JOHN McCabe
CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA THE CHAGALL WINDOWS
MALCOLM ARNOLD
Philharmonic Concerto SIR GEORG SOLTI, BERNARD HAITINK conductors LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
A BBC recording
Malcolm Arnold’s career-long association with the London Philharmonic Orchestra started when he played second trumpet with the ensemble in 1941 while still a student, later becoming Principal Trumpet. Arnold was already a prolific composer, and Eduard van Beinum, then Principal Conductor, took the scintillating early overture Beckus the Dandipratt into his repertoire and frequently performed it, as well as making an historic recording of it (as heard on LPO-0011). In 1948 Arnold relinquished his trumpet chair to concentrate on his career as a composer. The association with the London Philharmonic Orchestra continued, however – the Orchestra gave many performances and made a number of recordings of Arnold’s music (often under his direction, for he was an excellent conductor), and in 1976 he was commissioned to write the Philharmonic Concerto for performance during the Orchestra’s USA tour marking the American Bicentennial. Arnold’s skill as an orchestrator, already evident from early works such as Beckus the Dandipratt, was a prime factor in his immense success as a film composer and contributed greatly to the popularity of his symphonic and orchestral music. Nowhere does he better display this ability than in the Philharmonic Concerto, a veritable thesaurus of Arnoldisms – the frantic scrabbling on two notes, the massive full orchestral
chords of a distinctly Waltonian splendour, wistful lyrical tunes, cascading passages both loud and soft, the occasional use of a vernacular harmonic style derived from popular song, the ebullient high spirits and sections almost of big-band jazz performed here by Haitink and the Orchestra with irresistible swagger. The opening Intrada is characteristically rumbustious and is played here with infectious virtuosity; the central Aria is warmly lyrical, with few hints of the angst that sometimes inflected his music; and the final Chacony, a favourite form, is both powerful and invigorating. The work’s Bicentennial aim was to celebrate ‘this great event with as much brilliance as I am able to muster’ – there can be no doubt that Arnold succeeded in doing just that. My own association with the London Philharmonic Orchestra began in 1972, when Sheila Armstrong and Bernard Haitink gave the first of several wonderful performances of my orchestral song-cycle Notturni ed Alba. That association has been maintained ever since through the Orchestra’s performances of some of my bigger pieces, including two commissions. In 1982 the Orchestra commissioned the Concerto for Orchestra for its 50th anniversary season – I was particularly moved when told it was the orchestral members themselves who had chosen me. Symphony on a Pavane was then commissioned in 2006, a similarly
happy occasion for me. My experience has always been of real music-making with the Orchestra, whose members have been courteous colleagues of great musical insight, as these two performances demonstrate. They also show the deep commitment of two great conductors with whom it was a joy to work. The Chagall Windows, commissioned by the Hallé Orchestra, was performed by Bernard Haitink and the London Philharmonic Orchestra almost as soon as the ink was dry on the première, so to speak, and the latter ensemble performed it several times in the UK and abroad, both with Haitink and Jésus López-Cobos on the podium. It was inspired by Chagall’s stained glass windows at the Hadasseh-Hebrew University, Jerusalem, depicting the twelve sons of the patriarch Jacob and the Twelve Tribes of Israel. I first saw pictures of them in a newspaper colour supplement, and then in a book about them. When Granada TV flew me to Jerusalem as part of a documentary about the composition, I saw the windows ‘in situ’, three on each of the four walls of the synagogue and realised that my main structural problem was solved – the work had to be continuous, in several blocks of interlinked sections, the whole forming a kind of symphonic overall shape. Thus, the first three ‘windows’ form a substantial slow movement, from the first-born Reuben to the
law-giver Levi (where the burnished sound of brass and tuned percussion seemed to me to reflect the predominantly golden colour of the window). After a decisive allegro for Judah, the slow tempo returns for another tripartite slow movement, followed by an even more aggressive allegro for the warlike Gad. Issachar and Asher reflect the peaceful, pastoral nature of these tribes (Asher is scored for strings with celesta), and then, through a fleet scherzo for Naphtali, the music gradually moves to a gathering together of all the main motifs of the piece, finishing with the thrusting energy of the youngest, Benjamin, performed here with excoriating brilliance. Although The Chagall Windows is picturesque in original inspiration, its composition felt very much like writing a symphony. Concerto for Orchestra, on the other hand, always felt like writing a large passacaglia, based on the slow string build-up that follows the opening fanfares (which themselves state the work’s main theme in trumpet and woodwind unison) – it extends the passacaglia principle into a more detailed exploration of this simple main tune. For instance, one of the three shorter movements at the centre of the piece, whose titles stem from Schumann’s piano work Faschingsschwank aus Wien, is a scherzo in which the key of each phase of the music derives from the notes of the main theme, so that it forms a different kind of
