NI 6180 The Scottish Viola A tribute to Watson Forbes

For further information please visit Martin Outram viola www.martinoutram.com www.wyastone.co.uk Julian Rolton piano The Scottish Viola A tribute to Watson Forbes

As an accompanist he recorded an piano trios entitled Borderlands on Campion Pietro Nardini (arr Forbes/Richardson): Concerto in G minor acclaimed CD of Russian song with Cameo which attracted exceptional reviews. 1. Allegro moderato 4:28 the mezzo-soprano Helen Lawrence in The Chagall Trio has appeared at festivals 2. Andante affettuoso 2:57 3. Allegretto 2:35 celebration of Pushkin’s bi-centenary. throughout Britain, broadcasts on BBC He has appeared with Richard Jackson Radio 3 and has given premieres of works Robin Orr: Sonata 4. Introduction and Fugue 5:01 in the Almeida Opera Festival and, with by Nicholas Maw, David Matthews and Philip 5. Elegy 4:24 Mary Wiegold, performed a programme Grange. During the Royal Academy of Art’s 6. Scherzetto 1:55 of songs by Howard Skempton in the Chagall exhibition, “Love and the Stage”, 7. Finale 4:51 Aldeburgh Festival. He regularly plays for they were invited to present a programme of Alan Richardson: Sonata the master-classes of such eminent singers music and words celebrating the life of their 8. Poco lento - Allegro 6:17 as Galina Vishnevskaya, Phyllis Bryn-Julson namesake. With the actor Samuel West, the 9. Molto vivace: leggiero e volante 2:24 10. Lento 7:06 and Anthony Rolfe Johnson at the Snape Trio repeated this programme in the Wigmore 11. Allegro energico 4:02 Maltings. Hall

