Notes and Editorial Reviews
Arwel Hughes, the father of conductor Owain Arwel Hughes, was
for many years, BBC Wales director of music and central to the
principality's music-making. He made a sustained and positive
difference to the music and careers of many including Grace
Williams, Daniel Jones (still awaiting a symphonic cycle taking
in all thirteen of his symphonies), Alun Hoddinott and William
Mathias. He was born not far from Wrexham at Rhosllanerchrugog
and studied at London's RCM with RVW, Holst and Gordon Jacob.
He was in the same intake as Britten.
The
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thorough and concentrated liner-notes by Geraint Lewis tell
us that the works here represent Hughes’ orchestral output minus
only the 1971 symphony (he was working on a second symphony
when death intervened - perhaps the composer's son here could
realise a completion?) and the Tallis Fantasia-indebted
1936 Fantasia for Strings. The symphony was broadcast
by the BBC in the 1980s in a performance conducted by Bryden
Thomson.
The bustling and fantastically varied Prelude for orchestra
is cheery, touching and flightily poetic. Rather like the
early orchestral works of Aloys
Fleischmann it harbours a soothingly romantic yearning somewhat
in the manners of Sibelius, Moeran and Hadley. It ends, perhaps
rather perfunctorily, with a burst of exuberance where Arwel
Hughes recalls that the work’s dedication is to “The Youth of
Wales”.
Of about the same duration is Owain Glyndwr - legend
for orchestra. The subject is Wales' national hero of the thirteenth
century. The same figure stirred Grace Williams' first symphony
of that name (let's hear the whole thing if it survives, please
- surely a cogent coupling for Arwel Hughes much later Symphony
and earlier Fantasia). It is his last completed work
- full of turbulent activity and atmosphere though lacking the
green innocence and poetic credentials of the Prelude. It was
broadcast by the BBC in 1985.
The fluttery and verdantly lively overture to Love's the
Doctor (Serch yw'r Doctor) comes and goes in less
than five minutes. It parallels Barber's School for Scandal
overture in mood and reach.
After the generic title Prelude we have a three movement
Suite moving in much the same mood-landscape. It was
to be his last orchestral work for two decades. Its three movements
take in countryside romance and oxygenated energy. They mix
elements typical of Moeran with a Waltonian zip and zest. The
second movement sounds a little like a Bliss ballet score but
soon morphs into a graceful dance. The third and last has a
grander and even tragic signature with a wraith of fugal Bliss
at 2.10, the perky irrepressible spirit of a Malcolm Arnold
and the cool smoothness of Aloys Fleischmann from just the other
side of the Irish sea.
Anatiomaros is the name in the old Brythonic tongue for
Great Soul. The music swells to portray some pre-Christian
rite in which Anatiomaros - the revered elder who is the repository
of wisdom and eternity - is to die. Death is portrayed as a
dazzling white swan. The spirits of Bax and Moeran arch over
this work with its long melodic reach. Its only weakness is
to be found in what seems to have been a predilection for fugal
patterning also heard in the finale of the Suite. Otherwise
it's very approachable. Lewis refers to its Sibelian Kalevala
echoes which are certainly present. I also thought of another
Celt: Hamilton Harty and his With the Wild Geese though
the Arwel Hughes work is less Tchaikovskian and more in touch
with the vibrant vein of twentieth century pastoral romance.
Last on the disc is the Prelude to the opera Menna from
1954. It begins portentously with growling aggression from the
drums. This makes way for an invincible pastoral melody carried
and spun on seraphic violins. The melody might veer toward Rodrigo
territory but it is very effective indeed. It also recalls the
same ineffably poignant melody to be heard in Constant Lambert's
Music for Orchestra. The mix becomes richer with some
chivalric brass and all ends in suitable finery. This is the
most immediately captivating of the orchestral works here.
Of the other major Arwel Hughes works available on disc we must
not forget the Chandos CD (CHAN 8890) of the cantata Dewi
Sant (St David) (1950). It was written for the Festival
of Britain and premiered by the Pontardulais Choral Society
in St David’s Cathedral on 12 July 1951. The work was broadcast
by the BBC in 1973. Of the other large-compass oratorios Lewis
mentions Pantycelin (1963) but it seems we should not
neglect Tydi a Roddaist (1938), Gweddi (1944),
Mass for Celebration (1977) and Gloria Patri (1986).
There are also two operas Menna and Serch yw'r Doctor
whose overtures feature here not to mention three string
quartets from 1948, 1976 and 1983.
If there is a Cambrian folk aspect to any of the music on this
disc it must be deeply subsumed. I do not detect any heart-on-sleeve
use of traditional songs. What is clear is that this is the
work of a most accomplished modern romantic-nationalist.
-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International Read less
Works on This Recording
1.
Prelude for orchestra by Arwel Hughes
Conductor:
Owain Arwel Hughes
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1945
2.
Owain Glyndwr by Arwel Hughes
Conductor:
Owain Arwel Hughes
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1979
3.
Serch yw’r Doctor: Overture by Arwel Hughes
Conductor:
Owain Arwel Hughes
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1960
4.
Suite for Orchestra by Arwel Hughes
Conductor:
Owain Arwel Hughes
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1947
5.
Anatiomaros by Arwel Hughes
Conductor:
Owain Arwel Hughes
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1943
6.
Menna: Prelude by Arwel Hughes
Conductor:
Owain Arwel Hughes
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1954
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