Percy Grainger Edition

Though Australian, more than any figure in English music Percy Grainger consistently blurred the bounds between folk-music arrangements and original composition. Two arrangements of Danish folk songs on this disc, "The Nightingale" and "The Two Sisters," have never been recorded before, while 13 others of the 23 pieces are, in these versions, premiere recordings. An essential issue for Grainger collectors, the music has broad appeal, conveying a direct emotional intimacy in such pieces as the solo piano version of "The Power of Love," a tune that, Grainger noted, "matched my soul-seared mood" after his mother's death. "Molly on the Shore" is among Grainger's best-known folksong arrangements, though not so many will know this vibrantly performed string quartet version.

The CD's title slightly misleads. Not all of these pieces are for chorus and orchestra. Some are for orchestra alone. Nevertheless, the CD gives us Grainger at his most characteristic. Grainger always considered himself primarily a choral composer who occasionally dabbled in short works for orchestra and chamber ensemble. For far too long, almost everybody dismissed Grainger as a lightweight, but, happily, that seems about to change. For one thing, more works have come to light and, more importantly, to performance and recording. Chandos' Grainger Edition counts, in my opinion, as one of the most significant projects in British music.

Again Grainger amazes, amuses, arouses, intrigues. These 'Songs for mezzo' originate in Britain (with an excellent sequence of Scottish songs), Jutland and Australia. Some are folksongs collected in the early years of the century; two have words by Kipling, five by Ella, Grainger's wife, and some have no words at all.

A real tonic, this, and unexpectedly stimulating, too. We know how effective Grainger’s colourful orchestrations can be, but in her excellent introductory booklet-note pianist Penelope Thwaites asserts that ‘the balancing of textures to bring out key melodic strands can often be achieved more clearly in Grainger’s multi-piano versions.’ Well, given the superbly poised and concentrated advocacy on show here, that certainly applies to both the extraordinary ‘music to an imaginary ballet’, The Warriors (which, incidentally, lasts 19'19'' and not 9'19'' as printed) and the irresistible Jutish Melody (more familiar in its orchestral guise as the last movement of the Danish Folk-Music Suite), while the amazing English Dance (the work which prompted Faure to exclaim ‘It’s as if the total population was a-dancing!’) now acquires a very Griegian flavour in some of its gentler episodes.

Chandos' Grainger Edition brings yet another cornucopia of delights delivered with indefatigable dedication and twinkling charisma by Richard Hickox and the BBC Philharmonic. The formula is the same as on this team's first and second volumes of Grainger's orchestral music, with tried-and-trusted nuggets such as Green Bushes and Colonial Song (both given here in particularly lavish orchestrations from 1905-06 and 1919 respectively) sitting cheek by jowl alongside genuine rarities like The Merry King (based on a folk-tune from West Sussex and boasting a seductively ornate piano contribution) and the amazingly colourful English Dance No.1 (a riot of a piece which prompted Gabriel Fauré to exclaim: "It's as if the total population were a-dancing!").

Mock Morris, Molly on the Shore and Shepherd’s Hey are edgily chipper. When Grainger is in this vein he looks in the direction of Frank Bridge’s Sir Roger de Coverley – a Britten favourite - and in this case there is a hint of Capriol too. Died for Love is out of the same green meadow as Moeran’s two pieces for small orchestra. Delightful. The Love Verses and the slightly chilly Early One Morning bring home parallels with Balfour Gardiner’s April and Philomela (long overdue for revival). Youthful Rapture (Tim Hugh, cello) has also been recorded by Julian Lloyd Webber who takes more time than Hugh and this piece can bear the slower tempo.

There is a personal character to Grainger's music also, which gradually emerges as Grainger expert Penelope Thwaites journeys through the first decade of his composing life… the unique Grainger glow, which comes from wistful chromatic harmonies that are spiked with wit, is definitely there.

Rarely has the precociousness of his talent been better demonstrated than on this new disc… the rarities, like the more familiar pieces, are played with unapologetic conviction. Penelope Thwaites, a Grainger advocate since well before the current boom, paints the music in bold strokes… a major contribution to the Grainger discography.

We switch from London to Denmark for this volume. Father and Daughter intricately mixes many solo voices and choir. The gaunt Kleine Variationen-forme is followed by the touching Song of Värmeland for choir. To a Nordic Princess is a lavishly grandiloquent piece first performed in the Hollywood Bowl as a love gift for his soon-to-be bride, Ella Ström. It verges on Richard Strauss at times. He was not averse to Strauss and wrote a piano Ramble on Rosenkavalier. There is an oddly subdued Stalt Vesselil. The very short choir piece Dalvisa is barely heard – a hummed vocalise. After such sensitivity comes the cheery The Crew of the Long Serpent.

This disc present the essence of Grainger in many familiar pieces without the density of voices or the enchanting demands of richly dished-up arrangements. The piano is usually a sine qua non. The Arrival Platform Humlet is slightly Bachian. Stephen Orton and Hamish Milne play Scandinavie – a five movement suite for cello and piano. This encompasses soulful, Alfvén jolly and Griegian light romantic. It’s a surprise we do not hear this more often or indeed the other nicely calculated pieces here.