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ENGLISH MUSIC FOR VIOLA AND PIANO Bainton • Holland • Bowen • Bantock Sarah-Jane Bradley, Viola Christian Wilson, Piano English Music for Viola and Piano her father for an Australian Radio prog-ramme called ‘The folksong-like material in his other works, and yet the un- Edgar Bainton (1880–1956) • Theodore Holland (1878–1947) Composer Performs’ on 12th October, 1942, (at this time accompanied viola melody at the beginning of the second Helen was a viola-player in the Sydney Symphony movement could almost be a traditional folk-tune. The York Bowen (1884–1961) • Granville Bantock (1868–1946) Orchestra). The sonata then remained unper-formed until its reason for this will become apparent later in the Finale. The The composers brought together on this recording were to help articulate a musical identity. Thus, inspiration or British première in Birmingham in May 1989, given by Martin second movement also ingeniously combines both slow- born within sixteen years of one another and all studied musical material often came from ancient literature or Outram (viola) and Michael Jones (piano). movement and scherzo simultaneously by the use of composition in London. Bantock, Holland and York Bowen legend, early music sources or from folk-song collections The three movements are written in progressive tonality: crossing bar lines against a piano part played at double studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where the great and it is notable that the three major works on this disk E–A–D minor, and a very intense mood is created right speed, a most original innovation. The Finale is deeply viola virtuoso Lionel Tertis became Professor in 1900 and resort in varying degrees to folk-song or its stylistic from the beginning, part autumnal, part elegiac (as in the powerful in its mood – militaristic, as in the piano opening, it was he who inspired this and later generations of emulation for thematic direction. Finale), and possibly reminiscent of the composer’s war- and poignant in the viola’s return of the first movement composers to write more for the instrument, reinvigorating Of course, tonality and nationalist traits in music need not time experiences as a civilian prisoner-of-war at Ruhleben second subject. After a more energetic section marked public interest and initiating the birth of a vital body of indicate conservatism, and it is a shame that the perception in Germany from 1914-18. The first movement, although in Allegro con fuoco, the folk-like theme from the beginning of repertoire for future generations. of these composers (and many of their con-temporaries) two sharps (i.e. B minor), is very strongly centred on E minor the second movement returns, but now in A flat minor in 2/2 During the early years of the twentieth century, Lon- has suffered with respect to a more fashion-able and radical and the piano part is demanding with highly flexible and time, floating above a muffled, but still militaristic piano part don’s musical scene was infected by a strong current of mainstream. Nevertheless, the divergence of style and tonal fast-moving textures and harmonies, whilst the viola part in 9/8 time. We then realise that the folk-theme of rural youth modernism from mainland Europe leading to the cult flavour between (and within) these works is a refreshing is dominated by what Helen Bainton called its “song-like has become the First World War soldier whose disembodied popularity of a small number of European composers. This indication of the creative instinct and originality of their quality”. The second subject (in C minor) is deeply eloquent spirit floats above the battlefield – a master-stroke of great seems to have encouraged homeland composers to look composers – neither yielding to the avant-garde, nor stifling and full of yearning and appears in various guises originality and power. The movement ends with a return of increasingly inwards on their own cultural heritage in order an authentic voice. throughout the entire work. Interestingly, Bainton, unlike so the Allegro con fuoco and a Coda in D major of triumphant many of his contemporaries, makes little or no use of and jubilant optimism. Edgar BAINTON: Sonata for viola and piano Today Edgar Bainton is known princip- appointment as Director of the New Theodore HOLLAND: Suite in D ally for his famous anthem ‘And I Saw A South Wales Conservatorium, Sydney. Theodore Holland is another of a large swathe of lament- was reflected in an increased musical intensity and intro- New Heaven‘, originally published in He remained in Australia until his death ably under-appreciated British composers. He was educated spection, but the tonal generosity of his music was already 1928, but during the first thirty years of in 1956, by which time he was regarded at Westminster School before moving to the Royal Academy