John Foulds: Three Mantras
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Composer: John FouldsConductor: Sakari Oramo
Performer: Susan Bickley
Orchestra: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2005-01-25
Music Label: Warner Classics
Soundtracks:
- Mantra I (Of Action And Vision Of Terrestrial Avataras) - Impetuoso
- Mantra II (Of Bliss And Vision Of Celestial Avataras) - Beatamente - City Of Birmingham Symphony Youth Chorus
- Mantra III (Of Will And Vision Of Cosmic Avataras) - Inesorabile
- I. Lento - Allegro Commodo - Susan Bickley
- II. Largo - Quasi Allegretto Piacevole - Susan Bickley
- I. Quasi Funebre - Daniel Hope
- II. Poco Meno - Daniel Hope
- III. Andante Lento - Daniel Hope
- IV. Tempo Della Prima Stanza - Daniel Hope
- I. Largo
- II. Moderato
- III. Lento Assai - Allegro Molto
- IV. Presto
- V. Lento Giusto - Adagio
- VI. Moderato Trionfale
Music reviews of John Foulds: Three Mantras
Music Review: Foulds gets better as he ages, and the lush "Three Mantras" are the real masterpiece in late-Romantic style, here
Rating: 4 Stars
I discovered John Foulds and his music a few years ago, in the early days of the CD era, through his pieces for String Quartets played by the Endellion Quartet on Pearl (Foulds: String Quartets). I was bowled over by their searing lyrical intensity, announcing Britten's three string Quartets. From there, I tried to buy every I could find of Foulds, but there wasn't much then. It slowly trickled, but there still isn't so much of it now. So this recording by Sakari Oramo, and its later companion John Foulds: Dynamic Triptych; Music-Pictures III are more than welcome additions to the discography. I'd like to think that they, along with the recent revival of Foulds' World Requiem (Foulds: A World Requiem [Hybrid SACD]) are annunciatory of a rediscovery of sorts and more recordings. But let us not hope too much and welcome what we get.
That said, I didn't find the works on this disc as original and advanced as the two quartets, but very enjoyable nonetheless. Three Mantras are the only remnants that Foulds salvaged from his projected and abandoned Sanskrit opera "Avatara", on which he worked from 1919 to 1930. The surviving three Mantras were the original preludes to the three acts. They lay unperformed until their first performance in 1988, while the Concert premiere took place only in 1997. They are huge and lush late-Romantic piece, powerful in the two outer Mantras, even savage in the third one, and mysterious and mystic and with subtle timbral colors (and a wordless chorus) in the central one. They are sometimes evocative even of Vaughan Williams, Bloch or Villa Lobos' "Amazonian" compositions.
It so happens that the three Mantras were also featured on one of those earlier Lyrita discs I mentioned above: by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Barry Wordsworth (John Foulds: Le Cabaret; April-England; Pasquinade; Etc.). While I don't hear much that can give preference to one or the other in the second Mantra (Oramo is more relaxed and languid, Wordsworth more urgent, but the subtle colors and sense of mystery are there), Oramo conducts with more élan and drive than Wordsworth in the first (compare his 5:10 to Wordsworth's 5:57), but in the third he goes more for savage weight than, as Wordsworth, snap and bite. Both approaches are effective and offer valid alternative views. But Warner's more spacious sonics do make a marked difference in favor of Oramo in such lush and powerful music, and, for instance, his climax in the third Mantra (at 5:00) is significantly more powerful and effective than Wordsworth. Three Mantras is an impressive composition, equal to any of the masterpieces of late-Romanticism (you name `em).
Lyra Celtica is a Concerto for voice, that is, wordless vocalise, of which the last movement Foulds never completed. It was presumably written between 1917 and the mid-20s. I wonder why so few have been written, using the voice purely for its instrumental character rather than its ability to convey words. The voice is as beautiful an instrument as any other, and I'd love to hear, say, Renée Fleming performing Sibelius' Violin Concerto. But other than the occasional vocalise-etude, the only substantial compositions in the form that come to mind are Villa Lobos Aria from Bachianas Brasileiras #5, the finale of Vaughan William's Pastoral Symphony and Glière's Concerto for soprano coloratura. To that very short list you can now add Foulds. It is a pleasurable work, lyrical, sunny and insouciant in mood, stylistically well within the mainstream of British music in those years - Delius and Bax come to mind.
The two "Music-Poems" featured here are earlier works and I found them more disappointing. "Apotheosis (Elegy)", subtitled "Music-Poem #4 for Violin and orchestra" was completed in 1909, and on a blind test, I would have thought it were the slow movement of a Violin Concerto by some Brahms epigone - not even Max Bruch, but Hermann Goetz or someone like that, Joachim maybe. And - spot on: it is "dedicated to the memory of Joseph Joachim".
A year later, in 1910, Foulds had advanced a big step: In "Mirage (Music-Poem #5 for orchestra) from 1910", it is first Strauss (Richard) that Foulds sets out to imitate - and Strauss' many styles at that: it starts like Death & Transfiguration, goes on like Don Juan, and then comes a waltz evocative of Salome's Dance or maybe Ravel's La Valse - then Wagner (Siegried's Magic Fire music seems to have made a strong imprint in Foulds imagination). It is an enjoyable composition and has some poetic and evocative moments, and nobody would object if it HAD been written by young Strauss, but under Foulds' pen it does sounds derivative. There is one striking orchestral touch, though: at 1:33 and again 2:25 into the 3rd section (track 12), quarter-tone downward glissandis, which the annotator suggests are evocative of "Man's inevitable decline into despair". It lasts only a few seconds. There is an alternative version of Mirage, the premiere recording by the unlikely Luxembourg Orchestra under Leopold Hager (Masters of the English Musical Renaissance). Oramo conducts it with more bite and urgency.
Outstanding liner notes by the Foulds specialist Malcom MacDonald, and a moving testimony by "Major John Patrick Foulds", John's son. TT a generous 78:13.
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