Bantock: Thalaba the Destroyer
Preludes to "The Song of Songs" and "Omar Khayyam
Camel Caravan from "Omar Khayyam"
"Caristiona"
"Processional"

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Vernon Handley
Hyperion 67250

Bantock has been hit and miss for me.  His "Celtic Symphony" and tone poem,
"The Witch of Atlas" are polished, individual and evocative.  The
"Hebridean Symphony" begins in an inspired and compelling manner - with its
pre-dawn wisps of horn and violin melody floating over darkly adumbrative
seas - but when Bantock's morning mists burn off, the grand hull of the HMS
Richard Strauss suddenly looms uncomfortably close.

Derivation is fine as long as we're not reminded too much of old loves.
"Thalaba the Destroyer" was written in 1899 at which time Bantock had
conducted a series of all-Tchaikovsky concerts.  Both conductor and
audience enjoyed quite an enthusiasm for the Russian at the time, and
with "Thalaba," Bantock quite unapologetically tips his hat to him.  Now
Handley and the RPO have taken it up.

 From the air-cleaving brass punctuations to the sizzling string tremolos,
I can sense an extraordinary commitment on the part of the RPO's members
as only a fellow musician can.  Handley has always been a favorite of
mine; turning in performances that are both vivid and tight, yet never
emotionally undernourished.  Zeinab's theme, (Thalaba's mother), is a
wonderful extended melody repeated with a counter-melody that creates some
exquisite suspensions.  With Oneiza's music, (Thalaba's girlfriend),
Bantock gives us a fetching oboe melody over luminous strings.  It's during
the ensuing good vs.  evil battle music that one can hear most clearly
that Bantock has left Tchaikovsky atop the hill to bark orders down to the
troops; but still, unlike the stylistically piecemeal Hebridean Symphony,
Thalaba the Destroyer remains homogenous enough not to jar this listener's
suspension of disbelief.

It's the other pieces - the preludes "Song of Songs" and "Omar Khayyam,"
the "Camel Caravan," "Caristonia," and "Processional" - where I find my
mind wandering.  IMHO the titles are more exotic than the music itself;
and for all the talk about Eastern exotisism the percussion section is
used quite traditionally - to cap a climax or to limn offbeats.  Are my
post-Edwardian let-it-all-hang-out sensibilities not cutting Bantock enough
slack? No.  It's not just the conservatism.  Beecham wrote of Bantock's
music as:

   "...a flow of genial melody, unmistakably of the 'stagey' sort, a
   solid but lively handling of the orchestra, and a by no means too
   common capacity for passing swiftly and easily from one contrasting
   mood to another."

To be sure, Bantock writes with taste, his orchestrations delight, and
emotions ebb and flow like the River of Life itself.  But rivers carry with
them bits and pieces of upstream memories gained along the way, and rivers
eventually empty into something grander than themselves.  Bantock's music
"passes swiftly...from one contrasting mood to another" alright, but I find
his particular brand of through-composition in these pieces ultimately
unsatisfying because I don't hear or even sense any overall unity or
development.  Not even the hidden kind.

Certainly it's possible to create music that is both amorphous and unified,
(think of Delius' Irmelin Prelude, VW's "Fen County," or Schreker's
Intermezzo from "Der ferne Klang"), as these composers at least buffet
their clouds here and there with wisps of repeated melodic or rhythmic
motifs and discreet symphonic development.  Even Sibelius savors his spring
water for a few moments before swallowing.

Without any development or reiteration, pieces like Bantock's "Caristiona"
can seem like a river of unrelated and inchoate preludes.  Regarding the
few strophic sections to be found in the marches within "Camel Caravan"
and the "Processional," I found myself ironically *yearning* for more
variation.  My thrill regarding Bantock's prodigious orchestral techniques
aside--when splashed by his occasional grand gestures or when riding the
falls into his climactic seas, I sometimes find little to hold on to.

If you don't have any Bantock, I would recommend trying out an earlier
Hyperion release featuring the uneven but ultimately satisfying Hebridian
Symphony.  IMHO the fillers, (including the Celtic Symphony), are much
more successful than those included with "Thalaba the Destroyer."

John Smyth