Alwyn - Chamber Music and Songs

April 10, 2008 | By artblog In Artist |

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Bio-pic on Shawnee tribe leader Tecumesh, and his attempts to unite all Native American tribes.
List Price: $79.98
Used Price: $29.99
Customer Review: Tecumseh was a man.
One of the more civilized men who deserved the good legend history has given him I was really quite pleased seeing this film about this man. It has many of the Hollywood mistakes but what film doesn’t when it comes to historical figures. I loved that it showed his father was mixed blooded. I loved the way it showed him in relationship with his family. I loved the costuming and the setting of the villages. I thought the fight scenes were extremely well done. I was really pleased with the way they used coloring to show the Indians who were free as filled with color while those who have given in have become dark and depressed falling into drunkenness and despair with children of mixed blood wandering like ghosts between the huts. But as the old chief who was once so fierce points out There Comes a time when the cries of widows take over. Tecumseh resisted that to the death all his life. When he died so did his dream. The only thing I wish the film had contained was the Witch Hunting he and his followers instigated against people in their own tribes whom they wished to eliminate much as was the case in Salem for even though it is the dark half of the man it is none the less a part of him. Just as his brighter more civilised behavior makes him worthy of our admiration.
Customer Review: alternative film history.
shown on U.K TV 5-11-05.. BRAVE WARRIOR. depicting events leading up to the battle of Teppecanoe. this film portrays the BRITTISH INSURGENCY in Indiana. attacks by the Kings own .??against Governor Harrisons Troops.. and the envolvement of the Shawnee. on the instigation of bothe sides.. Tecumseh seems bewildered in all these events. The battle scenes are well depicted.. but facts are at foult..???. Jay Silverheels portrays .Tecumseh…also stars Jon Hall. and Michael Ansara.. this is a good historicle film…the crys of war ..and those damned brittish. resoundind.. a 1952 film..Directed by S P Bennet..
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Alwyn - Chamber Music and Songs
Customer Review: Ear- and Heart-Pleasing Chamber Works
This reviewer and indeed most American concert-goers have never heard a single note of William Alwyn’s music in the concert hall. But one was familiar with his style from his many film scores, often for Carol Reed movies such as ‘Odd Man Out’, ‘The Fallen Idol’ and ‘The Running Man’. It came as a bit of a shock some thirty years or so ago — largely as a result of the groundbreaking series of issues from the Lyrita label — to learn that Alwyn was an extraordinarily prolific composer of concert music in all genres. Music seemed to flow out of him. And one has yet to encounter a work that was not worth hearing, some of it for the ages. Associated with stylish craft, impeccable contrapuntal skill and an unfailing melodic gift, his music rarely fails to please even the first-time listener. This CD contains a miscellany of chamber music, all of it worthwhile.

Alwyn suppressed all his music written before about 1940 but there are several earlier works here — the Rhapsody for Piano Quartet (1938-39), the Sonata Impromptu for Violin and Viola (1939-1940), the Ballade for Violin and Piano (1939), Two Songs for Voice, Violin and Piano (1931), Sonatina for Violin and Piano (1933) — and each has something to recommend it. Indeed, of all the works here I was most taken with the Sonata Impromptu for the unusual combination of violin and viola; it ranks with the best things ever written for this combination. It is in three movements, each with extraordinarily assured contrapuntal writing aligned with pleasing and memorable themes. And it is given a simply sensational performance by Madeleine Mitchell, violin, and Roger Chase, viola. Chase, sensitively accompanied by pianist Andrew Ball, gives an equally satisfying performance of the lovely Ballade for Viola and Piano. Ball is an equal partner with Mitchell in the ten-minute-long Sonatina for Violin and Piano, a three-movement Ravel-influenced work whose serenely childlike middle movement is particularly lovely.

Three Winter Poems for String Quartet was written after the War and predates his so-named First String Quartet by five years. There is a hint of astringence and a sense of despair in this work, in contrast to the generally sunny qualities of the earlier works. The three movements are subtitled ‘Winter Landscape’, ‘Frozen Waters’, and ‘Snow Shower.’ Apparently this impressive nine-minute work never received a performance during Alwyn’s lifetime, having to wait until 2005 for its premi?re in Manchester. One hopes it is taken up by other quartets.

There are two, to my mind, rather less impressive works here, namely the two short sets of songs, somewhat marred by the unsettled voice of the baritone soloist, and the trifling ‘Chaconne for Tom’, the latter a set of variations on ‘Happy Birthday to You’ for treble recorder and piano. Together they amount to only about twelve minutes out of this 70 minute CD.

One cannot praise enough the industry and art of those responsible for this issue. This music, similar in its British way to music of Samuel Barber, deserves to be heard. This CD is a welcome addition to the ongoing series of Alwyn discs being issued by Naxos which themselves complement the classic recordings from Lyrita.