BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY

nSEPTEMBER e2019 ws Award for Vice-Chairman John Gibbons receives Empire Medal

Life Begins at 40 British Music Society David Hackridge celebrates its 40th anniversary Johnson Discovering the British composer News Chairman’s British Music Society’s news and events welcome Award for British Music It was good to meet so many of you at the 40th Anniversary Concert Society Vice Chairman at St. John’s Smith Square on June 22. Our congratulations and sincere thanks to the Ealing Symphony Orchestra and John Gibbons for making this a memorable event, and to Nicholas Keyworth and Michael Wilkinson from Revolution Arts who took the time to attend and introduce phase one of the new website. As always, more up-to-date news can be found by subscribing to the BMS monthly E-news. The results of our essay competition ohn Gibbons, Vice-Chairman of the Festival Hall. Amongst a catalogue of winner and the BMS winners from British Music Society and long-serving recordings, John has recorded Bruckner’s the Young Talent Competition have Jconductor and music director of Symphony No. 9 with a completion of the symphony orchestras in Worthing, Ealing and Finale by Nors Josephson; the string just been announced in the Northampton, has been awarded a British concertos of Arthur Benjamin; four Mozart September E-News (see reports), Empire Medal in this year’s Queen’s Birthday piano concertos with the Turkish pianist Idil and the closing date will be Honours for services to music. Biret, and two discs of orchestral music by announced shortly for the BMS’s "I was quite overwhelmed to receive William Wordsworth, of which volume two is BASC 2019 masterclass/competition the news of the award - not in my wildest scheduled for release in August on Toccata imagination had I ever imagined that such an Classics. Champion of British music As Vice- conducted by Roderick Williams; honour would be bestowed upon me,” Chairman of the British Music Society (BMS) this is held jointly with our member exclaimed John. "I have always taken my own and a Trustee of the William Alwyn Nigel Foster’s London Song Festival path in the musical world and programmed Foundation, John Gibbons has been a and will take place on December 10 music, often unfamiliar, that I passionately passionate advocate of neglected British at the 1901 Arts Club, 7 Exton Street, believe in.” An exemplary commitment to music of the twentieth century. Waterloo, London SE1 8UE. community music and young soloists John “I joined the BMS as a life member Gibbons has conducted most of the major as its promotion of neglected composers is a Matthew Schellhorn has now orchestras in the UK and has been Principal vital part of UK culture. I think there is now a completed the recording stage of Conductor of Worthing Symphony Orchestra greater awareness that there is much quality Herbert Howells piano music for - the professional orchestra of West Sussex – music by composers who are not household our next BMS release on Naxos. A for the last 21 seasons; “a period of much names and a greater willingness to give the morning recital at the Three Choirs evolution”, he says, “as we bring music to music a chance.” people of all ages in the area.” “For me the real pleasure is introducing these Festival in Worcester is planned by Renowned for his support of young significant works to an audience for whom Matthew to launch this CD. soloists at the start of their careers; guest they may be unfamiliar – and to international It involves some forward artists have included winners from high- soloists who may go on to perform them planning but we are exploring the profile competitions such as the ‘BBC Young worldwide.” possibility of holding the AGM after Musician of the Year’ and John regularly As well as programming British this recital over a private lunch as attracts performances from the likes of Nicola works wherever he can, John has most Benedetti, Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Jess recently championed symphony-cycles of near as possible to the venue. If you Gillam. As a composer himself, John has George Lloyd and Malcolm Arnold with the are interested in attending, please commissioned new works from emerging Ealing Symphony Orchestra, and he is a keep the date of 31 July 2020 composers including Laura Rossi, whose film regular advisor and performer at the Malcolm pencilled in your diaries. score he conducted at a live screening of The Arnold Festival, conducting the BBC Concert - Dr. Wendy Hiscocks Battle of the Somme with the BBC Concert Orchestra for broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Orchestra, for the centenary in the Royal

-2- Former Journal editor Roger Carpenter dies t is with regret that we have to inform members of the death, at the age of 82, of our member Roger Carpenter Iwho lived in Tenby. He was awarded the Berkeley Medal in 2009 for his services to the Society. Some members may have met Roger at occasional past AGMs, as I did, or know him otherwise. Roger joined the Society in 1997 and in 2000 volunteered to edit our annual Journal, following the unexpected death of his predecessor Don Roberts. He did this successfully until 2007 when he decided he should retire.Roger had published a biography of the composer William Baines in 1976, a much revised and extended edition of which he offered to the Society, who published this in 1997 (and which is still available), probably the principal publication on this composer. Our condolences go out to his widow and family members on their loss. - Stephen Trowell, Hon. Treasurer Discovering the music of David Hackridge Johnson

his article is the first of a series His orchestral writing seems exploring this British composer and completely natural, the brilliance of his This recorded works. writing for the brass, the horns in particular, Until November last year I had is extraordinary, I have heard nothing like it never heard of David Hackridge Johnson. since some of the wilder passages of Tippett. Then the happenstance of being in London Mr Johnson seems to have at the same time of the premiere of his 9th completely absorbed the music of Symphony by the Westminster composers such as Alwyn, Arnold, Brian, Philharmonic, an amateur orchestra of Tippett and Simpson with a splash of extraordinary ability, was a revelation. international composers such as Where had a composer of this Shostakovich and Sibelius and the talent been all my life? Why was work of this Americans Barber, Diamond, Harris and quality being played in a church in Waterloo Hanson. That is not to say the work is and not at the neighbouring Royal Festival derivative, it is not; he has absorbed their Hall? styles and filtered out what he needs to The composer was born in 1963 and express himself. He has developed in graduated from the Guildhall school of isolation a thoroughly developed symphonic Music and Drama and then pursued the life voice that is unlike any other composers of a professional violinist and music teacher. currently writing. - Paul RW Jackson Recently he completed a PhD in experimental music which included writing orchestral works without any hope of them and performing an opera in the Star Trek being performed but of a need to get the British Music Society Committee language Klingon! Alongside this he wrote notes down on paper (shades of Brian?), and Wendy Hiscocks (Chairman), John Gibbons music; lots of it. we should be glad he did. Martin Anderson (Vice Chairman), Stephen Trowell At the present time his has written of Toccata Classics has likewise invested a (Treasurer), Dominic Daula (Journal almost 400 works with opus numbers great deal of time energy and effort into Editor), Advisory role: Karen Fletcher including 17 symphonies. He seems to have bring this music to the public and for that we put time and energy into writing large should be grateful. Printed News designed by Revolution Arts

-3- NEWS British Art-Song Competition 2019

he London Song Festival and the British Music Society are collaborating again Tthis year to hold the British Art-Song Competition, which, as in previous years, will be part of the London Song Festival British Song Masterclass. This year the masterclass will be open to voice and piano duos aged 32 and under, and will be given by Roderick Williams OBE (pictured right) . Roderic who will select the best duo to be awarded the 2019 British Art Song Competition prize of £800 (kindly donated by the British Music Society) and the winning duo will also be offered a recital in the 2020 London Song Festival. Duos must be age 32 or under, and will be required to present two songs in English, at least one of which must be a setting of words by Walt Whitman. Application forms are available on www.londonsongfestival.org. Tthe audition date will be announced nearer the time. The masterclass and competition will take place at the 1901 Arts Club 7 Exton Street, Waterloo, London SE1 8UE on Tuesday 10 December 2019 in two sessions beginning at 2pm and 6pm. Ten duos will be selected at the auditions, and there will be a charge of £40 for each selected duo.

