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1411123437-Sigcd399booklet.Pdf VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Thoughts on recording Vaughan Williams’ song, and indeed too of the magisterial beauty CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN & STRING ORCHESTRA THE LARK ASCENDING Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra and of the English countryside. I have spent so much The Lark Ascending time on Exmoor, where my family home still is, and ELGAR love the raw wildness of the moors and the lush INTRODUCTION AND ALLEGRO SERENADE FOR STRINGS I was very happy when the opportunity arose rolling hills, always changing with the light. to record the Vaughan-Williams Violin Concerto and The Lark Ascending with the Orchestra of When we came to record the Lark in particular, the Swan and David Curtis, as they were the the improvisatory qualities presented more of Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) first works we played together and we have a challenge for me than usual in the recording 1 I. Allegro pesante [6.35] performed them many times since. process. I don’t think I have ever played it, 2 II. Adagio – Tranquillo [6.40] and in particular the Cadenzas, the same way 3 III. Presto [4.58] Whilst the Lark is one of the best loved and twice, which is part of the constant joy of most famous works in the repertoire, the Concerto performance. Therefore, what is captured 4 Introduction and Allegro, Op.47 Edward Elgar (1857-1934) [13.50] is, rather unfairly, hardly known. It is a true here is the feeling and story of one moment in “chamber” concerto, full of humour, eloquence time, told through the truthful simplicity of Serenade for Strings, Op.20 Edward Elgar and imbued with a rustic spirit. The outer Vaughan-Williams’ beautiful music. 5 I. Allegro piacevole [3.16] movements have a playful wildness about 6 II. Larghetto [4.35] them, the music darting and dancing, that Perhaps the Lark is Vaughan-Williams’ 7 III. Allegretto [2.43] make them great fun to play, and I find the slow contribution to one of literature’s universal movement a jewel of beauty and expressivity. themes; we hope that nature, in its beauty 8 The Lark Ascending Ralph Vaughan Williams [16.48] and perfection, is eternal, whatever mess we The slow passages, both in the second movement are creating. Total timings: [59.28] of the Concerto and the Lark contain a poignant nostalgia, filled with longing for remembered © Tamsin Waley-Cohen, 2014 times. There is a strong sense of narrative, not unlike the English folk stories and older Celtic TAMSIN WALEY-COHEN VIOLIN sagas which are so cyclical and rooted in the ORCHESTRA OF THE SWAN power of nature. Larks are heard so rarely now, DAVID CURTIS CONDUCTOR yet I have many childhood memories of their www.signumrecords.com - 3 - Thoughts on recording Elgar’s Introduction The Serenade is a work I’ve probably conducted in September 1952. The work reveals a less for the violin and some playful cross-rhythms. and Allegro and Serenade for Strings more than any other yet such is Elgar’s familiar aspect of Vaughan Williams’ musical This culminates in a brief final Presto with genius that this exquisite musical ‘cameo’ is personality, its relative emotional detachment an emphatic cadence (Molto allargando). The As a string player these works have been always fresh, always delicate and, despite its possibly suggesting a reaction to the horrors intimate central Adagio, scored for muted in my consciousness as violist and now brevity and simplicity, for me always deeply of the First World War. The opening movement, strings, begins with a solo cello (unmuted) conductor for nearly 50 years so the opportunity moving, expressing great sentiment but marked Allegro pesante, begins with a robust before the violin enters with even more to record these very contrasting masterpieces never sentimental. idea based on rising fifths. Neo-baroque decorative melodic lines. The key having was welcomed and, I admit, an opportunity tendencies – equally evident in many other changed to G major, the second violins initiate that brought a certain degree of trepidation. I once asked one of our players if they ever works of this period, not least the Fugal a little sighing motif which becomes an As with any iconic work many have their own tired of rehearsing and performing this gem, Overture and Fugal Concerto by Vaughan almost permanent feature while Vaughan favourite recording and perhaps there is a he paused for a moment and thought, then Williams’ friend and confidant Gustav Holst Williams shows how expressive a rising scale sense of ‘what can I add to the canon’. replied “David, do you ever weary of meeting – are here incorporated within Vaughan can be. Following an eloquent climax the any of your oldest and dearest friends”. Williams’ personal language. In no way do movement relaxes into a passage marked That said these works always reveal something they submerge his assimilated folk-song Tranquillo which includes a short cadenza. new and for me one of the most