The
composer York Bowen was something of a discographic pioneer.
A fine pianist he left a number of recordings, of which
this APR disc constitutes the entirety of the solo piano
recordings on 78. APR have phrased it thus because he recorded
the Brahms Trio for piano, violin and horn with colleagues
Spencer Dyke and Aubrey Brain. I’ve got that on NGS 78s
and it’s a fine achievement though it also emerged on an
LP transfer and Andrew Rose has issued it in his ongoing
gargantuan compendium of National Gramophonic Society releases
on Pristine Audio. Bowen also recorded for Lyrita, recordings
which have recently been reissued
and
reviewed here. A live broadcast of Bowen essaying
his own Fourth Concerto with Boult in 1937 also circulates
among collectors.
Talking of Fourth Piano
Concertos Bowen’s was the first recording of Beethoven’s
G major. As with almost all these discs the undertaking
was English Vocalion’s. The conductor was Stanley Chapple,
a leading force in the company at the time, one who conducted
and accompanied for soloists, sometimes I should think
anonymously. The orchestra is quite small and as was de
rigeur it was beefed up with bass stiffening – brass basses – to
amplify lower frequencies. Bowen’s playing is light and
fluid. His two cadenzas will not be to our tastes necessarily – indeed
they were not to contemporary taste either and there’s
a huffing and puffing critique reprinted in the booklet
notes to that effect. But the harmonic drift to Chopin
is certainly novel. The slow movement is pliant not metaphysical.
In the finale Chapple gets a touch bogged down but otherwise
this is a splendid survival, recorded by the late acoustic
process so necessarily rather constricted.
There
are two disc’s worth of Bowen the pianist in this well
filled set and plenty to arrest the imagination. Let me
first of all congratulate APR for having tracked down the
AFMC disc recorded c.1923 and quite rare. And even more
so for having traced the single Marathon side that Bowen
recorded c.1914 - one that I didn’t know about. This was
a coupling of Mendelssohn and Schütt, lighter fare that
suited Bowen’s flexible elegance perfectly. The copies
are a little worn but they are rare. We have a solitary
example of Bach and it sounds in good estate and some more
Beethoven. My own copy of the Op.78 sonata is rather rough
as are, I suspect, most copies. Ward Marston has exercised
his usual expertise on these tracks and effected very enjoyable
and moreover listenable transfers, though occasionally
he’s had to suppress some room ambience (it’s there in
Op.78 for instance, recorded in 1927 electrically). Mention
of electrical recording reminds one of the inferior Marconi
process Vocalion employed, by which time Western Electric
was dominating. Sometimes in fact late acoustic Vocalions
are better than their early electrics; more than sometimes
actually. Bowen’s Schumann is bold and straightforward
stylistically. He also essays the work of a younger contemporary,
the violinist-pianist-occasional composer Peggy Cochrane.
She recorded for Broadcast as a fiddler. Her
Le Ruisseau is
a pleasing confection, deftly played.
The
Chopin series that dominates the second disc introduces
us to stronger musical meat. He proves a robust, unselfconscious
and unmannered Chopin player. Once again the Marconi electrics
are serviceable in catching his tonal qualities. The Third
Ballade and Second Scherzo in particular are major statements
of Bowen’s interpretative insight. He plays Rachmaninoff
especially well – the G minor Prelude is stirring – and
given the appellation of the ‘English Rachmaninoff’ that’s
of some interest perhaps, even if you don’t accept the
premise in the first place or in its entirety. And he
digs into Debussy as well playing
Jardins sous la pluie and
the Arabesque No.2 with insight. Balfour Gardiner’s two
little pieces are light and are less well recorded – those
damned Marconi electrics again – but we end with a sequence
of Bowen’s own things. Again these are light so don’t expect
the ‘deep’ stuff. We even hear him introduce a couple of
the Fragments from Hans Andersen Op.58. If you think he
sounds a touch drawly then you should hear Vocalion’s 1920-22
reciter, who filled earlier records with a single side
of ‘explanatory notes’ in a voice that would have made
Donald Wolfit blush.
With
first rate and extensive discographic information and Jonathan
Summer’s well-crafted and helpful notes this is an important
contribution to the history of the piano on record.
Jonathan Woolf
York Bowen
(piano) 
