Bantock: Omar Khayyám [Hybrid SACD] [Hybrid SACD, SACD, Box set]

I've waited years for this recording. I heard a rumor a while back that it was in the works but nothing, nothing, and sadness filled my heart.

Then, with no warning, it emerged from the desert that has become classical recording releases, and the Sun appears bright in my eyes again. Gorgeous sonics, good voices, the choruses are window shattering. Bantock wrote a lot of music - A LOT - and much of it is so so, but the Camel Caravan (incidentally the best quatrains in Omar Khayyam) should have got him countless invitations from Hollywood. I've never understood why this didn't happen. Perhaps it did and Granville just didn't want to go.

Anyway, a stunning set. I do believe that Bantock's much shorter SAPPHO is better and more original, and definitely more moving, but at last, despite its few cuts, we can finally say we have OMAR KHAYYAM to wallow in wine and women under the stars for an entire evening. Congrats, Chandos, BBC and Handley for this.

This is something of a dream come true. The fact that the issues are currently collected in a reduced price box set suggested that Hyperion's Bantock series has come to an end, and I had hence not at all expected ever to hear Bantock's masterpiece, Omar Khayyám, in full, and at least not in a performance as good as this one. On a cautionary note, I still recommend that those who are unfamiliar with Bantock seek out some of the Hyperion releases (in particular the disc containing the Celtic and Hebridean symphonies and the one containing the orchestral song cycle Sappho) before delving into this one - but this is still an essential acquisition. Another cautionary note is that these are hybrid CDs, and I have only heard them on a standard system.

Omar is a huge secular cantata full of opulence, exoticism and escapist fairy-tale magic, requiring vast forces - it is, in short, too big and unwieldy and still unfashionable to stand any hopes for entering the repertoire in any way - even though the exoticism only rarely suggests kitchiness. The language and textures are lavish, voluptuous and luxuriant, superficially reminiscent of Strauss or Delius, but in the end more indebted to Tchaikovsky or the French late romantics (d'Indy, Chausson, Pierné) - there are even touches of impressionism there. Particularly impressive is Bantock's deployment of the choral forces, often more as part of the orchestration than as a separate entity (which also implies that the text sung by the choir seems less important in itself than as a means to textural effects). The level of invention and imagination is consistently high, but Omar also manages to form a coherent whole (particularly through the inventive, recurring use of a wonderfully sorrowful melody of `Waste not your hour'); and especially effective is the manner in which Bantock weaves various themes together to create novel, imaginative forms, textures and musical effects.

It is impressive from the start, with a majestic, noble and poetic prelude developing into a surging climax. The vocal lines for the three main character, the Philosophoer, the Poet and the Beloved are lavishly treated, bathed in glittering orchestral radiance, almost but not quite operatic. Real drama is given to the Philosopher, who over the course of the work moves closer and closer to the Poet (in terms of text but also musical material). For the most part, the music moves between reflection on the transience of life, the intense pain of parting, melancholic wistfulness and golden-hued, glittering longing and hope. Part I is, overall, uniformly gorgeous, culminating in a radiant and riveting `Waste not your Hour', but I have to admit that some of the moments in part 2 are less inspired, although there are some magnificent writing here as well, especially the utterly moving conclusion. Part III opens with a lyrical, solemn and sorrowful prelude. The amphorae scenes are particularly impressive and variegated, culminating in a swirling, wild dance. All the more effective is the tender and regretful music that follows, and the glitteringly atmospheric epilogue.

Catherine Wyn-Rogers sings with commitment and sensitivity, although there is a slight tendency to wobble at times - not a major problem, I hasten to add. I find nothing to complain about with respect to Toby Spence or Roderick Williams. Handley's conducting is thoroughly engaging and committed as well, although he sometimes seems a little too relaxed in some parts of Part II (some of Bantock's relatively complex use of rhythm seems to go amiss, but it might just be my imagination) - but perhaps only in order to be able to gather more momentum towards the magnificent conclusion. Still, this is overall a fabulous performance, and the orchestra and chorus respond gloriously throughout. The only real objection, if any, is that the work is not quite complete - there are some not entirely minor cuts. Yet Chandos deserves all the praise it can get for the project and the results. Really, truly a magnificent release.

It certainly was about damn time this first rate secular oratorio by Granville Bantock received a top drawer recording from a major quality label. And Vernon Handley is unquestionably the Bantock expert among conductors and is fully engaged in this sprawling choral work. His BBC Symphony plays beautifully throughout. The music is in no way kitschy or 'just' film music, it is much much more and Bantock has his own voice and manages to restrain any urge to over egg the orientalisms. I didn't hear Richard Strauss echoes so much as I did faint reverberations of Wagner, especially Parsifal and Tristan, but they are never blatant. And Bantock occasionally skirts a Vaughn Williams field of cow pats but does not jump the fence into that pastoral swamp. If he can be compared to any other English composer it would be Gustav Holst who was also besotted with the Near East. And I think Bantock must have heard Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht. What is amazing about this score is that it was clearly the gushing fount of ideas for many of Hollywood's composers of exotica. Even more than Korngold who came on the scene later in the 20th century, Bantock introduces the echt Arabian nights style music. Note the Camel Caravan and the opening scene with the boom-da-da-boom-da-da-boom timpani. It's classic Hollywood but not chintzy at all.

What I kept thinking was what a pity it was that the producers hadn't thought the casting of the singers and chorus through more carefully, exercising a bit of imagination that would have made this recording a more apt recreation of Bantock's Arabian nights music. It is a very romantic piece in the tradition of the very romantic Victorians and deserves the most lush performance possible. Handley succeeds in this very well, as does the orchestra, but the very English chorus sounds anemic and puny. They sing with almost no vibrato in music that cries out for a Schoenbergian Gurre Lieder approach. But the BBC Chorus sings in tune and correctly, if anonymously.

The soloists are better but not much. They too sing like English church choristers, the tenor, Toby Spence, being very annoying in that he starts most of his phrases with a straight tone, something I remember his doing while singing the role of Hylas at the Barbican during the now-famous recording sessions of Les Troyens under Colin Davis in 1999 or thereabouts. This role, The Poet, cries out for a Siegmund voice, not one of the big barking baritonal types but more like Jonas Kaufmann who possesses more lyricism than your average heldentenor. Spence gets the poetic part but is completely lacking in sensuality, sounding like a boy chorister just graduated from the King's College Choir.

Roderick Williams is very much a polite English baritone who doesn't allow a granule of dirt to enter his voice. His role, The Philosopher, has opportunities to express himself more eloquently than Williams manages. This role would have benefited from a full-out Amfortas voice, like Thomas Quasthoff. Catherine Wyn-Rogers is the most satisfying of the three soloists. Her lowish mezzo suits the sultriness of the music but, again, is devoid of any eroticism with which this score is saturated. A Kundry voice, like Gwyneth Jones in her prime, would have made something memorable out of these long-drawn out phrases.

The music is lush and gorgeous throughout with few longeurs. It is a very long piece spread out on 3 cds and clocking in just under 3 hours, and is VERY chorus oriented. After two hours of the piping BBC chorus I became anxious for the thing to end. That isn't to say I didn't enjoy most of it very much, for the most part.

One last regret: It is a pity Bantock didn't write the text in Persian, he could have, you know. English is just too prosaic a language for this very exotic subject matter.

But as this is the only recording of Omar Khayyam, and there is unlikely to be another in my lifetime, I urge all who are interested in this very prolific and gifted composer to invest in this recording.