Christian Darnton: Piano Concerto in C major

This composer was an unknown quantity to me, and I imagine for many other listeners as well. However, the Piano Concertino in C Major is a fine example of the genre. It was written in 1948 for the South African pianist Adolf Hallis. In fact, it was premiered in Durban on 19 April the following year.

Christian Darnton (1905-81) was a British composer whose early promise and privileged upbringing sparked both admiration and controversy. Born into a wealthy family of Spanish Netherlands by way of German descent. He took lessons from Frederick Corder at the Brighton School of Music, and at the Matthay School in London under Harold Craxton. Going up to Cambridge he studied composition with Harry Farjeon and Benjamin Dale. He had private lessons with Charles Wood and Cyril Rootham as well as time spent in Berlin under the auspices of Max Bunting.

Darnton’s catalogue includes four symphonies, a Concerto for Orchestra, two violin concertos, four string quartets and several film scores. His music, often chromatic and modernist - even avant-garde - drew attention in the 1920s, notably through a concert (30 March 1927) financed by his parents that alienated some critics. After his conversion to Communism, his style became simpler and more diatonic. Sadly, with the exception of the present piece, all this music remains unrecorded.

The Concertino is quite a short work, and this is its key fault. There seems to be a little bit of a stylistic imbalance between quite ‘elegant’ and occasionally even ‘dreamy’ music and the harder edged neo-classicism of Stravinsky. For example, the first movement, Allegro molto moderato, vacillates between these two contrasting styles, and the disparity is too great for an effective balance. Again, the contrasts in the middle movement, Andante, are extreme. There is a whiff of Britten about the outer sections whilst the middle ‘eight’ nods to the Warsaw Concerto in its ‘heart on sleeve’ romanticism. The finale, a Presto con disinvoltura (ease), is a good example of neo-classical or even Baroque fun. There are moments when Malcolm Arnold seems about to break through. 

Andrew Plant, in his dissertation about Darnton, notes that that the outer movements “positively bristle with technical challenges, including double octaves, sweeping Rachmaninovian chordal leaps, chains of thirds, contrary-motion, arpeggios, reiterated notes, trills and prestissimo scales.”

I reiterate my contention that this Concertino is far too short. There is a wealth of interesting material that could have been developed into a major work.

The score was published by Lengnick in 1950, in an arrangement for two pianos.

Darnton’s Concertino was released in 2005 on the Naxos label (8.557290), featured alongside Alec Rowley’s Concerto in D major for piano, strings and percussion, op. 49 (c.1938), Roberto Gerhard’s Concerto for Piano and Strings (1961), and Howard Ferguson’s Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra, op. 12 (1951). Peter Donohoe served as both pianist and conductor, performing with the Northern Sinfonia.

Listen to Donohoe playing Christian Darnton’s Piano Concerto in C Major on YouTube. It is in three videos – First movement: Allegro molto moderato;  Second Movement: Andante and Third Movement:  Presto con disinvoltura