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Home , Charles Groves, Malcolm Williamson, Martin Jones (pianist)

SRCD.281 STEREO ADD

MALCOLM WILLIAMSON (1931-2003) 1 Overture ‘Santiago de Espada’ (1957) (6’33”) Elevamini – No. 1 (1957) (29’49”) 2 1st movement: Lento (13’27”) Malcolm 3 2nd movement: Allegretto (5’45”) 4 3rd movement: Lento assai - Allegro (10’37”) Sinfonia Concertante for three tumpets, piano and strings (1958/61) * (18’46”) Williamson 5 1st movement: 'Gloria in excelsis Deo' (5’17”) 6 2nd movement: ‘Salve Regina’ (5’16”) 7 3rd movement: ‘Gloria Patri’ (8’13”) Piano Sonata No. 2 (1957 rev.1971) ** (17’28”) Overture ‘Santiago de Espada ’ 8 1st movement: Quasi lento (6’35”) 9 - 2nd movement: Poco adagio (7’19”) Elevamini – Symphony No. 1 10 3rd movement: Allegro assai (3’34”) Sinfonia Concertante (72’43”) * Martin Jones, piano Piano Sonata No. 2 ** Malcolm Williamson, piano Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Martin Jones conducted by Malcolm Williamson Sir Charles Groves Royal Liverpool 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 1976 ** ൿ 1972 The copyright in these sound recordings is owned by Lyrita Recorded Edition, Philharmonic Orchestra This compilation and digital remastering ൿ 2007 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England © 2007 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. Made in the UK Sir Charles Groves LYRITA RECORDED EDITION. Produced under an exclusive license from Lyrita by Wyastone Estate Ltd, PO Box 87, Monmouth, NP25 3WX, UK hough Malcolm Williamson lived in London for fifty years, many of the titles central movement, in A flat; it was conceived as a set of variations on a theme related T and first performance venues of his works confirm that he was at heart an to the first movement, but in simpler and less astringent language. Contrasting with Australian: as well as his pieces for Australian Bicentennial Year, 1988, his last two the previous two movements, the terse Allegro assai Finale has a rhythmic drive are both rooted in Australian culture. In 1965, he spoke about his reminiscent of Prokofiev. The conflict of the previous material is resolved as the nationality at the Conference on Music and Education in the Commonwealth held at work’s two main ideas are musically juxtaposed and fused into an expression of the University of Liverpool, “…when I think about it I am certain that my music is heavenly joy. characteristically Australian although I have never tried to make it so. We Australians PAUL CONWAY have to offer the world a persona compounded of forcefulness, brashness, a direct warmth of approach, sincerity which is not ashamed, and more of what the Americans call ‘get-up-and-go’ than the Americans themselves possess.” Indeed, the www.lyrita.co.uk vigorous ebullience and emotional candour of his writing sets him apart from most other composers active in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century. Notes © 2007 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England Born in , Australia, on 21 November 1931, Williamson began composing at an Cover photograph of the composer used by permission of the publisher Josef Weinberger early age. At the Sydney Conservatorium, he studied piano, violin and french horn, as well as composition with Eugene Goosens. In 1953, he moved permanently to London, The original recordings were made in association with THE BRITISH COUNCIL. where his composition teachers were Elizabeth Lutyens and (an ex-pupil Piano Sonata of Schoenberg). He experimented with serialism, studied medieval music and, after Recording location and date: September 1971, Kingsway Hall, London. his conversion to Catholicism in 1952, embraced the works and philosophy of Olivier Recording Producer: Michael Bremner Messiaen. Other early passions included the music of Stravinsky and the English Recording Engineer: Stanley Goodall tradition. In the mid-1950s, Sir Adrian Boult and were Orchestral works instrumental in getting Williamson’s works published. A constant succession of Recording location and date: June 1976, Liverpool. commissions ensued, ranging from full-scale operas, symphonies, choral, vocal, chamber and keyboard works to music