The Swing of the Pendulum

he George Lloyd Society is pleased to announce the publication Mr Davison examines the composer's life and work in of an extended article about the English composer George unprecedented depth in ‘The Swing of the Pendulum: George LLoyd TLloyd by musicologist and concert programmer Peter Davison. and the Crisis of Romanticism. In other news about George Lloyd, a violin purchased for the composer has been discovered in Kendal, Cumbria. The violin made by John Betts in London around 1800) is believed to have belonged Lady Emma Hamilton. According to a letter which came with the violin, it passed through the family of Lady Hamilton's butler, John Jefferies, who were shopkeepers in Brighton. The instrument was purchased for George Lloyd (1913-1998) when he was taken on as a pupil by violinist Albert Sammons at the age of 16 in 1929.

-4- NEWS Holst Society Christmas CD

e are planning to record, this summer, all Holst’s WChristmas music for release in October. This CD will include a number of Christmas works not previously recorded. Furthermore, for the first time, we will be bringing all Holst’s Christmas music together on one disc. The music will be recorded by the Godwine Choir. Secondly, this will be the first recording of all five works by Holst for organ, including a recent transcription. The four voluntaries dating from the early 1890s will be featured, together with a transcription by Richard Brasier of Holst’s last or - chestral work, a scherzo, for organ (four hands). Jonathan Hope and Christopher Too at the £6000. Members of the BMS will, hopefully, The Scherzo, completed shortly conclusion of choral evensong on Tuesday 30 wish to support the Society, financially, in before Holst’s death in 1934, was intended to July 2019 at Gloucester Cathedral, during the this exciting project. Contributions in excess be a movement of his planned second or - Three Choirs Festival. of £50 will guarantee a free CD of the chestral symphony. He never started work The five organ pieces will also be recorded at recording. on the other movements. Gloucester Cathedral. The soloists will be Richard’s arrangement of the Scherzo (dat - Richard Brasier, Tom Bell and John Wright. ing from 2015), an allegro, is an exciting, vir - The recording (under the EM label) * Please email Chris Cope, chairman of the tuoso piece and which will also be played by is likely to cost the Society well in excess of Holst Society : [email protected] BMS ESSAY COMPETITION WINNER 2019

ominic Duala, internal Cathedral. During his time as an un - adjudictor, is delighted to dergraduate, he was Director of Music Dannounce Matthew at Hatfield College and the Dunelm McCullough (Durham University) as Consort and Players, and sang with winner of the BMS Fortieth the University Chamber Choir. Anniversary Essay Competition. Matthew also undertook other His essay, titled A history and freelance singing, accompanying, and analysis of Gerald Finzi’s Dies Natalis, conducting work, which has been will be published in a forthcoming aided by his position as one of Sing for edition of British Music. In addition, Pleasure’s 2018/19 Young Conducting he was awarded a generously donated Scholars. prize of £100. He graduated in July 2019 with Dominic would also like to First Class Honours, including a first thank Dr Brian Inglis (Middlesex for his dissertation, Requiem for a University) for acting as external ad - Dream; Sir Arthur Bliss’ Morning judicator. Heroes as a Cathartic Requiem, super - Matthew McCullough was vised by Professor Jeremy Dibble. born in Ireland and studied at St At present, Matthew sings as a Malachy’s College, Belfast, before taking in Portsmouth Cathedral Choir along - Lay Clerk at Newcastle Cathedral and is up a music scholarship to study at side roles working at The Portsmouth studying for a Masters in Musicology at Winchester College for sixth form, Grammar School and the city's arts fes - Durham, with research focusing on the where, with the College Chapel Choir, he tival, Portsmouth Festivities. work of Ernest John Moeran. toured Russia and recorded a disc of In 2016, Matthew took up a He hopes to continue on to music by C.V. Stanford. place to read music at Durham Univer - doctoral studies following the comple - After the brief spell at Winch - sity on a Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship, tion of his Master’s degree. ester, Matthew sang as a choral scholar with a Choral Scholarship at Durham

-5- Inbox Send your letters to the Chairman to [email protected] or write to 178 Alexandra Road, Muswell Hill, London, N10 2ES The Woman of Samaria

Dear Chairman, performance of The Woman of Samaria had recording that they would be willing to share I was pleased to see C. B. Rootham have a taken place, and he replied not since the 1870s. with me? I do hope so. mention in the latest BMS News. And the fact The Sterndale Singers hope to do a complete that a CD of Sterndale Bennett’s music was performance with orchestra. I wish them well - DOUGLAS BENNETT reviewed therein reminded me that last in that, but if not, perhaps they may tackle an [email protected] month, as part of a weekend series of mainly abridgement of Bennett’s secular cantata The - - - - - short concerts in Sheffield was a performance May Queen. of Bennett’s Biblical oratorio The Woman of Meanwhile I enjoyed their reading of the Dear Chairman, Samaria (1869) by the appropriately named Woman, truncated though it was. It was a great honour for the ESO to be Sterndale Singers. invited to play for the 40th anniversary of the In my series of lunch-hour concerts in - PHILIP L. SCOWCROFT BMS. Thank you so much to everyone Doncaster we have had performances of his - - - - - involved. I hope we played that marvellous piano music, some of the chamber music and programme well enough to justify your some songs, but my only acquaintance with Dear Chairman, confidence in us. The Woman of Samaria pervious to this was I have always been interested in the I enclose the promised copy of the of the chorus ‘God is a Spirit’ which was on a music of Elisabeth Lutyens. I find it difficult to recording for your archives, with our miscellaneous LP I once had of British sacred listen to, but her position in the recent history compliments. Our professional extra players music. of our music seems to make it worth have given their consent on the basis that it This Sheffield performance, lasting only persevering. will be made available only to participants and 35 minutes, was of course abridged from the The recorded repertoire is reasonably other members of the ESO and BMS (and not original 1¼ hours; about three quarters of the big, but it misses the stage works. I have off- put on the internet). work’s choruses were done and most of the air recordings of her Linnet and the Leaf, and If any of BMS members would like their bass solos given to Christ. Isis and Osiris, but since neither caught on own copies they can order from me on the The other two soloists, a mezzo-soprano they give an unbalanced view. Her greatest same terms as our players, namely £10 per ‘Evangelist’ and the soprano Woman, were stage success was, I think, Time off? Not a pair of CDs. I'll give the proceeds after costs to abridged by their words being spoken. The Ghost of a Chance.I would very much like to the BMS. choruses, apart from maybe ‘God is a Spirit’, hear it. It was broadcast twice, in 1972 and Please send a cheque to R K Partridge, at sounded very Mendelssohnian, perhaps the again the following year (different 68 Elers Road, Ealing, London W13 9QD. For sort of invention Mendelssohn might have performances). The British Library has a are any queries, please call 020 8567 4075. composed on a slightly off day. recording, but getting in there in order to I asked the conductor of the Sterndale listen to it is a daunting task. - R.K.PARTRIDGE (Hon. Secretary, Singers if he knew when the last previous Is there a member who has an off-air Ealing Symphony Orchestra)

Welcome to our Join the British Concert listings new members Music Society available online A warm welcome to the following new If you are not already a member, you can members to the Society: join us for as little as £25 per year (free if Paul Henley (Shropshire) you are under 25). Members benefit Catharine Perry (London) from: A Heward Rees (Llanelli) - regular e-newsletters David A. Reeve (Derbyshire) - discounts on all BMS CDs and Visit the BMS website for the latest Mark Underwood (Kent) publications concert listings featuring British Music William Vann (London) - a network of British music enthusiasts. at www.britishmusicsociety.com/events Adrian Williams (Herefordshire) Join online at the BWS website.

