HANS PFITZNER Cello Concerto in G major JOHN MAYER Prabhanda • Ragamalas ROHAN DE SARAM cello Druvi de Saram piano John Mayer tanpura Netherlands Radio Orchestra Bohumil Gregor Hans PFITZNER: Cello Concerto in G major John MAYER: Prabhanda • Ragamalas This disc centres on the musicianship of Rohan de Hans PFITZNER (1869-1949) Saram – the British-born Sri Lankan cellist renowned for his involvement in and advocacy of It was for de Saram’s teacher Gaspar Cassadó both classical and contemporary music, as well as that Hans Pfitzner wrote the second of his three that of his native Sri Lanka. He is also a direct link cello concertos in 1935 (the other two being in between the two seemingly removed composers A minor and sharing certain material despite whose music is featured here. being composed 55 years apart). Pfitzner was born in Moscow in 1869, where his father played Born to Ceylonese parents in Sheffield, de Saram violin in a theatre orchestra, though the family studied with Gaspar Cassadó in Siena and returned to his father’s native Frankfurt in 1872. Florence. In 1955 (when only 16) he was the first In 1884 he wrote his first songs and, during recipient of the Guilhermina Suggia Award, 1886-90, studied composition at the Hoch which enabled him to study in Britain with Conservatory in Frankfurt, although his Barbirolli and in Puerto Rico with Casals. He professional breakthrough only came when he made his Carnegie Hall début in 1960 with was appointed director of the opera and also the New York Philharmonic, performing head of the conservatory at Strasbourg in 1908. Khachaturian’s Cello Concerto. Earlier in his The annexation of Alsace – including career, de Saram worked with Kodály, Poulenc, Strasbourg – by France soon after the First World Walton and Shostakovich and from 1979 to 2005 War left Pfitzner destitute, leading to an he was a member of the Arditti Quartet; also embrace of German nationalism that saw his worked with Markus Stockhausen’s Possible support for Nazi policies; a support that was not Worlds group. He has premiered works by many reciprocated by Nazi officialdom, who found his composers including Iannis Xenakis (Kottos), music too introspective to be effective as Toshio Hosokawa (Chant), Jeremy Dale Roberts cultural propaganda. There was also the matter (Deathwatch) and Luciano Berio, whose of his support for Jewish musicians – not least Sequenza XIV incorporates drumming on the Bruno Walter, who gave the first performance of body of the cello to reflect de Saram’s skills with his greatest work, the opera Palestrina, at the Kandyan drum. He also plays standard Munich in 1917. Before he died early in 1962, classical works such as the cello suites of Bach Walter ended his last letter with the conviction and Britten, and is a noted improviser. that ‘’… Palestrina will remain. The work has all – 2 – Rohan de Saram © Jane Baker – 3 – Hans Pfitzner, 1939 the elements of immortality’’. Left homeless at revival in fortunes before his death in 1949. the end of the Second World War, Pfitzner was Despite assertions to the contrary, Pfitzner’s de-Nazified and rehoused at a care home in music is generally forward-looking whatever its Salzburg, from where he enjoyed a modest rootedness in German Romanticism. – 4 – 1 Cello Concerto in G major an upsurge of activity and a forceful chord from the brass, the soloist unfolding an eloquent Playing continuously for barely more than 15 soliloquy against tremolo strings which is met minutes, the G major Concerto might seem to with a gently rapturous response from the be an unusually modest proposition. Certainly woodwind. Out of this soon emerges a pert the orchestration, for large Classical forces, is interplay between woodwind and strings, the sparingly deployed – with the audibility of the soloist at first being content to accompany before soloist not for a moment in doubt. Yet Pfitzner’s infusing the music with greater eloquence on the formal ingenuity is evident in the way in which way to a lively recollection of the main theme. every thematic aspect is derived from the This continues against wistful comments from melody unfolded in the work’s opening bars, trumpets then woodwind, winding down to a while the deft succession of slower and faster pause prior to the blissful final phrase. episodes gives the impression of several movements fused into a single and audibly © Richard Whitehouse 2011 unified overall design; a formal procedure with antecedents which go as far back as Schubert. This concerto, moreover, exemplifies its John MAYER (1929-2004) composer’s standing as one who, while never divorced from the Austro-German tradition, was John Mayer was born into an Anglo-Indian able to re-invigorate its salient qualities to a