John Foulds - Dynamic Triptych; April-England; Music-Pictures Group III

John FOULDS (1880-1939)

Dynamic Triptych (Piano Concerto),

Music Pictures, April - England, 

Song of Ram Dass, 

Keltic Suite

Peter Donohoe (Piano), 

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Sakari Oramo

John Foulds (1880-1939): an unsung hero of British composition, variously described as a “quintessential eccentric” and as “England’s answer to Charles Ives”. A historical link between Elgar’s Edwardiana and later generation figures like Britten and Tippett.

This latest disc follows the critical and artistic success of Warner Classics’s first volume of Foulds orchestral music released in 2004, performed by Sakari Oramo and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Oramo and the CBSO are pioneering performers of Foulds’ music, whilst Pianist Peter Donohoe is a specialist in early 20th century British music. Like the first disc, this new installment includes a premiere recording and rarely heard works.

The Premiere Recording is “Music-Pictures Group III” (Foulds’s answer to Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition). Fould’s “Piano Concerto Dynamic Triptych” is a flamboyant showcase for piano and orchestra, deploying the composer’s interest in unorthodox scales and rhythms, with hints of big-band jazz swagger.

”April-England” is Foulds in pastoral mood. “The Song of Ram Dass” reflects his interest in the Orient; the nostalgic Scottish theme “Celtic Lament” was Foulds’s ‘greatest hit’ during his lifetime.

The project has the backing of the Foulds estate and John Foulds’ son, Patrick, contributes an introductory essay to this unusual but highly charismatic repertoire.

John Foulds? British composer, son of a bassoonist in the Hallé Orchestra, born in Manchester in 1880...and he died suddenly less than 60 years later in Calcutta, where he was in charge of music on an Indian radio station.

Foulds lived a fascinating life which incorporated a career as a professional cellist, a conductor, a successful composer of light music and music for the troops in the First World War. He worked as a cinema pianist, and he became fascinated by modes, microtones, and the ragas of Indian music.

Foulds was a radical composer in Paris in the late 20s, when he wrote the main work on this disc: Dynamic Triptych, a bravura re-interpretation of the piano concerto. Each movement focuses on a different aspect of Foulds' musical language. 'Dynamic Mode' is first, an energetic virtuosic display based only on seven pitches of a South Indian raag. The second movement, 'Dynamic Timbre', is an exercise in subtle orchestral colour, quarter-tones included...and the finale is a rhythmic toccata based on a sequence of time signatures that allow it to morph into a waltz and a march as it romps along.

Peter Donohoe is a powerfully committed soloist, and there'll be moments in the second movement particularly which will have you catching your breath, when you realise that Foulds is already beginning to occupy an orchestral soundworld that still feels modern.

Alongside the main work, the rest of the disc feels charming but inconsequential: April-England could be Percy Grainger does Vaughan Williams. The notes equate Foulds' 'Music Pictures Group III' to Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition', but they lack the originality of Mussorgsky, or of the Dynamic Triptych for that matter. 'The Song of Ram Dass' is an evocative oriental miniature, and the 'Keltic Lament' (sic) is one of Foulds' most famous melodies.

Playing and recording are first class, and this is a worthy successor to Warner Classics' first volume of Foulds, restoring a lost voice in British music to its proper place.