sir Malcolm Arnold

[Mirror Image]

For those interested, here's Tony Palmer's documentary film on Arnold on YT:

https://www.youtube.com/v/W93ye83wJ6w

I haven't watched myself, but I really hope it stays on YT.

[Scion7]

Sonata for Flute and Piano, Op.121  (1977)
Allegro-Andantino-Maestoso con molto ritmico

Has a weird last movement - kind of like a showtune in parts - not my favorite chamber work from Arnold but worthwhile.


Quintet for Flute, Violin, Viola, Horn and Bassoon, Op.7  (1944)
Allegro con brio-Andante con moto-Allegretto con molto

A serious work that also has some light-hearted comedic melody 'chase' lines.


Sonatina for Flute & Piano, Op.19  (1948)
Allegro-Andante-Allegretto languido

Sometimes violent piano in the first movement; the Andante is another wonderful, haunting tune that Arnold often comes up with - and the 3rd movement is another happy-go-lucky type of ending that is sort of jarring considering movements I and II.


Sonatina for Recorder and Piano, Op.41  (1953)
Cantilena-Chaconne-Rondo

Another melodic piece - Arnold seems to pull these out of his hat at-will.  The Rondo is very nice.  The limited range of the recorder keeps the work from getting too "serious."


Fantasy for Recorder and Strings (or Quartet version), Op.140   (1990)
Andante e mesto-Allegro-Lento e mesto-Allegretto-Vivace

I find a lot of Arnold 'schizophrenic' - he can turn a piece from a melancholy, thought-provoking movement to a sunny, optimistic section immediately following. This certainly is the case between the 2nd and 3rd movements.


Sonatina for Clarinet & Piano, Op.29  (1951)
Allegro con brio-Andantino-Furioso

Arnold could write very well for the clarinet.  Again, a wistful second movement - followed up by a eastern-feel aggressive final movement.


Anybody that can compose such fine chamber music is a right decent sod in my book.  Chambernut should be on here someplace helping out on this thread.  Probably off lying around with his bird and a pint.
 

[Scion7]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnA1IMnLZr4



A serious problem with obesity need not, and did not, hinder his enthusiasm.   

[Scion7]

Ah, a very nice piece I found on YouTube (that does not appear to have been issued on LP or CD) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4RcOPeQscs

Divertimento, Op.137, for wind octet   (1988)
(2 oboes, 2 B-flat clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns)
Allegro-Larghetto-Vivace-Allegro-Alla Marziale

Commissioned for Camerata Wind soloists with financial assistance for Northwest Arts
Dedicated to Janet Hilton


Performance Notes by  © Piers Burton-Page (sorry Piers, I nicked it) :

For some reason best known to the composer's subconscious, the new Divertimento for Wind Octet also turns out to be one of the most tightly-organised of the composer's much more recent pieces! Is this, perhaps, a response to the suggestion of looseness inherent in the title Divertimento?

What we are confronted with is a five-movement work, again with some of the movements virtually running into one another, and again with some close-knit thematic integration. Listen out for the opening flourish that runs through the entire ensemble and forms the very first thing they play. The rising seventh occurs again and again throughout the whole piece, very obviously, and bind it together with classical rigidity. The octet ensemble is classical, too: pairs of oboes, clarinets, horns and bassoons, with the first member of each pairing given occasional moments in which to shine - the first clarinet in particular, for Janet Hilton is not just a close musical friend, but the commissioner and dedicatee of this octet!

Arnold begins, then, with a three-four allegro that is very much in the nature of a prologue; it is very short, and sets out the basic material, much of it stated in unison and most of it fortissimo. The ensuing larghetto, in common time, is also short, and seems principally concerned to develop the inherent somewhat spare lyricism contained in the motif of sevenths that is again prominent. The third-movement vivace is in compound triple time, and moves with vehement speed and almost hectic energy. There is plenty of virtuoso writing, particularly for the clarinet; some wild dynamic contrasts; and not one but two abrupt cut-offs - a favourite Arnold device this! A four-bar maestoso coda wittily echoes a theme from the first movement. The fourth movement is a three-four allegro, very fast and again almost scherzo-like, and there is more than a hint of a sardonic waltz about it before the music peters out in a clarinet solo. Arnold stipulates a lunga pausa before the final movement, a four-four piece marked 'alla marziale'. The rhythms are indeed march-like, and the march tune is not so much a cousin as a twin brother to the sevenths motif heard at the outset. This march is much the most substantial part of the Divertimento, a weighty piece exploring a variety of moods and even setting the march theme against a variety of new material that includes a fanfare-like flourish, and a sinuous, even chromatic motif first given out on the oboe and quickly taken up by the horn. Once again a lean clarinet heralds the ending, which is forceful and very brief. We shall, hopefully, have been entertained - but also challenged! Malcolm Arnold completed his Divertimento for Wind Octet in May 1988, at his home in Attleborough, Norfolk.

[vandermolen]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnA1IMnLZr4



A serious problem with obesity need not, and did not, hinder his enthusiasm.   

