Short Story
A Fist Full of Fives
War Horse Orchestral Suite
Five Theatre Miniatures
Fenella Humphreys violin
BBC Philharmonic
Michael Seal conductor
CHANDOS CHAN20349
Adrian Sutton is well known to the theatre going public through his music for National Theatre productions such as War Horse and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Since 2022, when he was given an incurable cancer diagnosis, he has focussed on writing music for the concert hall. This disc is the result of his focussed energy.
The main work on the disc is the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (2023) which was written while he was undergoing chemotherapy. Despite that, it is a wonderfully uplifting work, full of vivid orchestration and memorable melodies. As a violinist himself, Sutton has written a violin part that sits idiomatically and brilliantly on the instrument, and Fenella Humphreys delivers it with gusto.
Jonathan James’s notes tell us that its origins can be found in observations on the flight of a seagull on coastal cliffs, and as a response to Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending. The latter is particularly noticeable in the passionately rhapsodic slow movement entitled ‘Far Cliffs’. The finale ‘Life Force’ brings back themes from the opening movement, (’Thermals’) and reinvigorated, the work ends defiantly. While it references British composers of the past, of living composers the nearest stylistic comparison would be with Howard Blake, whose genre defying music always shows an understanding and love for his listeners.
The rest of the disc is made up of shorter works. Not surprisingly War Horse (2016-23) and Five Theatre Miniatures (2005-23), are suites derived from his theatre music. In War Horse, set during World War I, Sutton’s score perfectly captures the bucolic world of rural England and the horror of tragedy warfare. The Five Theatre Miniatures, shape diverse theatre cues into satisfying concert works. The Mahlerian ‘Intermezzo’ is particularly affecting.
In contrast, Short Story (2022) invites listeners to ‘hear their own story in the music’. A Fist Full of Fives (2016) is shaped by various musical connotations of five. As Holst showed in Mars from The Planets, 5/4 is punchy and unsettling. Here though it is brilliant, dance inflected and keeps players and listeners on their toes. Walton is to the fore but who could complain about that?
Although Mr Sutton makes no attempt to hide his influences, he is very much his own man. His lyrically expressive, instantly communicative, music is, to me, more than welcome. Now the BBC has revitalised Friday Night is Music Night I shall be expecting to hear a number of these works featured there.
Review by Paul RW Jackson