Howard Blake: Orchestral Music
SOMM Recordings

In laying the groundwork for the SOMM Recordings debut of British composer Howard Blake, perhaps the biggest challenge involved deciding what works to include. After all, he's created more than 700 over a fifty-year career, an output that includes concertos, oratorios, ballets, symphonies, and TV and film soundtracks. In the latter category, he's widely known for the song “Walking in the Air” from his soundtrack to the 1982 film The Snowman, as well as scores for A Month in the Country and Ridley Scott's The Duellists. In addition to achieving renown as a pianist, conductor, and composer, Blake has also shown himself to be extremely versatile, someone equally comfortable creating a piano concerto in 1991 to celebrate the thirtieth birthday of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and music for the ‘60s television series The Avengers.

This splendid sampling of his orchestral music marks his eighty-fifth birthday in grand style. Four works appear, all first recordings, with Blake conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra on three and Paul Daniel leading the English Northern Philharmonia on the fourth. The composer also conducts from the keyboard in the performance of Concert Dances for piano and orchestra, Op. 432 from 1992. In addition, the album presents his vivacious single-movement Symphony No. 1: Impressions of a City, Op. 42/409, written in 1967 and revised in 1990, The Court of Love, Op. 286 (1979), a three-movement concert suite drawn from a ballet score, and, finally, a five-part suite created in 1992 from his soundtrack for the 1987 film A Month in the Country. Each of these very different pieces has to much to recommend it.

The city alluded to in Symphony No. 1: Impressions of a City is, of course, London, with Blake wishing to render in musical form the excitement of the city as seen through contemporary eyes. After opening mysteriously with a wispy string texture that quickly blossoms into an energized portrait of a city, the panoramic piece weaves melodic phrases that wouldn't sound out of place in a Copland or Bernstein work and episodes of contrasting tone—some exuberant, others ponderous and haunting—into a multi-hued, nearly fifteen-minute tapestry. Listening to this city portrait, it's easy to understand why Blake's achieved so much success as a soundtrack creator when the writing and arrangement evoke different facets of the city so vividly. For Concert Dances, a smaller orchestra was utilized comprising six woodwinds, two horns, trumpet, trombone, two percussion players, harp, strings, and piano. That reduced size gives the piece a more intimate character, especially in its quieter parts. Piano is at the forefront throughout, but the mini-orchestra plays as important a role in these picturesque miniatures. While movement titles such as “Slow Ragtime,” “Galop,” and “Cha-Cha” hint at the music's tone, these settings—some spirited, others gentle and folksy—are anything but one-dimensional. Keep an ear out for the blustery, Coplandesque “Boogie” and elegant swoon of “Jazz Waltz.”

Up next is The Court of Love, whose three stately parts Blake fashioned from the score the Royal Ballet Company commissioned to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary in 1977 of Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne. In keeping with the royalty theme, the ballet presents a knight, troubadour, knaves, and a King vying for the affections of an enchantress, maiden, and Queen. “The Enchantress (Theme and Variations)” follows a regal intro with robust dance treatments, thrilling declamatory episodes, and lyrical expressions. Naturally light on its feet is “The Maiden and the Troubadour (Scherzo),” but romantic and even mischievous moments work their way in too. Capping the suite is “The Queen (Theme and Finale),” which begins tenderly with solo violin and harp before expanding into a resplendent orchestral statement. Things take a semi-pastoral turn with the advent of the concert score Blake created from A Month in the Country. The film itself is set in rural Yorkshire in the summer of 1920, and the composer's use of string orchestra effectively conjures the locale and period. Were one not cognizant of its origins, one might hear it as a beautifully wrought expression of pure, non-programmatic design whose five short movements include solemn adagios and energized andantes. Allusions to Verdi and Schubert surface, but the work is otherwise a sterling example of Blake's capacity for producing ‘serious' symphonic music.

Even a single listen to the recording makes clear how instantly accessible Blake's music is; it is no less sophisticated or well-crafted for being so, however. Of course all that a single-disc recording can do is provide a sampling of his output and compositional approach. Orchestral Music does that, certainly, but it's so enticing it also makes the listener want to hear more of his material. In limiting this hour-long volume to orchestral works, perhaps that will encourage SOMM Recordings to issue follow-up volumes that shift the focus to other areas, such as vocal and film music.

January 2024