-6- NEWS 2019 AGM report A report on the British Music Society AGM

Violin Sonata (1930, rev 1938) 2019 with Nicholas Keyworth and Michael Sextet for Oboe, Trumpet, Violin, Viola, Wilkinson present to introduce and dis - Cello, Piano (1931) cuss the website’s capabilities. Suite for Nine Instruments (1934) Member communications: Revolu - Romanza for Oboe and Clarinet (1940s) tion Arts continues to do a splendid job on Sarabande for Piano Left Hand (1958) the monthly E-news despatched reliably Rondo for Dancing for Two Violins and Op - on the 1st of every month. It is now sub - tional Cello (1970) stantial in length which will be addressed later this year with two separate newslet - The recording was made possible by addi - ters each month. tional funding from the RVW and Ambache In addition, Revolution Arts produces Trusts and with support in kind for the a beautifully presented 20-page Printed recordings from Ty Cerdd and City Uni - News every four months. This is a compi - he British Music Society held its an - versity. lation of selected items from previous E- nual general meeting on Saturday Mitchell’s CD of Grace Williams’s News. T22 June at St John’s Smith Square. chamber music shot to number two posi - Back copies are available to members tion in the Official Specialised Classical attending an AGM for no charge or to the Chairman Wendy Hiscocks presented the Charts and number seven in the Official general public at £1 each. Pdfs of previous following items to the members present. Classical Artist Albums Chart top 50 in issues are posted on the BMS website. mid-March. BMS Journal: Two editions have Pianist Matthew Schellhorn plans - - - - - been published; Volumes 39:2 and 40:1 a recording of his proposed world pre - were released as a double issue towards miere recording of Howells's piano music the end of 2018. Volume 40:2 was released in August 2019 with funding in the first quarter of 2019. from the Howells Trust and the Volumes 41:1 and 2 will be re - BMS. Further details to be an - leased later this year featuring some his - nounced soon. toric articles dating from the early editions Review panel: Geof - of the publication. frey Atkinson continues to do Essay competition: This has at - an excellent job co-ordinating tracted some interest from undergraduate the review panel. The Society and postgraduate students affiliated with would like to encourage its British institutions. The deadline has been members to also review con - extended to 14 July, and the adjudicator is certs and to take the time to a Senior Lecturer in Music at Middlesex conduct interviews with people University. who have worked in interesting Recordings: The Villiers Quartet areas of the music industry in - recordings of William Sterndale Bennett volving British composers. Quartets was released on Naxos in the au - These are priceless memories tumn of 2018. The latest BMS NAXOS and information which will recording of Grace Williams’s chamber otherwise be lost. music was launched at City University on Website: Concerns the 1st March. regarding the website function It was the culmination of a major and capacity have resulted in project directed by Madeleine Mitchell, Vi - the committee engaging Revo - olinist and Director of the London Cham - lution Arts to build and main - ber Ensemble. The CD features all world tain a new BMS website. The premiere recordings of Grace Williams’s first stage of this project was chamber music spanning 40 years: ready for viewing at the 40th Anniversary concert on 22 June

-7- NEWS

British International Youth Music Festival and Competition 2019

MS chairman Wendy Hiscocks and treasurer Stephen Trowell travelled Bto Harrow School in Middlesex on 10 August for a very well attended prize giving ceremony in the impressive surroundings of the Old Speech Room. The Chinese violinist, Amy Yuan, has succeeded in creating a vibrant competition for musicians as young as four years of age to budding professionals in their early twenties, and the mix of Asian and Western competitors looked balanced. Music by W.H. Squire, Frank Bridge and Ralph Vaughan Williams had been performed in the competition alongside standard repertoire by the likes of Mozart and Rachmaninoff. The BMS’s initiative encouraged a further five performances of our nominated Dunhill piano solo Sailor’s Hornpipe and one interpretation of Stanford’s Arietta Variations for violin and piano. There were no takers at all for the Bantock song ‘Desolation’ which was disappointing. The Society extends its sincere congratulations to our two winners appearing in the photo: Naori Takahashi (violin) and HanYang Liu (piano) who were presented with a copy of our Composer Profiles publication, a BMS CD and a £30 Chimes voucher.

Naori Takahashi is currently a scholarship postgraduate HanYang Liu is a young Chinese pianist who started student at the Royal Academy of Music, studying violin per - learning the piano at the age of three. He studied with pro - formance under Professor György Pauk. fessor Chen Lan, and is now studying with London based This season she has upcoming concerts at Regent Hall, Chinese concert pianist Yaoying Wang. HanYang will be mov - Southwark Cathedral and at the Notting Hill Music Festival, ing to London to study in the Harrow School as a music as well as regular appearances on stage at the Royal Academy scholar this autumn and has been awarded 2nd prize at the of Music playing solo, chamber and orchestral concerts. She International Chinese Music Art Festival global final in 2018 is a selected member of the LPO Foyle Future Firsts Scheme and first prize at the Golden Vienna International Piano 2019-2020. Competition in 2017.

British Music Radio relaunches

British Music Radio, an online, play-on- BMR Live features world-famous demand radio project dedicated to exploring pianist, Mark Bebbington with The Coull classical music whose composers were born Quartet in a marvellous recital recorded in or lived in the British Isles, has relaunched by Chichester and featuring Ireland, Venables founder Jan Cosgrove. and Elgar. The Symphony, the first in a The station features an introductory series, features Vaughan Williams 9th series of four programmes including a Symphony and finally Last Night ... of the magazine programme called The Journey. Proms features a recording from 1963.

