Introducing William Hurlstone Part II ‘The Recorded Legacy’

While the recorded legacy of William Hurlstone remains comparatively scarce, a reflection of a career tragically cut short, several specialist labels has ensured his most significant works remain accessible. This overview highlights key milestones in his discography, though it does not claim to be a comprehensive catalogue.

One of the earliest documented fragments of Hurlstone on record appears to be the "Intermezzo" from the Four Characteristic Pieces for Clarinet and Piano (1899). Performed by the celebrated clarinettist Thea King and pianist Thomas McIntosh, this track was included on a 1972 sampler entitled What Good is Recorded Sound? (Discourses ABC9), which showcased a diverse array of repertoire and performers.

A significant turning point arrived in 1979 when the Lyrita label issued the first album dedicated entirely to Hurlstone’s output. This landmark release (SRCS.100/SRCD.2286) featured the Piano Concerto and the Variations on a Swedish Air, with soloist Eric Parkin and the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Braithwaite. Lyrita further championed Hurlstone’s orchestral voice with a subsequent collection featuring the Variations on an Original Theme, The Magic Mirror, and the Variations on a Hungarian Air, once again featuring Braithwaite and the London Philharmonic (SRCD.208).

The chamber music has seen a steady, if gradual, accumulation of recordings. In 1981, Thea King returned to the Four Characteristic Pieces, this time accompanied by Clifford Benson for the Hyperion label (A66014), a program that contextualized Hurlstone alongside peers like Stanford, Ferguson, and Finzi. Two years later, the Tunnell Piano Quartet explored the larger-scale chamber forms with the Piano Trio in G and the Piano Quartet in E minor for Lyrita (SRCS.117/SRCD.2286). The Cello Sonata in D has also fared well; after an early 1986 recording by Charles and Susan Tunnell on the Bravura label (BVA 8621), the work received notable modern treatments from Andrew Fuller and Michael Dussek on Dutton Epoch (CDLX7102) and Lionel Handy and Jennifer Walsh on Lyrita (SRCD441).

The twenty-first century has brought a renewed focus on Hurlstone’s keyboard music. In 2010, Mark Bebbington released the premiere recording of the Piano Sonata on the Somm label (SOMMCD 097), pairing it with the massive D minor Sonata by Benjamin Dale. This was followed in 2016 by a more exhaustive undertaking from Kenji Fujimura, whose "Complete Piano Music" on Toccata Classics (TOCC 0289) provided the most thorough look at Hurlstone's solo output to date.

Hurlstone’s Bassoon Sonata has become a staple of the recorded wind repertoire, with fine versions available from soloists like Peter Musson on Continuum (CDD1079), and Daniel Smith on ASV (CD DCA 535). These releases along with the Phantasie for String Quartet on EM Records continue to flesh out the portrait of a composer whose potential was as immense as his life was short.

If you can only hear one CD…

This is a little bit of a cheat. It must be Lyrita’s remastered double CD release in 2007 of the above-mentioned albums (SRCD.2286). This allows the listener to hear two major orchestra works as well as two important pieces of chamber music.

The Concerto for Pianoforte in D major (1895) was a significant student composition that stands the test of time. It used Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No.2 (1868) as a model. Listeners will discover nods towards Schumann, Brahms, Grieg and even Rachmaninov in these pages. Described in The Era (14 December 1895) as being “clever, melodious and agreeable” It contains “many brilliant and effective passages” for piano as well as there being much to admire in the orchestral accompaniments.

The Musical Times (October 1910) reported on the Variations on a Swedish Air which is “significant [for] the freedom of treatment adopted by the composer in this work. The subject theme is not so much a pedestal to a statue as a life-giving vein to living flesh, visible here and there. It is plainly traceable in the first few variations but is then lost to view while the composer is concerned with elaborating his own accompaniments and incidental ideas. Later it again becomes recognisable as snatches of it are brought into prominence, sometimes with vehemence and sometimes with delicate fancy. The statement of the simple and ingenuous theme is preceded by a weighty introduction, which foreshadows much of the independent material of the later movements. The high faculties of the composer, well-known through the medium of his chamber music, did not abandon him when he penned this composition. His resources are handled with mastery: the effect is there not for effect's sake, and, as usual, romance and beauty capture the senses while a characteristic academic flavour earns our esteem.”

Once again the Musical Times (January 1905) gave a good description of the Quartet in E minor for violin, viola, cello, and pianoforte (c.1904): “This opens with a robust theme, which is vigorously and tersely developed until the movement ends with a stormy Coda. The ‘Andante’ cantabile possesses charm of a tranquil kind, and the third number, ‘Vivace non troppo,’ has the light-heartedness of an Irish jig, and Irish idiom is still more apparent in a central section. The Finale is also full of verve, and the work, if making no pretensions to greatness, is decidedly pleasant.”

Finally, the Piano Trio in G major offers a sense of pure radiance. Spread across four movements, it balances a genial opening with a rhythmic vitality that keeps the music moving. A satisfactory adjective is “charming.” Rob Barnett at MusicWeb International has noted “a lilting Brahmsian embrace with an affectingly sentimental ‘Andante’ which serves as a prelude to a spring heel Dvořákian ‘Molto vivace’ and an uncloudedly happy Allegro comodo. Once again Hurlstone introduces and element of folk music. This time it is a Scottish melody that is heard in the finale as the “second subject.”  

Finally, if you can only listen to one work…

This is a difficult choice. Some would insist on the Piano Concerto; others may plump for the Magic Mirror Suite. I could be tempted by the Piano Sonata. However, I suggest the Phantasie Quartet for two violins, viola, and cello.

This holds significant historical weight as the winner of the inaugural Walter Willson Cobbett Competition held in 1905. This was the event that effectively created the "Phantasy" genre. This single-movement, through-composed form would become a hallmark of early 20th-century British chamber music. A fine edition of this work is included on the Bridge Quartet’ survey of the English Phantasy (EM Records EM CD025).

Beyond its historical status, Hurlstone’s Phantasie Quartet is remarkable for how much it compresses into its eight-minute duration: lyricism, rhythmic vitality, and masterful contrapuntal skill. As C. Twigg noted, (Liner notes) it is by “turns lyrical and dramatic, but also witty and playful.” The opening presents a haunting modal theme with a deeply "English" quality that foreshadows English pastoralism.

The Phantasie Quartet is also available on Cobbett's Legacy: The New Cobbett Prize for Chamber Music, Resonus Classics RES10243, with the Berkeley Ensemble.