Philip Arnold Heseltine, better known by the pseudonym Peter Warlock, was an unconventional, and often scandalous, gentleman whose fascination with the occult was matched only by his interest and skill in writing music. The originality of Warlock’s music secured him popularity within the development of British music in the early 20th century and despite only living until the age of 36, and almost certainly not reaching his peak, much of his music remains as popular today as it was during his lifetime. The piece that really put his name front and centre though was the exquisitely beautiful and atmospheric symphonic poem, The Curlew; the work which even Warlock himself heralded as his best.
Written between 1916 and 1922 for the rather unusual combination of solo tenor, string quartet, flute and cor anglais, the work uses four poems by W. B. Yeats, all sewn together into one continuous piece, punctuated by mood setting musical interludes: He Reproves the Curlew, The Lover Mourns for the Loss of Love, The Withering of the Boughs and He Hears the Cry of the Sedge.
Yeats held a certain distain for his work being set to music, and denied Warlock the permission to publish The Curlew, however Warlock’s imaginative setting of the poems won him recognition from the Carnegie Trust who immediately published the work! Needless to say by this point the stubborn and unforgiving Warlock had destroyed all of his other works which used Yeats’ texts, and continued to ignore his poetry for the rest of his life!
Right from the outset The Curlew conjures a melancholic and despairing mood which perfectly reflects Yeats’ poetry, there is a haunting sense of regret which permeates the work as a whole, and Warlock ingeniously captures an unsettling and desolate bleakness which evokes the barren uplands where curlews are often found; and incidentally the mid-Wales setting, surrounded by curlews, that he found himself living in at the time of writing this work. It’s not all doom and gloom though, the work also delves into his love of magic, so be sure to listen out for the witches, flying swans and calls of the peewits.
In this captivating performance, filmed at Â鶹ԼÅÄ Hoddinott Hall, our string principals and principal flute and cor anglais are joined by English tenor James Gilchrist.
Programme Note © Amy Campbell