Julian performs and records with the violist As an adjudicator Julian has sat on the jury Martin Outram and he is a member of the of the Charles Hennen International Chamber Chagall Trio which has released an acclaimed Music Competition in Holland. Julian Rolton Recorded at Wyastone Concert Hall on 21st–23rd July 2011 Producer & editor: Andrew Walton. Sound engineer: Mike Clements recording of works by Dame Ethel Smyth teaches at the Rudolf Steiner School, Kings Cover photograph: Melanie Strover www.classicfotos.co.uk for Meridian and a disc of contemporary Langley. Booklet design: www.doubletakedesign.co.uk This release made under license to Wyastone Estate Limited P & © 2012 15 Julian Rolton A highly versatile musician, Julian Rolton is equally at ease as a concerto soloist, Sebastian Forbes: St Andrews Solo chamber musician and accompanist. He 12. Declamando 4:36 has worked with the Calgary Philharmonic William Alwyn: Sonatina No 2 Orchestra in Canada, performed concertos 13. Allegro giusto e marziale 2:10 by Britten, Shostakovich and Strauss in the 14. Andante piacevole 2:46 London South Bank Centre, and Kagel’s 15. Allegretto 1:56 16. Allegretto ritmico 1:44 Phantasiestücke with Martyn Brabbins and Sinfonia 21 in the Ars Musica Festival in 17. Alan Richardson: Sussex Lullaby 3:17 Brussels, the British première of which was 18. Jean-Philippe Rameau (arr Forbes/Richardson): Tambourin 1:24 broadcast by the BBC. 19. Johann Sebastian Bach (arr Forbes): Sinfonia 3:13 Having studied at the Guildhall School of “the excellent pianist, Music and Drama and the Banff Centre Total playing time 68:13 Julian Rolton, manages for the Arts in Canada, Julian Rolton the fiendishly elaborate has performed at festivals in Aldeburgh, Cambridge, Warwick, Peterborough, Bath piano writing effortlessly and Oxford. in a grand finale” BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE Financial support from the following is gratefully acknowledged: The William Alwyn Foundation & Canterbury Christ Church University 14 debut in 1992 with the London Mozart throughout the UK and have recorded Players, notable solo appearances have several times for Naxos. Their performances included the broadcast premiere of Sir Peter have included recitals at many Lionel Maxwell Davies’ Strathclyde Concerto No.5 Tertis International Viola Competitions and with the composer conducting. He gave the 1998 International Viola Congress. the first concert performance of Britten’s Martin served on the jury for the 2003 Portrait No.2 in London and on tour with Tertis Competition and is a member of this Martyn Brabbins and Sinfonia 21 in Russia. competition’s Executive Committee. His He was the soloist in rare performances of recent recordings for Naxos of all the music the Maconchy Romanza with the Ambache for viola and piano by Bax and a disc of Chamber Orchestra and the Dale Romance English Viola Sonatas with Julian Rolton with Vernon Handley conducting. Martin received wide critical acclaim, including a gave the first European performance for 5-star review in the BBC Music Magazine. seventy-five years of York Bowen’s Viola Martin Outram is a Fellow of the Royal Concerto, with Ronald Corp and the New Academy of Music, where he has been London Orchestra. He has played the a professor since 1984. He is also an Britten Lachrymae many times at home and Honorary Fellow and Senior Lecturer at abroad with the Britten Sinfonia and in 2006 Canterbury Christ Church University and an he toured Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante Honorary Fellow of Brunel University. He has together with Tasmin Little. In 2007, he taught and coached in many major music made his debut as a soloist in South institutions in Britain, America, Germany, America performing in Argentina and Brazil. Poland, Sweden and Norway. He plays on a Martin Outram gives duo recitals with Julian very fine viola made by Henricus Catenar in Rolton. Together they have performed widely Turin in 1680. Watson Douglas Buchanan Forbes (1909-1997) 04 13 Martin Outram The Scottish violist Watson Douglas Buchanan Forbes (1909-1997) was one of the most Since studying at Cambridge University and the Royal eminent British musicians of the last century. His influence was widely felt through his Academy of Music with John White, Martin Outram has enjoyed activities as a soloist, chamber music player, teacher and coach. He was also the a wide ranging career as quartet player, soloist and teacher. dedicatee of a substantial corpus of solo works written for him specifically or for the chamber music ensembles of which he was a member. However, he is perhaps best As a member of the internationally renowned Maggini Quartet he known throughout the string playing world as an arranger of music. Much of this is has played throughout Europe, North America and the Far East. for viola, but his arrangements are also for violin, cello and several wind instruments. With the Quartet he has recorded more than thirty discs and When the great viola virtuoso William Primrose went to Japan to take up a teaching has won major prizes including the Gramophone Award and appointment, he discovered that his fellow Scot was better known there than he, the Diapason d’Or. He also appears as principal viola with owing to the wide use of Forbes’s arrangements! the Britten Sinfonia and Soloists Ensemble, with whom he won the 2009 Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Watson Forbes trained at the Royal Academy of Music in London where he studied Chamber Music. the violin with a variety of teachers, including Editha Knocker, Paul Beard, Marjorie Hayward and Albert Sammons. He won a scholarship in 1930 and went to study for ‘Outram proves himself a player a summer with the famous pedagogue Otakar Ševcˇík in Pišek, Czechoslovakia, but in the Primrose mould, with upon returning to England he switched to viola and studied with Raymond Jeremy. sumptuous tone and sensitivity’ He also had lessons with Jeremy’s teacher Lionel Tertis but according to Forbes, BBC Music Magazine “these were not very successful”. Having left the Academy he embarked on a career as a freelance violist, appearing at West End theatres and, from 1932, as a section Martin appears frequently as a soloist. His repertoire member of Beecham’s newly formed London Philharmonic Orchestra. His colleagues embraces the major works for viola. His programmes in the celebrated Stratton Quartet (George Stratton, Carl Taylor and John Moore) were often include rarely heard pieces, particularly by also members of the LPO. Forbes followed George Stratton to the London Symphony British composers and several works have been written Orchestra at the beginning of the war and became co-principal viola. From 1940 he for him, including concertos by Adam Gorb and David was a member of the celebrated RAF Orchestra, which included members of the Gow. Since making his Royal Festival Hall concerto 12 05 Jean-Philippe Rameau (arranged Forbes/Richardson) - Tambourin Rameau (1683-1764) studied music from a young age. His early professional life was spent as a violinist and organist, but it is as a composer of operas and as a musical theorist that he is primarily remembered. He used this famous old Provençal dance in several operas and other instrumental pieces. This is the last of a suite of three dances by Rameau arranged by Forbes and Richardson and published in 1943.