key centre. With two more substantial outer movements, both in two sections, the overall shape also mirrors the Schumann. Above all, I wanted to write a piece that would show off the Orchestra’s virtuosity but that would also have moments of different kinds of lyricism (another of its strengths), and be supported by strong structural underpinning. I used the Finale to unite the various motifs, and to mark the music’s progress by a recurring sound – a piano/harp repeated pattern like a very quiet ‘tape loop’, which occurs at the end of the first big movement, to lead into the three central pieces – and again at the very end of the work. From start to finish, Solti’s energy and control of large-scale form, plus the brilliance of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, gave the Concerto the ideal start in life. John McCabe 2007
Sir Georg Solti was one of the great conductors of the twentieth century. Born in Hungary, he studied with Bartók and Kodály and made his conducting debut with the Budapest Opera. In 1946 he was appointed Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera, which he led for six years. From 1961 to 1971 he was Music Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where his performances of Die Frau ohne Schatten, Moses und Aron and Der Ring des Nibelungen attracted international attention. From 1969 to 1991 Georg Solti was Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, during which time he took the Orchestra onto the world stage, initiating the ensemble’s first ever foreign tours. He recorded over 250 discs for Decca with his orchestras in Chicago, London and Vienna; he was the recipient of countless awards, medals, and honorary degrees, and at the time of his death in 1997 had won 32 Grammy awards, more than any other classical or popular recording artist. Georg Solti was Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 1979 to 1983.
Bernard haitink conductor A3 Studios
Decca/Karsh
sir georg solti conductor
Bernard Haitink has enjoyed a long and distinguished career as an orchestral and operatic conductor. Amongst the major positions he has held are Chief Conductor and latterly Honorary Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (from 1967 to 1979), Music Director of the European Union Youth Orchestra, Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Dresden Staatskapelle, Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Music Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Bernard Haitink also appears as a guest conductor with many other world orchestras and opera companies, whilst his work in the recording studio has resulted in some of the finest recordings of orchestral and operatic music ever made including notable work with the Vienna Philharmonic and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestras. He has received many awards, most notably an honorary KBE in 1977, the Erasmus Prize in 1991, and a House Order of Orange-Nassau in 1999. He was made a Companion of Honour in 2002.
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Richard Haughton
The London Philharmonic Orchestra is known as one of the world’s great orchestras with a reputation secured by its performances in the concert hall and opera house, its many award-winning recordings, its trail-blazing international tours and its pioneering education work. Distinguished conductors who have held positions with the Orchestra since its foundation in 1932 by Sir Thomas Beecham include – alongside Sir Georg Solti and Bernard Haitink – Sir Adrian Boult, Sir John Pritchard, Klaus Tennstedt, Franz Welser-Möst and Kurt Masur. Vladimir Jurowski was appointed the Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor in March
2003, becoming Principal Conductor in September 2007, succeeding Kurt Masur. The London Philharmonic Orchestra has been resident symphony orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall since 1992 and there it presents its main series of concerts between September and May each year. In summer, the Orchestra moves to Sussex where it has been the resident symphony orchestra at Glyndebourne Festival Opera for over 40 years. The Orchestra also performs at venues around the UK and has made numerous tours to America, Europe and Japan, and visited India, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Australia and South Africa.
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JOHN McCABE b.1939
25:23
Concerto for Orchestra* (1982)
01 02 03 04 05
08:16 01:51 02:31 02:11 10:34
Deciso – Adagio Scherzino (Allegro vivo) Romanze (Andante) Intermezzo (Giocoso) Largo – Allegro deciso – Allegro marcato – Pesante
World première performance
MALCOLM ARNOLD 1921-2006
14:41
Philharmonic Concerto (1976)
06 07 08
04:30 07:00 03:11
Intrada (Vivace) Andantino Chacony (Energico)
World première performance
29:27
The Chagall Windows (1974)
09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
01:33 03:44 01:11 02:35 02:19 04:08 02:06 02:52 02:42 02:01 01:50 02:26
Reuben Simeon Levi Judah (Allegro deciso) Zebulun (Andante con moto) Issachar Dan (Lento) Gad (Allegro feroce) Asher (Andante) Naphtali (Vivo e leggiero) Joseph (Moderato) Benjamin (Allegro strepitoso)
JOHN McCABE b.1939 London première performance
SIR GEORG SOLTI* conductor BERNARD HAITINK conductor LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Recorded live at ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL London
LPO – 0023