Malcolm Arnold - Dances

Malcolm ARNOLD (1921-2006)

Dances

English Dances

First Set, Op.27

Second Set, Op.53

Four Scottish Dances, Op.59

Four Cornish Dances, Op.91

Four Irish Dances, Op.126

From the Ballet Solitaire

Sarabande and Polka

The Phiharmonia

Bryden Thomson

These modern examples of the "classical music ethnic dance craze" are simply adorable. Their inspiration comes from those two great Romantic compositions, Brahms's Hungarian Dances and Dvorák's Slavonic Dances; and like those two vivacious and popular works, these jolly little pieces helped put their composer on the musical map. Arnold began his career as a trumpeter, composed music for several films (including The Bridge on the River Kwai), and has since gone on to create an imposing orchestral legacy. But for many people, he's still the guy who wrote the English Dances, and they make the perfect introduction to his expertly crafted and brilliantly orchestrated musical universe.

David Hurwitz

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Malcolm Arnold's two sets of English Dances were in many ways his compositional breakthrough, and they are quite delightful miniatures - almost vignette-like, charming, wonderfully colorful, memorably tuneful and quite expertly scored. They are truly wonderful contributions to the repertoire of charming, lighter but still substantial music that encompasses such works as Dvorak's Slavonic Dances and Tchaikovsky's ballet suites. The Scottish Dances that followed a couple of years later are perhaps even more delightful in their semi-folksy, spirited and unabashedly romantic idiom; atmospheric works with several wonderful themes - conservative for their time yet personal in idiom and really sounding like little else. The Cornish Dances are somewhat more troubled - the melodies do not flow as easily and the mood is more overcast and bitingly ironic; the music is still quite beautiful but in a less off-handed manner. The Irish Dances are even more shadowy - the traces of careless joy are rarely allowed to bubble to the surface, and if they do they are soon quenched by something more serious. They are still beautiful and attractive miniatures, even though they are not as good-natured as the English Dances, say.

The performances are quite magnificent, however (although I have not heard the Boult performances that are often counted as the benchmark). The Philharmonia Orchestra play with all the color, atmosphere and subtlety the music calls for, from the joyful exuberance of the earlier sets to the more varied and less unambiguous later pieces. Bryden Thomson clearly loves and cares for the music, and his sense of rhythm, color and momentum is impressive. The sound quality is warm and rich and vivid - the recording is, perhaps, a little close, but the overall impact is marvelous. The disc is filled out with two inconsequential numbers from Arnold's ballet Solitaire, neither of which I would care to hear again. The main offerings, however, are so charming and well performed that the disc as a whole is something of an essential listening.

G.D.