Here’s a quartet of British concertante-cum-concertos
written between 1936 and 1951. Three,
moreover, are premiere recordings, though
close listeners to Radio 3 will remember
there have been several broadcasts of
the Wallfisch’s Haydn Wood with the
Ulster Orchestra. Librarian-collectors
will doubtless have filed that one away
under Concertante-Orchestral (British
C20) or some other combination. Which
brings us back to bulky nomenclature
and this disc.
Murrill’s 1951 Concerto,
his second, was dedicated to Casals
and enshrines some fine Spanishry amidst
its quarter hour length. It opens in
Bachian fashion, another specific link
to Casals, much in the same way Ysaÿe
enshrined some favourite Bach in the
solo violin sonata he dedicated to Thibaud.
Murrill makes demands in alt
as well as a mini cadenza before moving
to more explicit Spanish rhythms, employing
tremolo and introducing Casals’
own Song of the Birds – heard first
on the winds.The heart of the work is
the Andante section where noble writing
for the cello’s middle register fuses
with beautifully - and acutely–judged
writing for the orchestral strings.
From 11.30 we have more evocation of
a Spanish bolero.
Dyson’s Prelude, Fantasy
and Chaconne (1936) has never been recorded
in toto in this form. This is a fine
work, though one in the Prelude at least,
audibly indebted to Delius. There’s
a dreamy stasis here which is gripping
in its quiet intensity and from seven
minutes on a strongly Delian introspection.
Dyson’s scoring in the Fantasy is charmingly
and appositely light and the solo line
is both capricious and whimsically vibrant.
The Chaconne draws on nobler hues, rears
up but ends with a certain degree of
elliptical distance.
Rubbra’s Soliloquy
is the best known of this quartet. The
de Saram version is around as is a subfusc
but intense Du Pré on Cello Classics
(live). Handley and Wallfisch keep a
close eye on architecture here, not
allowing it in any way to sprawl. This
is a cogent, compact reading, alive
and tensely argued. There’s no slacking
for the lyric sections as there can
be with Du Pré. This is a recording
that provides real spine as well as
intensity of expression.
It’s good to welcome
Wallfisch’s Haydn Wood in all its Elgarian-Tchaikovskian
splendour. The blend of lighter French
influences is here as well, as it was
of course in Elgar but the temperature
is always equable. There’s plenty of
pert humour and indeed a tongue-in-cheek
fugue as we come to the close.
The recording has plenty
of bloom to it and the star, Wallfisch,
plays with considerable distinction,
seconded by Handley. Notes are by Lewis
Foreman and up to his standard. Listen
to this alongside Cello Classics’ release
of British Cellists’ recordings and
you’ll get a strong picture of healthy
cellistic life in composition and execution.
Jonathan Woolf
see also review
by Rob Barnett
Raphael Wallfisch (cello) 
