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CHAN 8339 front.qxd 21/5/07 4:57 pm Page 1 CHANDOS CHAN 8339 CHAN 8339 BOOK.qxd 21/5/07 4:54 pm Page 2 John Hebden (1712–1765) Six Concertos for Strings edited by Ruzena Wood continuo realisation by Ian Robertson 1 Concerto No. 1 9:07 in A major • in A-Dur • en la majeur I Adagio II Allegro. Fugga III Largo IV Allegro Alison McIntyre • Lorna Ross violins 2 Concerto No. 2 7:34 by Philippe Mercier/British Museum Mercier/British Philippe by in C major • in C-Dur • en ut majeur I Allegro II Largo e siciliana Mezzotint by J. Faber from an original painting from J. Faber by Mezzotint III Allegro ma non troppo. Tempo di menuetto Andrew Morris violin 3 Concerto No. 3 8:09 in E major • in E-Dur • en mi majeur I Allegro II Largo III Gigga. Allegro Angus Anderson • Helena Moroney violins 4 Concerto No. 4 9:52 in E flat major • in Es-Dur • en mi bémol majeur John Hebden I Adagio II Allegro III Adagio IV Minuet amoroso Angus Anderson • Wanda Wojtasinska violins 3 CHAN 8339 BOOK.qxd 21/5/07 4:54 pm Page 4 5 Concerto No. 5 11:02 in C minor • in c-Moll • en ut mineur Hebden: Six Concertos for Strings I Adagio II Allegro III Adagio One of the snags about being a composer SIX IV Allegro is that your prospects tend to improve CONCERTOS Angus Anderson • Helena Moroney violins when you are dead. A composer who IN 6 Concerto No. 6 9:34 should now be ordering champagne in SEVEN PARTS in D minor • in d-Moll • en ré mineur Elysium is the Yorkshire cellist John Hebden FOR I Adagio (1712–1765), who has had more than FOUR VIOLINS, a TENOR VIOLIN, II Allegro his fair share of oblivion. I became interested a VIOLONCELLO with a THOROUGH III Grave in Hebden in 1980, after reading with BASS for the HARPSICHORD, IV Allegro fascination Jeremy Barlow’s edition of COMPOS’D BY Alison McIntyre • Robert Jennings violins Hebden’s Sonata No. 1 for flute and John Hebden TT 55:54 keyboard, published by Oxford University Opera IIa Press. At the time I was acting as repertoire LONDON. Cantilena consultant for Cantilena, so I wished Printed for the Author Adrian Shepherd Hebden had written a work for strings. in Lancaster Court Chairing Cross. Of course, I knew that English concerti violin Angus Anderson viola John Harrington grossi had been explored by so many The concertos were like a breath of fresh air. Robert Jennings Anne Taylor scholars that you cannot see the notes for Here was an unknown Yorkshireman writing Alison McIntyre footprints. On the face of it, it would in the baroque style, delighting in catchy tunes Helena Moroney cello Adrian Shepherd have been sensible to dismiss the idea and springy dance rhythms. Echoes of English Andrew Morris Martin Heath then, as sheer wishful thinking – which it country dances sounded through the Italianate Lorna Ross Wanda Wojtasinska double-bass David Inglis was! But what are dreams for? I searched. texture like a flutter of maypole ribbons. And in the British (Museum) Library Cantilena was an ideal choice for the first harpsichord Ian Robertson I found Hebden’s forgotten concertos, modern performances. This young, versatile which nobody had played for two hundred Scottish ensemble consists of thirteen string years: players, directed by their first cellist Adrian 4 5 CHAN 8339 BOOK.qxd 21/5/07 4:54 pm Page 6 Shepherd, whose dynamic style makes him a best Hands in Town’ – another interesting Why? Vauxhall was a happy hunting ground one portrait of Hebden survives – an twentieth-century successor to John parallel with Cantilena. This unnamed group for native English publishers’ hacks who eked engraving by Faber, copied from the original Hebden. When Adrian saw the electrostatic gave public concerts regularly in the newly out their earnings by mass-producing songs of oil painting. The artist was Philippe Mercier printouts from microfilms of the old string built Assembly Rooms, York – an architectural the ‘By yon dimpling purling rill’ variety. Not who had been portrait painter to Frederick, parts, he was enthusiastic. Cantilena must triumph for the designer Richard Boyle, 3rd Hebden! Perhaps he just was not interested in Prince of Wales. When Mercier fell out of play these rediscovered concertos! There was Earl of Burlington, who was also Handel’s songs. But I suspect he had a fundamental favour he found it advisable to make a no score, so I offered to make one, which patron. A minute book for 1736 observes: defensive regard for his own worth as a prolonged stay in Yorkshire. He painted the would also serve as the basis for my own …Mr Hebden has serv’d the consert in a very composer – not as a genius (extravagant claims portrait of young Hebden playing his cello forthcoming performing/critical edition. For obligeing and diligent manner… would be ridiculous!) but as a chamber music about 1740. The painting was the property eighteen months I burnt midnight oil, About 1742 Hebden moved to London. craftsman. Chamber music was his first love. of the Duke of Leeds in 1741 but this sorting out obsolete abbreviations, redundant When Thomas Arne enlarged the orchestra at Hebden probably published plus or minus original is now untraced. accidentals and occasionally misplaced Vauxhall Gardens in 1745, Hebden became 500 copies of his concertos, but only six copies Hebden’s style is influenced by Geminiani. dynamics. 