for children, film scores and church music. He Digital Remastering Engineer: Simon Gibson was appointed 19th Master of the Queen’s Music, succeeding Sir , in 1975 Other works by MALCOLM WILLIAMSON available on Lyrita: and in the following year he was created CBE. In his last decade, due to ill health, he No. 3, Organ Concerto, Sonata for 2 Pianos became much less prolific, but his evocative song cycle to poems by , ‘A Malcolm Williamson, Richard Rodney Bennett Year of Birds’ for soprano and orchestra was premiered at the 1995 Proms. The London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult / ………………………………………………SRCD.280 current dearth of Malcolm Williamson’s compositions in the programmes of British concert halls is regrettable; recent recordings featuring his music confirm an individual, life affirming voice, lacking in pretence and rich in humanity. 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 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, W1F 9DE 2 7 three-part trumpet chords. After their imposing opening statement, the strings Overture ‘Santiago de Espada’ initiate a driving pulse, which nods to Stravinsky and Poulenc, and is sustained Premiered by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Adrian Boult at a throughout the movement. The central ‘Salve Regina’ is a hushed Andante lento private concert in June 1957, the Overture ‘Santiago de Espada’ is one of the constructed in one long-breathed arc, accumulating complexity and richness only to composer’s most approachable orchestral works. Driven by the confidence of youth, fall away to a restful conclusion. The Presto Finale (‘Gloria Patri’) brilliantly exploits this wonderfully self-assured curtain raiser begins with a martial introduction given the bright sonorities of trumpet, piano and strings. A sparkling Rondo with variations to timpani and percussion leading to the allegro first subject, a rousing, emphatic to its recurring material, it includes a piano cadenza with trumpet interjections. An rallying cry for trumpets, as chivalric in tone as the Agincourt Overture by Walter extended epilogue almost achieves the status of another slow movement, reviewing Leigh or the film music for Henry V by . This first subject, suggesting and uniting the work’s constituents and providing a satisfying conclusion. St James, Patron of Spain, inspiring the Spaniards to victory in battle, is elaborated Piano Sonata No. 2 in a syncopated, jazzy style: typical Williamson. A ritardando leads to the regal second Together with his distinguished contemporaries John McCabe and Richard Rodney subject, a glorious tune of cinematic sweep depicting the body of St James lying in a Bennett, Malcolm Williamson excelled as both composer and , bringing to his marble ship. This noble melody, actually a serene transformation of the first subject, piano writing an understanding of the instrument gained from a performer’s is given a varied restatement, complete with celebratory carillon from piccolos, flutes perspective. The Piano Sonata No. 2 is the longest and most substantial of his piano and violas. The allegro first subject bursts in along with the percussion material from works. Conceived as both a memorial piece to Gerald Finzi and a devotion to the the introduction. Soon the horns intone the second subject on top in dazzling Blessed Virgin, it was written in response to a commission from the Cheltenham counterpoint, reaching a triple forte climax before the percussion powers this Festival Society and premiered on 14 July 1957 at the Cheltenham Festival by Robin enjoyable work to a triumphant conclusion. Harrison. At its first performance, the work was entitled ‘Janua Coeli’ (Gates of Elevamini – Symphony No. 1 Heaven) and cast in five movements, with the third and fourth taking the form of Malcolm Williamson’s First Symphony takes its Latin title from Psalm 24 and short cadenzas based on the first and second movements respectively. In 1970, translates as ‘Be ye lifted up’. It was written between 1956 and 1957 and premiered by Williamson made a major revision of the sonata, reducing it to three movements. Sir Adrian Boult with the LPO in June 1957 at the same private concert that featured