Boyce: Symphonies Nos. 1-8 - Menuhin Festival Orchestra

William Boyce
Symphonies Nos. 1-8
Menuhin Festival Orchestra, Yehudi Menuhin
EMI 586 047-2

With so many competing performances at every price level why should you consider these 1971/72 performances under Yehudi Menuhin and the Menuhin Festival Orchestra? Indeed, it's difficult not to steer a prospective purchaser of the Boyce symphonies to the new recording on Naxos, which captures as much as any recording the wonderful upbeat spirit of this timelssly charming music. Perhaps the best answer is the inimitable and generally unique virtues of the Menuhin version among the multitude of Boyce symphonies available. We are fortunate that there are many fine versions, and this performance is also good enough to garner a full five stars, and so I make my plea so we not forget this fine achievement.

Menuhin's well-recorded performances (at Abbey Road) of these evergreen charmers offers a break from modern 'period' instrumental sound. While most modern performances of the Boyce symphonies wend their way through the eight works at over an hour, older versions were somewhat brisker. The excellent and universally praised Trevor Pinnock CD with The English Consort on DG, seeming from a very different musical venue, though only recorded a decade and half later in 1986, checks in at just about one hour, for example, while Menuhin moves through the eight symphonies about four minutes faster. I haven't timed my fifites monural recordings of the Boyce symphonies - these works quickly found a secure home among classical record buyers in the LP era - but I can't recall any of them slowing down quite as much as we do today. (I call this the Mahlex complex - the tendency of today's conductors to invest more and more detail into their performances by going slower.)

Between the earliest monorual versions and today's Digital CDs came several LP versions, including the Menuhin. Among these was a set by the outstanding Haydn conductor, Antonio Janigro, (see Janogro's fabulous Marie Therese and others on his Haydn set on Vanquard). Sadly, Janigro never connected with Boyce, and his CD is hopelessly out of touch with Boyce and English Barogue style. Running through at a little over 51 minutes, Janigro never seemed to find any traction or depth in the works. Around this time the largely forgotten Jorge Faerber led a real gem of a recording of the Boyce symphonies, an utterly charming happy-go-lucky performance with the Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra of Heilbronn issued in America on the Turnabout label. Though far too fast for today's pundits, Faerber's remains one of the most ebullient of all the recorded versions. In such joyous celebratory music as these pieces of Boyce Faerber's way is certainly the ideal approach. Sadly, his version exists only in a poor CD transfer with exaggerated bass ruining everything.

Which leaves the Menuhin version above, with the Menuhin Festival Orchestra. It seems to have gotten lost in the musical shuffle taking place during the seventies academic revolt against bloated romanticized performances of Baroque music. Yet I like it more than most of the recent CD sets of the Boyce symphonies. There remains much for fans of Boyce to admire in these performances, and in particular qualities no longer present in today's performances of Boyce's symphonies. Apart from a wealth of fine elevated music-making, Mehuhin's wonderful humanism, a major feature of his best work, is readily apparent throughout the set. All this care and loving attention is given in the service of music derived from the 1760 set, compiled from the highlights of Boyce's large ouerve; pieces chosen for their vivacity, melodious charm, and distinquished part-writing.

Menuhin, who left us equally carefully presented efforts in the music of Handel, never short changes Boyce's variety and color; as might be expected in a group led by such a great solo violinist these performances give greater emphasis than any others to the graces of exquisite string playing. Moreover, Menuhin highlights the soloist to a far greater extent than any performances before or since, a feature of his manner especially striking in the slow movements, where the Arcadian philosophy of rural England sets off in slower sylvan mis-en-scene intermezzos against the riotous uptempo jigs and prestos of theater music from Boyce's own 18th century urban London.

Boyce's eight symphonies can be heard in modern versions, with a greater emphasis on the most up to date scholarship. However, this 1973 recording remains one of my favorites, especially for its originality and grace. If you already own a modern version such as the fine performances by Marriner or Pinnock, this Menuhin CD makes for a pleasureable change of pace. You can most easily hear the differences between the modern versions and the Menuhin group by samplying the slow movements, where really distinquished soloists can be heard playing what sounds like mini-concertos.

I like this version a lot, and play it, along with the Faerber, more often than any of my other Boyce symphony CDs. From my point of view, you can never have too much Champagne, nor too many versions of Boyce's wonderful music!

LP buffs should know that both the Menuhin and the Faerber are readily available as long playing records on the used market for a 'pittance'. Both gain enormously when played in their orignal format. The strings in the Menuhin are truly captivating, rich bewitching sounds largely suppressed in the CD dub.