A
few days ago I posted about a concert programme I had found in a second hand
bookshop. I gave an overview of the first half of that performance. Arthur Hammond conducted the London Symphony
Orchestra and the soprano soloist was Mary Cherry. The raison-d’être of the
concert was the promotion of the music of Josef Holbrooke (1878-1958)
The
second half opened with Siegfried’s Journey
to the Rhine from Richard Wagner’s Gotterdammerung. It was a concert
version of the music used at the parting of Siegfried and Brunnhilde and the
music that covers the scene change at the beginning of the opera. This was
followed by the aria ‘Einsam in Truben Tagen’ from Wagner’s Lohengrin.
The
Holbrooke theme was to dominate the remainder of the concert with the
performance of three works – the Overture: Amontillado,
the Elegy for Strings: Caradoc’s Dream
and finally the tone poem The Viking.
Once
again Edgar Alan Poe was the inspiration for the dramatic overture. This work
was based on story ‘A Cask of Amontillado’ however the composer did not attempt
a detailed portrayal of the incidents in the story. What he has done is to describe the mood and
the general character of the story rather than ‘an account of the relentless
pursuit of the victim during the Carnival, the visit to the endless vaults
where the cask of Amontillado, the lure, is said to be kept.’ I will not tell the rest of the tale, lest
readers of this blog have not read it.
The
programme notes give a brief description of the music – ‘It is interesting to
note that in this, one of [Holbrooke’s] latest works, unlike the symphonic
poems where the organic nature of the themes seems frequently to condition the
pattern of the music, the composer has enjoyed the traditional overture form
with, however a very dramatic coda...’ Amontillado was heard at this concert
for the first time. At present time
there is only one recording of this work available – CPO 777442-2. I listened to this work before writing this post:
it was my first hearing. I was impressed with every bar and once again feel
that if this music had been composed by a German or Russian it would be
‘essential listening.’
The next work is not currently available on CD or MP3. The Elegy
for Strings: Caradoc’s Dream (c.1920)
is derived from the cycle of Holbrooke’s Wagnerian style operas – The Children of Don, Dylan Son of the Wave and Bronwen. The plots of these music dramas
are complex – however suffice to say that the elegy is founded on a selection
of themes from the Trilogy – but mainly from Bronwen. The predominant theme is the ‘beautiful ‘Bronwen’ motif
and that of her parting from Caradoc, the heroic British chieftain, when she –
vainly as it turn out – leaves him to wed the High King of Ireland and save her
country from war. ‘Though it be ice upon
my heart to speak it fare you well,’ she says. So the lovers part and when they
next meet it is for Bronwen to die in his arms, overwhelmed and broken hearted
at all she has endured.’ It sounds
absolutely fantastic stuff. Both operatic ‘Trilogy’ and Elegy ‘sound’ as if
they ought to be revived.
The final work in this concert is The Viking (1901 rev.1912). It is based on Longfellow’s ballad ‘The
Skeleton in Armour.’ In essence the said
skeleton appears to the narrator and demands that he record his tale. I will
not plot-spoil what is a dramatic story based on a true archaeological ‘find’
–but suffice to say the Viking loved the daughter of a great sea-king: naturally
there is a tragic ending.
The programme notes suggest that Holbrooke’s music is ‘full of the
exhilaration and flashing colour of the poem.’
Ernest Newman, the music critic, has written about Holbrooke’s The Viking that ‘the boy who
could...bring the heart into one’s throat at passage after passage of ‘The
Skeleton in Armour’ ...has surely added something to the world’s store of great
and lovely things’.
The first performance of this work was given by Sir Granville
Bantock at Liverpool and then Antwerp. The work is available on CPO 777442-2: there is an upload to YouTube.
Finally, the programme gave intimation of a subsequent concert to
be held on Monday November 4 1946 at 7pm. Non-Holbrookian works included Weber’s
Overture: Preciosa, Donizetti’s overtue to Linda
de Chamounix, Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony and George Lloyd’s Entr’acte
& Norman March from his second opera The
Serf. Holbrooke was represented by his Piano Concerto No.1 (The Song of
Gwyn-ap-Nudd), his tone poem Queen Mab
and as ‘new’ prelude from the opera Dylan.
A formidable concert indeed. Alas I do not have the programme notes for this
one!
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