These are late 1950s
recordings made by Richard Itter in
The Music Room. They 'speak' with enthusiasm
and burning conviction. The restoration
has evidently been done with as much
affection as technical skill.
It is difficult to
imagine how much of a wasteland the
Bax catalogue was when these mono recordings
were made; still less when they were
issued. They were made only five years
after Bax's death and released a further
five or so years later. They were among
the earliest releases of a small company
that had glimmered into existence and
might easily have been snuffed out.
No such fate awaited Lyrita although
it has had long periods of hibernation.
Wyastone Estates are
committed to reissuing the entire Lyrita
catalogue including the mono tapes originally
issued on RCS vinyl. We have already
seen the Alan Rowlands Ireland set and
the Bax Loveridge discs are due out
soon. Here Florence Hooton (1912-1988)
presents Bax's chamber works for cello.
The only omission is the Rhapsodic
Ballad for solo cello which at the
time of these sessions was held by the
dedicatee Bernard Vocadlo. It was only
in the early 1980s that first Rohan
de Saram – wonderful cellist too little
heard from - included the premiere recording
on a Pearl LP (SHE547) and then Rapahel
Wallfisch recorded it for Chandos (CHAN
8499).
There is little competition
for this Hooton set even now. In substance
the only other choice is the ASV CD
(CD DCA 896) by Bernard Gregor-Smith
and Yolande Wrigley.
Hooton and Wilfred
Parry first turn to the two cello works
of the teens and twenties of the last
century. The first is the compact Folk-Tale
which concentrates on tender
almost fragile lyricism and on curvaceous
easy-going folk-inflected melody. This
was also recorded by Moray Welsh and
Roger Vignoles on a Pearl LP (SHE571).
The 1923 Cello Sonata is a big
work of concerto proportions. It certainly
recalls the Cello Concerto a fragmentary
recording of which, in the hands of
Beatrice Harrison, survives on Symposium
1150 (see
review) and has of course been recorded
by Raphael Wallfisch on Chandos CHAN
8494 (see
review). Hooton played the Concerto
with the BBC Northern conducted by John
Hopkins which was broadcast and a recording
survives in private hands. The Sonata
is a darker work than the Folk-Tale
and in its concentration and sturdy
flow is more successful than the problematic
Concerto. It is played with wonderful
passion by Hooton and Parry. There is
magic too in the poco lento second
movement which sounds very much like
the start of the 1913 Spring Fire
Symphony. A grumpy bass underpinning
suggests a jolly war-dance with perhaps
a hint of Percy Grainger about its skip
in the step. The Epilogue is
thoughtful and commanding. Then
comes the little Sonatina -
again in three movements but almost
exactly half as long as the Sonata.
It is a gentle work with more of the
feeling of a serenade or cassation about
it. Folksong is central to its Andante.
The recording of the
Legend-Sonata has more presence
to it than the Bax cello works on CD1.
It is given a mordantly aggressive edge
by Hooton and Parry. It naturally has
the Bax manner but the creative bite
and grip of the Sonata and Folk-Tale
are nowhere near as strong. Bax's orchestral
Legend (tone poem) of about the
same time also shows confidence but
the ideas and resolution that drove
or wooed the Furies in November Woods,
in Fand and even in the Northern
Ballads is only passingly present.
There are some really nice moments here
though: for example in the Lento
Espressivo.
If you enjoy the Rachmaninov
Cello Sonata do try these Bax works.
Ten years separate
each of the Bax works on this set. Two
years after Bax's death came the Gordon
Jacob Divertimento for
solo cello and four years after that
the Elegy. The compact
four-movement Divertimento -
dedicated to and premiered by Hooton
- has a patterned, and for me rather
empty, Prelude. The spirit of Bach must
inevitably hold sway over such works
unless you are a Kodaly. The dignified
beauty of the lengthy Improvisation
more than compensates with its luscious
and somehow Iberian pizzicato which
returns in the final Rondino.
The Minuet and Trio mixes a Bachian
intensity with guitar-like sonorities.
Jacob's Elegy was written for
Hooton and is In Memoriam S.W.J.
