Albion Ensemble
By George on September 29, 2019 in Albion EnsembleSeptember has brought some wonderful music making not least two wonderful days with members of the Albion Ensemble. Peter Francomb and Helen Cass had the great idea to get the Albion to join the Riverside Quintet to play decets on 8 September and miraculously we managed to bring Philippa Davies, Andrew Marriner, Peter and myself together with Sarah Burnett (bassoon) to make this happen.
At the same time we were approached to provide a surprise performance for Felix Warnock’s retirement from the role of Chair of The Radcliffe Trust on 9 September thus bringing about a two-day festival of wind ensemble playing.
On the 8th, the quintet met to rehearse briefly for the following day and then, after a drink or two, to play decet music by Francaix and Dvorak before being treated to an absolutely superb dinner provided by the Riverside Quintet. So thanks to Richard Austen, Laura Douglas, Roy Simpson, Miles Chapman, and Helen Cass for some hugely enjoyable playing and also amazing cuisine. Roy, your hospitality was perfection itself and the wine still resonates along with the music!
The plan to ambush Felix at the end of his farewell dinner at the In-and-Out Club, St. James’ Square went perfectly. We assembled at Al Duce restaurant in Duke of York Street for our main course whilst the Radcliffe Trust had their dinner and made appropriate speeches. Around 9.30, we were ushered into the dining hall at the Club with Felix visibly surprised. We gave him and the Radcliffe Trustees a 20-minute recital including favourites from Felix’ era with the Albion in the 1980’s including the unforgettable tour of the Far East in 1985: Farkas 17th Century Dances, Bizet Jeux d’Enfants, Reicha Op 88 and Debussy Petite Suite. Bizet and Debussy were, of course, the unbeatable arrangements by Gordon Davies and it was only natural therefore that we finished with his Flight of the Bumble Bee. Having had to ask Gordon to re-send us the music shortly beforehand it was good to know that fingers and coordination still functioned and the bee buzzed itself to the end without incident!
We were able to thank the Radcliffe Trustees for their support for our annual workshops in The Midland Arts Centre, Birmingham all those years ago – weekends that we so enjoyed thanks to great ensembles coming along and the incredible hospitality of Harlan and Delia Walker, musical hosts extraordinary.
But this was a remarkable two days that brought together old colleague-friends who had done so much together……….let’s hope for more reunions like that!
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Tully Potter “THE ENGLISH OBOE RENAISSANCE” Thanks to Léon Goossens and his influence, we have a wealth of English chamber music for oboe and strings. I am prompted to mention it, because I have been enjoying George Caird’s 2004 CD (Oboe Classics CC2009) entitled ‘An English Renaissance’. With five very fine string players including his wife Jane Salmon, violinist Simon Blendis, violist Louise Williams and two different second violinists, Caird plays the Quintets by Elizabeth Maconchy, Dorothy Gow and Arthur Bliss and the Fantasy Quartets by Britten and E.J. Moeran. Although I find the one-movement Gow piece a little austere, it does loosen up towards the end. The rest of the disc is all familiar to me musically and, if you will pardon the pun, absolutely Blissful. There is only one overlap with the lovely 1984 CD by Sarah Francis and the English String Quartet (Chandos CHAN 8392), and that is the Moeran, which I can happily have twice in my collection – the two performances are quite distinct, what with different recording characteristics and the individual personalities of the two oboists. Francis’s other pieces are the great Quintet by Arnold Bax, four pieces for quintet by Gustav Holst and Gordon Jacob’s typically enjoyable Quartet. A very individual oboist was Janet Craxton, whom I often heard in concert or in orchestras. An interesting and rewarding disc of her London Oboe Quartet (Oboe Classics CC2011) features works for oboe and strings by Francis Routh, Elizabeth Maconchy (a late Quartet, as opposed to the very early Quintet), Richard Stoker, Nicola LeFanu, Lennox Berkeley and Elizabeth Lutyens (‘Driving out the Death’, Op. 81). For another Lutyens piece by Craxton with the London Oboe Quartet (‘O Absalom…’, Op. 122) you need to seek out a BBC disc (BBC CD 635). Craxton’s playing in all these varied pieces is full of character – she had a very individual speaking voice and somehow it was echoed in her oboe tone! I should mention a few historic performances by Goossens and his pupils. He recorded the Bax Quintet in 1927 with André Mangeot’s International Quartet for the NGS (now on Oboe Classics CC2005). Helen Gaskell and the Griller Quartet, the original performers of the Maconchy Quintet, recorded it in 1933 for HMV (now on Dutton CDBP 9762 with the two other prizewinning works in the 1932 Daily Telegraph competition, string quartets by Edric Cundell and Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, as well as a later Griller recording of Bax’s First Quartet). Evelyn Rothwell (Lady Barbirolli) recorded William Wordsworth’s Oboe Quartet in 1958 with the Robert Masters String Trio for the BBC (now on Barbirolli Society SJB 1045-46). I think that’s enough oboe music for now…”
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