MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


Buy through MusicWeb for £11 postage paid World-Wide.

Sale or Return

Musicweb Purchase button

 

John WHITE (b. 1936)
Piano Sonata No.1 (1956) [10:50]
Piano Sonata No.5 (1959) [10:20]
Piano Sonata No.4 (1959) [14:18]
Piano Sonata No.9 (1960) [6:10]
Alun HODDINOTT (1929–2008)
Piano Sonata No.1 Op.17 (1959) [17:18]
Nocturne No.2 Op.16 No.1 (1959) [4:33]
Piano Sonata No.2 Op.27 (1962) [11:15]
Nocturne No.1 Op.9 (1956) [7:28]
Elegy Op.18 No.3 (1959) [2:45]
Colin Kingsley (White); Valerie Tryon (Hoddinott)
rec. May 1960 (White); November 1962 (Hoddinott)
LYRITA REAM.2108 [41:38 + 43:25]

Experience Classicsonline


 

When I began being earnestly interested in British music, I literally plundered the wonderful Lyrita catalogue with zeal and enthusiasm. Nevertheless, I must admit that I missed some of the earlier LPs, and particularly the ones under review. This was for some very simple reasons. First that John White’s name actually meant nothing at all to me until I realised that he had composed a large amount of piano sonatas - Paul Conway mentions 166 of them - of all sizes. Second, I was mostly attracted then by orchestral music, which is why I did not buy the Hoddinott disc either. I thus welcome this opportunity to make belated acquaintance with them.

White’s Piano Sonata No.1, composed when he was hardly twenty, is a considerable achievement: the writing is remarkably assured and the formal mastery already quite clear. This is especially clear in the final movement: in effect a passacaglia conceived as a concise recapitulation of what has been heard before in the piece. The Piano Sonata No.4 and Piano Sonata No.5 date from 1959. Both are in a single, albeit at times sectional, movement. They are quite different in character. The Fourth Piano Sonata - incidentally the longest here - is almost a suite in disguise falling into six sections. By contrast, the Fifth Sonata is made up of a series of rather disparate episodes without any apparent inner logic: the music proceeds block-like reminding one of late Havergal Brian as rightly suggested by Paul Conway in his as usual excellent notes. I also agree with Mr Conway when he states that the Fifth Sonata is one of the composer’s most enigmatic pieces - although to be quite frank with you, I certainly do not know as much about White’s music as Paul. I found the Fourth Piano Sonata quite enjoyable and readily accessible. The Piano Sonata No.9 is a step forward to the greater concision that characterises some of the later sonatas. In spite of the brevity and compactness of the piece, the music is tightly argued - no mean achievement. The music of these early piano sonatas is still largely indebted to a wide, mid-20th century tradition; and, as such, is eminently accessible, if a bit eclectic. Since then, John White has continued to compose yet more piano sonatas, some of which are available on NMC D038. I really should listen to that disc which contains a selection of the sonatas from No.15 up to No.124 all played by Roger Smalley.

Hoddinott’s piano sonatas are somewhat better known, were it only because commercial recordings of the first ten were released by Nimbus several years ago (Martin Jones on NI5369 and NI5370). After these recordings were made, Hoddinott composed three later sonatas that still await their first recording. However, at the time these Lyrita recordings were made, the works were still fairly new and little known, although John Ogdon had recorded the Second Piano Sonata for EMI on LP: ALP 2098. The Piano Sonata No.1 Op.17 already represents Hoddinott at his most personal and the music clearly displays many characteristic fingerprints that make it immediately recognisable. The Piano Sonata No.2 Op.27 is if anything more mature than its predecessor. However, it is rather more concise and, as a whole, conveys the lasting impression of a composer in full command of his aims and means. The LP also included three shorter piano works that, curiously enough, have, I think, never been recorded since then. Hoddinott has composed a number of works or movements titled nocturne or night music. These include Nocturnes and Cadenzas Op.62 (now re-issued on Lyrita SRCD.332) and Night Music Op.48 (1966, once on ARGO ZRG 824). The fairly early Nocturne No.1 Op.9 was preceded by a yet earlier orchestral work Nocturne Op.5 (1952). The music of the two Nocturnes and of the Elegy Op.18 No.3 speaks for itself and does not call for any particular comment, except to say that each perfectly achieves a maximum of expression with a minimum of means and in a perfectly judged time-span. I should add that the Elegy Op.18 No.3 was later incorporated into a four-movement suite for clavichord or piano.

These performances are, without doubt, excellent, the more so when considering that these players have had a lasting association with both composers and their music. Colin Kingsley gave the first performance of White’s First Piano Sonata and was the dedicatee of the Fourth Piano Sonata as well. He also gave the first performance of Hoddinott’s Second Piano Sonata. Valerie Tryon, too, had a long association with Hoddinott’s music since she premiered a number of his piano works. The sound is still remarkably fine throughout in spite of its age, which says a lot about the quality of Lyrita’s recordings.

In short, this is a most welcome re-issue and is well worth having for the White Sonatas and for the three shorter Hoddinott works of which this is the only available recording.

Hubert Culot

  See also review by Bob Briggs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.