-8- CONCERT REVIEWS

GURNEY HALL Gurney Hall Eighty years since the death of Ivor Gurney in Dartford Asylum his name is now remembered in the splendid acous - tics of the renovated hall at his old school in Gloucester. The magnificent framework of the ancient wood-beams of the roof are delightfully painted in a variety of subtle colours. Tim Kendall’s talk ‘The Comedy of War’, was illustrated with Gurney’s newly discovered poem, La Rime, to be pub - lished as part of a huge 5-volume edition from OUP. Comparing it with one of Sas - soon’s black-humoured ones, Blighters, Kendall explaining that humour was a kind of nervous, protective shield against the horrors of the Great War. An early Elgar salon piece, Idylle, was played by the Divertimento String Quar - tet. They were joined by Australian bari - tone, Michael Lampard for the rarely heard song-cycle by George Butterworth. Lampard’s big voice sometimes overpow - ered the quartet, but the catchy melody of the final song, On the way to Kew, brought the performers nicely into balance. from the serried ranks of clarinets and Gurney’s Molto Allegro in F for quar - BRITISH saxophones which brilliantly captured the tet had been praised by Gerald Finzi and spirit of its age. Divertimento gave a good performance, COMPOSERS AT In Malcolm Arnold’s punchy Sonatina though I feel it needs more articulation BATH SPA for Clarinet and Wind Band soloist John and power in the musical sentences to Gordon brought wit and joviality to this give it more of a scherzo quality. UNIVERSITY performance - right down to his gleaming Four of Venables own songs starting patent leather spats! with a setting of John Drinkwater’s elegy It was encouraging to see a wide Bob Chilcot’s ‘And so it goes’ was for Elgar where the soft strings suited the range of music by British Composers fea - beautifully presented by the University poem nicely. Gurney’s own Pain presented tured in Bath Spa University’s Gala Con - Chamber Choir with crisp diction and a bigger challenge for the quartet, which cert on 21 April. warmly blended voices directed by Francis was a little underpowered. Bath’s sumptuous Assembly Rooms Faux - well suited to the acoustic of the Of the 12 quartets written in the asy - arose as a post-war Phoenix from the surrounding classical grandeur. lum after 1922, only two have survived. ashes of the Bath Blitz. Now in the care of Tom Higgins’s arrangement of the One is a single movement, A London Med - the National Trust, it’s five great glittering Arthur Pryor’s ‘Blue Bells of Scotland’ for itation, the other a 4 movement work in D chandeliers looked down on a hugely en - trombone and orchestra was one of the minor. Until quite recently, the general joyable evening of music performed by or - most ridiculous pieces I have heard in a verdict was that Gurney was not capable of chestras, symphonic wind bands, while - and I loved it - the grins on the au - writing coherent music after 1922, but sev - chamber choirs and jazz bands with some dience’s faces clearly showing that larger eral such pieces have now been per - impressive soloists too. than life soloist Reuben Jenkins has got formed, showing that misguided prejudice But even this venue was not grand under the skin of this work. to be nonsense! enough for the pomp and circumstance Conductor Tobias Lazenbury ensured opening with William Walton’s Crown Im - that ‘Mars’ from Holst’s The Planets Suite 5 RICHARD CARDER perial. Originally composed for the coro - was both deafening and terrifying - as it nation of King Edward VIII, his abdication should be - heralding in an unknown fu - meant it was performed at the coronation ture world for many of the students for - - - - - of his brother, King George VI, instead. whom this was their final performance While some of the detail was lost in with this innovative and forward-looking this arrangement for Symphonic wind university. band, there was a surreal depth of colour 5 NICHOLAS KEYWORTH

-9- FEATURE BMS celebrates r

he night of Saturday 22 June 2019 but was able to remember music was indeed a special occasion and quickly. Nobody would have TJohn Gibbons with the Ealing Sym - known the pressure she was phony Orchestra gave us a wonderful under as she performed beauti - event to mark the Society’s 40th Anniver - fully with admirable composure. sary. The photographs tell you the There was plenty of variety in the rest of the story. Three Chairman programme presented by John, from the past and present cut the cake – a lyricism of the Michael Hurd to the lush delicious chocolate hazelnut sonorities of the Hamilton Harty and the sponge downed with a glass of striking sounds of Bax’s Symphony no. 1. wine and everybody entered into We were particularly grateful to the the spirit of the occasion. If only Berlin-based New Zealand-Scottish so - more of you could have been prano Kirstina Sharpin who stepped in to there to celebrate with us! learn Harty’s Ode to a Nightingale from Richard Partridge has in - scratch at thirty-six hours notice when formed us that recordings of the Helena Dix fell ill. concert are available by emailing This was quite a feat and even more him at [email protected] remarkable when Kirstina told me at the interval that she did not have perfect pitch - DR WENDY HISCOCKS

-10- FEATURE ruby anniversary

-11- BOOK REVIEWS

- - - - - of months I think it is more Howard Skempton: suited to the professional musician or academic. Conversations and The first four chapters com - reflections on music prise transcripts of conver - sations between Skempton Esther Cavett and Esther Cavett, followed Boydell Press by reflections by noted aca - £45 demics on aspects of the music. The conversations are …what is this rubbish” (p.174), the often quite dense and sadly conductor, James Weeks thoughts on rather dull. We get an “first encountering a score by Howard overview of his early life and Skempton are not unusual. The com - unorthodox training and an poser’s works are music stripped to the insight into his love of con - bare essentials and the often-unbarred temporary art from de lines of notes look almost childlike in their Kooning to Kenneth Martin. simplicity. But then one plays them, and The composers who one hears that this is music by a skilled have influenced him, composer with something to say and the Cardew, Cage, Feldman, We - means and burning confidence to be able bern, are not surprising, to express them as simply as he wishes. though his admiration for He does not hide behind complex har - Britten is, perhaps. From monies and mathematical rhythmical Britten he seems to have structures; the music is immediately com - taken the idea of a composer municative. being useful to society and I first encountered Skempton’s so his music unlike much of work in the form of his ‘Snow Piece’ which those composers he admires was printed on half a page in Michael is approachable and not hid - Nyman’s ground-breaking book ‘Experi - den behind a fence of aural mental Music’ (1974). The work for piano thorns. play and communicate the works. has no bar lines as is notated in breves The reflections from different and plays pianissimo throughout. commentators; Matthew Head, Heather To end, Dr Cavett reflects on how Skemp - There is nothing on the page to Wiebe, Arnold Whittall and Pwyll Ap Sion, ton told his story and the process of de - indicate that in performance it will create feel as though they were taken from PhD scribing a creative life in music and we an atmosphere of terror and mystery, but submissions and are not for the faint return sadly to the world of academe. this it does. hearted. Midway through the book (p.129) Dr Cavett Howard Skempton has been part of British Whittall’s is the most coldly aca - reminisces about being taught composi - musical life for more than fifty years, as demic, his discussion of hexachords and tion by Nicola le Fanu who said, ‘don’t in - omposer, performer and commentator. none-triadic progressions reduces the tellectualize it too much’, if only that He studied in London with Cornelius music to dry theory which seems to be the advice had been followed through here, a Cardew in the late 1960s, co-founding the antithesis of Skempton’s art. book more representative of the music Scratch Orchestra. He has written over Although in this Skempton is may have been produced. 600 pieces, often tiny works of only a few also at fault and his analysis of his ‘Snow Piece’ mentioned above takes more space notes, which like Webern, a composer he - PAUL RW JACKSON loves, contain more import than seems in text than the work does in notation and possible. in the end adds nothing to the worth of - - - - - Edited by Esther Cavett and the music. Matthew Head from Kings College, Lon - Sections on how he teaches com - don the book offers an insight into the position and the response of some of his composer's creative world and how others students are intriguing; he is a nice man, may interpret it. It is not however a con - not like that brute Nadia Boulanger. The ventional biography though it contains a penultimate chapter is the most humane timeline, authorised work list and discog - as it draws upon the voices of performers raphy. with long associations with the music; The publishers feel it is written Peter Hill, Thalia Myers, John Tilbury and for anyone interested in contemporary James Weeks. Here, finally, we get ap - music but having lived with it for a couple proachable comments on what it means to

