SIR GRANVILLE BANTOCK (1868-1946)

Omar Khayyám

 

Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Toby Spence, Roderick Williams

BBC Symphony Chorus & BBC Symphony Orchestra / Vernon Handley

 

Bantock succeeded Elgar as Peyton Professor at Birmingham University in 1908. During his time at Birmingham he developed an interest in large-scale choral composition, producing among other works his choral masterpiece Omar Khayyám. He had a true passion for all things eastern, launched into learning Persian and certainly owned Arabic books all his life. To a greater or lesser extent all his exotic interests find an outlet in his compositions. 

 

Among the first fruits of his musical engagement with eastern culture was his setting of Edward FitzGerald’s very free translation of the rubáiyat of Omar Khayyám, the first part of which was first performed at the Birmingham Festival of 1906; the second followed at the Cardiff Festival of 1907 and the third at Birmingham in 1909. The overriding philosophy of the rubáiyat of Omar Khayyám, the eleventh-century Persian astronomer, mathematician and poet, who became known to a wider English-speaking public through FitzGerald’s translations, is the transience of existence, and the insignificance of the individual, whether high-born or lowly. Bantock’s underlying message is certainly also Omar Khayyám’s: ‘Waste not your hour.’ A notable literary phenomenon of Queen Victoria’s reign, FitzGerald’s quatrains were given a dramatic setting by Bantock who assigned verses variously to a large choir and three soloists. The tenor Toby Spence and the mezzo-soprano Catherine Wyn-Rogers here perform the parts of the Poet and the Beloved, to whom most of the verses dealing with love and beauty are allotted, while the baritone Roderick Williams sings the Philosopher, who generally has the more exclusively philosophical stanzas. 

 

In addition to three soloists and large chorus, Bantock involves a large orchestra with two full string complements, arranged to the left and right of the conductor. In an atmospheric caravan scene Bantock also makes a feature of using authentic camel bells. For the BBC’s revival of the work in 1979, the conductor, the late Norman Del Mar, obtained authentic camel bells from Tunisia. For the present recording two have been kindly loaned by Del Mar’s son Jonathan, while the Bantock family has provided a third, used in the first performance of the work. 

 

During the recording of Omar Khayyám the music made a considerable impact on the players and singers, who were amazed that such a monumental and deeply philosophical work had not been recorded before. The recording was certainly the fulfilment of a dream for Bantock’s grandson Cuillin, who had been pleased to discover that Omar Khayyám also was right at the top of the list of works which Ralph Couzens had long wished to record.

 

Chandos CHSA5051