Mackenzie: La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Day 310

Mackenzie: La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Malta Philharmonic Orchestra

Michael Laus

Alexander Mackenzie was one of those figures who did much to improve musical standards in Victorian England and pave the way for Elgar and those who followed him. Ironically he outlived Elgar by a year, though by the time of his death he must have seemed a figure from a distant age.

The only piece of his I knew was his short Benedictus , which is a beautiful elegiac piece which deserves to be better known. La Belle Dame Sans Merci is a symphonic poem dating from 1883, based on the poem by Keats.

Initially I thought that this was going to be really impressive work. The slow introduction was striking in its melodic ideas and set a suitably sombre mood. There was some highly effective chromatic harmony and a real ear for orchestral sonorities. But after that the faster music which followed was something of a disappointment. It fell into that rather ‘olde England’ 6/8 style of country dance music. Nothing wrong with that as such but it did seems a bit out of place after than introduction. It was all just a bit too jolly. 

British composers of this generation were largely learning how to create an orchestral style. it would take another generation before they had the confidence and experience to write music that was the equal of anything being written anywhere in the world. But the pioneering work of people like Mackenzie was an important part of that process even though ultimately his voice was not strong enough to remain a permanent part of the repertory.