Summer's Last Will and Testament (Lambert)

Summer's Last Will and Testament is a choral masque or cantata by Constant Lambert, written between 1932 and 1935, and premiered in 1936. It is scored for chorus and orchestra, with a baritone solo also featured in the last of its seven movements.^[1] It is based on the poem of the same name by Thomas Nashe, written around 1592. Lambert considered the work his magnum opus,^[2] and it is his largest work in any genre.^[3] However, it attracted little attention at its 1936 premiere and had only one or two other performances in Lambert's lifetime^[3] (he died in 1951).

It has received only one complete commercial recording to date, released in 1992. This, along with a general resurgence of interest in Constant Lambert's music, has led to the work being reexamined, and performances are starting to take place.^[4][5] The Guardian critic said the 1992 recording had made available to the public "a masterpiece buried for far too long".^[6]

In 1949, Lambert said to Sir Frederick Ashton: "I like Summer's Last Will and Testament the best of all my work".^[4] Malcolm Arnold called it "one of the undiscovered treasures of the English choral repertoire".^[5]

Background and premiere

Summer's Last Will and Testament was written between 1932 and 1935, a period in which Lambert was busy with his conducting and orchestration duties with Sadler's Wells, conducting the London premiere of Kurt Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins (under the title Anna-Anna), and completing his book Music Ho!.^[7]

The work was premiered at the Queen's Hall in London on 29 January 1936. The Philharmonic Choir, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the baritone soloist Roy Henderson were conducted by the composer.^[4] The concert was sparsely attended. King George V had died just over a week before, and the sombre mood of the country was undoubtedly inimical to a work replete with references to plague, disease and death, and to the persistent aura of fatalism which affected much of Lambert's music.^[8] Although this tepid response could well have been anticipated under the circumstances, Lambert considered he had failed as a composer, and completed only two major works in the remaining sixteen years of his life.^[9]

The piece lasts about 55 minutes. It was dedicated to his then wife Florence Chuter (aka Florence Kaye), whom he had married in 1931.

Movements

The sections of Summer's Last Will and Testament are:

• Intrata (orchestra alone)
• Madrigal con ritornelli: Fair Summer droops (orchestra and chorus)
• Corante: Spring, the sweet Spring (orchestra and chorus)
• Brawles: Trip and go, heave and ho! (orchestra and chorus)
• Madrigal con ritornelli: Autumn hath all the Summer's fruitful treasure (orchestra and chorus)
• Rondo burlesca: King Pest (orchestra alone)
• Saraband: Adieu, farewell earth's bliss! (orchestra, baritone solo and chorus)^[6]

King Pest is also an allusion to Edgar Allan Poe's story of the same name.^[1]

Orchestration

Summer's Last Will and Testament is scored for the following forces:

• baritone solo
• chorus SATB
• 3 flutes
• 3 oboes
• 3 clarinets
• 3 bassoons
• 4 horns
• 3 trumpets
• 3 cornets
• 3 trombones
• tuba
• timpani
• percussion
• harpsichord
• strings^[10]

A version also exists with the orchestral parts arranged for piano four-hands.^[11]

Recording

Summer's Last Will and Testament has had only one complete commercial recording.^[4] This was released in 1992 by Hyperion Records, with David Lloyd-Jones conducting the English Northern Philharmonia, the Leeds Festival Chorus, and baritone soloist William Shimell. The recording took place in the Leeds Town Hall, and was produced by Christopher Palmer.^[6] Palmer's liner notes compare the plague to AIDS, from which Palmer himself would die just three years later.^[12][13]

Tapes of a 1965 broadcast conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent also exist.^[4]

The penultimate movement, the Rondo burlesca subtitled King Pest, written for orchestra alone, has sometimes been performed separately^[1] and has been recorded separately (by Norman Del Mar and the English Chamber Orchestra, released in 2007).^[14]

References