deemed old-fashioned in the face of accelerating modernity the twentieth century regular perform- as an Australian composer and his of Music, where, like Bantock, York Bowen and Benjamin and the music of the Second Viennese School. A small ances of his choral works and part- music and name in the United Kingdom Dale, he studied with Frederick Corder. His ambitions as a number of works did achieve moderate success and one of songs kept his name at the forefront of were virtually forgotten. His output composer were sufficient to lead him further afield, to study these, Ellingham Marshes, for viola and orchestra, was given a developing English Musical Renais- includes three symphonies, two operas, with Joachim at the Musikhochschule in Berlin. Neverthe- its première at the Promenade Concerts on 15th August sance. Edgar Bainton was born in various other orchestral works (including less, Holland’s earlier output was dominated by lighter 1940 and broadcast by the BBC in April 1941. London in 1880, but spent his early life in a Concerto Fantasia for Piano) and many genres and it was theatre that best suited his idiosyncratic In the Suite in D (1938) the development of musical ideas Coventry, where his father was a Con- songs and part-songs. and colourful style. (His most popular work was a Suite ex- is almost kaleidoscopic, but Holland writes sparingly for the gregational minister. He won a music Bainton’s Viola Sonata was comp- tracted from the music for a children’s play on Santa Claus). piano allowing exchanges between the instruments to be scholarship to King Henry VIII Grammar leted in Newcastle-upon-Tyne between Eventually, Holland’s skills as a serious composer were delivered with clarity and punctuated with ingenuity. The School at eleven, and at sixteen won a 27th June and 15th September 1922, acknowledged through his appointment in 1927 as Prof- strained language at the opening of the first movement place at the Royal College of Music, later and in her biography of her father Re- essor of Harmony and Counterpoint at the Royal Academy (Allegro vigoroso) gives way to a simpler, lyrical second studying composition with Sir Charles membered on Waking Helen Bainton of Music, where he would remain until the end of his life. theme that is shared and imitated between viola and piano. Villers Stanford and winning the records that Lionel Tertis, the great viola- Amongst his students was Iris du Pré, mother of the cellist The intense spirit of the second movement (Romance) Hopkinson and Tagore Medals for player and supporter of new works for Jacqueline. Interestingly, Holland’s wife Isména would exploits the low-tenor timbres of the viola before an eleva- outstanding achievement. After many the instrument, came to Newcastle to become godmother to the young cellist. tion of the theme leads to the second subject which is both years teaching in Newcastle-upon-Tyne try over the work with the composer. Holland won two mentions in dispatches and an OBE for mysterious and uneasy by comparison. The final movement (from 1901 to 1934) Bainton and his Sadly, Tertis did not take up the sonata his services during the Great War, but his experiences left (Finale) evokes the spirit of the danse macabre in the use of family emigrated to Australia in order to take up his and it lay unperformed until Helen her-self played it with him suffering shell-shock for the remainder of his life. This ostinato figurations and accented double stopping. Rhythmic urgency in the bass line drives the music through a slower logical in the exploration of extremes of tessitura, melodic Bantock rigorously adheres. This jig appears in O’Farrell’s anima) is large in scale with a slavish adherence to this second section before the reprise of the main theme. The contour, dynamic, and the juxtaposition of harmonic Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes of 1806 single theme (La Bichette), exploring countless harmonic demonic strains of the recapitulated first theme are soon richness with hollow textures or emotional austerity. It is in (pages 28-29) along with Colleen Dhas (page 19) and it is and textural possibilities or inversions and manipulations. transformed from minor to major with a glorious rising theme this spirit that elements of pastiche seem to be innocently tempting to think that it was from just such a collection Bantock is particularly fond of the rhythmic displacement in D, before a virtuosic coda brings the work to a dramatic procured as no more than a distinctive nod in the direction that Bantock gathered his musical material. Indeed it is of his material, stretching it through different metrical conclusion. of this or that composer, imbued in the service of musical perhaps the similarity between the melodic contours of guises. In the second movement (Maestoso sostenuto, Holland’s theatrical approach is visual and psycho- cornucopia.