Post by erik on May 8, 2021 17:33:05 GMT -5
The best-known work of the 20th century English composer Constant Lambert, a secular cantata about a river in Brazil that only exists in a poem and not on a map, is in this week's Classical Works Spotlight.
Constant Lambert: THE RIO GRANDE
Even a nation like England, which in the first quarter of the 20th century gave us uniquely English composers like Ralph Vaughan Williams, Edward Elgar, and William Walton, is not necessarily immune to the jazz influences that were beginning to seep across the Atlantic Ocean from the former colonies. This was the case with the most popular work of those composers’ fellow Brit Constant Lambert, a noted aficionado of the jazz rhythms of America whose interest figured into his most popular work “The Rio Grande”. Composed in 1927, this work, which usually takes no more than twenty minutes to perform, was inspired by an impressionistic poem by Sacheverell Sitwell that supposedly referred to a river by that name in Brazil. In truth, however, no river by that name exists anywhere in that country (unless it refers to the Amazon, which slices through the heart of South America’s largest country), though there is the Rio Grande that forms the watery 700 mile-long natural border between Texas and Mexico. It is a secular cantata for alto (or soprano) vocal soloist, brass, strings, a fifteen-piece percussion section, chorus (with its text taken from the Sitwell poem), and piano; and its sound relies upon both American jazz rhythms (Gershwin; Ellington) and the rhumba dance of Latin America. Despite the fact that Lambert composed a number of other works that fit in with very modern 20th century music, including the ballets “Pomona” in 1927 and “Horoscope” in 1938, “The Rio Grande” became far and away the most performed of any of his works, something that irritated him more than a little bit. Lambert died in August 1951, only two days short of what would have been his 46th birthday, thus becoming one of the great “what-might-have-been” composers of 20th century music.
Piano: CRISTINA ORTIZ
Soprano: JEAN TEMPERLEY
London Madrigal Singers
London Symphony Orchestra/ANDRE PREVIN (EMI)
Included:
Walton: SYMPHONY NO. 2
Walton: PORTSMOUTH POINT OVERTURE
Walton: SCAPINO (A COMEDY OVERTURE)
Constant Lambert: THE RIO GRANDE
Even a nation like England, which in the first quarter of the 20th century gave us uniquely English composers like Ralph Vaughan Williams, Edward Elgar, and William Walton, is not necessarily immune to the jazz influences that were beginning to seep across the Atlantic Ocean from the former colonies. This was the case with the most popular work of those composers’ fellow Brit Constant Lambert, a noted aficionado of the jazz rhythms of America whose interest figured into his most popular work “The Rio Grande”. Composed in 1927, this work, which usually takes no more than twenty minutes to perform, was inspired by an impressionistic poem by Sacheverell Sitwell that supposedly referred to a river by that name in Brazil. In truth, however, no river by that name exists anywhere in that country (unless it refers to the Amazon, which slices through the heart of South America’s largest country), though there is the Rio Grande that forms the watery 700 mile-long natural border between Texas and Mexico. It is a secular cantata for alto (or soprano) vocal soloist, brass, strings, a fifteen-piece percussion section, chorus (with its text taken from the Sitwell poem), and piano; and its sound relies upon both American jazz rhythms (Gershwin; Ellington) and the rhumba dance of Latin America. Despite the fact that Lambert composed a number of other works that fit in with very modern 20th century music, including the ballets “Pomona” in 1927 and “Horoscope” in 1938, “The Rio Grande” became far and away the most performed of any of his works, something that irritated him more than a little bit. Lambert died in August 1951, only two days short of what would have been his 46th birthday, thus becoming one of the great “what-might-have-been” composers of 20th century music.
Piano: CRISTINA ORTIZ
Soprano: JEAN TEMPERLEY
London Madrigal Singers
London Symphony Orchestra/ANDRE PREVIN (EMI)
Included:
Walton: SYMPHONY NO. 2
Walton: PORTSMOUTH POINT OVERTURE
Walton: SCAPINO (A COMEDY OVERTURE)