The sonata’s tone is sombre and bleak, in contradistinction to the witty and urbane the first performance of the Overture ‘Santiago de Espada’. Elevamini is a notable First Piano Sonata (1956). Though there is a clear tonal centre, the tough and gritty achievement for a composer in his early twenties: apart from its technically harmonic language bespeaks a thorough knowledge of serial techniques. There are accomplishment scoring and formal mastery, the emotional depth and spiritual two main contrasting ideas: one of earthly sorrow and the other of heavenly peace, maturity apparent in the personality behind the work is remarkable. Created in but the work was intended by the composer to be listened to as pure music with no response to the death of Williamson’s maternal grandmother (the score is inscribed programmatic narrative. A sense of space is created by extremes of register, as the ‘in memoriam M.E.W.’), the piece takes the form of a with a light, lively lean and airy textures frequently explore both ends of the keyboard. middle section encased by two probing Lentos (a structure he would return to in his equally profound of 1964). Resilient and rhetorical, the opening Quasi lento movement alternates slow recitative-like passages punctuated by harsh, solitary staccato chords with rapid The Lento first movement begins with imposing dissonant tutti chords representing syncopated interludes. Austere beauty characterises the slow, threnodic Poco Adagio the passage in Psalm 24 where the gates of brass of the New Jerusalem are raised to

6 3 receive a new soul. These chords make an arresting opening to the symphony, cellos over which the flutes continue the scherzo theme. The scherzo reprise is varied, resembling the recurring ‘Fire’ chords in the Ritual Dances from ’s A the textures thinning out until three final, emphatic tutti strokes bring the revels to Midsummer Marriage. The Dances were first performed in February 1953 and the an end. opera in January 1955, so the ‘Fire’ chords may have found their way into Williamson’s The Finale, Lento assai , is conceived in terms of blocks of slow and fast sections imagination. In the first of the Lento’s four sections, the progress of the soul is though the rhythm remains unvaried. The slower passages consist of an evermore- depicted by the string section in hushed interweaving counterpoint. An important insistent muted trumpet call cutting through dense multi-layers of Messiaen-like motif in the first violins emerges, whose falling first phrase resembles a haunting woodwind lines. The faster segments echo the first Danse Sacral from Stravinsky’s descending motif in the Finale of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony just before the start of Rite of Spring, an apt reference as the ritual and dance elements of the Stravinsky that work’s closing Adagissimo : the poignantly valedictory nature of this association ballet score complement Elevamini ‘s ecstatic dances of the angels and saints as the seems entirely appropriate. Semitonal clashes create a mounting feeling of restless soul is accepted into their celestial number. The ‘gates of brass’ chords return, leading anguish. The Mahlerian motif is repeated ever higher in the first and second violins to an extended rhythmical passage with something of the primordial tension of a until they ascend, whispering, to vertiginous heights. The second section, introduced symphonic movement by Robert Simpson. The side drum beats out the by flutes and horns, contains vaulting, arch-like arpeggiated woodwind figures over predominating dance metre of the Finale and the work ends memorably with divided scrunched semitonal clashes on divided violins. The third section ( largo marziale ) is strings playing a seemingly endless chord stretching out into Infinity. a solemn funeral march. Over a pulsing drumbeat, it gathers in fugal complexity and increases in intensity as various instruments enter, enriching the texture. As a climax Elevamini was the first large-scale orchestral composition of Williamson’s maturity is reached, the ‘gates of brass’ chords reappear (quadruple forte , sounding like the as a composer. It demonstrates his judiciously eclectic style coalescing