Johann Sebastian Bach - Sinfonia This movement owes its origins to the Sinfonia from Bach’s Cantata Ich steh mit einem Fuss im Grabe of 1729. Bach re-used the material as the central movement of the Keyboard Concerto in F minor BWV 1056 which dates from 1742. This arrangement concludes with a free adaptation for the last three bars by Watson Forbes and was published as one of a collection of pieces in 1948.

Footnote Like so many violists, as a young player I first encountered the name of Watson Forbes through his sets of arrangements. In 1989, at an eightieth birthday celebration for Forbes I finally had the pleasure of meeting the veteran violist. This meeting came about through my teacher John White, himself a pupil of Forbes. I am greatly indebted to John for his inestimable support and encouragement with this and countless other projects. I would like Dr. Watson Forbes, John White and Martin Outram, 1989. to dedicate this disc to him as a token of my gratitude for his friendship and guidance over many years.

06 11 William Alwyn - Sonatina No.2 for Viola and Piano Griller Quartet among its ranks. He subsequently joined the Boyd Neel Orchestra and William Alwyn’s music has in recent years enjoyed a real renaissance of interest. Alwyn (1905- played alongside the violinist Frederick Grinke with whom, together with Harvey Phillips, 1985) wrote a vast amount of music including nearly two hundred film scores, symphonies, he formed a string trio. This group disbanded after the war but with Maria Lidka and concertos and a great deal of chamber music. His early professional career was spent as a Vivian Joseph, Forbes created the London String Trio, a group which eventually became flute player and it was in this capacity that Watson Forbes first came into contact with him. the London Piano Quartet with Emanuel Hurwitz as the violinist and (after Edith Vogel) As composing became more of a priority, so Alwyn’s performing career developed as a James Gibb as the pianist. In 1944 the Stratton Quartet renamed itself the Aeolian and conductor. However, it was as a flautist that Alwyn, together with Watson Forbes and Alan Forbes remained with this ensemble until 1964 when he became Head of Music for BBC Richardson constituted the Keltic Trio, a group formed specially to play in half-hour recitals Scotland. He held this post until his retirement in 1974. for the BBC Light Programme. For these, each member of the trio contributed new works or arrangements for this somewhat esoteric chamber music combination. The Sonatina No. For more than thirty years, Watson Forbes maintained a significant solo career. The works 2, written in 1944, had an unusual background in that the two middle movements were recorded for the present compilation represent something of the diversity of his art as borrowed from the composer’s Short Suite of 1941. In the later work the order was reversed soloist and arranger. However, inevitably they represent but a fraction of his achievement. and it is clear from the manuscript that Forbes had a hand in revising the material in the last Forbes broadcast as a soloist on many occasions and he made his Proms solo debut two movements. This source reveals real ‘work in progress’ with significant changes to the in 1956 in the premiere of John Greenwood’s Viola Concerto. He made many solo point that Forbes wrote out for himself a fresh viola part for the finale, so many were the recordings, ranging from such works as the Sonata for Viola and Piano by Arthur Bliss to revisions! However, a succinct, characterful and thoroughly delightful work emerged. Alwyn the Sussex Lullaby by Alan Richardson with the composer at the piano. Let us hope this clearly knew how to write successfully for the viola as he had already demonstrated in two canon becomes available again soon. beautiful solo works: Pastoral Fantasia and Ballade, both dating from 1939. Concerto in g minor - Pietro Nardini Alan Richardson - Sussex Lullaby Pietro Nardini was born in the north west Italian coastal city of Livorno in 1722 and died This was first performed by Watson Forbes and Myers Foggin in 1938 at the Conway Hall in in Florence in 1793. He is remembered primarily as a violinist and composed mainly for London. Originally written for solo piano, it was to remain a regular item in Forbes’s recitals his instrument, though not exclusively. Leopold Mozart wrote that “the beauty, purity and until he stopped performing. Richardson’s output of original short pieces for viola and piano equality of his tone, and the tastefulness of his cantabile playing cannot be surpassed; include Intrada and Autumn Sketches. but he does not execute great difficulties”. This arrangement of his Violin Concerto in E

