MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW Plain text for smartphones & printers

Support us financially by purchasing this from

Frederick DELIUS (1862-1934)
Cello Sonata (1916) [14:48]
Romance (1896) [6:23]
Creole Dance from Koanga (1895-97) [5:37]
Three Pieces from Hassan (1923): Introduction [2:04]; Serenade [4:20]; Dance of the Daughters of Delight [2:40]
Summer Night on the Water [2:32]
George DYSON (1883-1964)
Prelude, Fantasy and Chaconne (1936) [23:48]
Two Pieces: The Wife of Bath (1930) [3:31]: River Music [3:55]
Andrew Shulman (cello)
Ian Brown (piano)
rec. September 1987, St James Church, Clerkenwell, London
CONTINUUM CCD1025 [66:18]

This isn’t a new release but it seems now to have received a fresh injection of promotion from Continuum. As such it offers a still very rare-to-find example of George Dyson’s chamber music, and smaller ancillary pieces, as well as some choice examples of Delius’ cello compositions.

Delius’ Cello Sonata can take a variety of approaches, largely predicated on tempo-relations. Andrew Shulman and Ian Brown’s thoughtful, sensitive, and introspective take on the sonata places them at something of an expressive extreme, alongside the line taken by Julian Lloyd Webber and Eric Fenby in their recording. These are both scrupulous but expansive readings. Beatrice Harrison is the best-remembered interpreter of the composer’s cello works, more so even than Barjansky, and she and Harold Craxton motored through it in 12:51, an approach mirrored by later practitioners such as Raphael and Peter Wallfisch and Huw and Paul Watkins – familial teams both, and both on Chandos as well – who adopt a similar approach to the work’s various sections. Shulman and Brown stretch things to nearly fifteen minutes though the salient features of their performance are sheer intimacy, restraint of vibrato usage, and a cumulative sense of reverie as the works comes to a genuinely well-won conclusion. The smaller satellite pieces are the less well-known Romance, warmly played and the well-known Creole Dance from Koanga, the three delightful pieces from Hassan – a boon for string players – and the lovely Summer Night on the Water.

In the intervening years since this recording was made the original version - for cello and small orchestra - of Dyson’s Prelude, Fantasy and Chaconne has appeared (WHL 2153). As I wrote of that release it’s audibly indebted to Delius. There’s a dreamy stasis which is gripping in its quiet intensity and strongly Delian introspection. The solo line is both capricious and whimsically vibrant, whilst the Chaconne draws on nobler hues, rears up but ends with a certain degree of elliptical distance. What emerges from this recasting for cello and piano most explicitly is the stalking bass figures in the Chaconne as well as its overtly lyric pastoralism. Shulman’s patrician approach ensures that the music never gets bogged down. The vivacious delights of The Wife of Bath music from The Canterbury Tales are augmented by the gliding lyricism of River Music.

With nice annotations and unproblematic recording, this is still a very effective combination, the Dyson reflecting Delian influence in an appropriate and suggestive way. You will hear more extrovert, eager recordings of the Delius but this one sticks to its expressive guns and is all the more welcome for so doing.

Jonathan Woolf

 

 



Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing