SRCD.211 STEREO DDD

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872 - 1958) Piano Concerto in C (27’45”) 1 1st Movement: Toccata (Allegro moderato) (6’48”) 2 2nd Movement: Romanza (Lento) (9’26”) Vaughan Williams 3 3rd Movement: Fuga Chromatica con Finale alla Tedesca (11’31”) Piano Concerto

JOHN FOULDS (1880-1939) John Foulds Dynamic Triptych for Piano & Op. 88 (29’16”) Dynamic Triptych 4 1st Movement: Dynamic Mode (9’44”) 5 2nd Movement: Dynamic Timbre (12’43”) Howard Shelley 6 3rd Movement: Dynamic Rhythm (6’49”) Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (57’05”) Howard Shelley, piano Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (leader Barry Griffiths) conducted by Vernon Handley

The above individual timings will normally each include two pauses. One before the beginning of each movement or work, and one after the end.

ൿ 1984 The copyright in these sound recordings is owned by Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. © 1992 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. Lyrita is a registered trade mark. Made in the UK LYRITA RECORDED EDITION. Produced under an exclusive license from Lyrita by Wyastone Estate Ltd, PO Box 87, Monmouth, NP25 3WX, UK The finale, Dynamic Rhythm, is also rondo-like in structure, and consistently underlined by a 2/4 3/4 4/4 rhythm with a catchy main subject riding above.This is exciting, clever music and a fascinating synthesis of such diverse elements as the Broadway musical, Latin American dance music and a somewhat kitsch counter- subject reminiscent of Korngold. This type of up-beat dithyrambic finale, a delightful musical perjorative, was a special preserve of French piano concertos from the Franck Symphonic Variations to the Ravel G major of 1931.The music is not the equal of the first two movements, but it is a lollipop of the best kind and Foulds stage-manages exactly the conclusion he wants. The concerto is characterized by the strategic use of silences: after the longest of these, the coda, which combines all the movement’s themes, brings down the curtain with a shattering fortissimo. In 1939 Foulds died of cholera in . This magnificent concerto was not performed after the BBC broadcast of 1933 until the sessions for this recording.

BERNARD BENOLIEL

www.lyrita.co.uk

Note © 1984 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England The original recording of the John Foulds was made in association with THE RVW TRUST. Design by KEITH HENSBY 'The Surrender of Barcelona' by PERCY WYNDHAM LEWIS is reproduced by permission of The Tate Gallery, London, the Estate of Mrs. G. A.Wyndham Lewis and the Wyndham Lewis Memorial Trust.