10 07 minor appeared in 1950 and is the shared work of Watson Forbes and Alan Richardson. oboe, clarinet and violin (he played with Carl Flesch from 1936-9). Richardson composed In the piano score Richardson declares that it is not a literal transcription of the original his Viola Sonata for Forbes in 1949. In his dedication, Richardson wrote to Forbes: “This is orchestral accompaniment but rather a “free adaptation”. This is certainly the case, even to to commemorate many happy occasions and twenty years hard work. Let’s look forward to the point of being harmonically ‘lush’ on occasion! the next twenty with the hope of Spring eternal”. This partnership also led to several other shorter pieces for viola and piano and highly effective works for the unusual trio combinations Sonata for Viola and Piano - Robin Orr of viola, piano and either bass clarinet or oboe. The Viola Sonata was first performed on 9 Robin Orr was born in the same year as Watson Forbes (1909) in Brechin, Angus and died November 1949 at Queen Mary Hall, London. It was subsequently broadcast on the BBC’s in Cambridge in 2006. They were lifelong friends, having met in September 1926 whilst Latin-America Service in February 1950 and published in 1955 by Augener. In December lodging in a hostel close to the RAM. At this time Orr was studying the organ at the Royal 1955, Musical Opinion reviewed the work thus: “While first-rate players are demanded, there College of Music, before being elected organ scholar at Pembroke College, Cambridge. is no pandering to the virtuoso. The lyrical qualities of the viola are beautifully exploited and Following a number of teaching posts he became a lecturer in music at Cambridge in 1947 the piano part is full of light and fancy”. and in this year Richardson and Forbes gave the premiere of this sonata in Cambridge, having worked closely with the composer during its gestation. Like the Viola Sonata of 1937 Sebastian Forbes - St Andrews Solo for viola by Alan Rawsthorne which Forbes ‘rediscovered’ in 1953, this work’s taut structure and Sebastian Forbes (born 1941) is the elder son of Watson Forbes and has pursued a career as distinctive content make for a powerful, cogent and highly compelling impression. As Forbes composer and academic. He has held posts at University College of North Wales in Bangor himself wrote of Orr’s sonata, “this is exciting music, but it is also intellectually stimulating; and as lecturer and Professor of Music at the University of Surrey. He has written a large the product of a profound musical mind”. Robin Orr was the founding chairman of Scottish number of works ranging from choral pieces and symphonies to compositions for smaller Opera in 1962 and later became Professor of Music at Cambridge University. forces, including five string quartets. The ‘St Andrews Solo’ was composed for the Watson Forbes Centenary Viola Competition at the University of St Andrews in November 2009; it Sonata for Viola and Piano - Alan Richardson was the test piece and was written in memory of Watson Forbes. Like Forbes’s earlier ‘Viola Alan Richardson was born in Edinburgh in 1904 and died in London in 1978. He moved to Fantasy’, it is a highly organic, virtuoso tour de force demanding a freely declamatory style London in 1929 to study the piano at the Academy with Harold Craxton, whose daughter from the performer. Janet, the celebrated oboist, he later married. Like Watson Forbes, he studied composition with Theodore Holland. He became a professor of piano at the RAM (Forbes taught viola and chamber music there from 1954) and wrote much for his instrument together with works for

08 09 The Scottish Viola:A tribute to Watson Forbes Martin Outram • Julian Rolton NI 6180 acknowledged: Financial support from the following is gratefully 68:13 2012 Wyastone Estate Limited 2012 Wyastone Estate Limited 2012 Made in the UK by Wyastone EstateWyastone Limited Made in the UK by P © www.wyastone.co.uk olton piano olton an R viola Juli

tson Forbes a Pietro Nardini (arr Forbes/Richardson): Concerto in G minor G in Concerto Forbes/Richardson): (arr Nardini Pietro Sonata Orr: Robin Sonata Richardson: Alan Solo Andrews St Forbes: Sebastian 2 No Sonatina Alwyn: William Lullaby Sussex Richardson: Alan Tambourin Forbes/Richardson): (arr Rameau Jean-Philippe Sinfonia Forbes): (arr Bach Sebastian Johann time playing Total A tribute to to tribute A W am Outr Martin The The Scottish Viola

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The Scottish Viola:A tribute to Watson Forbes Martin Outram • Julian Rolton NI 6180