This work has the brooding storm-clouds
intensity of Rubbra's Soliloquy.
I wonder if it exists in a version with
orchestra.
The sound throughout
these discs is grainy and fragile especially
on CD1. Hooton's involvement is undoubted
but in the case of the Folk-Tale
only her technical apparatus when
her playing was no longer at full peak
does rather show. I did not notice any
awkwardness in her playing of other
works.
Note the wonderfully
long silences between the works. This
shows real attention to detail by Lyrita
and Wyastone. This is by no means a
hurried or scouted over production.
I declare my interest
as the writer - more compiler really
- of the disc's programme note about
Florence Hooton. An extended version
of that note appears at the end of this
review.
Unlike the viola, violin
and piano the cello has been a Cinderella
in the Bax output. Only ASV have attempted
a single set. The triumph in this Hooton
set is the impressive Cello Sonata which
should surprise a few Baxians and others
now they can hear this version in the
best possible sound from original master
sources. Admirers of Gordon Jacob and
of British music in general should also
find much here to enjoy. You need to
be open-minded and realistic about the
sound but it is heart-warming to be
able to welcome them back into the light
of common day.
Rob Barnett
ALSO AVAILABLE
SRCD.231
Boult conducts Bax
SRCD.232
Bax Symphonies Nos. 1 & 7
SRCD.233
Bax Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5
SRCD.296
Bax Symphony No. 6
SRCD.315
Gordon Jacob Symphonies Nos. 1 &
2
Florence Hooton (1912-1988)
– a Biographical Note
Florence Hooton, OBE
died on 14 May 1988 when her reputation
was firmly established as a cello teacher.
She became a professor at the Royal
Academy of Music in 1964 but also gave
private lessons in Suffolk and Sheffield.
Her role as a teacher was only the most
recent aspect of her life. In fact in
the 1930s and 1940s she had been extremely
active as a performer and only retired
from concert-giving in 1978.
Hooton was born in
Scarborough where her first lessons
were given by her father, himself a
professional cellist who had been a
student of Warwick Evans, a member of
the London String Quartet. She then
studied with Douglas Cameron at the
London Violoncello School (1927–9) and
this continued after she had gained
a scholarship to the Royal Academy of
Music (1929–34). The Academy’s collection
includes a striking portrait of her
by Wilfred G. von Glehn RA, 1936. Her
concert and academic life is bridged
by Gordon Jacob’s four movement Cello
Octet which was commissioned by
her in 1981 for her students at the
Academy where memory is also marked
by the annual David Martin/Florence
Hooton Concerto Prize.
Given that her activities
tended to be restricted to the British
Isles it is also worth remembering that
she studied with Emanuel Feuermann in
Zurich. Feuermann made an enduring impression
on her and she recalled many years later
his vitality and enthusiasm as well
as his profound technical skills. On
one occasion he had played the Mendelssohn
Violin Concerto to her without transposition.
Her debut recital came
in 1934 at the Wigmore Hall. This led
to her appearance in the Promenade season
alongside Frederick Grinke and Dorothy
Manley in the Beethoven Triple Concerto.
She soon became much associated with
the music of contemporary British composers:
1934 saw her giving the first performance
of Gordon Jacob's Divertimento for
Unaccompanied Cello which Jacob
dedicated to her.
Hooton was a dedicated
chamber music executant working as a
member of the Grinke Trio including
violinist, Frederic Grinke and pianist,
Dorothy Manley. Manley had been her
accompanist at Hooton’s Wigmore Hall
debut. From 1956 to 1976 she formed
the Loveridge-Martin-Hooton Trio with
pianist, Iris Loveridge and violinist,
David Martin. She married David Martin
in 1938 and they had two daughters.
She also had the distinction
of being the first cellist to put in
an appearance on the nascent British
television service in the studios at
Alexandra Palace. There she played the
Haydn D Major Concerto alongside two
dancers whose names were then largely
unknown; Margot Fonteyn and Robert Helpmann.
She premiered cello
concertos by Gordon Jacob and Kenneth
Leighton and Alan Bush’s Concert Suite.
