Toronto SO; wartime recording. Reprise of sections A & B cut.
LSO/Bliss.
Thanks to Edward Johnson.
Little Pomp if plenty of Circumstance – maybe Elgar’s “Quick March” titling is taken too literally here, by Stanley Pope (especially), Sir Ernest MacMillan, and Sir Arthur Bliss. Also Bliss’s own Welcome the Queen.
A powerful if nostalgic selection: but I wish the Columbia premiere recording of Welcome The Queen with Bliss and the Philharmonia was available now (is it? – I cannot keep up with all the company changes and instant deletions nowadays) – it is a far, far better performance and recording than the later RCA/Decca early stereo version with the LSO, although both were conducted by Bliss himself. It is a terrific march – fully the equal of Crown Imperial.
Here it is Bob,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o578kophmvM
and you are correct.
Colin
I have that Stanley Pope little 7″ EP, bought it at a sale in WH Smith in Cardiff as a Fourth Former back in the late 1960s. The lick of that PC5 would have even the fittest marching soldiers panting for breath! A strange release, that EP – just Marches 1, 2, 4 & 5. Was it always planned as a 7-incher? (in which case there wouldn’t have been room for no. 3 – the finest, enigmatic of the five, I always think)? Or were just these four marches recorded in limited session time left over from Pope’s recording of the first version of Schumann’s Fourth Symphony (originally a 10″ Philips vinyl, and now available as a CD on Forgotten Recordings)? A while ago I asked Pope’s son Christopher, erstwhile Decca recording producer, but he was unable to shed light on the matter. Bob M-W…any thoughts?
I just googled the ‘Forgotten Records’ website and their ad for the Pope Schumann 4th LP gives the recording date: 17 September 1955, Walthamstow. An email asking if they also had the recording date for the Elgar 45rpm disc elicited an immediate response: 9 December 1954, also Walthamstow. I seem to remember reading somewhere that Brahms thought the original version of the Schumann was superior to its revision. The Gramophone reviewed the Pope LP in its March 1956 issue but I don’t have that review to hand, so don’t know how it was received.
I also used to have the Elgar 45 but it was among a clear-out of 45s and 10″ LPs that I indulged in a few years ago. I now rather regret that, as I don’t recall if all the marches were taken at a lick in order to fit them onto a 7″ disc. At any rate, it’s nice to have the speedy No. 5 on YouTube!
Thanks, Edward, for the recording information. It’s still rather puzzling, isn’t it, why all five Pomp and Circumstance marches weren’t recorded, and that the project was therefore apparently planned for an EP, with fast tempi and a dearth of repeats to fit just these four marches on to this little disc. It was well received in the Gramophone. Trevor Harvey’s review of the Schumann in the March 1956 issue is welcoming, if a tad sniffy about the performance. I’ve always preferred the more transparent orchestration of the earlier version of the symphony, but lament the clunky transitions to the first and fourth movement Allegros – so much more organic-sounding in the revision. I wonder if anyone has had the courage to combine the earlier orchestration with the transitions of the later version…? Sacrilegious?
An update to the Elgar / Pope 45rpm disc. I’ve suggested to Alain Deguernel of ‘Forgotten Records’ that having released the Schumann 4th LP, he might like to release Pope’s only other Philips recording, the Pomp & Circumstance Marches, suitably coupled with an LP of English music. He’s replied to say “what a good idea” and he will try to come up with a CD to feature them. If anyone has any ideas of a nice pre-1962 mono LP, making it out-of-copyright under the previous law, of Elgar or some other English music with which the Pope 45 could be coupled, I’d be happy to pass any suggestions on!
The Wiki entry on the Schumann 4th reveals different opinions on the two versions. Clara Schumann arranged for the publication of the revised version and was furious when Brahms published the original which he thought the better of the two. Incidentally, Schumann originally intended to have a guitar in the “Romanze” movement, doubling the pizzicato accompaniment in the strings. Some enterprising conductor might like to try that out! … Wiki also reveals that both Bernard Shore and Donald Tovey had similar ideas to yours, Andrew, in that elements of both versions could be combined.
I’m reminded that back in the days of the Stokowski Society, we wondered about releasing his Suisse Romande concert performance of the Schumann 4th, recorded in Montreux in 1968. However, after listening to the tape, a committee member dismissed it as “bloody awful” so it was never released. Nowadays, thanks to YouTube, it can be heard by anyone and here’s the funny thing. The comments underneath Stokowski’s performance include: “A perfectly thrilling and beautifully played performance! One of the best I’ve ever heard!” … “Very exciting, full of energy and details when required by the score! Wonderful.” … Still, someone added “Old man in a hurry” and that rather sums it up.
Incidentally, I once had the gall, the cheek and the nerve to ask Stokowski what he would do if someone came backstage after one of his concerts and told him he’d just given a terrible performance. “I’d shake them by the hand,” came the laconic deadpan reply!
Here’s his Schumann 4 but beware his 100-miles-an-hour performance! …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM3QqtnQkFM
Thanks, Edward, for the info. I’ll have a think about a coupling for Pope’s P&Cs. If anyone can find a decent copy of that EP, I’ll be impressed. Mine is pretty ropey. And thanks for the Stokowski Schumann 4. Is it really so unusually fast, though? Swift, agreed, but certainly not more than many others, surely. I like it, notwithstanding the shrill sound, rather nasty even allowing for the provenance. I think I knew about Schumann’s original guitar idea. Seems a weird notion to me…but I might change my mind if there was the chance to hear it.
Stokowski isn’t particularly fast and is generally respectful of Schumann’s revised score, save for some forcing of tone and OTT dynamics; but the huge rallentando near the end is totally misjudged.
There is a recording of Schumann 4 with a guitar, I believe, but I can’t recall the details or find it on YT.
A further update to the Pope / Elgar 45rpm disc comments above … M. Deguernel of ‘Forgotten Records’ took up my suggestion of issuing it on CD and duly acquired a copy from a second-hand source. He has made it the filler to the Barbirolli / Halle Elgar 1st Symphony from 1956. This has been issued elsewhere before, though I don’t have it in my collection, so it will be nice to have it with the Pope disc which will be new to CD.
I wonder if ‘Forgotten Records’ are open to suggestions of more reissues of LPs from the past that haven’t yet made it to CD but which deserve to do so? … They have a contact email address at the bottom of this page, which gives full details of their new Elgar release, so if you have any ideas, don’t hesitate! …
https://www.forgottenrecords.com/en/(elgar-symphonie-n-1-pomp-and-circumstance-sir-john-barbirolli-stanley-pope-fr2372)
Another update to Elgar and Stanley Pope (1916-1995) … Evidently he was averse to making commercial recordings, so the 10″ Philips LP of Schumann 4 and the 45rpm disc of the Elgar marches pretty much constitutes his discography. He has popped up conducting symphonies by Haydn and Havergal Brian on a couple of other labels but they are from BBC broadcasts.
The Elgar P & C No. 4 is now on YouTube from the “Forgotten Records” release and has come up very well. Incidentally, has there been a recording of this march in which A. P. Herbert’s “Song of Liberty” is sung, in the way “Land of Hope and Glory” is sung in P & C No. 1? … The lyrics are shown in this video. Pope appears to have encouraged the percussion section quite a bit in all these marches which I guess is no bad thing! …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1seBqTy0xo