Paul Driver’s excellent
notes give a few useful indications
concerning the various inspirational
factors that ultimately brought Holloway’s
Violin Concerto to completion.
The piece was partly inspired by the
Tiffany windows of the poet John Ashbury’s
mansion in New York as well as by Rilke’s
cycle of French poems Les Fenêtres
and – to a certain extent – by a song
of Fauré, Le Parfum. The
most important thing, however, is –
and must be – the music which finally
transcends whatever may have given birth
to it. In this respect, Holloway’s Violin
Concerto (dedicated to John Ashbury)
is an unquestionable success. This substantial
work is a beautifully, often subtly,
scored and warmly lyrical piece of music
that compares most favourably with some
of the finest violin concertos written
in the second half of the 20th
century. I cannot but wonder why it
is still so rarely heard. Well, yes,
the solo part is quite demanding and
often taxing, but it has very little
of the vain "violin pyrotechnics"
that sometimes disfigure similar pieces.
I hope that the present re-issue will
have violinists considering this marvellous
piece of music as a most rewarding alternative
to the few 20th century violin
war horses (Berg, Bartók and
Prokofiev).
The Horn Concerto
is a slightly earlier work, completed
in 1980 but first performed in its present
form in 1988. In fact, this was first
issued as two separate works: Sonata
Op.43a (first movement) and
Adagio and Rondo Op.43b
(second and third movements). The soloist
of the first ‘complete’ performance
was Barry Tuckwell (who else?) who is
also the soloist here. (By the way,
when will his recording of Banks’s Horn
Concerto be re-issued?) Formally speaking,
the Horn Concerto is much simpler than
the Violin Concerto, and roughly adheres
to the fairly traditional mould (fast-slow-fast)
with a cadenza between the second and
third movements. The idiom, too, is
somewhat more traditional and, to a
certain extent, more eclectic; but,
now, we all know that things are never
as simple as they may seem and that
Holloway always has his way to surprise
through unexpected twists. The first
movement echoes Richard Strauss, without
ever bluntly imitating its model. There
is a good deal of eloquence in this
first movement, whereas the slow movement
is a beautifully lyrical outpouring
free of sentimentality. The last movement
is a perky, slightly ironic Rondo with
some disturbing side-steps at times
dispelling its good-humoured nature.
The Horn Concerto may not be quite in
the same league as the masterly Violin
Concerto, but it nevertheless is a fine,
underrated work that deserves wider
exposure, now possible thanks to this
re-issue.
Holloway’s music may
sometimes be disturbing for some tastes;
but his finest pieces, such as the ones
in this release or his Second and Third
Concertos for Orchestra, do have a remarkable
expressive strength which is – I firmly
believe – this composer’s real nature.
So, this re-issue in NMC’s ongoing Ancora
series is most welcome, and I urge all
those who missed the original Collins
release to rush and get it.
Hubert Culot
Ernst Kovacic (violin); Barry Tuckwell (horn)
