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CHAN X10168 Front.qxd 24/7/08 11:50 am Page 1 CHAN 10168 X CHANDOS CLASSICS CHAN X10168 BOOK.qxd 24/7/08 11:51 am Page 2 Ernest John Moeran (1894–1950) Violin Concerto*‡ 33:18 Dedicated to Arthur Catterall 1 I Allegro moderato 13:31 2 II Rondo. Vivace – Alla valse burlesca 9:41 3 III Lento 10:01 4 Lonely Waters‡ 9:19 Lebrecht Collection Lebrecht For orchestra Dedicated to Ralph Vaughan Williams 5 Whythorne’s Shadow‡ 6:30 For orchestra Dedicated to Anthony Bernard Cello Concerto† 28:41 6 I Moderato 11:12 7 II Adagio 7:22 8 III Allegretto deciso, alla marcia 10:02 TT 78:03 Lydia Mordkovitch violin* Raphael Wallfisch cello† Ulster Orchestra‡ Ernest John Moeran Bournemouth Sinfonietta† Vernon Handley‡ Norman Del Mar† 3 CHAN X10168 BOOK.qxd 24/7/08 11:51 am Page 4 Lonely Waters, marked Lento, was probably version of the tune. This is a striking parallel Moeran: Violin Concerto and other works finalised in 1931, though in atmosphere it with Peter Warlock’s The Curlew, that masterly takes us back to Moeran’s Norfolk boyhood, as setting of Yeats, evoking a bleak beauty well as his folksong collecting in East Anglia coloured by birdsong in the woodwind, which Ernest John Moeran had started work on the Kenmare Bay in fine weather, while the last during the 1920s. In an introductory note the Moeran referred to as Violin Concerto immediately after completing captures autumn along the Kenmare river. composer tells us, a kind of symphonic poem… undoubtedly one of his Symphony in G minor, in the autumn of Before a broadcast of the concerto in 1946 this work is based on a fragment of song still the most original things achieved by any British 1937. He appears to have made good with Albert Sammons as soloist, and Moeran frequently to be heard on Saturday nights at composer in recent years… progress while living at Valentia Island, County present in the audience, the BBC announcer certain inns in the Broads district of East Norfolk. Lonely Waters, the first of his Two Pieces for Kerry, in 1938, and finished the first stated that the first movement was ‘inspired The orchestra he calls for is a small one: Small Orchestra, was first performed on movement in short score that summer. The by the romantic scenery of the west coast of strings, plus one each of flute, oboe, cor 22 January 1932 at The Queen’s Hall, work had been conceived for the violinist May Ireland’, while in the finale ‘the composer anglais, clarinet, bassoon and horn; also a conducted by Anthony Bernard. Harrison, but its composition dragged on for expresses his sorrow at having to leave his suspended cymbal which, played with a The second piece, Whythorne’s Shadow, is some time and not until 1942 was it finally beloved County Kerry’. True to Moeran’s stick, has one tremendous crash. Although based not on folksong, but on an Elizabethan completed. It was first performed by Arthur remarks about the inspiration for the middle Moeran is writing a folksong rhapsody, it is on tune. During the time Moeran and his close Catterall, to whom it was also dedicated, at movement, a single theme, and the instrumental friend Philip Heseltine lived at Eynsford, the Proms on 8 July 1942, conducted by this time of year the whole countryside is on the polyphony is quite an advance on the idiom Heseltine (whose pseudonym was Peter Sir Henry Wood. Catterall later edited the dance round here. In the second movement I am he adopted in his three earlier rhapsodies Warlock) was transcribing sixteenth- and violin part for publication. planning to work some of this idiom into and shows a developing contrapuntal seventeenth-century songs in the British Moeran was strongly influenced by concerto form… technique; form and harmony reveal him Museum and elsewhere, and doubtless trying landscape: the Norfolk fenlands were we are given a succession of Irish dancing in debt to the Elizabethan ‘fantasy’ and to out his latest discoveries on his friend. The particularly vivid to him, while later in his life rhythms. It might almost be called ‘scenes at Delius. music of Thomas Whythorne (1528–1596) Ireland had an even greater pull, to the extent the fair’: he suggested that one idea evoked a The score prints two endings; one requires a was unknown before Heseltine discovered it, that he could only write music while he was melodeon he had heard played locally. The last folksinger to sing from the back of the yet not only is the music itself of considerable there. His friend, Arnold Bax, remarked that movement is the true heart of the concerto, orchestra, providing a motto for the work: interest, but Whythorne is also