This is a DISCOVERY and I urge you to hear this CD! Lionel Sainsbury’s
violin concerto was knowingly and brilliantly played by Lorraine McAslan
during BBC ‘Fairest Isle’ year 1995. The icing was taken off the
cake by the concerto being broadcast in the morning during the working week.
The concerto is lambent, melodious, inspirational - alternating drama and
poetry. It is a big work playing 38 minutes. Style parallels include the
Walton violin concerto although it is no mere facsimile of that work and
comes across as a fresh work with a long life if only it can get more attention,
broadcasts and performance.
The Preludes are a peppery mix of Mayerl, Gershwin, Ireland, Rachmaninov
and de Falla. The Iberian vein is a strong one and while you expect it in
the delightful Hispanic-named fantasies (and the varied suite) it also catches
you in the second and sixth preludes. Brilliant sunshine, dense black shadows,
clangorous pealing ‘wrong-notes’ and a Moorish turn to the tunes.
The Gershwin and Mayerl echoes appear in preludes 3-5, the last of which
has that beguiling, smoke-festooned, romantic atmosphere of a restaurant
at 3.00 a.m. Ireland and Bax are suggested at least superficially by the
third and eight preludes. The grandeur of Sainsbury’s writing is extremely
impressive (try the opening and closing preludes). The final prelude is
ultra-romantic, insistent, memorable and vibrant with an intense energy.
I had to play that track time and again. It has something of the drastic
dark pulsing energy of Rachmaninov’s Etudes-Tableaux as well
as the feverish jazzy glow of Walton’s still desperately underestimated
Sinfonia Concertante. Tremendous! I do hope that this music comes
to the attention of Eric Parkin, Phillip Dyson and Jack Gibbons. They will
find it irresistible and so will you.
Reviewer
Rob Barnett
and a further point of view from Colin Scott-Sutherland
If one were dipping into this intriguing CD at random the temptation might
be to put the music on and let it drift as charming picture-postcard background
music. Such superficial thoughts are quickly dispelled. This is music of
character, and with its ‘heart-on-sleeve’ insistence on exotic
Iberian rhythms (easily repetitive in less persuasive hands) the music quickly
captivates, and is played with crisp energy by the composer on a disc of
excellent quality. Here may be all the elements of pop/jazz, coloured by
the exotic rhythms of the southern Mediterranean (and beyond, something of
the primitivism of the southern Americas) but they are elevated, in this
richly decorative music, to the level of classical formulae. Apart from the
obvious allegiances (and the Andalusian ambience which, I suggest, is that
of the native landscapes of Nerja and Ronda rather than the cheap trippery
of Fuengirola,) the principal names that this music calls to mind for me
are, on the one hand, Mompou and on the other Gershwin - while in between,
I fancy, might be the virtuosic Creole Gottschalk, with even a little of
Villa Lobos.
Both Fantasies - Cuban and Andalusian - are virtuosic, kaleidoscopic in their
colourful patterns whose immediately appealing rhythms and melodies share
the best of both worlds, classical and popular, stylish, compelling foot-tapping
evocations of the warm-blooded characteristic rhythms of Spain and of Cuba
- with darker-hued nocturnal episodes, redolent of nights in gardens where
one can almost smel! the heady perfume of exotic blooms. Between these two
works is a dark Nocturne, as rhapsodic as ‘The Maiden and the
Nightingale’, whose incandescent climax is as passionate as any Spaniard
could wish.
Framing these two works are two sets of shorter pieces. The first, a set
of twelve Preludes, improvisatory exercises in piano sonorities, richly varied
in style. One senses something Scriabinesque, certainly in the darker moments
- but lighter moments prevail - and in the 4th Prelude one can scarcely refrain
from humming ‘It aint necessarily so’!! There are many delights
- in the wistful little tune of the 7th’s poco lento, and the amiable
andante semplice swing-song of the 10th. The other set is entitled South
American Suite - a pot-pourri of dance rhythms, opening with a genial Promenade
whose little melody lingers long in the mind. In contrast both Saudade and
Rumba have a melancholy air, but are followed by a love song and a thoroughly
virtuosic evocation of Spain with some brilliantly executed florid decoration.
This set, with the orgiastic Bacchanale which concludes, is colourful enough
to win many friends.
The sleeve tells us little enough of this interesting composer - a Guildhall
scholar and winner of the Mendelssohn scholarship at the age ot 21. But many
will recall the broadcast of his impressive Violin Concerto, given on Radio
3 by Lorraine McAslan and the BBC Concert Orchestra under Barry Wordsworth,
on March 10th 1995. This Concerto is a vibrantly beautiful work by this
Wiltshire-born composer. It would be good to hear more.
Reviewer
Colin Scott-Sutherland
Lionel Sainsbury
(piano)