-12- CD REVIEWS

ing from bold forte to hauntingly sweet pi - Britain’s most-loved musical sons has Panufnik anissimo passages. It convincingly en - positively widened, well beyond that initial shrines that irrepressible Panufnik front-facing nationalistic fervour. The Complete works for cello and piano musical talent. Spacious acoustics enable much-celebrated Brodsky Quartet links Ruth Henley cello an appropriate other-worldly, almost with experienced pianist, Martin Roscoe, Ilya Chetverikov piano ethereal, seductive sound. to give a moving and tender rendition of a Bridges Music BMCD01 Exceptional warmth and subtly- Piano Quintet bursting with typical balanced textures truly capture the misty- melodic richness. he intoxicating tonal world of pro - eyed roots of a composer reflecting over The recording venue – in Potton lific 20th century composer, An - his eventful life. Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk on the Channel Tdrzej Panufnik (1914-1991) began These are late works, written coastline - couldn’t be more apposite. For, when, as a precocious and inquiring child, when Panufnik was in his 60s and 70s. in this very area during the First World he pressed an ear against a wooden tele - They were delicately scored for modest War, the boom of cannon barrages could graph pole: "I was on holiday at the age of chamber forces but have all the dramatic be heard in nearby war-torn France. This seven or eight and made the enthralling power of a full orchestra. violent and chilling noise is menacingly discovery that I could hear curious, magi - mimicked by Elgar in a dramatic Quintet cal sounds made by wires vibrating in the - CHRIS BYE opening movement. A following andante wind …" literally bleeds with sympathetic despair. It seemed to me that I was listen ------The players wring every last ing to real music.’ he says in his auto-bi - ounce of emotion from a poignant adagio ography. And that ‘real music’ was movement. A contemplative and soulful destined to develop into the distinctive Elgar mood is dominated by an all-pervasive air Panufnik musical style which, over the String Quartet and Piano Quintet of abject despair. This is a powerful per - decades, won this adopted British com - Brodsky Quartet formance that easily equals the much- poser well-deserved international ac - Martin Roscoe piano treasured words of those WW1 literary claim. Chandos CHAN10980 giants Sassoon, Owen and Brooke. Health A turbulent life saw the Polish- problems for Elgar and his wife, Alice, born musician ultimately defy the ravages added to the gloom. of World War II, defecting to become a The Quartet (Op. 83) also has its British citizen in 1954 and going on to con - moody touches, particularly in an andante ceive many exceptional masterpieces, like which is handled with delicacy in some the glorious Sinfonia Sacra (1963), the beautifully phrased bow and string work. highly expressive Katyn Epitaph (1969), or The Brodsky players fire up well the emotive, Autumn Music (1965). Many with in an opening Allegro molto, which other impressive artistic achievements leads to a satisfying Finale. Finely exe - also proliferated from his pen. cuted co-ordination brings the Quartet to But Andrzej Panufnik, one-time a robust and triumphant ending which Music Director of the celebrated Warsaw most Elgarian Prommers are bound to Philharmonic Orchestra and great friend love. of fellow-Pole, Witold Lutoslawski, never - CHRIS BYE forgot that childhood telegraph-pole magic. - - - - - This excellent release, featuring intensive performances of his three string ehind the widespread pomp and quartets, is well worth a listen. It is also an nationalistic tub-thumping that historic reminder of those enigmatic Peter Racine Fricker boosted the popularisation of sounds that originally fired his fertile B Britain’s beloved Edward Elgar, there lies Organ Music imagination. Indeed, the second quartet, a compassionate and sensitive composer. Tom Winpenny organ aptly entitled ‘Messages’, clearly demon - This superbly poised perfor - TOCCATA Tocc 0518 strates Panufnik’s original childhood in - mance of Elgarian chamber music con - spiration. vincingly illustrates that point. This very The recording includes a won - timely release, which anticipates this ou could say this is a disc for people derful tribute to a fellow Polish composer year’s rowdy Proms Last Night jamboree, who do not like modern organ – the well-loved Frederick Chopin. In certainly proves to those ‘The Land-of- music, as it is quite superb and Suite Polska the dexterous playing of Dory Y Hope-and-Glory’ fanatics that there is a might make a few converts. Peter Racine Ombodi (flute) and Slawomir (bass) inten - far deeper, melancholic side to their Fricker (1920-1990) was a well-known sify the vibrant expression. favourite British composer. name in the 1950s and 60s being fluent in Here we are privileged to hear Since those jingoistic Edwardian most genres except staged operas, with some adept bow and finger-work – rang - years, the enthusiastic taste for one of exposure in the concert hall and on radio.

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The style is basically tonal-dissonant, lisher Schott’s website (at reasonable cost). On the opposite end of the atmo - sometimes with modified serial proce - Tom W’s exquisite performance made me spheric imagery on the disc is the finale to dures. However, this apparently was not want to explore the piece for myself. the Piano Quartet: brilliantly showcasing good enough for the new 1960’s thugs and Then try the ‘Toccata Gladius more varied rhythmic interest through - coincident with his accepting of an aca - Domini’, a ‘fiery extrovert work’ which to out, fast-moving lines, and a fine featur - demic post in America, his music disap - quote Gillian Weir (who gave the British ing of the added piano timbre against the peared almost completely from view. première in the RFH) shows that Fricker more lyric writing we hear in the other The booklet notes highlight his ‘loved the organ with its power and capac - two works on this disc. well-wrought, largely contrapuntal style, ity to thrill.’ The String Quartet No. 3 was and fastidious textural clarity, all of which given its first performance in 1920 at Mar - go hand-in-hand with music for organ - - GEOFFREY ATKINSON ion Scott’s home in London; the Lady Au - of which instrument he was an expert ex - drey Suite, with its programmatic set of 4 ponent. - - - - - character-piece movements, was a pre - I use the word ‘superb’ above sent for Scott’s niece; the Piano Quartet with considerable emphasis. Firstly, there was dedicated to Ivor Gurney and Chosen is exceptionally able playing from Tom Howells Hill with all the musical styles chosen to Winpenny, which is dazzlingly clear and represent them. accurate. Then there is the very fine 75 Chamber Music This is a most welcome disc of stop monster organ in Bridlington Priory, String Quartet No. 3 / Lady Audrey’s Suite the lesser-known side of Howells’ output. said to be the biggest in a parish church in / Piano Quartet It demonstrates so convincingly the spec - England, and an organ which boasts a gar - Dante Quartet tacular future ahead of this 20-some - gantuan 32 foot Contra Tuba (which cer - Gould Piano Trio thing-year-old forging his style. tainly rattled the foundations of this Benjamin Frith piano house). NAXOS 8.573913 - JOHN DRESSLER Finally, there is the helpful acoustic, sensitively recorded. Too often - - - - - in discs of organ music the sound comes magine the meaning to an 18-year-old over as mushy and indistinct obscuring budding musician being in the audi - Richard Rodney Bennett details of the music. Given the importance Ience at Three Choirs, Gloucester 1910 of counterpoint in PRF’s oeuvre this is a not only witnessing the premiere of RVW’s most important consideration. Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis but There are stylistic nods in the di - also having RVW, himself, sitting next to rection of Hindemith and when he lets rip you for the remaining portion of the pro - one is reminded of the extravagances of gramme. Throughout many works of Messiaen and Langlais, but all the while he Howells’ total oeuvre one senses an over- is his own man. I expect that only true lay of RVW spirit and in some passages devotees will listen to the whole disc in similar harmonic structures and major one sitting. I suggest you first put ‘a toe in chords at cadences following modal ex - the water’ by listening to the exquisite ploration. All of this is to say, this Naxos ‘Pastorale’ which is probably PRF’s best disc presents several of these characteris - known organ work, frequently appearing tics in the chamber music medium out - in recitals. side sacred choral or larger orchestral I have to admit I could not for - settings. There are passages in all three of bear from downloading it from the pub - these gems featuring string instruments of poignancy, of pastoral atmosphere jux - Richard Rodney taposed with those of excitement and dar - Bennett ing (in particular the final movement of the Op. 21 Piano Quartet). Orchestral Music Volume 3 Howells’ use of the counterpoint BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra we often hear in the scared choral works Chandos CHSA 5230 is also well-represented here. As a pupil of Stanford, Parry, and Wood at the RCM one This issue is the third compilation will no doubt sense reflection of their of RRB’s music under the expert styles here and there. guidance of John Wilson, where the The third movement of the String T programme pattern is similar, that is a Quartet No. 3 (even more than the first symphony – here no 1 from 1965 – and a movement to me) is so movingly beautiful miscellaneous selection of further items. with its folk-like melody, woven with Symphony no 1 is from the period when he plenty of time to enjoy the Gloucestershire felt obliged to adopt serialism to gain countryside it paints.

