designed the costumes and
scenery for the production) has given them a characteristic environment for a
Hogarthian Orgy.
The Rake lolls drunkenly in a chair while his wanton
companions disport around him. The negro Cupid is busy with bow and arrows,
plumbing the hearts of his victims; and the worship of women and wine whips
itself up into a passionate whirl. And while the revellers seek their pleasure,
the sages are wrapt in contemplation of their globe, and a window frames the
faces of a curious crowd, who see, and are silent".
With characters such as the Corset Woman, two Fat Women, the
Woman with the Bound Hair, the Beau (performed by Massine himself) and the Boot
Man, not to mention a group of musicians made up of The Dog, The Bull, The Cat
and The Cock, this strange little ballet must have been a most peculiar
spectacle!
Quilter rose well to this unusual commission and although
his score has some slightly unorthodox features - by the composer's standards,
that is - he fundamentally didn't alter his style too drastically. So, in the Dance
at the Feast, which opens with a three-note 'call to attention', he employs
as his main idea a fairly conventional 6/8 tune but makes it sound a little bit
different by the simple device of either bringing forward or delaying the third
quaver in each bar by one beat. It's syncopation at a pretty basic level, but
quite effective nonetheless, and makes what is, in fact, quite an ordinary
theme seem relatively unconventional.
The Light-Heal1ed Lady sees Quilter again
resorting to parallel fourths, as he did with Goblins in Country
Pieces, a device he seems to have equated with the exotic. This little
movement is charmingly scored, with really nothing of the grotesquerie
associated with Hogarth. The Frolicsome Friend is represented by a
somewhat gauche waltz while Allurement has a rhapsodic feel, even if one
occasionally feels that temptation is being resisted with a stiff British upper
lip! The ballet ends with Midnight Revels, getting under way with the
same 'call to attention' that began proceedings and developing into a nimble-footed
but slightly furtive dance. The coda stands as probably the jazziest thing
Quilter ever wrote.
Three English Dances, Op. 11
[20] No. 1 Allegro giocoso
[21] No. 2 Allegro scherzando
[22] No. 3 Allegro ma non troppo ma con spirito
In a letter to Roger Quilter, dated January 19, 1911, and
penned in a characteristically overblown style, Percy Grainger wrote: 'Why
don't you favor the orchestra again? Give us some of your warm roaring seething
loving stuff on a nice billowy band. The dances showed how the mass answered to
yr [your] helm...".
What the effusive Grainger almost certainly had in mind were
his friend's Three English Dances, which had received their première at
London's Queen's Hall on June 30, 1910. The instrumentation, for small orchestra,
was actually by Percy Fletcher, the Derby-born composer, conductor and
orchestrator (1879-1932) and the score was published in 1912.
With the greatest of respect to Grainger,
"roaring" and "seething" are the last epithets to come to
mind when listening to this utterly charming, if occasionally rather
impersonal, music. All three dances follow a conventional ABA format with only
the central section of No. 3 offering anything in the way of a marked contrast
to what takes place around it. All three movements exude good-naturedness and
amiability and are possessed of an unmistakable 'Englishness', with more than a
passing reminder of the spirit of both Delius and Grainger.
[23] Concert Waltz from "Rosmé"
Throughout his life, Quilter harboured a deep fascination
for the theatre. He was able to contribute to it through the incidental music
he wrote for As You Like It and Where the Rainbow Ends as well as
the two ballets, The Rake and Titania. But by far and away his
most substantial contribution to the stage world was his light opera Julia. First
performed at Covent Garden on December 3, 1936 by the so-called British Music
Drama Opera Company, with the London Symphony Orchestra in the pit, it was
conducted by Albert Coates, produced by Henry Cass and starred Margaret
Bannerman, Henry Wendon and Ralph Roberts in the leading roles.
The libretto was the handiwork of Stanley Grey and Caswell
Garth, with lyrics by Rodney Bennett. The plot was based on a real-life
episode, namely the wooing in 1786 by the somewhat dissolute painter George
Morland (1763-1804) of Anne Ward, sister of his close friend, the engraver and
animal painter James Ward (1769-1859). According to the original synopsis, the
story told of Julia, Countess of Clovelly who, "married at an early age to
a husband much older than herself, finds, in his death, that she is still held
captive by the terms of his will. This will provides, should she wish to marry
again, that unless she chooses one of two suitors named by her late husband she
will lose his entire fortune. Ruled over by her tyrannical sister-in-law she
finds the luxury of her London home a gilded prison from which she longs, yet
fears, to escape.