a range of Last Trump). The fourth and final section, Andante lento , provides serene and hushed early influences - the Second Viennese School, Stravinsky and Messiaen, with a dash repose. The ‘gates of brass’ chords are transfigured into a rhythmic motif, which of Britten and Tippett. The idea of a first symphony based on such solemn inspiration appears on violins and bassoons, both in their highest registers. The Mahlerian motif and its unusual slow-fast-slow sequence of movements may have harmed the returns as a flute solo, espressivo . The movement ends with muted strings sounding prospects of Elevamini, though in 1965 John McCabe successfully adopted a similar the ‘gates of brass’ from aloft. structure for his Elegy Symphony. In any event, after its first public performance in 1963, Elevamini was not taken up again until Sir Charles Groves and the Royal The Allegretto central movement depicts joy (at the arrival of a new soul) of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra performed it in 1977. Today, the symphony stands Angels and the Saints - latter-day Saints, perhaps, as there is a distinctly as a powerful, highly original first example in the genre, serving notice that Malcolm Coplandesque quality about this movement with its airy, dancing arpeggios. These Williamson was not going to be a traditional symphonist. arpeggios are a transformation of the arch-like woodwind figures from the start of the previous Lento movement’s second section, whilst the ‘gates of brass’ chords are Sinfonia Concertante transmuted into punchy, accented tutti chords that momentarily stem the flow of the The composer originally designated his Sinfonia Concertante as Symphony no 2, but undulating texture. The complexity of the interweaving lines of the preceding owing to the concertante nature of the solo instruments of three trumpets and piano movement is replaced by a more straightforward tonality and the time signature is an as distinct from the , he changed the title. Begun in 1958 and finished unchanging 3/8, though cross rhythms lend a syncopated feel to the movement. The in 1961, this piece is dedicated to the composer’s wife. Each of the three movements Trio section takes the form of a long-breathed benediction for the violins and divided bears a religious superscription. The first movement, ‘Gloria in excelsis Deo’, in traditional sonata form, begins with a chanting motif played by the piano over held 4 5 WILLIAMSON: SANTIAGO DE ESPADA/ELEVAMINI JONES/WILLIAMSON LYRITA SINFONIA CONCERTANTE/PIANO SONATA 2 RLPO/GROVES SRCD.281 D D A 81 ) ) ) end. .2 3” the EO ’4 CD 2 (5’17”) (6’33”) (7’19”) (3’34”) (5’16”) (5’45”) (6’35”) (8’13”) after R (13’27”) (10’37”) (18’46” (29’49”) (7 (17’28” S ne TER o * S and 03) ork, w tra or (1958/61) (1931-20 ngs i movement ano str Orches N d pi each nd f s no o O lan a g g n, o En onic e v o pia yrita L an innin , by eg pi by s b rm Gr e s, om fr amso 57) th ned ) Edition, et 9 li 7 ** d es ow nse (1 e on J 95 1) UK rl is e befor ump hilha lice (1 t il W 97 S LLIAM ne da’ P eo' de ecor 1 ha O I .1 R ee D 3WX, l conducted gro UK rtin C lm ev s r ita ses. le thr spa dings cor W xclusive No. lsi 7 au the e Al e r E yr L p e io NP25 or lco Ma - f n in ’ Sir o na’ 95 rpoo a e xc tw gi * (1 tri o e de d dag ssai te ony 2007 to a sound a Ma 2 ssai n LM Re Pa e iv i Ma ent a l ൿ o under ret a se L include ia o rtan gro lve ** l eg Monmouth, ori asi the or e No. nto Poc tiago ach ymph e in Gl ‘Sa All n All ‘ Lent a 'Gl Le Qu S 87, stering nce England. nt: : : : t: t: – oduced Pr ight n, nt: nt: nt: ‘Sa en en nat a y Ro Box me ent ent ent Co ema r normally O m m m ini me me me ll opyr ngland ON. ditio em em e r P So c e e e E ove E wi u O MALC nia t m DITI am digital Ltd, E mov mov The ings no fo d move move move mov mov mov tim d d d and 2n ded cor l Edition, Over 1st 2nd Pia Elev Sin 1st 2nd 3r 3r 3r 1st - state ua d Re 1972 RDED E e tion 9 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 ivid 10 ൿ CO ila * ind d cor * yrita L RE stone ve Re 76 comp bo a 007 a 19 Wya it is 2 A RIT e © by Th ൿ Th Y L yr L

WILLIAMSON: SANTIAGO DE ESPADA/ELEVAMINI JONES/WILLIAMSON LYRITA SINFONIA CONCERTANTE/PIANO SONATA 2 RLPO/GROVES SRCD.281