-14- CD REVIEWS credibility in that unfortunate era when Interestingly the composer dedi - cliché has it, worth getting the disc for this such techniques were thought to be the cated this work to John Wilson because he alone. way forward. It just sounds noisy and ‘had a way with strings’ which he ‘carried brash to me (allegedly there are shades of around…from orchestra to orchestra’. - GEOFFREY ATKINSON ‘Walton and Henze’) but brilliantly played This is an acute observation because the by the forces here, and if you like this sort band’s tone, sheen and warmth here are - - - - - of thing, you will not be disappointed. wonderfully apparent in this recording. Zodiac (1975), dedicated to Elisa - In some ways, to me at least, the beth Lutyens, is in similar style but cru - most interesting piece on the disc is A Colour And Light cially far easier to follow. It has what I History of the Thè Dansant which dating would imagine to be a unique construc - from 2011 will have been one of RRB’s final 20th Century British Piano Music tion inasmuch as it has no fewer than 17 works. Nathan Williamson piano brief movements, each not much longer The verse is by the composer’s SOMMCD 0196 than a minute. elder sister Meg Ruth Peacocke evoking Each sign on the zodiac is sharply memories of her childhood. The booklet characterised by different instrumental notes state that the parents were ‘emo - he five composers represented on groupings. They are bundled into groups tionally distant’, yet clearly the undercur - this fine solo piano recital by of three which are introduced, separated, rents were more challenging. TNathan Williamson all come from a and concluded by a ‘ritornello’ which in - The verse conjures up the spirit period in British music when tonality was volves everyone. of the 1920’s, and the music therefore al - being explored to its outermost limits. What I daringly suggest is the ludes to the mood of ‘Façade’ (though the Some of the composers, according to the real RRB is represented by two further, verse is sung) and Britten’s ‘Cabaret accompanying programme note were bor - broadly tonal, works. The source of Re - Songs’. The music is extrovert and very rowing techniques from serialists like flections on a Sixteenth Century Tune is vigorous, and dashingly despatched by Schoenberg even while producing music from a Josquin des Près chanson and con - Sarah Connolly. The real kick in the piece that sounded well within the realms of sists of a prelude, four variations and a fi - is the extraordinary bitter-sweet instru - tonality. nale. It was written for a youth string mental coda, moments of a fragile tender The music ranges from Delius orchestra though there are seemingly few beauty, and all the more moving given that (1862 – 1934) at the start of the 20th Cen - concessions to inexperience. it will have been a final envoi. As the tury whose compositions, though firmly tonal, were unique unto himself, to Elisa - beth Lutyens (1906 – 83) who according to Nathan Williamson’s programme note: ‘claimed to have discovered’ serialism 'en - tirely for herself, stating her reaction on first seeing a score of Schoenberg’s ... “Oh, he’s done this too”’. The final two pieces are by Anthony Herschel Hill (1939 – 2016) composing tonally at a time when such music is coming back into fashion with many contemporary composers in the United States and now in Great Britain. ‘Twelve Preludes’ by William Alwyn range from the gentle transparent simplicity of the first, through the second whose open - ing flourish reminded me of ‘The Gnome’ from Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibi - tion’ to the slow sad romanticism of num - ber five dedicated to the memory of the New Zealand pianist Richard Farrell. Numbers seven eight and nine suggest Debussy who was himself inspired by Eastern gamelan music, and finally the twelfth prelude, described by John Ogden as ‘Interplay of colour and light', giving the CD its title. Peter Dickinson’s ‘Paraphrase II receiving its world première recording here is a Theme with six hugely contrast -

-15 - CD REVIEWS ing variations exploring the outer edges of pace, featuring memorable string and for his wife, Jenifer Wakelyn. It is attrac - tonality in a brilliant structurally refined woodwind playing, studded by emphatic tively orchestrated throughout, somewhat way. percussion. No wonder these variations akin in mood to the bright Mahler Fourth The Delius pieces are piano re - were a favourite of Sir Henry Wood. They and Seventh symphonies. Matthews’ Ninth ductions of orchestral music, the first certainly seem to ensnare that youthful, is undoubtedly another fine piece of writ - ‘Nocturne’ arranged by the renowned raucous, last night of the Proms playful ing to emerge from the modern British Delius scholar Robert Threlfall, and the atmosphere. music stable. Matthews - a devoted two extracts from ‘Margot la Rouge’ given A more serious and austere mood Mahlerian -- played a key part in helping a unique sense of clarity by none other comes in this release’s title track, Sym - Deryck Cooke to reconstruct a performing than Ravel. These are played deliciously phony No. 3 ‘Ships’. We hear a grandiose, version of the Austrian composer’s 10th by Nathan Williamson. pictorial orchestration of vessels of war, Symphony. Is this where his passion for ‘The Ring of Bone’ by Elisabeth hospital ships and merchantmen making strong lyrical threads comes from? Lutyens' even has verses of poetry by the up a three-movement allegro, largo and This accomplished composer composer spoken during the performance finale. Holbrooke conjures up convincing also aided an ailing Benjamin Britten to by Williamson – remarkable and eccentric, scenes using his impressive orchestral finish his final string quartet. Other influ - but also good fun. paintbrush. ences over Matthews’ eminent musical ca - The final pieces by Anthony Her - Inventive melodies based on a reer have included Michael Tippett and schel Hill, also world première recordings, perceptive use of horns, trumpets, Nicholas Maw. are ‘Litany’, with romantic and richly swirling strings and perky woodwind, de - coloured piano writing, and the virtuosic pict scenes which could almost come right ‘Toccata’, exciting and brilliantly well- out of those treasured Naval museum structured – in itself well worth the price grounds, Plymouth/Portsmouth harbours! of this CD. The magical mysteries of Welsh mythology are behind a 15-minute tone - ALAN COOPER poem ‘The Birds of Rhiannon’. Oboes and flutes suitably twitter, around some nice - - - - - string and brass work. Holbrooke (1878-1958) embraced an eclec - tic style and avoided academic structures Josef Holbrooke such as the sonata form. His penchant for style and colour Symphony No. 3 Ships was enough to leave an indelible mark on Deutsche Radio Philharmonie British musical art. Howard Griffiths conductor CPO 555 041-2 - CHRIS BYE Here is also a delicate waft of that hat vintage Elizabethan military - - - - - celebrated Vaughan Williams anthem, The folk tune, originally entitled ‘The Lark Ascending, clearly betraying a thor - Tgirl I left behind me’, ricochets ough English pedigree. This is a release pleasingly around the brain in a fresh mu - David Matthews featuring glorious tones helped by some sical guise impishly disguised by that beguiling harmonies. Both the Variations post-romantic master, Josef Holbrooke. Symphony No. 9 for Strings and the more recent Double This oft-performed British folk Variation for Strings Concerto for Violin and Viola expose a real song (many are bound to remember it!) is Double Concerto master of post-romanticism. Rhythmic cleverly camouflaged by Holbrooke in Sara Trickey violin energy sharply contrasts with some more stimulating successive variations, gar - Sarah-Jane Bradley viola plaintive moments and both soloists de - nished with vivid orchestral colours which Kenneth Woods conductor liver with real panache. This searing string are guaranteed to bring a broad smile to Nimbus Alliance NI6382 passages are vintage David Matthews. any listener’s face. It is not exactly what This well-engineered recording you might class as ‘cerebral music’ but the he expressive ‘voice’ of contempo - finds a disciplined English String Orches - simple and sure languid strains have a rary British composer David tra proving to be impressive ambassadors charming impact on the ear. The finely TMatthews shows a maturity that for impressive works penned by one of the balanced recording of 17 movements are will strike a tonal accord with listeners. greatest musical minds of our time. wittily delivered by German Radio Phil - His long-awaited Ninth Symphony is an - harmonie players, under the precise di - other convincing illustration of that fa - - CHRIS BYE rection of the experienced Howard mous musical craftmanship so treasured Griffiths. by Matthews’ followers. It speaks clearly - - - - - The work opens with beckoning and unambiguously. horn calls before the sweet variation The work opens brightly, using theme is first revealed at a dashing allegro material taken from a carol he composed