All three had been written for her.
The Leighton was given at the Cheltenham
Festival under Sir John Barbirolli.
The first performance of the William
Busch cello concerto was undertaken
by her on 18 December 1941 with B Walton
O’Donnell of the Oxbridge RAF Orchestra.
Hooton played the Busch again shortly
afterwards, this time with the BBCSO
under Sir Adrian Boult. She also championed
the work of the much neglected figure
associated with the Ireland Piano Concerto,
Helen Perkin. Hooton joined Harriet
Cohen for the premiere of Arnold Bax's
Legend-Sonata and continuing
the Bax connection also performed the
Cello Concerto and other works for cello
although not the Rhapsodic Ballad.
She recorded all Bax’s cello works,
apart from the Rhapsodic Ballad,
in the mid-1960s and these were
issued by Richard Itter’s Lyrita Recorded
Edition on two mono RCS LPs (1965, 1967).
At a public BBC Contemporary
Music concert on 18 January 1936 at
Broadcasting House with the BBC Symphony
Orchestra she premiered Oration –
Concerto Elegiaco - a work that
had been turned down by Felix Salmond
and by Suggia. The composer was not
prepared to make changes to it and then
remembered Hooton. He had heard her
giving a modern music concert which
he attended with Benjamin Britten at
Duke's Hall at the Academy. Bridge commented
at the time: 'If that girl gets one
more of those top notes spot-on I'm
going round to ask if she'd like to
give the first performance of my cello
concerto.' After the premiere he wrote
to her thanking her for 'the way you
got above the technical considerations
and found what I think is in the work'.
She was active in the
recording studio during 1939 and 1940.
For Decca she recorded John Ireland's
Trio No.3 in E Minor with Grinke and
the composer in 1939 (X242/244). This
was a work of which she had given the
first public performance with the same
players on 20 June 1938 at Boosey &
Hawkes’ Music Room, Regent Street. The
other entries in her Decca diary include
K899/900 Ireland Phantasie Trio (Grinke
Trio, with whom she performed 1933-45),
K904 Webern trio op. 21 (Kathleen Washbourne
String Trio), K945/936 Bridge Phantasie
Trio (Grinke Trio) and X263/64 Stravinsky
Suite Italienne (with Gerald
Moore). She was the cellist for an LP
of all three Ireland trios in December
1963: Saga XID 5230 and played to the
composer in a trio at his house during
Ireland’s last days.
She broadcast extensively
for the BBC Third Programme including
Richard Arnell’s Four Serious Pieces
with Wilfred Parry, Arnold Bax’s
Cello Concerto with John Hopkins conducting
the BBC Northern, Gordon Jacob’s Cello
Concerto with Harvey Phillips and his
orchestra, Jacob’s Piano Trio with Loveridge
and Martin, Leighton’s Cello Concerto
with Rudolf Schwarz and the BBCSO and
Leighton’s Partita with the composer
– a work she had premiered with Wilfred
Parry at the Wigmore Hall in February
1963. Two other broadcasts merit a mention:
John B McEwen’s Improvisations Provençals
and the Cello Concerto of the now
profoundly forgotten Briton, Ivor Walsworth’s
with Meredith Davies and the BBC Welsh
Orchestra.
Her fixtures were by
no means linked exclusively with the
prominent names and orchestras. Her
concert honours include ones in Cambridge
in 1964 with the Albion Orchestra conducted
by Cyril Bell, with Gordon Jacob as
guest conductor, the Nottingham Symphony
Orchestra with Gaze Cooper and the Yorkshire
Symphony Orchestra with whom she played
a Boccherini Cello Concerto and the
Elgar.
Asked once about her
move to teaching she said, "The
concert platform is a great draw and
you have no idea how much you miss it.
Communication between you and your audience
is something that feeds you as a musician.
But once you can redirect that energy
into teaching and begin to see results
then you have all the compensation you
need."
Rob Barnett
With thanks to Jonathan Woolf and others
who contributed generously with facts
and reminiscences.
for details
Florence Hooton (cello) 
