This excellent CD fills several
little gaps in the British musical repertoire for cello and piano. I am not
suggesting that all these works cannot be found on other discs, downloads,
uploads and vinyl. What is important is to have these minor masterpieces all in
one place. Add to that, the committed performances of these pieces, the
succinct liner notes and the splendid sound quality and you have an ideal disc
for enthusiasts of both cello music and this group of pre-eminent late 19th/early
20th century British composers.
I explored these works in
chronological order rather than by composer.
Despite the liner notes’
statement that Frederick Delius’s Romance for cello and piano was composed in
1918, when he was hard at work on the opera Koanga,
I beg to suggest that this dating is wrong. For starters, Delius was working on
this opera between 1895 and 1897. Secondly, I followed the score of the ‘Romance’
in the Frederick Delius Complete Works
edition, Volume 31c. Robert Threlfall gives the date of this Romance as 1896.
It was published posthumously in 1976. So, the Koanga connection is correct but the date is manifestly wrong.
Whatever the dating of this piece,
it is a little bit of Delius that is largely untypical of his later works. It
is both ‘winsome’ and ‘charming’ but sometimes displaying something a little
more troubled.
Other early pieces are the ‘Romance’
by Sir Edward Elgar and the ‘Cradle Song’ by Frank Bridge. Elgar originally wrote his ‘Romance’ for
bassoon and orchestra in 1910. In the same year, it was published in a version
for bassoon and piano. I am guessing that the version played here was made by
Julian Lloyd Webber in 1985. Like so much music by Elgar, the typically warm, romantic
sound of this work has a melancholic undertow.
The same year saw the Cradle Song by Frank Bridge. Ostensibly
a ‘salon’ piece this beautiful short work evokes sadness and provides a glimpse
of the composer’s ‘impressionistic’ style, soon to blossom forth in the
remarkable tone poem The Sea. The
other Bridge piece on this CD is the equally evocative ‘Spring Song’ arranged
to be played by either violin or cello: it was dedicated to the composer’s
pupil Cynthia Lubbock. Do not let the relative technical ease of the solo part
detract from the ‘Elgarian’ wistfulness clearly displayed in this Song.
The most substantial work on this
CD is Arnold Bax’s splendid Folk Tale.
This piece was written at the conclusion of the Great War. The liner notes
major on the impact of W.B. Yeats and the Celtic Revival on Bax’s music.
Perhaps the inference is that the composer was writing a forlorn commentary on
the events in Dublin during the Easter Rising of 1916? Interestingly, the work
was written in same year that the composer left his wife Elsita Sobrino for
Harriet Cohen. Yet I think the mood of this work is ‘Northern’. It is redolent
of the much later orchestral tone-poem The
Tale the Pine-Trees Knew (1931) with its dark colourings. Sibelius may be
the musical inspiration in this Folk Tale,
rather than the Free-State? Whatever the background, this is not a bucolic folk
song, but ‘a tragic and melancholy reflection on Bax’s life and the world he
found himself in’- both politically and emotionally.
Folk Tale for cello and piano was dedicated to Felix Salmond, who
along with the composer gave the work its premiere in 1918.
I have always
enjoyed listening to RVWs Six Studies in
English Folk Song written in 1926. I have very happy memories of playing
the piano part for a cellist now sadly dead. They seem to me to epitomise the
subtle balance between the ‘innocence’ of the base material and its subtle
reworking by Vaughan Williams. All the songs were collected by the composer ‘in
the field’. The success of these studies is heightened by their
conciseness and brevity. For me, the most beautiful (and memorable)
number is the second song- ‘Spurn Point’- it is a surprisingly concentrated
little piece that is utterly heart-breaking in its impact.
They have been ‘dished up’ in
many guises with the solo part played by violin, clarinet or cello. There is
also a version for cello and small orchestra arranged by Arnold Foster in 1957.
The present version the Six Studies
original incarnation.
Frederick Delius wrote his
‘Caprice’ and ‘Elegy’ for cello and piano during the last years of his life. He
was assisted by his amanuensis Eric Fenby. Both were originally devised for
cello and a chamber orchestra and are dedicated to the prominent cellist
Beatrice Harrison. My thoughts about the ‘Caprice’ is that it is wrongly titled.
It is hardly ‘capricious’ in its exposition; more of a subdued, meditative
romance. Equally dark in mood is the ‘Elegy’ which is quite a complex little
piece that balances two troubled melodies.
RVWs Fantasia on Greensleeves
needs no introduction. Originally lifted from the composer’s opera Sir John in Love (1929) by Ralph Greaves
in 1934, it has been arranged by several hands for various instrumental
combinations including string orchestra with harp and optional flutes, piano
solo, violin and piano and the present version for cello and piano. This latter
was arranged by Scottish violist Watson Forbes in 1947.
My ultimate Desert Island Disc is
E.J. Moeran’s Cello Concerto dating from 1945. It was dedicated to Peers
Coetmore. They had been wed in that year, but alas, their marriage was not a great
success. They were to a large extent incompatible: Moeran often need to escape
into solitude and Coetmore had the pressures of a busy concert schedule. The ‘Prelude’
was the first piece that he dedicated to Peers. It was composed in 1943 and was
presented to her before she went on a concert tour with ENSA. It is a beautiful
tear-jerking tune, supported by a simple, but ultimately effective accompaniment.
It surely reflects Moeran’s deep feelings towards his wife. The ‘Prelude’s’
first performance was in Alexandria in Egypt.
The Irish Lament is a much more powerful work based on a genuine Irish
folk tune: ‘Johnny Asthore’. I am not sure that I have heard this piece before,
although I have read the score. More complex than the Prelude, the piano part
echoes the composer’s Irish Love Song
for piano solo. Notwithstanding this self-borrowing, this a gorgeous elegy for
cello and piano which once again seems to speak volumes about Moeran’s love for
Peers Coetmore and possibly the realisation of the ultimate end of the
relationship.
This is a thoroughly enjoyable album
that is exceptionally well-played by Gerald Peregrine (cello) and Antony Ingham
(piano). The liner notes are concise and informative, despite the misdating of
the Delius ‘Romance’. And finally, for my point of view the CD is worth the
price just to have a recording of Jack Moeran’s Irish Lament.
Track Listing:
Ralph Vaughan WILLIAMS
(1972-1958) Six Studies in English Folk Song (1926)
Frank BRIDGE (1879-1941)
Four Short Pieces for violin and piano: no.2 ‘Spring Song’ (1912)
E. J. MOERAN (1894-1950)
Irish Lament (1944)
Edward ELGAR (1852-1934)
Romance (version for cello and piano), op.62 (1910)
Frederick DELIUS (1862-1934)
Caprice (1930), Elegy (1930)
Arnold BAX (1883-1953)
Folk Tale (1918)
E.J. MOERAN Prelude
for cello and piano (1943)
Frederick DELIUS Romance
for cello and piano (1896)
Frank BRIDGE Cradle
Song for cello and piano (1910)
Ralph VAUGHAN
WILLIAMS, Fantasia on Greensleeves (1934/47) (arr. Ralph GREAVES/Watson FORBES)
Gerald Peregrine (cello), Antony Ingham (piano)
Rec. Potton Hall, Suffolk, 19-20 February, 10 July 2018
NAXOS 8.574035
[54:26]
With thanks to MusicWeb International where this review was first published.
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