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Arnold Griller Ronald Stevenson

Orchestral Music, Volume 2 Musica Viva Symphony Orchestra Alexander Walker conductor Emin Martirosian piano TOCCATA CLASSICS TOCC 0460

anadian composer and pianist Douglas Finch, currently Professor Cof Piano and Composition at Trin - ity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance has written the immensely helpful programme notes for this the second CD of Orchestral Compositions by Arnold Griller. The Symphony in particular has seven musical examples that act as mile - stones which help Finch’s powerfully de - scriptive notes guide us through the complexities of Griller’s writing. It is these complexities of harmony and coun - terpoint coloured by Griller’s amazingly expressive use of instrumentation that power the special appeal of his music. As in the first volume of his or - chestral music, the four pieces on this sec - ond CD are performed with exceptional precision and clarity by the Moscow Introduction, Cakewalk and Allegro for also merit a strong recommendation. chamber orchestra Musica Viva conducted Piano and Orchestra (2011) featuring piano As well as being a virtuoso pianist and by Alexander Walker. soloist Emin Martirosian was the nearest composer, Stevenson was a devoted fol - The first work on the CD is enti - Griller gets to fun in music. The Cakewalk lower of Percy Grainger and his idiosyn - tled Scherzoid (2017). With its angularity theme was attractive and at the end, piano, crasies and enthusiasms. This is obvious and trenchancy, it lives up to its title. glockenspiel and celeste create what the in their singular approach to folk music Griller’s style is unique to itself although composer himself called a ‘chorus of spar - and its arrangements – Britten remarked Finch mentions Bartók and the later rows’. The that Grainger was ‘the master of us all’ in Stravinsky as similarities. I was reminded final work on the CD is Griller’s Rhapsody this activity. too of Hindemith. The piece opens with a Concertante. Once again, the complexity Stevenson matches Grainger in murky sounding chorale-like introduction and sheer imagination of the orchestral imagination and thoughtful response to for three trombones and tuba before fire - colouring was the principal attraction. folk material, observing the common works from lively and incisive writing for Here too, Finch’s notes and three musical ground between Scottish and Chinese and woodwinds and strings take over. Inter - examples were so helpful. other traditional music especially in their estingly, the strings do not include violins use of pentatonic and hexatonic scales. So at all, giving the music a darker flavour. the ‘Chinese Folk-Song Suite’ here Particularly important is the writing for - ALAN COOPER recorded does not sound at all strange in timpani which gives a comforting heart - this context, and, even more oddly, neither beat to gentler passages. - - - - - does the ‘Ghanaian Folk-Song Suite’ where The timpani are also important at the final ‘Leopard Dance’ could almost many points in Griller’s only Symphony have been derived from original Scottish (2003 and revised 2010). This is a complex Ronald Stevenson material (maybe it was!). work which benefits from repeated listen - The main item on the disc is ing. The different ‘movements’ follow on Piano Music, Volume 3 ‘Sounding Strings’ an anthology of 14 almost imperceptibly from one to another Christopher Guild piano Celtic melodies, unusually set out for ei - with titles like ‘With uncertainty’ or TOCCATA CLASSICS TOCC 0403 ther Clarsach (the small Scottish harp) or ‘Searchingly’ and this is where Finch’s piano. ‘Celtic’ is deemed to include Welsh, notes prove so helpful. Listening to the his is the third disc exploring Cornish, Manx, and Breton material, as detailed orchestral writing and being led Ronald Stevenson’s piano music, well as Hebridean and Scottish Gaelic. by Griller to a symphonic shaping that Tand – thinking in retrospect – if These are mainly very straightforward but made sense was a real pleasure. numbers one and two are as well engi - such is the skill with which the music is neered and played as this then they will -17- CD REVIEWS

