SRCD.256 STEREO ADD Alan Rawsthorne (1903-1989) ALAN RAWSTHORNE (1905-1971) Lennox Berkeley Sonatina for Violin Quartet for , Violin, and Piano Op. 17 (1943) (14’01”) and (1948) *** (17’05”) 1 1st Movement: Moderato (4’34”) 14 1st Movement: Moderato (6’25”) 2 2nd Movement: Lento (3’31”) 15 2nd Movement: Poco lento (4’26”) 3 3rd Movement: (5’56”) 16 3rd Movement: Allegro risoluto (6’14”) Theme and five variations (73’08”) Sextet for Clarinet, Horn and Op. 47 (1954) * (14’32”) The Music Group of 4 1st Movement: Allegro moderato (5’49”) Hugh Bean, violin Eileen Croxford, cello 5 2nd Movement: Lento (4’39”) David Parkhouse, piano 6 3rd Movement: Allegro (4’04”) with Frances Routh, violin * ALAN BUSH (1900-1995) Christopher Wellington, viola * Three Concert Studies for Jack Brymer, clarinet * Alan Civil, horn * Piano Trio Op. 31 (1947) (16’08”) 7 1. Moto perpetuo (2’46”) ** Alan Bush, piano 8 2. Nocturne (7’32”) *** Members of the 9 3. Alla Bulgara (5’50”) 10 The Cruel Sea Captain, from Two Sydney Humphreys, violin Ballads of the Sea Op. 50 (1957) ** (2’29”) Margaret Major, viola , cello 11 Galliard, from Suite Op. 54 (1960) ** (1’01”) with 12 Air, from Suite Op. 54 (1960) ** (2’45”) Thea King, clarinet Quartet for Clarinet, Sonatina for Violin & Piano Three Concert Studies 13 Corentyne Kwe-Kwe Op. 75 (1972) ** (5’02”) Violin, Viola & Cello Sextet for Clarinet, for Piano Trio Horn & Strings Four piano pieces 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 1974 ** ൿ 1970 The copyright in these sound recordings is owned by Lyrita Recorded Edition, . This compilation and the digital remastering ൿ 2008 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. © 2008 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. Lyrita is a registered trade mark. Made in the UK LYRITA RECORDED EDITION. Produced under an exclusive license from Lyrita Jack Brymer • Alan Civil • The Music Group of London by Wyastone Estate Ltd, PO Box 87, Monmouth, NP25 3WX, UK Aeolian Quartet • Thea King • Alan Bush LENNOX BERKELEY (violin), Keith Cummings (viola) and Douglas Cameron (cello) gave the first Sonatina for Violin and Piano Op.17 performance of Rawsthorne’s Clarinet Quartet at a London Contemporary Music Lennox Berkeley’s operas, symphonies and concertos demonstrate his ability to handle Centre concert on 9 November 1948. large-scale forms successfully, though his individual blend of wit, elegance and PAUL CONWAY exuberance is arguably at its most compelling in the intimate medium of chamber music. His Sonatina for Violin and Piano Op.17 (1943) is written in a consciously accessible style, with a Moderato first movement, recognisably in sonata form. The soft, www.lyrita.co.uk gently flowing initial theme abruptly turns more vigorous and emphatic in tone before Notes © 2008 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England the tranquil second subject. A dynamic development section focuses on the opening Photographs of the composers courtesy of the LEWIS FOREMAN collection material, whilst, at the end of the varied recapitulation, the second subject’s calming tone Original recordings made in association with the BRITISH COUNCIL leads to an atmospherically still and tranquil ending. The lyrical central Lento is laconic without being austere; its wistful theme gains in intensity, building to an expressive Digital Remastering Engineer: Simon Gibson climax, before withdrawing to resume its hushed, melancholic tone. Concluding the Other works by LENNOX BERKELEY available on Lyrita: work is an Allegretto consisting of a typically refined theme succeeded by five variations, Mont Juic, Serenade for Strings, Divertimento in B flat, Partita for Chamber Orchestra Canzonetta (Sinfonia Concertante), Symphony No. 3 in one movement of which the first is beguiling, the second mercurial, the third lithe (Tempo rubato), the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Lennox fourth a mordant waltz and the fifth a lyrical Andante, which leads into a brief, Berkeley………………………………SRCD.226 expressive restatement of the first part of the theme. The extended final chord is spread Symphonies 1* & 2** over seven octaves, a parting reminder that, despite the diminutive form of the work’s *London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Norman Del Mar title, the Sonatina has encompassed an impressive technical and emotional range. **London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Braithwaite…………………………SRCD.249 Piano Concerto in B flat, Concerto for Two Pianos Sextet for Clarinet, Horn and String Quartet Op.47 David Wilde, Garth Beckett & Boyd McDonald, New / London A natural affinity between Lennox Berkeley the former Nadia Boulanger pupil and his Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Braithwaite / Norman Del Mar……………SRCD.250 Gallic contemporaries such as Ibert, Milhaud and Poulenc is underlined by the scoring Other works by ALAN RAWSTHORNE available on Lyrita: for wind and strings of Berkeley’s Sextet (1955). The opening Allegro moderato is in Symphonies 1, 2 & 3 London Philharmonic Orchestra / BBC Symphonic Orchestra modified sonata form with two clearly delineated, distinctive main subjects, both of conducted by Sir John Pritchard / Nicholas Braithwaite / Norman Del Mar……………………SRCD.291 which are introduced by the clarinet. In the development section, greater prominence is Overture Street Corner, Piano Concertos 1 & 2, Symphonic Studies achieved by the string players, who comment upon and illuminating the clarinet and Malcolm Binns, piano, London Philharmonic Orchestra / London Symphony Orchestra horn lines. After a varied recapitulation, the ending is serene and still, with halting conducted by Sir John Pritchard / Nicholas Braithwaite ……………………………………………SRCD.255 clarinet phrases under ethereal, vertiginous strings, whose inconspicuous ascent to these heights has been subtly accomplished. 