WARNING Copyright subsists in all Lyrita Recordings. Any unauthorised broadcasting. public performance, copying, rental or re-recording thereof in any manner whatsoever will constitute an infringement of such copyright. In the United Kingdom licences for the use of recordings for public performance may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd., 1 Upper James Street, London, W1F 9DE 7 principle behind these concepts in the light of his own style. It is a most attractive, he Piano Concerto in C was premiered on 1st February 1933 by Harriet colourful style, which draws from a large number of influences for its rich TCohen with Sir and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. It was much harmonic and orchestral palette. In Dynamic Triptych there are touches of admired by Frank Howes, Hubert Foss and Havergal Brian who thought it was the Scriabin, Busoni, Holst, Bartók and more fundamentally Rachmaninoff, early best of RVW’s works to date. Debussy and Ravel. But Foulds wears these borrowed robes like a great actor to After a subsequent performance in Strasbourg under Hermann Scherchen, merge his own personality with the particular role that he wants to create: all these Bela Bartok joined its admirers. But today most listeners know this score only in influences become absorbed into his own musical personality and splendid the 1946 version for two pianos and orchestra made by Joseph Cooper in improvisatory technique. collaboration with the composer. One can only regret that this later version ever The first movement, Dynamic Mode, is derived from the pitches D, E sharp, came into being for it seemed to endorse some early criticisms that the orchestral F sharp, G, A, B sharp, C sharp, D; this is No. VI-F in the catalogue of 90 modes part was too massive for a solo piano. A verdict totally belied by recent which Foulds listed in the published version of his most important piano work, performances of the original score. Essays in the Modes Vol. I.The movement is built on three contrasted ideas; it is a The beautiful upper strata of the orchestral accompaniment is obscured and kind of sonatina with the cadenza serving as a belated sonata style development. made opaque by the higher octave added in the second piano part and the athletic The movement possesses tremendous dramatic impetus and genuine grandeur. thrust of the original is greatly lessened when octave doublings reduce two octave The brooding phrase for oboe which begins five bars after 12, a real tribute to the to single octave leaps etc. But for thirty years this original version was hardly Busoni Piano Concerto, casts the only shadow on the exuberant mood. played. It is as if we knew the Beethoven and Brahms concertos only in a later The second movement, Dynamic Timbre - the title refers to “interchanging version for two pianos and orchestra. timbres of contrasting quality” - opens with a haunting passage featuring string With its ‘back to Bach’ preoccupations, the concerto is part of the family of harmonics and muted brass. One is reminded of the more atmospheric aspects of works which date from the mid twenties: Flos Campi, Sancta Civitas and the Charles Koechlin’s Jungle Book Cycle of tone poems.This is followed by a passage Violin Concerto in D minor. Ursula Vaughan Williams tells us in her biography of for quarter tones in the lower strings. Quarter tones appear throughout Foulds’ RVW that while he wrote his concerto he had the Busoni transcriptions of Bach works: they are neither attempts at modernity nor extraneous mannerisms, but very much in mind for that was the way he wanted to write for the piano. But it is represent the deepest expression of his psychology. This sighing, falling gesture, a understandable that RVW could not complete the concerto until 1931; the sound desire to recede into the unconscious, was just as integral to Foulds as the world is related to Job and more especially the Symphony in F minor.In terms of Wagnerian turn and the wrenched grace notes in Mahler’s string writing were to structure and style the concerto has strong affinities with the Gebrauch music of those composers. The main theme follows, a very original melody of touching, Hindemith and Stravinsky; but it is executed with such. grandeur and emotional intimate beauty which makes its final return scored for full orchestra to provide a surcharge that it demands to be viewed as a development of the great German resplendent climax for this rondo-like movement. 19th Century concertos, particularly those cut in the heroic mould: the Beethoven

