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Alan Bush - Africa Piano Concerto, Symphony No.2

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Label: Dutton - Epoch

Cat No: CDLX7306

Barcode: 0765387730628

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Orchestral

Release Date: 6th December 2013

Works

Bush, Alan

Africa: Symphonic Movement for piano and orchestra, op.73
Fantasia on Soviet Themes, op.24
Symphony no.2 'The Nottingham'

Artists

Peter Donohoe (piano)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Conductor

Martin Yates

Works

Bush, Alan

Africa: Symphonic Movement for piano and orchestra, op.73
Fantasia on Soviet Themes, op.24
Symphony no.2 'The Nottingham'

Artists

Peter Donohoe (piano)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Conductor

Martin Yates

About

Alan Bush’s stern face usually hid a tuneful heart, and in Dutton Epoch’s second disc of orchestral music by this composer, the RSNO presents the popular, programmatic Nottingham Symphony evoking Sherwood Forest, Clifton Grove, Castle Rock and the Goose Fair.

Also featured is Peter Donohoe’s authoritative pianism in Bush’s 'Symphonic Movement' – in fact a piano concerto in all but name, which he called Africa, politically inspired and based on appropriately African tunes and rhythms.

The programme is completed by the popular wartime Fantasia on Soviet Themes in which a handful of Russian revolutionary songs appear in characteristic celebratory orchestral dress. Africa and the Fantasia are both world premiere recordings.

Recorded at RSNO Centre, Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow, 12-13 August 2013.

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The Europadisc Review

Martin Yates and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra continue their exploration of Alan Bush’s orchestral music on Dutton’s Epoch label with this enterprising and fascinating new recording of some of the composer’s most significant larger works. Made possible by financial support from the Alan Bush Music Trust, it’s well worth exploring by anyone with an interest in some of the less well-known byways of British twentieth-century music.

Earliest is the Fantasia on Soviet Themes (1942–44), composed as one of many artistic expression of solidarity with Russia and the Red Army in the latter stages of World War II. Bush, a committed communist, was an obvious figure to write such a tribute, and he himself conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in the work’s première at a Promenade Concert on 27 July 1945. It was dedicated to Madame Agnes Maisky, wife of the Soviet ambassador Ivan Maisky, ‘for so long the gracious representative of the Soviet peoples, as a humble tribute to whom this work is designed.’ Containing references to five Soviet songs and marches, all identified by Bush in the score, it moves from a positive opening (Russian with a strong English accent at times: think of Prokofiev crossed with Vaughan Williams), through the monumental style of a ‘funeral march for a Partisan leader’, to the rollicking high spirits of Dimayevsky’s Song of Youth and an uplifting coda, all scored with consummate style.

Bush’s Second Symphony was commissioned by the Nottingham Co-Operative Society as part of the 1949 celebrations to mark the 500th anniversary of City of Nottingham’s charter. Entitled The Nottingham Symphony, its four movements refer to various parts of the city itself as well as the surrounding county. The first is a depiction of Sherwood Forest, complete with evocative horn calls and lively compound-time rhythms in hunting style, the second describes the ‘broad, peaceful flow of the River Trent at Clifton Grove’, with music of Delius-like subtlety, while the scherzo is an urgent passacaglia in perpetuum mobile style whose violent climax recalls the burning of Nottingham’s Castle, property of the 4th Duke of Newcastle, by slum residents furious at the Duke’s opposition to the 1832 Reform Act. The finale is a celebration of Nottingham’s famous Goose Fair, part festive bustle, part imposing pageant, with reminiscences of the preceding two movements, building to an imposing end. The Symphony was given two performances as part of the 1949 celebrations, with David Ellenberg conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra to great success. Incredibly, this is only its second recording; written in an accessible and rewarding style, it deserves to be far better known, and here receives a thoroughly spirited and committed performance.

The latest work on this disc (placed first in the running order) is the Symphonic Movement Africa for piano and orchestra of 1972. It was composed in response to UN resolution 311 (February 1972) condemning the South African policy of apartheid. Its twenty-five-minute span is organised in three linked sections, the first initially positive, but introducing African melodies which are then suppressed; the central slow section starts with a lament and then an evocation of the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre (harsh brass and percussion), while in the third movement the African melodies emerge the stronger, ending with a triumphal coda, with Africa ‘united in struggle and undefeated by reaction’. This is an impassioned work, more advanced in its harmonic language than the earlier two pieces on its disc but still accessible enough for listeners to appreciate its powerful message. That message is conveyed with particular force here through the thoughtful playing of Peter Donohoe in what is to all purposes a piano concerto. Premièred in Halle, East Germany in 1972 with the composer as soloist, it has to date had only three performances. This recording, like that of the Fantasia, is its first, and is long overdue.

Aided by an exemplary, well-balanced recording from Henry Wood Hall in Glasgow, this recording is sure to win converts to Bush’s music with its deep social messages, and deserves every success.

For more information on the composer and his output, including the works on this recording, visit www.alanbushtrust.org.uk