He thinned out a lot in his later years!
I listened to two versions of Symphony 4 (Arnold on Lyrita and Hickox on Chandos).
The Arnold version is almost 15 minutes longer!
Whilst Arnold's drawn out version of Symphony No.1 works very well in adding gravitas to the work I felt that it made much less sense in Symphony 4 and much prefer the Hickox recording where there is a much greater sense of urgency. Some sections reminded me of Leonard Bernstein's 'Symphonic Dances from West Side Story'. I hardly know Symphony 4 possibly because for many years I only possessed the Lyrita recording and didn't make much sense of it. I now have a much higher opinion of the score. No.8 is the other one I hardly know so will be listening to that again soon.

[Karl Henning]

Yes...I've had it for a long time - just today listening in the car...neat disc...really fun music...

Indeed! It's been in my collection for a long time as well. I wish Thomson had conducted more of Arnold's music, especially the symphonies. Imagine Thomson in the 9th. I'm salivating just thinking about it.

Good, clean fun!

[Scion7]

LPO–0013
© 2004 London Philharmonic Orchestra Ltd
Recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall, London, on 24 September 2004
Total playing time: 69:08
DDD Stereo
Released September 2006

  [asin]B000H4VZIK[/asin]

Oops!  Scrolling back to page 5 or so, I see that Vandermolen already covered this one.

[Mirror Image]

LPO–0013
© 2004 London Philharmonic Orchestra Ltd
Recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall, London, on 24 September 2004
Total playing time: 69:08
DDD Stereo
Released September 2006

  [asin]B000H4VZIK[/asin]

Oops!  Scrolling back to page 5 or so, I see that Vandermolen already covered this one.

I haven't heard that recording. How is audio quality and performances?

On another note...

I've really been digging this recording today:

[Scion7]

Sounds fine - the advances in live recording (and shushing up that old man in row three with the hacking cough) have made this sound much better technically than any early studio stereo recording.

I really like the Philharmonic Concerto.  The "Chacony" should appeal to your Shostaphenia ... Dmitrisociative disorder.   

I've been catching up on this composer since reading this thread and found especially in the chamber music a real swiftee giftee.
I was still in England when he conducted the DP concerto and the furor in the press both pro and con lasted perhaps a week with the various talking heads on the BBC.  This probably added more fuel to the angst of those ultra-modernist critics who already disliked him.

[Mirror Image]

Sounds fine - the advances in live recording (and shushing up that old man in row three with the hacking cough) have made this sound much better technically than any early studio stereo recording.

I really like the Philharmonic Concerto.  The "Chacony" should appeal to your Shostaphenia ... Dmitrisociative disorder.   

I've been catching up on this composer since reading this thread and found especially in the chamber music a real swiftee giftee.
I was still in England when he conducted the DP concerto and the furor in the press both pro and con lasted perhaps a week with the various talking heads on the BBC.  This probably added more fuel to the angst of those ultra-modernist critics who already disliked him.

Very nice except that I do not suffer from Shostaphenia ... Dmitrisociative disorder. I DO NOT HAVE A PROBLEM!!!!

My coach tells me the first step to this disorder is admitting I have a problem...

[Scion7]

Of COURSE you don't.   0:)


(pssst ... Karl - is the sedative ready?)

[Karl Henning]

Dart gun at the ready!

[Scion7]

Get the air bubble out.   

[André]

On another note...

I've really been digging this recording today:

With good reason. It's an excellent conspectus of some of the composer's Overtures - really, tone poems the size of Dvorak's -, but I have to recommend the composer's recording (on Reference, already discussed here) as one that brings these works' sheer dimension into much bigger focus - again by dint of slower, bigger readings.  He also interprets other overtures than those on the Chandos - so really, the two are complementary both in terms of approach and repertoire.

[vandermolen]

LPO–0013
© 2004 London Philharmonic Orchestra Ltd
Recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall, London, on 24 September 2004
Total playing time: 69:08
DDD Stereo
Released September 2006

  [asin]B000H4VZIK[/asin]

Oops!  Scrolling back to page 5 or so, I see that Vandermolen already covered this one.

Yes, it's a great CD - one of my Arnold favourites, especially for Symphony 6 but it's a great programme generally. I also like the 'Inn of the Sixth Happiness' film music. The film features Robert Donat's poignant final appearance 'we shall not meet again I think' are his final words in the film - a great actor and a great CD.

[Scion7]

 

The physical CD is available at least from CD Universe.  A very nice program - the Arnold selection, 5 Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op.84  (1965), has jazz elements in the Moto perpetuo.

[relm1]

For those interested, here's Tony Palmer's documentary film on Arnold on YT:

https://www.youtube.com/v/W93ye83wJ6w

I haven't watched myself, but I really hope it stays on YT.

The documentary is excellent - watch the whole thing.  It is quite tragic how demented and alone he was.  A really troubled and sad shell of a person.

[Mirror Image]

The documentary is excellent - watch the whole thing.  It is quite tragic how demented and alone he was.  A really troubled and sad shell of a person.

I watched 'Part I' last night and I'll continue with 'Part II' tonight. Indeed, it's certainly disheartening to see his own mental decline.

[André]

Right now listening to this:



Arnold's First symphony - already jolly and sarcastic in I, quietly anguished and enigmatic in II, etc.

And his 5th, possibly his most 'popular' work in the genre. As with Beethoven, Mahler, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich: a 'people's symphony'.

[Scion7]

Duo for Flute & Viola, Op.10  (1945)
ARNOLD
Andante quasi allegretto-Allegro-Allegretto ma non troppo

First performance December 1946 in London.

Another sound work for the players, and enjoyable to hear, although the first two movements are much stronger than the last.