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Album Booklet Clarion Call Music for Septet and Octet John Casken • Howard Ferguson • Michael Berkeley • Charles Wood Berkeley Ensemble RES10127 Clarion Call Works for Septet and Octet Michael Berkeley (b. 1948) 1. Clarion Call and Gallop (2013) * [6:42] Berkeley Ensemble Howard Ferguson (1908-1999) Octet, Op. 4 (1933) 2. Moderato [5:34] 2-6 Kathryn Riley violin 3. Allegro scherzoso [3:52] 4. Andantino [5:14] Sophie Mather violin 5. Allegro feroce [6:01] Dan Shilladay viola John Casken (b. 1949) Gemma Wareham cello 6. Blue Medusa (2000/2007) * [10:09] double bass Lachlan Radford Charles Wood (1866-1926) John Slack clarinet Septet (1889) * 7. Allegro moderato [12:10] Andrew Watson bassoon 8. Andante [8:20] Paul Cott horn 9. Scherzo [6:05] 10. With vigour [12:08] About Berkeley Ensemble: ‘This talented group [...] is named after Sir Lennox Berkeley and his son Total playing time [76:15] Michael, and it champions music by them plus that of other British composers which in their view is unjustly neglected. [...] A stimulating evening.’ The Independent * world premiere recordings ‘The refined playing had an impressive sense of style’ Leicester Mercury Echoes of Beethoven first intake of scholars at the newly instituted Royal College of Music (RCM) where he studied ‘That damned thing! I wish it were burned!’ composition with Charles Villiers Stanford, Thus Beethoven referred, with typical one of the principal architects of the so-called bluntness, to his own youthful Septet, the English Musical Renaissance. Born to a tenor continuing popularity of which he felt to in the choir of Armagh’s Church of Ireland be overshadowing his subsequent work. cathedral, and later a boy treble at the same Later composers would also feel its church, it was perhaps inevitable that Wood influence, although their responses to it would be remembered almost solely for his were often more eloquent. Foremost liturgical music. In a career that closely amongst them was Schubert, whose Octet mirrored Stanford’s, Wood taught harmony was reputedly commissioned by Ferdinand at both the RCM and later Cambridge, where Troyer, the clarinettist who premiered he continued his studies as an organ scholar Beethoven’s piece. Schubert added a in 1888 and eventually succeeded his teacher violin to Beethoven’s ensemble, but in as professor following Stanford’s death in broad outline followed – and also perhaps 1924. outdid – his model. Upon Wood’s own death two years later, an The early-nineteenth century saw a brief anonymous author writing in the RCM period of interest in such large-scale Magazine recalled the student composer’s chamber music with works by Kreutzer, deep regard for the music of Beethoven, Spohr and others aimed squarely at the which was apparently called upon by the kind of popular success that had so then college principal, George Grove, during irritated Beethoven. None, however, work on his celebrated book, Beethoven achieved a significant place in the repertoire and his Nine Symphonies. Following in his and Beethoven and Schubert’s works hero’s footsteps, Wood completed eight remained isolated examples of their string quartets at a time when the form type until the twentieth century, when was largely neglected by British composers, Berkeley Ensemble composers would again look to harness and a septet upon Beethoven’s instrumental (Photography: Nigel Luckhurst) their appeal with pieces of their own for plan. the same ensembles. The larger work dates from 1889, by which In 1883 Charles Wood was amongst the time Wood had completed his studies at the RCM and enrolled as an undergraduate The third and fourth movements again hint at Cambridge. As well as following at Wood’s fondness for folk-inflected Beethoven’s instrumentation, Wood melodies. Whilst the scherzo is the most similarly casts the violin in a concertante straightforward of the four, following the role within the ensemble. However, Wood’s classical pattern closely, the finale illustrates piece is written to a more conventional Wood’s frequently ingenious approach to four-movement plan rather than issues of form. Its theme is carefully Beethoven’s divertimento-like six. The first constructed so as to hover between duple is a sonata allegro set out on a large scale. and triple metres, and the variations that Following the prevailing fashion of the follow exploit this ambiguity fully. Following time, the music sounds a consciously an extended variation for clarinet and Brahmsian note, both in its melodic strings alone, the triple time version makes materials and their treatment. Themes a decisive and extended appearance to are closely related and continually form a significant coda which, despite developed; even the unassuming tread further Brahmsian touches, ends in a mood of the cello and bass at the opening is of playful repose unmistakably Wood’s own. constantly reworked throughout the movement, to re-emerge triumphant Such was Brahms’ standing in Britain at the at the coda with the horn’s final heroic turn of the twentieth century that Stanford