She is influenced by her maid, Lucy, and by Kate and Jane,
two strolling singers whose careers her music master persuades her to further,
to run away for one night to the freer atmosphere of the Blue Boar Inn at
Barnet. At the inn that night Mr. Montague Broscius, manager of a
"fit-up" company, arrives with his strolling players to perform in
the barn theatre attached to the Blue Boar.
Here Julia, arriving incognito, meets David Wycombe, a young
composer, and is persuaded by Broscius to sing in his Company. This she agrees
to do provided the opera to be performed is a new work by David Wycombe.
Helping the young composer in his career, Julia is at the same time
instrumental through Kate and Jane in fooling her two suitors who have followed
her to the inn.
Through Julia's influence David's opera is performed, not in
the barn, but in her own private theatre. On the opening night, however, David
discovers Julia was merely masquerading at the inn, and, thinking she has only
been amusing herself by encouraging him in his career and that her affection for
him is worthless, turns from her to Nancy, Brocius' daughter, who has always
loved him.
Julia, heartbroken, realises she has not escaped what she
feels to be her destiny, merely by running away from it, and accepts Lord
Baldoyle, the younger of her two suitors. But at the Blue Boar the two lovers
meet again and realise, swayed by the music that brought them together, that
stronger than "titles, position, birth - is love".
But all this was quite out of place in the august
surroundings of the Royal Opera House, being too light to appeal to serious
music enthusiasts and too serious to interest light music devotees, and it
failed dismally, disappearing after just seven performances. The publishers
were not prepared to issue the complete work but what did appear in later years
were various extracts, issued under a bewildering mix of titles, including Love
at the Inn, At the Blue Boar, Love and the Countess and Rosmé.
The latter selection included a splendid Waltz which, in the
opera's action, was used, to quote The Times review, to "follow the lovers
about" as well as to underline the work's happy ending. Quite simply, it
represents one of Quilter's finest orchestral achievements. It is a sturdy
creation which doesn't stand in any obvious English waltz tradition - e.g.
Charles Ancliffe or Eric Coates - but, rather, brings to mind the examples of
Emile Waldteufel. A fairly substantial slow introduction is not without
dramatic effect and prepares the scene most effectively for the eventual
arrival of the main theme. It's often been said that by the 1930s, Quilter's
inspiration had faded; this fine Waltz proves the folly of such sweeping
generalisations.
Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
(Bratislava)
The Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
(Bratislava), the oldest symphonic ensemble in Slovakia, was founded in 1929 at
the instance of Milos Ruppeldt and Oskar Nedbal, prominent personalities in the
sphere of music. Ondrej Lenárd was appointed its conductor in 1970 and in 1977
its conductor-in-chief, succeeded recently by Robert Stankowsky. The orchestra
has given successful concerts both at home and abroad, in Germany, Russia,
Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Spain, Italy, Great Britain, Hong Kong and Japan.
For Marco Polo the orchestra has recorded works by Glazunov, Glière, Miaskovsky
and other late romantic composers and film music of Honegger, Bliss, Ibert and
Khachaturian as well as several volumes of the label's Johann Strauss Edition.
Naxos recordings include symphonies and ballets by Tchaikovsky, and symphonies
by Berlioz and Saint-Saëns.
Adrian Leaper
Adrian Leaper was appointed Assistant Conductor to Stanislaw
Skrowaczewski of the Hallé Orchestra in 1986, and has since then enjoyed an
increasingly busy career, with engagements at home and throughout Europe. Born
in 1953, Adrian Leaper studied at the Royal Academy of Music and was for a
number of years co-principal French horn in the Philharmonia Orchestra, before
turning his attention exclusively to conducting. He has been closely involved
with the Naxos and Marco Polo labels and has been consequently instrumental in
introducing elements of English repertoire to Eastern Europe. His numerous
recordings include a complete cycle of Sibelius symphonies for Naxos, and
Havergal Brian's Symphony No. 4 ("Das Siegeslied") for Marco Polo.
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Classical Music
A Children's Overture - 11:15 