family in Calcutta in 1929. After studying with considerable though understated degree. Phillipe Sandre in Calcutta and Melhi Mehta in Bombay, he won a scholarship to London’s Royal Over a timpani roll, the Concerto begins with a Academy of Music in 1952, where he studied pensive theme for the soloist commented on by comparative music and religion in eastern and woodwind, which is soon joined by the strings – western cultures. He worked as a violinist with the accompaniment becoming more intricate as the London Philharmonic Orchestra (1953-58) the piece unfolds. Presently reaching a point of and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (1958-65), stasis, the music continues with the soloist but was already writing fusions of Hindustani musing uncertainly against lower woodwind and classical and Western classical forms. His Violin horns before increasing activity culminates in an Sonata was performed by Yehudi Menuhin in animated trumpet fanfare passed excitedly 1955. In the 1960s he worked extensively with around the orchestra. A more subdued dialogue the Jamaican-born jazz musician Joe Harriott, between soloist and woodwind once more sees with whom he formed the group Indo-Jazz – 5 – John Mayer (taken by Kenneth Thomas, early 1980s) Fusions, and which featured a jazz quintet students, emerged in the 1990s and continued alongside five Indian musicians. A new to play live performances (featuring Mayer’s son incarnation of the band, John Mayer’s Indo-Jazz Jonathan on sitar) up until Mayer’s untimely Fusions featuring several of the composer’s death in 2004. A musician who was at home – 6 – across a wide range of styles and aesthetics (he 3 II Alaap I collaborated, for instance, with the rock Following its predecessor without a break, this is musician Keith Emerson on the latter’s Piano the introductory slow movement of a raga Concerto), among his larger-scale works might be composition. singled out the flute concerto Mandala ki Raga Sangeet, which was written for James Galway and 4 III Tihai premiered by him in Birmingham in 1977. Mayer Tihai is a short melodic and rhythmic phrase, was to enjoy a lengthy association with the played in unison. This means that the melodic Conservatoire (formerly the School of Music) in line is echoed in parallel rhythm and this is Birmingham, where he was a professor and played three times. composer-in-residence, and where he introduced the BMus Indian Music course in 1997. 5 IV Alaap II 6 V Jhala The composer provided the following annotations This is the third section of a raga composition. It about the two works which are featured on this is only here that an element of pulse is disc: introduced. The main feature is the repetition of the tonic note after every melody-note is Prabhanda for cello and piano played. Prabhanda is an ancient Indian word used for a 7 VI Kirtan II group of pieces, which in its construction is not 8 VII Ragatal dissimilar to that of the western “suite”. It Raga (scale) and tal (rhythm) are two of the main consists of eight pieces for cello and piano, features of Indian music and in this movement drawing largely on the techniques of the ragas the melodic and rhythmic elements are used in and talas of India, and was written in 1982 for the form of tans (variations). the duo of Rohan and Druvi de Saram. 9 VIII Gat 2 I Ampari Kirtan I This is the final section in a raga composition Ampari is a district of Bandaraduira in Sri Lanka with well-defined rhythmic patterns that are set where most melodies encompass a scale of six to a particular tal (rhythm), which in this piece notes, which means it is non-Buddhistic, since consists of fifteen beats. Buddhist chants cover only five notes. Kirtan is a devotional song of Bengal. – 7 – Six Ragamalas for cello and tanpura @ Ragamala III This uses the notes of the raga Jayjayvanti. This Written for cello and tanpura, the Six Ragamalas raga is considered somewhat romantic in its were commissioned by and written for Rohan vigour combined with tenderness, and is to be de Saram in 1983, with funds provided by the sung or played at night. ‘Buxom and comely, with Arts Council of Great Britain. Each of these six eyes like a gazelle’s, her golden skin fragrant with pieces has a pictorial description. devine flowers, Jayjayvanti is the consort of Megha-raga, God of Rain. Drunken and playing 0 Ragamala I upon a lute, she sings like a kokila (bird).’ This uses the notes of the raga Megh-Mallar. [Translated by N.N. Vasu from 19th Century The rasa (mood) of this raga is happy, contented, Ragamala painting, Anon.] gentle and sometimes commanding. ‘Megh- Mallar, a good wise king, enjoys the pleasures # Ragamala IV of dancing. He is in the company of beautiful This uses the notes of the raga Shri.