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 Fugal writing for string quartet alone opens the pithy Lento slow movement, which 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, gradually rises to an ardent climax, in whose wake the wind instruments have an W1F 9DE 2 7 rather than four stringed instruments emphasises the concertante feature of the score, extended, ornate duet, distinguished by the clarinet’s insouciant arabesques. The fugal often pitting the flexible, versatile clarinet against the reduced sonorities of the string idea returns, this time joined by the wind instruments’ more flowing lines and both trio. The use of brief pauses rather than genuine breaks between the three movements elements are developed in tandem before the soft, lyrical ending. feels like a natural consequence of the urgency and conviction of Rawsthorne’s Taking the form of an energetic dance-like rondo, the compact and rhythmic concluding argument. Allegro is dominated by the strings, whose striking diversity of material and texture lies The urbane opening theme of the Moderato first movement is highly characteristic of behind the movement’s capricious, quixotic quality. A spirited coda, alternating its composer, but atypical of the quartet as a whole, which is one of Rawsthorne’s most between 5/8 and 3/4, brings this blithe and nimble finale to a stirring conclusion. darkly intense and closely argued pieces. Flowing contrapuntal lines for clarinet and Polished and yet unpredictable, the Sextet is a fine example of Lennox Berkeley’s droll viola in the opening bars (in which a three-note dotted figure in the clarinet’s lower and fastidious craft. It was written for the in response to a BBC register contains the seeds of future melodic and rhythmic development) are brought to commission and received its first performance at the opening concert of the 1955 an abrupt halt by the sudden interpolation of a dissonant string chord. The harmonic Cheltenham Festival. implications of this chord and the dotted rhythms in the ensuing episode are both chief elements explored during the rest of this movement and its two successors. A rising scalic, staccato figure on the violin introduces a more fluent version of the main theme ALAN BUSH where the second subject would normally have occurred. Both the development section Three Concerto Studies for Piano Trio Op.31 and recapitulation are markedly turbulent and trenchant. In the recapitulation, just Probably as a result of his passionately held Communist beliefs, the music of Alan Bush when the strings seem to have forgotten about their woodwind colleague, the clarinet has not achieved the public and critical success it deserves, a state of unwarranted makes a belated reappearance to reassert fragments of the opening theme in a cosily neglect the composer himself appears to have met with resigned acceptance, harmonious ending, which, given the preceding unrest and discord, sounds wryly memorably observing that he probably “asked for it”. Yet, his output is consistently incongruous. impressive and confidently embraces every genre, including operas, symphonies, choral The Poco Lento second movement takes the form of a measured and quiet lament, and instrumental music. An early masterpiece, the powerfully gripping Dialectic for framing more impassioned, highly wrought material for strings, whilst the concluding string quartet, Op.15 (1929) is driven by a single-minded determination, governed by Allegro risoluto rondo-finale is highly uncharacteristic, with aggressive central Bush’s practice of extracting his material from a single thematic cell, and something of European-sounding stamping dance rhythms precluding much of the usual its commanding cogency informs the key works which followed, such as the impressive Rawsthornian sophistication. The secondary material features piercing fanfares from Piano Concerto of 1937, with baritone and male-voice chorus in the finale, the stirring the clarinet in its highest register, an effect cannily withheld until now and adding to an First Symphony (1940) and another major chamber work, the Three Concert Studies for already fierce and primitive sounding movement. There are two significant pauses Piano Trio (1947). (false endings to the unsuspecting listener) before the serene acquiescence of the gentle Bush gave the Studies separate opus numbers, but together they form a convincing and E flat major Andante teneramente epilogue, with its nostalgic reprise of the opening satisfying whole. The gritty and ominous opening Moto Perpetuo is dominated theme and key; it even incorporates a rapprochement with the crucial dissonant string throughout by its initial triplet figure, which generates a structure teeming with chord, source of so much previous unrest. (clarinet), Harry Blech unflagging invention. Economy of gesture and material does not reflect a dearth of imagination, but rather provides the stimulus for a sustained discharge of elemental