7,000 bars later, the scores were principal cellist and bassoonist. He played have survived: two in London, one in Brussels Although he was not an innovator, his ready for Susan Tyte Shepherd (Adrian’s wife Messiah under Handel’s direction to raise and three in America. The first edition imagination harnessed harmony and and Cantilena’s oboist) to copy the string money for the Foundling Hospital. The includes a fascinating Subscribers’ List, counterpoint in an original, personal way – parts. During a fortnight’s unexpected leave concertos were probably begun about 1745 showing a cross-section of the musical society suggesting a rugged, determined, highly Susan finished the parts by working round and published c. 1749. of his time. There is the usual array of titled developed identity. There is also warmth and the clock – and I defy any Victorian heroine Hebden’s long obscurity may be explained personages: the Earl and Countess of tenderness. It is not just one segment of his to do better than that. I mention these by the fact that he published only two works, Burlington reappear as subscribers; there are personality that comes over, but all of it. His domestic details (which might appear the Six Concertos and the Six Solos for the academics and organists; and taverns like writing is consciously motivated from the bass irrelevant) because Cantilena very much German Flute. He was primarily an orchestral The Devil and The Globe in Fleet Street, upwards as he carves his continuo with resembles a ‘family’ of working musicians, player (with a status inferior to that of a where concerts were held. David Garrick, the unswerving, affectionate pride. (Several and it is one of their particular strengths. singer) working very long hours to make ends actor, ordered a set of string parts, as did Cantilena players have told me that their parts Recent research suggests that John Hebden meet. He was also a Yorkshireman in an age Vauxhall musicians like Valentine Snow for are so gratefully written, they feel as if the was baptised on 21 July 1712 at Spofforth, when successful composers were expected to whom Handel wrote his famous trumpet solos. composer comes halfway to meet them: a the son of ‘John Hebdin’ of Plompton, ‘then be Italian; or if that was inconvenient, Fellow composers also subscribed: Arne, good feeling!) There is a trace of nostalgia only a muddy spring in a field’. In the 1730s German would do! A different situation from William Boyce, San Martini and Geminiani, as about the harmonically straightforward he played the cello, gamba and bassoon, and continental colleagues: Kapellmeisters who well as music-loving Italian Jews who claimed minuets: the direction amoroso may well recall composed for a small cosmopolitan group of were employed to be prolific. descent from the ancient tribe of Naphtali. days in York when the young cellist often professional chamber music players: ‘all the Hebden did not publish any vocal music. Although biographical details are scanty, played for dancing, and danced himself. 6 7 CHAN 8339 BOOK.qxd 21/5/07 4:54 pm Page 8 Hebden is drawn to the elegiac, sensitive The flat key concertos reveal deeper aspects Cantilena was formed in 1970 by Adrian Cantilena has made more than twenty possibilities of the siciliano – the form which of Hebden’s personality. The composer is no Shepherd, principal cello of the Scottish records, and signed an exclusive recording Mozart, a generation or so later, unveiled with longer a stranger. In Concerto No. 4 in E flat National Orchestra, and worked for two contract with Chandos Records in 1975. the touch of genius in the slow movement of major, heavy chords, like vaulted cathedral years without giving public concerts to his Piano Concerto in A major, K 488. arches, contrast with introspective echoes achieve an understanding, a style and a Adrian Shepherd was born in Essex and In the mid-eighteenth century there was a from the solo violins. If eighteenth-century quality of sound that would be both studied under the great cello teacher William convention which recommended writing audiences demanded noble, lofty and sublime individual and ideally suited to the baroque Pleeth for ten years.