declamation. (arguably unsuccessfully) challenged his pupils to write pieces that bore no trace Despite the antiquarian austerity of much of the elder composer. When Howard of his church music, Wood retained a Ferguson came to write his Octet in 1933, life-long interest in the folk culture of his this influence, although now questioned native Ireland, and in 1904 he co-founded by some, was still widespread. Ferguson the Irish Folk Song Society in London. defended a cherished ‘Brahmsian bit’ of the These activities left their mark on much work in a letter to a disapproving colleague, of his secular music, and in the Septet this although taken as a whole, the piece owed is most clearly heard in the second more to the elder composer’s ethos and movement. It contrasts two themes, the techniques, rather than his sound world. first meandering yet gracious, the second more purposeful, Gaelic-tinted. Ferguson was a famously meticulous composer, and work on his Octet took a typically considered and circuitous route. a half-lit world of spidery counterpoint and The piece was originally planned as a clarinet bittersweet, sometimes bi-tonal harmony. quintet, but following the advice of R.O. Morris, Ferguson’s erstwhile teacher and After the uneasy close of the opening the work’s eventual dedicatee, it was movement, the second takes the form of a re-scored for the same group of instruments brightly-lit scherzo. Like Wood, Ferguson – as required by Schubert’s Octet, thereby an Irish-born composer who spent his guaranteeing it a life as a companion to working life in London and Cambridge – the frequently-performed masterwork. alludes to Irish folk music with the two Although prudent given the young violins required to play the lively theme in composer’s relative obscurity at the time, unison. Although it continues to develop the piece quickly succeeded on it’s own previously heard material, the effect is of merits, a favourable review of the premiere complete contrast with the foregoing music. in The Times leading to a contract with the publisher Boosey & Hawkes. As he assisted The finale follows a pastoral movement that with the work’s editing prior to printing, comes close to the music of Vaughan Williams, Gerald Finzi later wrote to the composer another of Ferguson’s teachers at the RCM. ‘[…] the first movement, I think it’s absolutely It unleashes the energies latent in the perfect, and without flattery, I think it’s preceding movements in a demonic more likely that the Schubert Octet will be tarantella, the rhythm of which, cycled stuck-in to be played with yours rather continuously and mesmerically around than the other way round, as you originally the winds, underpins a central, more lyrical intended.’ section. Ferguson greatly admired Edward Elgar, and the final backward glance at the Fittingly, considering its origins, the piece horn’s theme from the opening movement opens with a theme perfectly conceived recalls the one of his favourite devices. for the clarinet. Ferguson marks its first Redolent too is the mood of nostalgia that appearance as slightly held-back (’poco hovers over the passage, before a return meno’) before the music surges forward of the tarantella leads to a triumphal to the first of several climaxes. The horn conclusion. announces the principal second theme, and the remainder of the movement John Casken’s Blue Medusa is also scored is derived from these two ideas, inhabiting for the performing group of Schubert’s Octet. In relation to its predecessor, however, the material with a more pensive, lilting idea. A recalling the tarantella finale from the piece turns the instrumentation inside out, central accompanied cadenza leads to further Sinfonietta of Berkeley’s godfather, Benjamin featuring a solo part for one of Schubert’s turbulent development before a calmer reprise Britten. most retiring participants. Originally a piece of the main elements and a final sting in the for bassoon and piano, Casken re-scored tail. Writing to offer the Septet to his publisher, the work for chamber ensemble as an Beethoven drew attention to a noteworthy alternative, complementary version. Written specially for the Berkeley Ensemble, feature of its scoring: ‘A septet per il violino, Michael Berkeley’s Clarion Call and Gallop was viola, violoncello, contra basso, clarinet, In common with much of Casken’s music, completed during the composer’s residence corno, fagotto – tutti obbligati (I cannot Blue Medusa draws inspiration from both at the Trasimeno Music Festival, Italy, in 2013. write anything that is not obbligato, for I the natural and mythical worlds. In the Whilst it is tempting, and not entirely came into the world to obbligato composer’s own words: misguided, to hear echoes of the work’s accompaniment.)’ Despite the years festive and sunny birthplace in the largely separating Beethoven's work from these Medusa: creature of the sea, beautiful in form buoyant and high-spirited music, melodic that followed, his example has held sway in and movement, but dangerous to the touch.
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