Originally released
on CDA66853 Hyperion now release this
Ireland disc on their £6.99 Helios label.
Adding low cost to quality performances
makes the recommendation doubly tempting
but the Ireland admirer will know that
there are other recordings of the sonatas
that offer considerable rewards. How
does this 1995 disc shape up?
The A minor is one
of the great British Violin Sonatas
and has received a number of sporadic
recordings over the years. Barritt and
Edwards have been accorded typically
sumptuous sound; warm, full of depth
and clarity. The balance is well judged
albeit there were one or two moments
in the more strenuous chordal passages
when I felt that Edwards overpowered
Barritt. Catherine Edwards emphasises
the rather broken piano rhetoric at
the start of the opening movement adding
little caesuri along the way. Barritt’s
tone is firmly centred though not opulent
and he and his partner certainly give
rein to the eruptive passions and fissures
that lie at the sonata’s core. Some
of the lyric sections, maybe as a result,
are not quite eased into as they might
be. A rival recording by Mordkovitch
and Brown (in a Chandos set of the complete
chamber music) is more leisurely and
lacks fire. On Vienna Modern Masters
the English violinist Michael Davis
(American domiciled, not the ex-leader
of the BBC Symphony) joins with the
American pianist Nelson Harper. Their
performance is more narrowly and boxily
recorded but they bring a fervent intensity
to the music – and Davis builds up tension
at the end of the first movement with
a craggy cumulative power. He also possesses
a wider range of tone colour and resources
than Barritt and isn’t afraid to employ
them.
I liked the husky quality
– a mixture of frailty and intimacy
– that Barritt utilises in the second
movement’s opening paragraphs but he’s
equally quite direct and fast. Talking
of fast it’s best to discount the outrageously
motoric recording of this sonata by
Oliver Lewis and Jeremy Filsell on Guild,
which is coupled with sonatas by Ferguson
and Goossens. This is one flashy look-at-me
reading you should avoid. I must say
that Davis is more aggressive than Barritt
and tints more suggestively; the bell
peals sound rather more prosaic in the
Hyperion traversal as well, even though
this is the recording on which one can
hear an almost unparalleled amount of
piano detail. The famous cantilena at
the heart of this movement is never
quite "there" though and whilst
the finale is full of brio and is taken
at a good, firm clip the final impression
is of something missing.
The earlier sonata
sees some competition from a newly released
Daniel Hope - John McCabe recording
on ASV (with Lloyd-Webber’s reissued
Cello Sonata and the later Piano Trio).
Here the Barritt-Edwards pairing doesn’t
sound as eager or as "flighted"
as others on disc (Alan Loveday/Leonard
Cassini or Neaman/Parkin from the days
of LP for instance). Barritt has to
cede somewhat to Davis’s control of
the rhetoric here as he does in the
slow movement where Barritt compromises
his legato through little infractions
of the line. He takes a different perspective
to Hope who employs a rapt simplicity.
Elsewhere Hope is never afraid to coarsen
his tone for proper musico-dramatic
effect. Throughout I felt that Barritt
and Edwards didn’t quite trust Ireland
enough and weren’t content simply to
unfold melodic lines.
As a welcome bonus
we have some early Ireland morceaux,
very persuasively played. The Berceuse
gives off a Brahmsian glow whilst the
Cavatina hints more at Elgar’s Salut
d’amour. I enjoyed the Bagatelle and
was surprised to find that this arrangement
of The Holy Boy wasn’t published.
Recommendations for
the sonatas; I’ve not mentioned the
Dutton release where Ireland plays both
works, the first with Grinke, the second
with Sammons. Unless you are addicted
to DDD this is obviously a necessary
purchase. They also happen to be the
best performances on record. Otherwise
you have a quandary. Hyperion has better
sound than Vienna Modern Masters but
I prefer Davis and Harper to Barritt
and Edwards. They get more to the heart
of both works and do so more expressively.
Hope is fearless in I; Mordkovitch tends
to be rather too relaxed in both. If
you hadn’t heard other performances
you would do well by the Hyperion pairing.
They do nothing wrong; they play sensitively
and well and are superbly recorded.
But I would prefer Hope in 1 and Davis
in 2. Not much of a recommendation I
know, so my cost-cutting Gordian knot
recommendation is to go to the source
and pick up the Dutton with its two
historic performances coupled with the
Phantasie Trio. And then perhaps the
BBC might like to dust off their Eda
Kersey-Kathleen Long 1944 broadcast
of Sonata No.2 and add that to the mix
– or could Dutton itself do the honours,
adding Arthur Catterall’s Bantock sonata
recording.
Jonathan Woolf
Paul Barritt (violin) 
