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Rupert Bawden The Sailor's Tale

HORATIO NELSON ALEXANDER GROVE
FANNY NELSON, his wife, FLORA McINTOSH
THE REVEREND EDMUND NELSON, his father, ANDREW HEGGIE.
LADY EMMA HAMILTON, FLORA McINTOSH
SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON: her husband,ANDREW HEGGIE

TOM ALLEN, MANSERVANT. FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN. NELSON'S CREW
VOICE OF NELSON'S MOTHER. VOICES OF CHIDDEN. VOICES OF THE FUTURE
The smaller (and largely speaking) parts are played by the cast, by children or by members of the orchestra

The Creake Sinfonia/Gary Cheung
Other pieces by BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Nash Ensemble conducted by Rupert Bawden

NMC D093 [74 mins]

Scored for seven instruments, clarinet, bassoon, cornet, trombone, violin, double bass and percussion as is The Soldier's Tale (Rupert Bawden, a diversifying composer b.1958, had often played the violin part) this compact fifty minutes mini-opera is the heart of an interesting composer portrait CD. The Sailor's Tale takes as its subject the conflicts in the life of Nelson, researched and transformed into a poetic libretto by Kevin Crossley-Holland, which begins "Ricochet, head-thunderer! Pitch, my heart's gale", so you'll be relieved to know that the full text is supplied; with an additional angle - the sung/composed version is significantly tightened, so that you follow it (easily) but with a knowing feeling that you are sharing work in progress which rarely reaches the public - usually you will applaud the little excisions.

It was a successful commission, premiered in Nelson's Norfolk and performed there by adult singers and local children, with the fully professional Creake Sinfonia. There are ten short scenes, just right for that sort of project. The scoring points the incidents economically but pointfully, and it sounds great here, as, I'm sure, it would do so live; a very practical work which comes from the same world of community music making that Britten was famous for in the adjoining county. Alexander Grove characterises the naval hero who is beset by the demands of wife and mistress, all set in a nautical frame and with Crossley-Holland sketching key elements of his life and character in shrewd brief cameos, well researched and 'peppered with plenty of direct quotation'. Economy is taken even further by astute doublings by two of the singers, and spoken parts shared around.

I rate it a considerable success, a fluent piece of writing and a work that should be a pleasure to stage by schools, its subject matter (slightly naughty with a little warfaring thrown in) likely to grab children's attention in these days of complicated parental arrangements, familiar to them from the press and on the TV, not to speak of real family life!

There is a choral song Beasts of the Sea, a 'jolly Rumba with a Jewish-Russian band' which fits in with the theme and was interposed in performance between scenes 6 & 7, which you can programme on your CD player. And to complete the generous 74 minutes, a couple of studies for an imaginary ballet which isn't yet, and some short pieces for the Nash Ensemble conducted by Rupert Bawden. A well produced CD and a good introduction to an appealing, quirky composer. Music colleges might well consider The Sailor's Tale for a double bill with Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale?

© Peter Grahame Woolf