MusicWeb Reviewer’s Log: April 2007
Reviewer: Patrick C Waller
Last month I expressed
enthusiasm for Peter Lieberson’s Neruda songs
performed live in Boston by his wife not long before her premature
death last year. John Quinn has since written a further review
of this marvellous disc and he also alerted me to a very fine
Wigmore Hall recital by given Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Roger
Vignoles in 1998 (WHLive0013). This also contains music by her
husband – two of the Rilke Songs and Triraksha’s aria
from Ashoka’s Dream plus Mahler’s Rückert
Lieder, and two Handel arias.
Some dust has now
settled after last October’s first English
Music Festival and there can be little doubt
that it was an artistic success although Mr. Pickwick would
have been feeling pretty miserable. Not so Festival Director
and fellow MusicWeb reviewer Em Marshall who is already planning
the next event in May 2008 but really requires more support
next time round. So, if you are interested in English Music,
please become a friend of the Festival and also make sure to
go to some of the concerts next time.
English music is
certainly doing quite well on record at the moment and most
notable is the recent release on Dutton of symphonies by Bainton
and Boughton. This has just been reviewed
by Rob Barnett and was a recording of the month in March. The
former composer was completely new to me and his third symphony
is simply marvellous. The Boughton first symphony, which was
inspired by Oliver Cromwell, is an early work
which was only premiered
in 2005. I was delighted to learn that there was sufficient
enthusiasm about it to warrant a recording conducted by Vernon
Handley no less with Roderick Williams singing the baritone
solo in the finale.
Cecil Coles
was one of the composers lost in the First World War and I was
alerted to a 2002 Hyperion disc of his music called Behind
the Lines when Rob Cowan played the Scherzo in A minor
on the new (and much improved) Radio 3 breakfast show. Not much
of Coles’s music survives and some of it was spattered with
blood and mud as he worked on it in the trenches. A disc which
will be of great interest to musical historians, this contains
an interesting selection of songs and orchestral music, and
is well-worth hearing.
Another good place
to find worthwhile English music is the Dunelm label which has
several discs of John
R. Williamson.
I have recently heard his Piano
Music Volume 2 which includes the 12 Palindromic
preludes and fourth sonata played by Murray McLachlan. I have
particularly enjoyed his Housman songs sung by Nigel Shaw with
the composer at the piano. There are enthusiastic reviews on
MusicWeb of volume
1 and volume
2 and the good news is that all 24 are now collected on
one disc (DRD0257). There are more Housman settings on a disc
entitled Shropshire Lads (DRD0262) deriving from a live
recital given in Bath in 2006 to mark the 110th anniversary
of the publication of Housman’s collection. Baritone Stephen
Foulkes does a fine job in settings by Somervell,
Burrows, Moeran, Bax
and five composers who were winners of a songwriting competition.
First prize deservedly went to Stephen Duro for
Is my team ploughing? Another worthwhile disc on the
same label which Jonathan Woolf enjoyed is called Aspirations
and features the piano music of Marcus Blunt expertly
played by Murray McLachlan.
Lest I am getting
too parochial here, a musical trip north of the border in the
shape of a record on the Delphian label called Cold
Dancer has also proved interesting. Len Mullenger
alerted me to this one – four works for string quartet from
contemporary Scottish composers. If you’ve ever wondered what
MusicWeb’s founder listens to on his iPod whilst walking the
dog – now you know! The work which gives the disc its title
is the fourth quartet of Kenneth Dempster. There
follows The Great Divorce by James Clapperton,
Judith Weir’s 1990 quartet and the third quartet
of William Sweeney. This music will take some
time to get to know properly but certainly grabs the attention.
Part of my daily
ritual now is to log on to the Naxos
Music Library and see what has been added. Over a
period of a couple of days recently they put up considerable
chunks of the old Vox and Vanguard catalogues which I hadn’t
heard since borrowing LPs from library days. For example this
includes Alfred Brendel’s first Beethoven sonata
recordings and some of Mozart Piano Concertos,
and Walter Klien’s Schubert Piano Sonata series
– my original introduction to this music. But as well as these
oldies, there is the question of which brand new discs have
been added. Eagerly awaited was Richard Hickox’s feted recording
of Vaughan Williams’ Sea
Symphony on Chandos – and it duly appeared.
Another fine disc
is the recording of Brahms’ third symphony in
Marin Alsop’s series for Naxos. This is a glowing account and
the finest of the cycle so far. Naxos continues to be amazingly
productive and it was a pleasure to review three very different
discs from this label – symphonies by contemporary US composer
Hailstork,
another volume in their Scarlatti
sonata series on the piano and the final volume of the Kodály
Quartet’s Schubert
cycle. A rather different reviewing experience was a DVD documentary
by Melvyn Bragg about pianist David
Helfgott who came to general attention through the film
Shine. This is coupled with some recital items from 1997
which you are guaranteed to love or hate.
Well, that’s what
I have been hearing recently. My immediate future listening
is going to be dominated by Beethoven since
Len has persuaded me to review one of EMI’s Collector’s
editions – the other composers are Mozart
and Schubert. I am not sure who these 50 CD boxes
are aimed at – something I guess I will have to work out before
writing the review. But at hardly more than £1 per disc their
value cannot be denied and they occupy surprisingly little space.
If one takes your fancy, make sure you get it through MusicWeb.
Patrick C Waller