arranged that one is scarcely aware of their basic simplicity (the easiest are Havergal Brian barely grade 3!) I would like to mention here the lovely setting of ‘The Ash Grove’ which is surely Stevenson’s own homage to Britten (rather than Grainger). Grainger’s ‘Hill Song’, which he began in 1901, is a substantial 22-minute work for large wind ensemble. Steven - son’s transcription was intended as a trib - ute to the composer on his 78th birthday (this was the sort of arrangement Grainger would have done if he had got around to it). The music is a freely composed sort of ‘stream of consciousness’ with very little repetition. Grainger wanted it to be ‘all theme and never thematic treatment.’ This is all very well, but the problem here is that however engaging the individual the highest quality from the Westminster tive contrast followed by a stunning per - micro-segments are, the ear (well, my ear Abbey Choir, the safe hands of James O' - formance of 'Lo I raise up' (one of Stan - at least) yearns for some observable shape. Donnell the organist and Master of the ford's pièces de résistance). This The disc concludes with 2 virtu - Choristers together with the sub-organist excellently planned CD shows Stanford oso Scottish arrangements and a haunt - Peter Holder. and the Abbey Choir at their best ending ingly beautiful Northumbrian one ‘Bonny There are two other works by with rarely performed setting of the 'Glo - at Morn’. Bairstow: 'Let all mortal flesh keep silence', ria in excelsis' originally written for the an early motet for unaccompanied choir coronation of George V in 1911. Here, par - - GEOFFREY ATKINSON that illustrates the composer's wonderful ticularly at the opening, there is more than feeling for choral sonority and to follow a hint of Parry's 'I was glad'. - - - - - 'The Lamentation' setting of the words of There is much to enjoy in this in - Jeremiah imbued with the style of Angli - teresting, thought-provoking and magnif - can chant. icently performed CD. It is well worth Bairstow + Harris + Possibly, outside the organ loft, exploring. Stanford the least known of the trio of composers on this CD is Sir William Harris (1883-1973), - GEOFFREY ATKINSON Choir of Westminster Abbey the Organist and Choirmaster of St. Peter Holder – organ George's Chapel, Windsor. Harris however - - - - James O’Donnell – conductor was a skilful craftsman, illustrated by two HYPERION CDA 68259l masterworks: the eight-part motets 'Faire is the heaven' to a beautiful text by Havergal Brian Spenser and 'Bring us O Lord God' - a set - This disc provides the listener with ting of John Donne. Orchestral Music a valuable overview of some aspects In addition, we have the anthem New Russian Symphony Orchestra of the cathedral choral repertoire 'Strengthen ye the weak hands', already Alexander Walker conductor A mentioned, concluding with a sonorous, if dating from the last two decades of the NAXOS 8.573959 19th century well into the mid-20th cen - somewhat rambling organ solo, a 'Flourish tury. for an occasion'. he overture, based on the comedy What immediately strikes one is The third of the trio is surely the by J.M. Synge, is a scintillating bois - how well the CD programme works stylis - best-known - Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, terous affair and is full of memo - who, among his other roles was the Or - T tically from Stanford's Magnificat and rable ideas and orchestration and feels Nunc Dimittis in A dating from 1880 ganist and Director of Music at Trinity like a lost score by Korngold to a never through to William Harris's 'Strengthen ye College, Cambridge. produced swashbuckler. Mr Walker is al - the weak hands' a fine, richly scored an - Stanford wrote extensively for the most one minute slower than Charles them composed for the Canterbury Festi - Anglican liturgy the A major Magnificat Mackerras’ recording with the RLPO and val in 1949. It is, however Sir Edward and Nunc Dimittis is a particularly vivid the work loses some of its swash and Bairstow's masterly anthem from 1944 example with a particularly demanding buckle, but it is a nicely shaped perfor - 'Blessed city, heavenly Salem' that opens organ accompaniment. mance with some finely played solos. the programme and it is immediately ap - The beautiful pastoral 'O for a Brian’s Symphony No. 7 from 1948 at al - parent that here we have performances of closer walk with God' provides an attrac - most 40 minutes duration is the last of his

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large-scale symphonies. The work was ap - parently inspired by Brian’s reading of Goethe’s autobiography and that it is an ‘English symphony on a German topic’. Not having read Goethe’s work I cannot comment on its literary associa - tions; however, as a symphony it has all the hall marks of Brian’s style. Much ma - terial is given to brass and wind and the music therefore has a martial character, and indeed there are several marches in the work. However, throughout its duration I do not get a feeling of symphonic shap - ing of the materials, there are many imag - inative sections, but they remain that, sections, rather than a symphonic whole. The orchestra gives it a good shot though some high string passages are not quite in tune. Charles Mackerras’ recording once again outshines this one by shaping the disparate materials into a more convinc - ing whole. The 16th symphony was written in 1961 when Brian was 85 and lasts just 15 minutes. The shorter time span works well for Brian’s collage of materials and the episodes do here hold together. It begins, after a rumbling chord, with a pastoral theme passed between the woodwind, but the symphony is anything but pastoral and soon the enormous African, John Joubert. These works are passionately de - forces including six horns and 10 percus - The two formed a close relation - livered with the clear influences of Bartok sionists lead off into more troubled terri - ship when, as a student, Honeybourne met and specifically Stravinsky’s Rite of tory. the composer in Birmingham. Honey - Spring. Sharply contrasting chorale-like Here Mr Walker is not able to bourne worked extensively with Joubert melodies convincingly flow through all draw from his orchestra the vehemence and helped the composer complete his three piano sonatas. In the Second there that Myer Fredman pulled from the LPO in Second Piano Sonata, premiered in 2006. are tempestuous passages, particularly in his Lyrita recording. The malice in the Joubert dedicated his Third Sonata to a finale headed, Poco Lento. Is this Jou - Fredman recording is palpable and his Honeybourne. bert reflecting on the appalling apartheid build up to the final inconclusive chord is This noteworthy recording of times South Africa? shattering but logical. In Mr Walker’s ver - Joubert’s complete piano works, crisply Anti-war sentiments continue in sion it is an unwelcome surprise. engineered in Southampton’s Turner Sims the Third Sonata which Joubert prefaces Concert Hall, can therefore boast an im - with the Thomas Hardy sonnet, “We are - PAUL RW JACKSON peccable provenance. getting to the end of visioning” and adds It is a perfect illustration of Jou - “My sonata can be taken as an attempt to - - - - - bert’s dramatic writing and certainly express in musical terms the message of serves as a convincing testimony to Jou - the Hardy sonnet”. John Joubert bert’s sad death earlier this year. Joubert In the Lyric fantasy, based on leaves an unfilled gap on the world stage, themes from Act 2 of Joubert’s triumphant The complete Solo Piano Music as a versatile and unique composer of opera Jane Eyre, moody passages contrast Duncan Honeybourne piano considerable, wide-ranging musical tal - well with more strident moments. These Prima Facie PFCD097 ent. From a flamboyant dance Suite (1956) are bold piano works that have earned of five short movements through to the their place in classical music history. he expressive keyboard technique Third Piano Sonata (2005 revised 2010) this of pianist Duncan Honeybourne fascinating release shows how Joubert’s - CHRIS BYE Tshows just what a great musical ally composing technique developed over his he was to composer, the British South career. - - - - -

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C.H.H. Parry

Chamber Music Leonore Piano Trio with Rachel Roberts Hyperion CDA68276

n the late 19th century some French composers, like Fauré, resisted the in - Ifluence of German music, but their British contemporaries, like Parry, ac - cepted it. Parry wrote his Piano Quartet in A flat major in 1879 and his Piano Trio No. 2 in B minor in 1884, before the compara - ble works by Fauré. This was a highly cre - ative period in Parry’s life, during which he also wrote choral and orchestral works and was appointed Professor of Musical History at the Royal College of Music. Jeremy Dibble, who wrote a monograph on Parry’s life and music, and has done a great deal to promote his music, contributed the informative notes to this recording. He describes these pieces as “big-boned,” which suggests their scale, passion and structural strength. However, it does not prepare us for the gentle, even delicate, quality of parts like the lovely slow movement of the trio. Indeed, one of the striking features is hard to understand the general neglect cant contribution to what ought to become of both works is the great contrasts Parry of such excellent music, which should be a major revival of Parry’s music. achieves between the boldly dramatic and well-received in any festival. The perfor - the lyrical sections. mances and recording are exemplary and - NIGEL BOLLAND Such contrasts are part of sonata this CD should be welcomed as a signifi ------form, of course, and also the essence of the scherzo and trio duality. Both pieces were written for and premiered by Edward Dannreuther, a German pianist who set - tled in England and who featured Brahms’s chamber music in his concerts. Brahms had completed his third piano quartet in 1874 and his influence is clear. There is also Schumann here, in terms of the more active and extrovert Florestan and the contemplative and in - troverted Eusebius. Both pieces are in the conven - tional four movements, and include a slow movement and a scherzo with trio. The slow introductions to the first movements, which are in sonata form, indicate the scale and seriousness of what is to come. Parry includes cyclic references by incor - porating elements from the first move - ments in the finales. Both works were successful and were frequently performed in the 1880s. It -20 -