The significance of this CD is way beyond what a brief perusal of the track-listings would suggest. I imagine that to most non-specialist listeners the names of the composers will be just that. Names. A few enthusiasts of British music may well have come across the relatively recent Hyperion disc of Francis Edward Bache’s fine Piano Concerto or the English Piano Trio’s reading of the same composer’s eponymous work. Organists will have heard of William Wolstenholme. Nearly everyone will know Edward German, even if it is only the fact that he wrote an opera called Merrie England. Other names may have been glimpsed in piles of music on sale in second-hand music shops.
However, it is the generally unknown quantities of most of the composers and virtually all of the musical works presented that makes this a special (and exciting) recording.
All recitalists are aware of
their market. Some may be able to play exactly what they want to play. Generally,
they will have to choose repertoire that is likely to appeal to the widest possible
range of concertgoers. This means that most programmes of music are made up of
the so-called ‘greats.’ I guess few recitals will pass muster unless there is a
smattering of Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninov and Debussy. Naturally, there will be many concerts
featuring the sonatas of Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert. However, these are
often very limited in their explorations. Certain ‘popular’ works are heard
with wearying regularity. Evenings devoted to Bach, Haydn and Schumann tend to
be largely predictably in their repertoire. Sometimes there are surveys of uncharted
territory, but these are often balanced by ‘warhorses.’ Yet, when pianists turn to British
music for their recitals the range of repertoire is even more limited. One may include the John Ireland and Frank
Bridge Sonatas and that is about it. Rarely are there miniatures, tone pictures
or suites heard from these composers or from their less-well-known compatriots.
What is extremely unusual is to have an extensive recital of British piano
music garnered from the breadth of English piano music repertoire, including
composers who are largely forgotten – or were never really known in the first
place. This CD sets out to remedy this omission.
In the early nineteenth century,
travel became a more realistic proposition for tourists to explore the sights
and sounds of Europe and even further afield. This coincided with a revived
appreciation of ‘the picturesque value of the former classical world.’ There were large numbers of artists, writers,
historians and the downright curious who chose to make their way to Italy and
to Greece. The reader may think of Lord Byron, Robert Browning, J.M.W. Turner,
John Henry Newman and John Ruskin. In later years novelists such as E.M
Forester, D.H. Lawrence and Aldous Huxley were ‘intrigued by the clash of civilisations
that tended to accompany the British tourist as he (or she) roamed the Italian
cities and countryside’. Naturally, this
freedom was only available to certain groups of people. Most folk still did not
travel further than Hampstead Heath or Heaton Park for their unwaged holidays.
Christopher Howell believes that
it would have been good to find a musical counterpart to these Victorian,
Edwardian and Georgian tourists. Alas there is no evidence that this is the
case. For example, there is no equivalent of Franz Liszt’s magisterial Années de Pèlerlinage. However, we do
know that Elgar visited Italy, Parry the South of France and Arthur Sullivan
travelled extensively in Europe. Yet, amongst the pages of forgotten and yellowing
scores, there are many works that have taken Italy as their inspiration.
Whether the composer ever actually visited the country or got no further than a
café-bar in Soho is largely irrelevant. It is the impression on the listener
that is the most important factor.
For this recording Christopher
Howell has explored a huge range of music to find this collection of ‘genre
pieces.’
The major work on this double-CD
set is Francis Edward Bache’s impressive cycle of music entitled Souvenirs d’Italie. This is the nearest
that any composer on these CDs has come to emulating the Liszt master-work referred
to above – at least in concept if not quite in technical and emotional
achievement. This collection of eight
pieces is worthy of both composer and pianist. The various numbers are certainly
conservative’ in their musical language –looking towards Mendelssohn and John
Field: Liszt and Chopin are also present in these pages. The other influences that Howell notes
(Steibelt, Dussek and Woelfl) may suggest that Bache is writing pastiche. Yet
this would be a wrong assumption. This is a successful collection of pieces that
is wholly self-consistent. It is a work that I would like to spend more time listening
to and studying. Finally, I do hope that Christopher Howell may one day choose
to record Bache’s ‘companion’ piece to this suite – the evocatively titled Souvenirs de Torquay.
The composer William Vincent
Wallace is in this compilation by default. He was born in Waterford, Ireland in
1814 and died in Château de Bagen, Sauveterre de Comminges, near
Barbazon, Haute Garonne, France. For much of his life he travelled the world
giving recitals composing music and generally having adventures. He latterly became
(?) an American citizen. Wallace is probably best known for his opera Maritana (1845).
Two of the three works presented
here are transcriptions of operatic numbers. The first is based on Gaetano Donizetti’
aria ‘Ange si pur’ from La Favourite.
The second is the exciting Fantasia de Salon sur Motifs de Lucrezia Borgia by the same composer. Both works pass the ‘Liszt’
test, as Howell has called it: if you did not know the source of the music, you
would hardly guess where it was derived. Each is a worthy piece of music even
when divorced from their context. The first piece by Wallace is the La Gondola: Souvenir de Venice
(Nocturne) with the inevitable ‘water’ lapping at the sides of this ever so stereotypical
mode of transport. However it is a well-wrought piece.
Edward Sydney Smith (1839-1889)
is known (where at all) for his huge contribution to so-called salon music in
the mid 1800’s. I first came across his invariably difficult music in the Star Folio Series of Piano Music. I
could not play these pieces then and am still beaten by them today. His music
is highly technical (if clichéd), using a variety of pianistic devices that owe
much to Liszt and Chopin. The four works presented here are typical of his art.
They are all musically effective and largely enjoyable. It is a pity the so
little of his music is available on CD.
Perhaps the most impressive is the short Morceau de Concert-Danse Napolitane. However, I did especially
enjoy the romantic Siesta-Reverie.
The first CD closes with a very
short piano duet by William Wolstenholme (1865-1931): the ‘lilting’ and wistful
waltz ‘Venice’ is a pure delight.
Track Listing:
Christopher
Howell (piano) with Ermanno de Stefani (piano II)
Track Listing:
Francis Edward BACHE (1833-1858) Souvenirs
d'Italie, op.19
William
WALLACE (1814-1865) La
Gondola - Souvenir de Venise (Nocturne); Ange sì Pur - Romance de "La
Favorite", transcribed; Fantasia de Salon sur Motifs de Lucrezia Borgia Sydney
SMITH (1839-1859) I
Pifferari - Musette Moderne, op.183; Siesta - Reverie, op.180; Sérénade
Vénitienne, op.201; Danse Napolitaine - Morceau de Concert, op.33 William
WOLSTENHOLME(1865-1931) Venice; Arthur
SOMERVELL (1863-1937) Tarantella
in A minor
Maude
WHITE (1855-1937) From
the Ionian Sea - Four Sketches
Edward
GERMAN (1862-1936) Tarantella Harry
FARJEON (1878-1948) Three
Venetian Idylls, op.20; Barcarolle; *Two Italian Sketches
Frank
MERRICK (1886-1981) Tarantella,
op.5
Ernest
Markham LEE (1874-1956) Nights
in Venice
Eaton
FANING (1850-1927) Sorrento
- Danza in modo di Tarantella
Henry
GEEHL (1881-1961) The
Bay of Naples - Italian Suite
Ronald
SWAFFIELD (1889-1962)Rapallo
Cyril SCOTT (1879-1970) Tarantula
SHEVA COLLECTION SH056
To be continued...
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