6 3 energy, like a force of nature. A complete change of mood is accomplished by the Galliard and Air from Suite Op.54 expressive and darkly alluring Nocturne, with its hushed, measured progress and The Suite Op.54, consisting of a pavane, galliard, reel and a song without words, was increasingly florid lines, embellished by flamboyant, almost Tippett-like ornamentation. written for piano or harpsichord. The Galliard is a brisk Allegro movement, The final Study is a vigorous, rhythmic Alla Bulgara, including among its effects a brief, characterised by buoyant syncopations and a regular contradiction of minor by major memorably ethereal episode featuring harmonics played together on both stringed thirds, relating it to Elizabethan and Jacobean music. The following Air is a simple instruments. A cadenza-like passage for cello ushers in the more restrained, darker Andantino parlando; freely expressive and directly lyrical, it makes an effective, toned central section, but the irrepressible opening material soon returns, quickly satisfying foil to the more formally conventional Galliard. The Suite is dedicated to accelerating into a brilliant, wildly energetic Allegro molto coda. Hans Pischner, an expert harpsichordist, who gave the work its first performance in Alan Bush wrote the Three Concert Studies to tackle specific technical difficulties Berlin in 1960. (intonation and ensemble at speed in the first piece, balance and tone quality in the second and the rhythmical challenges of Bulgarian folk-music’s unequal beats in the Corentyne Kwe-Kwe Op.75 third). However, the vitality and eloquence of the pieces raises them far above the level Robust and exuberant, Corentyne Kwe-Kwe (1972) is a toccata based on an old African of mere exercises or ‘utility music’ and their potent blend of fervour and poetry song commemorating the abolition of slavery in in 1842. Bush first experienced represents Bush at his most persuasive and rewarding. The London International Trio - a ‘kwe-kwe’ (a traditional African ceremony of songs and dances performed around a Jan Sedivka (violin), Sela Trau (cello) and Tom Bromley (piano), to whom the Studies are new bride’s house) whilst researching in British Guiana for his third opera, The Sugar dedicated, gave the first performance at the Conway Hall, London on 13 February 1948. Reapers (or Guyana Johnny) in 1959 and he incorporated a ‘kwe-kwe’ song into the first Act of his opera. The Corentyne Kwe-Kwe is immensely high-spirited, propelled by The Cruel Sea Captain, from Two Ballads of the Sea Op.50 authentic African rhythms but at the same time unsentimental, and with a tough, Music for piano spans the whole of Alan Bush’s long creative life, from an early Sonata implacable core to its elation, which steadily builds to a delirious whirl of scrunching he premièred in 1921 at the whilst he was still a student there, discords. It is dedicated ‘to those men and women of Guyana who faced a British to his last works written in the late 1980s, including the Fourth Piano Sonata (1987). warship and stood their ground’. William Langford gave the world premiere at the Towering above all his other piano works is the protean set of Twenty-four Preludes , London on 11 January 1976. Op.84 (1977), yet his other piano pieces of more modest ambition are also indicative of his preoccupations, and represent his art at its most pure and concentrated. The Two ALAN RAWSTHORNE Ballads of the Sea for piano (1957) are dedicated ‘in friendship and admiration’ to John Quartet for Clarinet, Violin, Viola and Cello Ireland, who taught Alan Bush from 1922 to 1927. The first Ballad, entitled The Cruel Alan Rawsthorne established his style in a pair of notable pre-war compositions: the Sea Captain, reflects both Bush’s enthusiasm for English folk music and his ability to Theme and Variations for two violins (1937) and the Symphonic Studies for orchestra transform it beyond stereotype, into something vital and animated, thanks to masterly (1938) and consolidated his reputation with two contrasting Overtures, Street Corner phrasing, structural command and sharply etched presentation, exploiting the full range (1944) and Cortèges (1945). After the war, he reaffirmed the distinction of his former of the piano’s sonorities. Alasdair Graham premiered The Two Ballads of the Sea at style with a stream of fine non-programmatic works such as the Oboe Concerto (1947), Morley College, London on 19 November 1961. the Cello Sonata (1948), the First Violin Concerto (1948) and the Clarinet Quartet (1948). In the last mentioned work, the unconventional pairing of the clarinet with three

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