6 3 E flat and the Brahms D minor and B flat. The concerto has an objective surface minor symphony finale). This collapses into a massive cadenza for solo piano based on abstract style-forms, but like the Beethoven late Quartets beneath that which provides the link to the finale. surface is a highly personal, possibly autobiographical statement. In my opinion it The Finale alla Tedesca is unique in RVW’s oeuvre; it exists in a mood of ranks with the 6th and 9th symphonies as the most psychologically complex of his Mephistophelean abandon, more related to the Faust music of Liszt, especially the works. It goes further than Job, which explores a polarity of opposites inherent in Mephisto Waltzes, than to Satan’s music in Job. But nothing has been written about its subject matter, and captures a myriad of emotional states within a modest time Vaughan Williams as Faust. span. The concerto has a Shakespearean variety and breadth: one thinks of The quiet ending added in 1946 with its slow lilt and lessening of tension Measure for Measure, Much Ado About Nothing and The Winter’s Tale. closes this concerto perfectly. The disillusion expressed at the end of the slow The first movement, allegro moderato, is an ingenious toccata and though movement here turns to hope and fulfilment. The radiant final B major chord is short it contains sufficient development and repetitions to suggest a sonata or certainly “calm of mind” though, as we know from the twelve years of life and sonata rondo structure. Figures metamorphosise into themes which in turn music left to RVW, far from “all passion spent”. fragment into other figures. The material is explored by the solo instrument and the orchestra both separately and in combination. A short cadenza passage, senza The last page of the Dynamic Triptych MS full score bears the initials J.F., the ‘J’ misura, leads to the second movement, a magical Romanza, marked lento.This scooping down to encircle ‘July 1929 Paris’. John Foulds had left England for has three themes which all begin with repeated notes but then move on to become France in 1927, where he spent the next three years and achieved a reputation as subtle variations of each other. Three bars after 18 in the full score there is a one of the foremost accompanists of silent movies. In that cosmopolitan Paris he passage of variated sequences of confession-like intimacy. This is followed by an knew among others Les Six, Korngold, Ravel, Stravinsky and Varèse. For reasons episode in 3/2 time which contains the most overtly romantic music in the entire which we do not yet know Foulds returned to London in 1930. concerto. After some further gorgeous ruminations on the movement’s main ideas, The Dynamic Triptych was first performed in October 1931 by Sir Donald the music narrows down to a five bar phrase for solo oboe and viola over a soft Tovey and the Reid Orchestra with the pianist Frank Merrick. There were timpani roll which is clearly related to the hypocrites’ music in Job. Without a subsequent performances in Birmingham and Bournemouth conducted by Foulds break the trombones enter double forte, announcing the Fuga Chromatica which and a BBC broadcast conducted by Sir Dan Godfrey in a programme which is the first half of the finale. This is chiselled music of controlled violence. Fuga included RVW’s London Symphony.The work was admired by Tovey, Godfrey and Chromatica and con Finale alla Tedesca suggest a concrete influence from Hamilton Harty, who wrote to Foulds, “I find this the work of a first class Beethoven’s Quartet Opus 130 with its alla danza tedesca movement and its composer”. Havergal Brian, writing in Musical Opinion, called it “a major work by original finale Grosse Fuge. So the concerto also encompasses Beethoven’s a composer of daring originality” . perspective on the high Baroque.The climactic stretto of the Fugue over a pedal D Dynamic Triptych is a concerto in all but name; traditional in that it uses ends with a downward rushing passage for orchestra (both prophetic of the F sonata and rondo style-forms, but it is not academic. Foulds rediscovers the

4 5 VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: PIANO CONCERTO HOWARD SHELLEY LYRITA JOHN FOULDS: DYNAMIC TRIPTYCH RPO • VERNON HANDLEY SRCD.211 after the end. SRCD.211 (27’45”) (29’16”) (57’05”) STEREO DDD (1872 - 1958) (1872 - 1958) (1880-1939) conducted by Vernon Handley Vernon (leader Barry Griffiths) (leader Barry Griffiths) Howard Shelley,Howard piano Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Royal JOHN FOULDS VAUGHAN WILLIAMS VAUGHAN Dynamic Triptych for Piano & Orchestra Op. 88 & Orchestra for Piano Dynamic Triptych Piano Concerto in C Piano Concerto 1st Movement: 1st Movement: moderato) (Allegro Toccata 2nd Movement: Romanza (Lento) Movement: 3rd con Finale alla Tedesca Chromatica Fuga (11’31”) 1st Movement: (6’48”) Dynamic Mode 2nd Movement: Dynamic Timbre Movement: 3rd Dynamic Rhythm (9’26”) (9’44”) (12’43”) (6’49”) 4 5 6 1 2 3 1984 The copyright in these sound recordings is owned 1984 The copyright in these sound recordings 1992 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. Lyrita is a registered trade mark. Made in the UK is a registered Edition, England. Lyrita Recorded 1992 Lyrita ൿ © The above individual timings will normally each include two pauses. One before the beginning of each movement or work, and one before The above individual timings will normally each include two pauses. One by Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. Edition, Recorded by Lyrita LYRITA RECORDED EDITION. Produced under an exclusive license from Lyrita Lyrita under an exclusive license from RECORDED EDITION. Produced LYRITA UK by Wyastone Estate Ltd, PO Box 87, Monmouth, NP25 3WX,

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: PIANO CONCERTO HOWARD SHELLEY LYRITA JOHN FOULDS: DYNAMIC TRIPTYCH RPO • VERNON HANDLEY SRCD.211