Last Night of the
Proms
William Walton
(1902-1983): Crown Imperial; Orb and Sceptre
Sir William Walton was
certainly the finest Master of the King's/Queens's Musick that never was. He
frequently produced ceremonial pieces with just the right combination of
fanfare, colour and a real "English" tune. His ability to many music
of genuine spirit and originality with a current of popular and national
feeling was unique in his generation. The two most famous products of this
skill were the coronation marches: Crown Imperial, commissioned by the
BBC for the coronation of Edward VIII and performed at that of George VI in
1937 and Orb and Sceptre, written for the coronation of the Queen in
1953 and dedicated to Her Majesty. Walton unashamedly borrows the design of Elgar's
Pomp and Circumstance marches, with the central section reserved for a
stilling tune. He found the inspiration for the titles for his marches in a
passage from Henry V, that con Id provide titles for a whole
string of ceremonial marches, jokingly remarking that he was saving "Bed
Majestical" for the coronation of Prince Charles:
I am a King that
find thee, and I know
'Tis nat the bahm,
the sceptre and the ball,
The sword, the
mace, the crown imperial,
The intertissued
robe of gold and pearl,
The farcèd title
running ‘fore the King
The throne he sits
on, nor the tide of pomp
That heats upon the
high shore of this world,
No, not all these,
thrice-gorgeous ceremony,
Nat all these, laid
in bed majestical,
Can sleep so
soundly as the wretched slave.
(Shakespeare: Henry
V)
Hubert Parry
(1848-1918): Jerusalem
Sir Hubert Parry's
setting of Blake's visionary poem Jerusalem was created at the
suggestion of the Poet Laureate Robert Bridges in 1916. It was written for a
meeting of the "Fight for Right" campaign and later appropriated by
the movement for women's suffrage which won it much fame for its heartfelt
expression of hope. Ever since it was introduced into the Last Night of the
Proms by Sir Malcolm Sargent it has been a firm patriotic favourite.
Edward Elgar
(1857-1934): Enigma Variations: Nimrod
Sir Edward Elgar's Enigma
Variations was his first great success, winning the support of Hans Richter
and receiving many performances in England and across Europe. The core of the
work is its marvellous expressive theme, ripe for development yet satisfying in
itself. The work is a series of portraits of Elgar's friends and colleagues. Nimrod
was August Johannes Jaeger, Elgar's publisher working at Novello's, who
inspired and encouraged the composer to create his finest work. Elgar's clever
nicknames are at work here. Jaeger is the German for hunter and Nimrod was a
great Biblical hunter. The emotional strength and nobility of this tribute has
won it a place close to the heart of the English musical nation.
Sir Henry Wood
(1869-1944): Fantasia on British Sea Songs
In 1905 Sir Henry
Wood, the founder of the promenade concerts, arranged a gala concert to
celebrate the centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar. In a programme of
sea-faring music he included his own Fantasia on British Sea Songs which
was hastily put together in the three weeks before the concert. By including it
in the final night of the next season's promenade concerts he established a
tradition, the spectacular orchestration of Rule Britannia always bringing
the house down Mindful and respectful of his musicians, Wood provided several
of his most distinguished players with important solos. The piece begins with
authentic bugle-calls and then follow: The Saucy Arethusa (euphonium), Tom
Bowling (cello), Jack's the Lad (violin); a spirited hornpipe which
always leaves the Last Night audience trailing in its wake, Farewell ye
Spanish Ladies (a sonorous trombone quartet), a wonderfully enjoyable but
irrelevant clarinet cadenza, Home Sweet Home (oboe), See the Conquering
Hero (horn, as in the original Handel) and finally Rule Britannia as
a triumphant conclusion.
Malcolm Arnold (b.
1921): Overture "Tam O'Shanter"
Sir Malcolm Arnold is
now justly famous for a huge range of expertly crafted and expressive music that
has always been distinguished by his wonderful ear for instrumental sonority
and an intimate inside knowledge of the orchestra. The overture Tam
O'Shanter (1955) after the narrative poem by Robert Burns is a virtuosic
display of the composer's skill, telling the story of Tam's late night journey,
his encounter with a coven of witches and his lucky escape. The drunken Tam is
portrayed at the opening by a comically inebriated pair of bassoons and as his
journey progresses through the stormy night the music gets wilder and wilder.
The climax of the work is the vivid picture of the devil himself, the whole
orchestra sounding like huge devilish bagpipes:
There sat Auld
Nick, in shape o' beast;
A tousie tyke,
black, grim, and large,
To gie them music
was his charge:
He screw'd the
pipes and gart them skirl,
Till roof and
rafters a' did dirl.
(Robert Burns
(1759-1796): Tam O'Shanter)
Hubert Parry: I was
glad when they said unto me
Parry's anthem I
was glad when they said unto me was written as the processional anthem for
the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902. It has been repeated at every
coronation since then. When performed as a ceremonial work it includes music
for the Westminster Abbey Boys Choir and the long military trumpets that grace
royal occasions. The text is from Psalm 122, verses 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7,
and taken literally would seem to have a great deal of relevance for this day
and age. The mood is urgent and ceremonial until a change of key and the use of
a semi-chorus for O pray for the peace before a return to the opening
style for a splendid ending.
Edward Elgar: Pomp and
Circumstance March No. 1
Elgar's Pomp and
Circumstance March No. 1 was first heard in Liverpool in 1901. At the first
London performance, Sir Henry Wood had to play it three times "merely to
restore order" as he put it in his autobiography. This was without the
association with A.C. Benson's words Land of Hope and Glory. These were
added to the tune in Elgar's Coronation Ode of 1902. The work is so
popular, of course, because of the great tune that comes twice, serving as a
trio section for the vigorous march.
Andrew Fairley
Leeds Festival Chorus
Chorus Master Simon
Wright
Leeds Festival Chorus
was founded in 1858 to sing at the first Leeds Music Festival. The festival
owed much of its international reputation to the quality of the chorus and the
new works commissioned from composers such as Dvořák, Elgar, Holst and
Vaughan Williams. Many distinguished conductors have worked with the chorus,
including Sullivan, Beecham, Giulini, Horenstein, Karl Richter, Pierre Boulez,
Charles Mackerras, Colin Davis, John Eliot Gardiner, Roger Norrington and Mark
Elder, but it was Malcolm Sargent who conducted the première of what is perhaps
the Festival's most famous commission, Walton's Belshazzar's Feast. The
chorus now numbers about 160 singers and continues to sing in Leeds Town Hall
with a variety of conductors. It also makes frequent visits to the Bridgewater
Hall in Manchester and broadcasts and records frequently. Its chorus master
Simon Wright is one of the country's most distinguished choral trainers and
among its regular conductors.