A CELLO CENTURY OF BRITISH WOMEN COMPOSERS
Music for cello and piano by British women
composers
Rebecca CLARKE (1886-1979),
May MUKLE
(1880-1963), Sheila
Mary POWER (1903-1971`), Margaret
HUBICKI (b.1915), Marie
DARE (1902-1976), Amy
Elsie HORROCKS (1867-1920), Imogen
HOLST (1907-1984), Dora
Estella BRIGHT (1863-1951), R
Caroline BOSANQUET (b.1940), Janetta
GOULD (b.1926).
Catherine
Wilmers (cello)
Simon Marlow (piano)
ASV
QUICKSILVA CD QS6245 [68.10]
This disc is deleted but can be
obtained from the composer e-mail
ASV demonstrate acute artistic and commercial judgement. With no disrespect
to the music or its two receptive and communicative interpreters this disc
stood little chance of selling at full price. ASV whose eye for catchy design
is well known moved the disc directly into their bargain range where it deserves
to sell well. There is nothing at all amiss with the music but the combination
of unknowns, the cello and chamber music would not otherwise command sales.
The CLARKE Passacaglia on an Old English Tune (1941) was written in
the blackest days of the War - a sombrely meditative work of Bachian spirituality
it rears up from profundity into passionate assertion in its closing pages.
MUKLE, regarded as the pioneer among British women cellists, wrote two character
sketches (1912: Hamadryad and Night Wind), both featured here.
They are cut from the same Dvorakian jaunty romance as the Albert Sammons
violin pieces recently recorded by Hyperion. POWER's Suite No. 1 (1938)
is dedicated to Mukle (whose musical repertoire is celebrated in cellist
Catherine Wilmers' recital programme), is modestly mellifluous, rounded,
restful and, in the finale, playful. HUBICKI's Two Contrasting Pieces
(1935) are Lonely Mere and Rigaudon. The first is typical
of the pleasantly poetic-illustrative vein running through much British music
of the 20th century enlivened by a by-no-means submissive piano
part.
DARE's Hebridean Suite (1947): is a six movement piece which, along
the way, takes in mood portraits of a Summer Sea. HORROCKS is represented
by Twilight (1901), the rollingly soulful Irish Melody and
a jumpy 'Dumka' of a Country Dance (1894). Imogen HOLST, long the
grande dame standing guard over her father's legacy contributes an
Arrangement of Two Scottish Airs (1933). BRIGHT's contemporaneous
Polka à la Strauss (1934) is cheerful contrasting with the
comparative austerity of BOSANQUET's Elegie in Memoriam Joan Dickson
(1994) and GOULD's Sontag 2
The autumnal surrealism of the CD cover and the essential notes complete
the picture.
I hope we will hear more from Wilmers, perhaps in more substantial repertoire.
Rob Barnett
See also review by Colin Scott-Sutherland