important as Moeran was oblivious of Irish history and and when we reach the end, material from the So I’ll go down to some lonely waters, the composer of the earliest surviving book of politics, but was stimulated by the scenery, first movement recurs; the violin’s opening Go down where no one shall me find, secular songs printed in England. From these notably in the Violin Concerto, even though upward triplet and a leap now become Where the pretty little small birds do change comes the partsong ‘As Thy Shadow Itself he presents it as an abstract work and not in evocative horn chords, creating in the coda their voices, Apply’th’, published by OUP in Heseltine’s the least programmatic. Kenmare, where he the effect of an epilogue, saying with Delius And every moment blow blustering wild. transcription, one of thirteen by Whythorne would later die, inspired the outer (at the end of A Village Romeo and Juliet) In the orchestral ending recorded here this is that he issued at about this time. This forms movements: the first reflects the calm of ‘Travellers we a-passing by’. replaced by the cor anglais solo singing its the basis of Moeran’s music, as indicated in 4 5 CHAN X10168 BOOK.qxd 24/7/08 11:51 am Page 6 the composer’s introductory note to the score: that actually is the most laboured in the and the work itself received great acclaim. On Vassily Sinaisky, Neeme Järvi and Richard This piece is based on a partsong by Thomas making. 10 April 1946 I was present at The People’s Hickox. An impressive discography of more Whythorne published in 1571. The nature of the It was in 1943 that I [Lewis Foreman] Palace, London, to hear Miss Coetmore give than forty-five recordings reflects Lydia present work cannot be better expounded than by formed a friendship with Moeran that was to the second performance, which again met with Mordkovitch’s very wide repertoire, and the quotation of the poem of Whythorne’s song: last until his death in 1950, and he stayed for the audience’s approval. encompasses music from the complete works ‘As thy shadow itself apply’th long periods at my home in Buckinghamshire, It is a complete mystery as to why this for solo violin by Bach to the concertos of To follow thee whereso thou go, where part of his Serenade was written. splendid concerto has not been gratefully Shostakovich, her recording of which for And when thou bends, itself it wry’th, With the exception of Miss Coetmore, I was seized upon by today’s cellists, whose Chandos won a Gramophone Award and a Turning as thou both to and fro: lucky enough to be the first person to hear repertoire is not extensive. The work is in Diapason d’Or. Her work has twice been The flatterer doth even so, the Cello Concerto. I was staying with the conventional sonata form and is one nominated for a Gramophone Award and has And shopes himself the same to gloze. composer in Kington, Herefordshire, in 1945, continuous paean for the cello, which is received seven Critics’ Choices; recent With many a gawning and gay show, where he asked me to ‘time’ the work while allowed to sing, through the expert recordings have won major nominations or Whom he would frame for his purpose.’ he played and hummed through it at his orchestration, from start to finish, and is prizes across Europe. Lydia Mordkovitch was With the exception of the Serenade in G for piano. When we came to the beautiful slow the final expression of all that Moeran had several times named ‘Woman of the Year’ by orchestra, the Cello Concerto was Moeran’s movement he said confidentially, ‘influenced strived to say throughout his life. It is to be the American Biographical Institute and also last big work and was written for Miss Peers by Beethoven’. This was an unsolved puzzle hoped that the authentic performance on ‘Outstanding Woman of the Twentieth and Coetmore, who was to become his wife within to me until, many years later, I discovered this disc will stimulate interest in this fine Twenty-first Centuries’. two years of its inception. quite by accident what he had meant. I work. In 1943 Moeran wrote to Miss Coetmore: happened to be playing Beethoven’s Raphael Wallfisch began playing cello at the Now please write and tell me you would like me symphonies arranged for two hands at the © Lewis Foreman & Lionel Hill age of eight and, inspired by the artistry of to write a concerto specially for you, and I give piano, and when I reached the opening bars Zara Nelsova, went on to study with such you my promise that I will put my whole heart of the lovely slow movement of the Ninth the Lydia Mordkovitch was born in Russia and eminent teachers as Gregor Piatigorsky, into it.