revelatory I hope this recording does these old musical characteristics, while occasional suggestions of The finale is dominated by jig rhythm, its main performances of the Introduction and Allegro friends some justice. bitonality add pungency. Semiquaver passage- theme adapted from the composer’s opera I have taken part in or heard, was conducted work for the soloist gives way to a cadenza Hugh the Drover. Subsequent material includes by Michael Tippett. Michael was 70 at the © David Curtis, 2014 (in strict time) before the time-signature a new violin theme marked scherzando and time but for me this music had an energy and changes from 2/4 to 3/4, with some bars of a cantabile melody in more sustained notes, vigour that I’d never previously encountered ___________________________________ 6/8. The main theme here, with light pizzicato and thereafter legato and staccato elements – this wasn’t portentous music composed by accompaniment, is derived from the second are effectively combined and contrasted. The and old man, this was music of an incredible Vaughan Williams wrote his Concerto for Violin part of the opening subject. A new lyrical concerto – a work which has suffered vitality, written by someone who enjoyed striding and String Orchestra in 1924-5 and dedicated melody emerges during the development section, unreasonable neglect – has a delightfully across the Malvern Hills. If we have revealed it to Jelly d’Aranyi, Hungarian violinist and in accord with the violin’s change to legato understated ending, as the soloist’s rhythm a little more of this aspect of the music to grand-niece of Joseph Joachim. She gave the semiquavers. A dialogue between fortissimo runs out of steam before the final chord marked the listener perhaps that is a useful contribution. premiere in November 1925. The composer strings and the soloist’s chunky double-stopping ppp. A violin and piano arrangement by originally entitled the work Concerto leads to another brief cadenza with chordal Vaughan Williams’ ex-pupil Constant Lambert Accademico, a name he subsequently disliked, accompaniment, before a general intensification was published in 1927. withdrawing it before a Menuhin performance which includes rapid arpeggiated string-crossing - 4 - - 5 - Elgar completed his Introduction and Allegro ascending melody originally played by the Although Elgar’s Serenade for Strings, composed for Strings was included in the very last of in February 1905. In this much more ambitious quartet in bar 5 is treated more purposefully. in 1892, is a less imposing work than Elgar’s numerous recordings of his own music, work than the Serenade for Strings of 1892 his Other melodic material from the Introduction his Introduction and Allegro, it would be a made on 29th August, 1933 with the London consummate mastery of the string orchestra’s reappears, as well as a new idea in staccato mistake to underestimate this relative miniature. Philharmonic Orchestra. capabilities and wide range of tone-colours semiquavers initiated by the solo quartet, Elgar’s feeling for effective string-writing is wonderfully evident, with the addition of before the Welsh theme returns on solo violin is already obvious and his comment to his Vaughan Williams composed The Lark a string quartet offering further potential. and viola with new, beautifully enhanced friend Jaeger – “Really stringy in effect” – Ascending soon after his London Symphony, Elgar effectively deploys the quartet in varying accompaniment. A renewal of the Allegro expresses his personal satisfaction. A rhythmic and just before the outbreak of World War I. roles – as a contrasting texture in itself, in tempo brings, in Elgar’s words, “no working- figure heard on the violas in the opening bars Therefore the premiere was delayed until 1921, dialogue with the string orchestra, and in out part but a devil of a fugue instead”. This recurs as a neat unifying thread throughout a by which time the composer had revised the combination with the tutti group. The opening builds to a climax of extraordinary intensity movement which exudes natural charm and work. It was the first of his several compositions gambit is immediately arresting, the first before ebbing away, and now fragments of the tenderness. Its emotional effect is enhanced for solo instrument and orchestra, a motley dozen bars covering a surprising expressive staccato semiquaver idea return, creating a by restraint and understatement. Ernest collection including concertos for piano, violin, range to which tempo fluctuations and textural smooth transition to the reprise of the original Newman aptly described the central Larghetto oboe and tuba, and other works featuring variety contribute. This richness dissolves into Allegro section. A final, glorious restatement as “a pure song-without-words”. The depth solo viola, viola with wordless chorus, and what Elgar called a “Welsh theme” on solo of the Welsh theme – marked “molto sostenuto” of its poignancy is perhaps surprising in the harmonica.
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