(++++) THE LIGHTER AND THE HEAVIER

Eric Coates: Orchestral Works, Volume 4—Music Everywhere (Rediffusion March); Footlights; I Sing to You; The Three Bears; From Meadow to Mayfair; Under the Stars; Four Centuries. BBC Philharmonic conducted by John Wilson. Chandos. $20.99.

Wagner: Preludes to “Die Meistersinger,” “Lohengrin” Acts I and III; Overture to “Rienzi”; “Good Friday Music” from “Parsifal”; “Ride of the Valkyries” from “Die Walküre.” St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jerzy Semkow. Vox. $18.99.

     Like Leroy Anderson in the United States, Eric Coates in Great Britain was an accomplished composer of what could be called semi-light music: created with a sure knowledge of classical forms and styles, aptly designed to be played by symphony orchestras, but quite aurally accessible and unchallenging to the ear – not exactly “salon music” but nothing super-serious either. Again and again, the ongoing Coates series on Chandos shows both the formulaic elements of the composer’s approach and the very pleasant ways in which he could vary his own formulas when he so chose. The fourth volume, like the others featuring the BBC Philharmonic conducted by John Wilson, shares all the significant strengths and less-significant weaknesses of the first three. The strengths are entirely musical: Wilson conducts with panache and a genuine understanding of and feel for Coates’ skills at weaving themes together and turning multiple short pieces into more-extended suites (The Three Bears, From Meadow to Mayfair, and Four Centuries are the examples here, the last of those being particularly impressive). The primary weakness here is the odd arrangement of the material: the enclosed booklet discusses the music chronologically, but the order in which the seven works are heard on the disc is arbitrary – their dates are 1948, 1939, 1940, 1926, 1931, 1928 and 1941. To be sure, Coates (1886-1957) never really altered his compositional style over the years, so this mixture of time periods is not significant in terms of tracing any sort of development. It still seems a bit strange, though, doubly so in light of the fact that the more-extended works do not alternate with the shorter, self-contained ones (Music Everywhere, Footlights and I Sing to You lead off the disc, with Under the Stars presented between From Meadow to Mayfair and Four Centuries). The pleasures of the CD nevertheless significantly outweigh its peculiarities. Coates was always looking for dance tunes and rhythms – in his personal life, he and his wife went dancing quite often – so the whole disc has a pleasant “swing” to it. Coates also enjoyed musically illustrating fairy tales, creating three “phantasy” works (as he labeled them): The Selfish Giant and Cinderella, heard on earlier releases in this series, and The Three Bears, heard here (and consisting of no fewer than 11 short pieces in nine-and-a-half minutes). And Coates, in another parallel with Anderson, had no problem writing music specifically designed to fit on one four-minute side of a 78rpm record: Music Everywhere, I Sing to You and Under the Stars all fill the bill. Coates’ works are best thought of as pleasantries: they are tuneful, well-made, fun to hear, and a useful counterweight to the heaviness and thoughtfulness of many other works of their time. There is no great music here, but Wilson and the BBC Philharmonic show very adeptly that there is plenty of room for lighter material that is “lesser” only because it makes fewer demands on performers and audiences, not because it is in any way less enjoyable or less deserving of sparkling performances like these.

     As a counterbalance to Coates, even when works are of similar lengths, there are the preludes, overtures and other more-or-less self-contained works by Wagner on a Vox remastering of 1977 readings by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra under its then-music director, Jerzy Semkow (who led the ensemble from 1975 to 1979). Wagner never intended any of these works for the concert hall: he was a composer for the stage above all, and every piece on this CD plays an appropriate role before or within one of his operas. Indeed, the concert versions of these works are in some cases altered for concert performance: the prelude to Die Meistersinger, for example, sweeps directly into the first scene of the opera after doing a superb job of setting up what is to come – but is ended for concert purposes with a series of emphatic chords. The St. Louis Symphony does not have the sound of a great orchestra in this recording, but the players certainly give Semkow their all. The Die Meistersinger prelude, suitably regal at the start, features good attention to middle voices, notably including the winds – the sound is older but must have been quite fine originally to allow this to come through in remastering. The march segments are a bit quick; Semkow handles this as more of a concert overture than an opera opening. The orchestra lacks the great warmth of sound of the best European ensembles but is well-balanced and plays with care and enthusiasm. The triumphal sound of the conclusion (with triangle and cymbal emphasis) is particularly well done. In the Rienzi overture, the opening builds very slowly and the low strings are impressive. The main theme, from “Prayer for the People” and one of Wagner's most beautiful, also has a level of majesty that comes through effectively here. The strings' hints of disquiet even as the prayer continues are well done, and the snare drum plus brass enter effectively to change the mood to one that is more martial. The rest of the overture has appropriate expansiveness that contrasts interestingly with Die Meistersinger, written a quarter-century later. Unfortunately the last two minutes in Rienzi are taken much too quickly, undermining the sensitivity of what has come before, perhaps in a bid for a rousing conclusion in "pop" style. The material is well-played, but the pace is a miscalculation. The first-act Lohengrin prelude is Wagner at his most evocative, very different from the grandeur bordering on bombast of Rienzi and even some elements of Die Meistersinger. The expressiveness of strings in the Lohengrin opening is a necessity and is more than satisfactory here; there is an overwhelming sense of peace, although that is not quite what the opera itself delivers. As a scene-setter taking listeners to a spiritually elevated plane, this prelude is highly effective, and Semkow paces it so it does not drag but comes across as opening unseen gates – accentuated by cymbal clashes – before subsiding into quiet (making for an interesting “thought comparison” with the third movement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4). Then, in the third-act Lohengrin prelude, we get all the brightness and enthusiasm left out of the first-act opening. Short, emphatic and accenting brass and percussion as strongly as the Act I prelude emphasizes strings, this has a thoroughly celebratory mood that Semkow and the orchestra communicate with suitable enthusiasm. Next on the CD is the “Good Friday Music” from Parsifal, the composer’s last and most overtly religious work – despite Wagner’s own thorny relationship with religion. The overarching feeling here is one of peace rather than transformation; stasis rather than progression. Essentially the music dwells in an elevated realm but does not (as with Act I of Lohengrin) seem to urge listeners into it. It is difficult music to manage, requiring expressiveness that is neither overly dramatic nor overly lyrical. Semkow leads it with understanding but without any particular insight: it sounds fine but not uplifting – very well-played but emotionally unconvincing. Then, as the last work on the disc, Semkow leads Wagner’s best-known and completely out-of-context work, “Ride of the Valkyries” from Die Walküre. This is a showpiece whose crucial contribution to the opera is rarely known by concert-hall audiences. Semkow makes sure the brass is front-and-center and the swirling strings paint the desired picture of speed and drive. This is certainly a rousing piece here – indeed, it always is – but (also as always) it comes across as a bit superficial outside its stage context. The orchestra plays it with zest and Semkow handles it as essentially an encore – inarguably an effective one. The sequencing of this CD, like that of the Coates disc, is not chronological: these works date to 1867, 1840, 1848, 1881 and 1856, respectively. Unlike Coates, Wagner did change and progress stylistically through the years, but since all the works here are well-known and all are without context anyway, listeners will not likely mind the order in which they are presented – they will simply appreciate the skill with which Semkow shapes and leads them.