For me the best thing
about being a reviewer for MusicWeb
is expanding my musical knowledge and
discovering works and performers new
to me. This disc provided all those
elements in spades and has had such
an effect on me that I shall be seeking
out all the chamber compositions written
by these three women.
I feel a personal sense
of shame that I had never heard any
chamber music by Ethel Smyth, only a
string trio by Amy Beach, and, even
worse, that the name of Susan Spain-Dunk
was completely unknown to me. On the
reverse of the liner notes it says that
"Lorelt (Lontano Records Ltd) was
founded in 1992 to record and dispense
throughout the world the work of contemporary
composers, women composers throughout
history, and Latin American composers
from all centuries". A record company
with noble goals then (what a refreshing
change!) and this disc has certainly
done sterling service to these three
women whose music demands to be heard.
One of the first things
that struck me about Ethel Smyth’s String
Quartet in E Minor was how much ahead
of her time this music seems to be.
Written during the years 1902-1912,
the music sounds fresh and belies the
fact that its completion was over 90
years ago and sounds more firmly rooted
in the 20th Century than
one might expect coming from a middle-aged
Victorian lady. She was, however, no
ordinary woman but a feisty, fearless
and extremely determined person who
took what she saw as her responsibilities
extremely seriously. The liner notes,
written by conductor Odaline de la Martinez,
charts Ethel Smyth’s compositional periods
in four distinct sections, placing this
work in the second period (1892-1908).
She notes that Ethel Smyth was able
to "musically jump back in time"
because, though this quartet had such
an unusually long gestation period,
so well integrated are all the movements,
it is not discernible that the last
two were written ten years after the
first two. The period this quartet was
written in was the same as that of "The
Wreckers", probably her most celebrated
and well-known work, apart, of course,
from "Shoulder to shoulder",
the anthem she wrote for the Suffragette
movement, of which she was a stalwart
supporter, made famous again in the
TV series starring Siân Phillips.
The first movement
is a sumptuous feast of interwoven themes
in which the instruments carry on a
dialogue throughout. The second is great
fun, full of invention, beginning with
a cheeky-sounding tune played with much
plucking of the violin, whilst the other
quartet members playfully orbit around
it. The slow movement is lush and gorgeous,
extremely soulful and profound. The
final movement, marked Allegro Energico,
is just that – lively, full of interest,
with memorable tunes.
I have rarely heard
a chamber work that was completely new
to me that has grabbed my attention
so immediately and kept my interest
so completely.
Amy Marcey Cheney Beach
was a child prodigy, whose musical education
began in earnest at 8 years of age,
following public concerts she had undertaken
at 7. One of her mentors was Dr. Henry
Beach who she married at 18, the age
at which she made her debut with the
Boston Symphony Orchestra. As was often
the case with women at the time, her
husband, 23 years her senior, discouraged
further public performances and, instead,
directed her energies into composing.
Luckily for us at least Amy spent the
next several years teaching herself
composition, and from 1885 to 1910,
when her husband died, she wrote several
of her major works, and many songs.
Her Mass in E Flat, Piano Concerto and
Symphony Op.32 come from this period.
Later she went to Europe to re-launch
her performing career and to promote
her compositions. She spent three years
there until the outbreak of the First
World War forced her home again. The
String Quartet, Op.89 was written in
1929 and is cast in one movement, though
with four distinct tempo settings. It
opens with a very serious melody that
sounds as if it begins in the middle
of a phrase. The first few bars put
me very much in mind of Shostakovich’s
quartet writing, with thick melodic
lines with sad undertones. The music
then moves into a more lively mood,
introducing new themes, rather than
resolving the opening ones. Amongst
these there are one or two that reappear
throughout the rest of the work and
I wondered if they were connected with
the three Inuit themes the liner note
says she quotes. The music then becomes
more serious again and ends, as it began,
with a section marked ‘grave’ and sounding
as if it were mid phrase as it did at
the start. The whole work is an extremely
satisfying whole and the melodies linger
in the mind for a long time after the
listening is over.
When I read the names
of the three composers on this disc
and noted that Susan Spain-Dunk was
a completely unknown name to me I put
it down to the probable fact that, no
doubt (especially with such a name)
like Amy Beach, she’d also be American.
I reasoned that since there are so many
American composers I have never heard
of, I could feel a little less ashamed
at my ignorance. Well, as I read in
the liner notes that explanation was
eliminated, because to my surprise I
discovered she was born in Folkestone!
Her Phantasy Quartet,
as with Beach’s, is in one movement,
but again with four different tempo
markings, beginning with a particularly
forceful opening that is animated and
serious but which soon becomes calm
and lyrical with themes that stay in
the memory. These themes are then manipulated
and the work ends with a return to the
slow theme that develops after the quartet’s
opening.
Once again I was struck
by how beautiful a work this was and
angry that music by such composers is
all but unknown to us. At the same time
the core repertoire is recorded over
and over again by major record companies
that put profits far and away above
the exploration and dissemination of
works by people such as those represented
on this disc. If they felt at all responsible
they could spend some of their profits
exploring the byways of music rather
than continually raiding their own back
catalogues and churning out yet more
compilation discs. Thank God for companies
such as Lontano Records – I hope their
resolve to devote much of their energy
in promoting women composers throughout
history is successful and that sales
encourage others to follow suit. I was
glad to read that at least Ethel Smyth
was recently featured as ‘Composer of
the Week’ on Radio 3 and hope that that
will encourage listeners to buy this
record, especially since this very recording
of her quartet was broadcast.
The Archaeus Quartet,
made up of three women and a man, are
superb in their musicianship and clearly
love the music, and their obvious enthusiasm
for it shines through. I cannot remember
a record I’ve enjoyed more this year
or one I felt compelled to listen to
time after time – a fabulous disc!
Steve Arloff
Archaeus
Quartet: Anne Hooley: Violin, Bridget Davey: Violin,
Elizabeth Turnbull: Viola, Martin Thomas: Cello