Reviewing John McCabe’s Sonata for clarinet, cello and piano (1969)

The Macclesfield Arts Festival ran from 5th to 25th May 1969. By all estimations it was a major event. Big names in the musical world were legion: John Ogdon, Colin Horsley, Francis Jackson, Johnny Dankworth and Cleo Laine. Equally impressive was the line-up of ensembles, including, the Dolmetsch Ensemble, Foden’s Motor Works Band, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, the Geraint Jones Orchestra and the De Peyer Trio. Major performances were given of Elgar’s Gerontius, Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus and Britten’s Noyes Fludde. Aside from the musical events, there were exhibitions of flower arranging and artwork from Julie Clements, Harold Riley and Austin Wright. Festivalgoers were able to visit the radio telescope at Jodrell Bank and stately homes such as Gawsworth Hall, Capesthorne Hall and Clonterbrook House. One final delight were stagecoach trips to Gawsworth Village. 

Two new works were commissioned by the festival authorities: Alexander Goehr’s Nonomiya for solo piano, and John McCabe’s Sonata for clarinet, cello and piano.

McCabe’s Sonata was premiered at the King’s School Hall, Macclesfield on 22 May 1969. The De Peyer Trio, consisting of Gervase de Peyer, clarinet, William Pleeth, cello and Peter Wallfisch, piano, played Beethoven’s Trio in B flat, op.11 and Brahms’s Trio in A minor, op.114 as well as the McCabe Sonata.

In a major review of this concert, Gerald Larner, (Manchester Guardian, 23 May 1969) wrote that the “Sonata is similar in construction to McCabe’s Movements (and not very different in instrumentation), the Sonata invites comparison to that earlier work, and seems less exciting in the circumstance.” [NOTE: Movements was composed in 1964: it is scored for clarinet, violin and cello. The piece is written in seven short sections and, like the Sonata, is formally a palindrome]. Larner continues: “Although both works are cast in the composer’s favourite palindrome form, the matching outer layers round a central section, they are not intended to have the same effect. Whereas the middle section of Movements contains much impassioned clarinet music, this corresponding section of the Sonata is a more deliberate experiment in sonorities, including McCabe’s first adventure under the piano lid with rubber beaters and fingernails. These sound effects are well imagined, and they come off, as do the sympathetic vibrations of the piano (with dampers raised) to the clarinet’s twelve-note invocations at the beginning and its reflection at the end. They do, however, interrupt the continuity of the work So, while the ear remains fascinated, the emotions are not involved to the extent that they are in the Movements, which seems the more inspired and less self-conscious of the two.”  Larner considered that De Peyer Trio played the work “with complete conviction and, certainly with considerable accomplishment.”  That said, the Beethoven was less satisfactory, with “hard sounds issuing from the clarinettist and his acoustic and personal dominance over the others, but mainly because of the generally unsympathetic and less than skilful treatment of the score.”  On the other hand, the Brahms “made up for most of that” and provides a performance in which there “was much refinement of sound and felicity of phrase in an altogether winning interpretation.”

The score of McCabe’s Sonata (Novello) and his Dance Movements for horn, violon and piano (1967) were reviewed in The Musical Times (February 1973, p.160). Niall O’Loughlin writes that: The work is “carefully planned” and displays “bold canonic writing and irregular rhythms.” Structurally, the “opening clarinet melody provides a point of repose from which the work sets out and to which it returns at the end, as well as melodic material for some of the music. [Learning this Sonata] would be well worth the energies of experienced players.”

Another review of the score was included in Notes (September 1973, p.158f). Jerome Rosen thinks that “much of the harmonic language and instrumental usage of John McCabe's Sonata… is reminiscent of Bartok's Contrasts.” This latter work, for the same instrumentation, was composed in 1938. Based on Rumanian and Hungarian folk-tunes. Yet John McCabe “is sufficiently strong as a composer to be able to take this language and technique and somehow make them his own.” Rosen is impressed by McCabe’s uses of his instrumental resources and considers that the “performers are put to the test as individual virtuosos and as ensemble players.” Stylitically, this critic considers that this “music more of gesture and texture than of exposition and development, yet it adds up to a large-scale form that is both impressive and satisfying. McCabe has a nice ear for coloristic effects which he knows how to get with simple means-e.g., struck piano strings, cello harmonics, and chalumeau register clarinet. Moreover, he uses such effects in meaningful ways rather than as stylish gimmicks.”

Some additional remarks were made by Verity Butler in Landscapes of the Mind: The Music of John McCabe, (Ashgate, 2007, p.83f). She notes that the Sonata “calls for an extremely wide range of dynamic contrasts. Even within the opening improvisatory phrase of the piece the clarinet is required to crescendo from pppp to ff and then diminuendo a niente.”  The Sonata is characterised by “contrasts, employing extremes not only of dynamics, but also of tempi and tessitura.”  Finally, the demanding clarinet part requires “immense control…light quick tongue and fluent finger work…and the essential ability to encompass many varied moods into a coherent musical whole.”

To my knowledge, there are currently only two commercial recordings of McCabe’s Sonata available. In 2012, Guild Records issued Fauvel’s Rondeaux, (GMCD 7369)  which was a retrospective album of McCabe’s chamber music. This included Movements for clarinet, cello and piano (1964/66), Clarinet Quintet “La Donna” (2010/11) and the eponymous work for clarinet, violin and piano (1995/96). The most recent recording was released by Prima Facie (PFNSCD 019) in 2020. This remarkable CD also features John Ireland’s Trio in D minor for clarinet, cello and piano (1913), Kenneth Leighton’s Fantasy on an American Hymn Tune (1975) and Giles Easterbrook’s Trio (2002).

A live performance of John McCabe’s Sonata for clarinet, cello and piano (1969) been uploaded to YouTube. The performers are Linda Merrick, clarinet, Neil Heyde, cello and Aaron Shorr piano. It was recorded in Glasgow at the Stevenson Hall, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.