Arthur Bliss: Morning Heroes; Investiture Antiphonal Fanfare; Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi
Brian Blessed, orator. London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir; Goldsmiths Choral Union; Croydon Philharmonic Choir; Michael Kibblewhite, director.
Cala Records CACD 1010. Compact disc, 64:40.
Bliss’s War Memorial, Powerfully Revived
The centenary celebrations for Arthur Bliss in 1991 produced this recording—completed the following year—of Morning Heroes, a work that stands at the very center of his output, though one might wish it appeared there more by accident of inspiration than by the grim accident of history. Bliss composed this symphony for orator, chorus, and orchestra as “a tribute to my brother and all my comrades-in-arms who fell in the Great War,” and the weight of that dedication presses upon every bar.
Michael Kibblewhite—who founded and directed all three choruses here, a schedule one can only call heroic—leads a performance of considerable dramatic force. The London Philharmonic plays superbly throughout. Actually plays, I should say, not merely executes. There’s a difference, and it matters enormously in music like this, where Bliss’s orchestration can turn from Elgarian nobility to modernist bite in a matter of measures. The Cala engineers have captured the LPO’s sound with real presence, allowing the complex instrumental writing to register without obscuring the choral textures.
The work draws its texts from Homer, Whitman, Wilfred Owen, and Robert Nichols (not Nicholls, as the original notes have it—one of those small errors that proliferate in liner copy). Some passages are sung, others spoken against atmospheric orchestral commentary. It’s an ambitious formal conception, this hourlong meditation on war and loss, and it requires performers who believe in it absolutely.
Which brings us to Brian Blessed. His commitment cannot be questioned—the man throws himself at the text with formidable energy. But there are moments when one wishes for more variety of color, more measured pacing. John Westbrook, in the EMI recording under Charles Groves, found a kind of bardic gravitas that served the work’s elegiac dimensions better. Blessed tends to declaim where he might simply speak, and the cumulative effect, over an hour, proves somewhat wearying.
The choral singing, though, achieves genuine intensity. Kibblewhite has prepared his forces with meticulous care—the ensemble work in the Owen setting “The Heroes” bristles with controlled ferocity. The fast music generally benefits from this performance’s approach: everything is strongly disciplined, yet the emotional temperature never drops. In the quieter passages, particularly the closing pages, the three choruses blend into a single, luminous voice that achieves exactly the transcendent effect Bliss sought.
The disc opens with two shorter works. The Investiture Antiphonal Fanfare—written for the Prince of Wales’s investiture—gets a properly resounding performance from the LPO, all brass gleam and ceremonial swagger. It’s effective for its three minutes, no more. The Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi, receiving its first recording here, uses only unaccompanied female voices. The material itself doesn’t lodge in the memory, but Bliss layers the voices with considerable imagination, creating what one might call vertical atmosphere rather than horizontal melody.
The booklet documentation, including Giles Easterbrook’s essay and complete texts, meets professional standards. One appreciates the care taken.
Morning Heroes remains a problematic work—its length sometimes exceeds its material, and the shifts between narration and chorus don’t always convince. But it contains genuine power, and this performance, despite reservations about the orator, makes the strongest possible case for it. The LPO’s playing alone justifies acquisition. For those interested in British music of the interwar period, or in how composers tried to make sense of the Great War’s carnage, this disc offers essential listening. Flawed, yes. But honorably so, and in ways that matter.
