No composer today knows better how to have fun in his music than Malcolm Arnold, and these five overtures—from his very first orchestral work, Beckus the Dandipratt, completed in 1943 to The Fair Field of 1973—have their full measure of it. They also have the occasional darker overtones, and it is astonishing with such colourful approachable music that it has taken so long for four of the overtures here to receive their first recordings. The exception is Beckus, still the most sparkling of Arnold's comedy pieces, which was first recorded for Decca with Eduard van Beinum conducting, and with the composer himself playing first trumpet, by the LPO in 1947. Arnold himself conducted it on an EMI recording of 1980, but sadly that has yet to appear on CD. This new account, brilliantly recorded, is much more relaxed, less biting in its scherzando rhythms. With the present London Philharmonic exceptionally alert, the skipping rhythms in compound time are sprung as infectiously as ever, nudging now rather than jabbing the listener.
Arnold at 70 is a less thrustful conductor than he was, generally adopting speeds on the slow side. Yet only in one item, The Fair Field, does that undermine the necessary bite of the music. There I should have welcomed a faster tempo both for the waltz of the first half, and for the galop of the second, both of them evoking the atmosphere of the fairground as a tenth birthday tribute to the Fairfield Hall in Croydon. Maybe the specific associations behind each of these works, generally commissioned from Arnold for particular events or celebrations, has got in the way of their wider circulation. The Sussex Overture was a tribute to the Brighton Philharmonic Society. Its jaunty cross-rhythms, again in compound time, celebrate the fun of the seaside at Brighton. Written in 1951, it has flavours not unlike those in Prokofiev's Seventh Symphony.
The Smoke daringly replaces a formal development section in the middle with a very extended slow section, mainly over a drone bass and lasting almost half the total time. Arnold in his performance luxuriates in the atmospheric overtones, designed to celebrate urban life (hence the title) in an unexpected, less energetic way. Energy is at the very heart of the longest of these pieces, the Commonwealth Christmas Overture, which brings a riotous conclusion to the disc. It was commissioned by the BBC in 1957 for a programme celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the sovereign's Christmas broadcasts, from King George V through to the present Queen. It could hardly be more festive in its colour and tunefulness, and brings one passage which has prompted more comments than any other. After an atmospheric Christmassy sequence slower than the rest, Arnold suddenly launches into a bold pastiche of West Indian pop music, steel band references and all. It may well have shocked listeners in 1957, but it now comes as the most delightful interlude—genuine, not mocking, in its evocations.
Reference Recordings of San Francisco are to be congratulated on persuading the composer himself to conduct for a stunningly recorded disc that fills so many shocking gaps in the catalogue. I hope British companies will take note. Christopher Palmer, the recording producer here, also contributes one of his exceptionally perceptive and informative notes, including a tribute to Arnold and specific commentaries on each work.'