There will be many
for whom the chance of actually hearing any of Tovey’s music
was restricted to acquiring a cassette copy of the Casals-Boult
broadcast of the Cello Concerto. In recent years however, spearheaded
by Toccata, we have been exposed to a far wider range of his
music. Only weeks ago I reviewed
a performance of the two-cello sonata that Tovey wrote for Casals
and Suggia.
And so we now have
the first volume in a Chamber Music edition, and this gives
us the Opp. 1 and 8 Piano Trios. Both, despite the ministrations
of the back of the jewel box (but not the booklet), date from
1895. The Op.1 Trio is a big, four movement work. The first
thing that strikes one is the cogency of the musical argument.
The twenty-year-old Tovey fashions a tightly bound structure
and allows it full developmental possibilities. There are numerous
opportunities for dialogue and unison between the two string
instruments – there’s an especially felicitous example in a
cantilena passage in the opening Maestoso. There’s a Trio of
real charm in the Minuet – fully contrastive with the surrounding
material – and a long breathed Rhapsodia as a third movement.
There’s also some fugal development from around 3:30. Tovey’s
Brahmsian inheritance is clear in this work, though the lovely
second theme in the finale is all his own and he has the courage
to end the trio quietly and reflectively.
The companion work
is much smaller in scale – three movements only - and was originally
written for clarinet, horn and piano. Once again the ideas are
strong and the working out of them accomplished, with Tovey
ensuring a constant supply of thematic material. The opening
movement is stormy whilst the central one is an extensive Largo.
Here is where the work’s subtitle, Style tragique, is
best played out. It certainly sports a central panel of powerful
drama. This second trio is a more overtly compact and emotionally
expressive work, more obvious in its gestures perhaps, but no
less powerful.
The performances
by the London Piano Trio are thoroughly convincing in every
way and the recording in Potton Hall is pretty good, though
not perhaps quite as well balanced as some other performances
from the same venue that I’ve heard. In any case, this is self-recommending
for the new generation of Tovey admirers.
Jonathan Woolf
see also review
by Rob Barnett
TOVEY REVIEWS ON MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL
Cello
Concerto Toccata
Symphony
Toccata I
Symphony
Toccata 2
Piano Concerto
Hyperion 1
Piano
Concerto Hyperion 2
Chamber
Music - Volume 1
Clarinet
Sonata BML
Symphony – Boult
– 1937 – Symposium 1352: not reviewed as yet
Cello Concerto –
Casals 1930s - Symposium 1259: not reviewed as yet
London
Piano Trio
