This is the second instalment in Bibio’s Phantom Brickworks project, an ambient / drone concern begun in 2017. On it, Stephen Wilkinson (who is Bibio) has the aim of exploring “the human echoes still present in various sites around Britain. Wilkinson has visited these locations, observed their gradual decline, and responded with improvised and composed music.”
The sequel brings forward new, intriguing sites, described as ‘vast scars on the natural landscape, some surviving through memories, historic clips and photographs. A few remain submerged from ordinary sights, while some exist purely as legends and stories’.
What’s the music like?
Immediately restful, as Bibio leads us to an appealing calm place. The loop subtly powering Dinorwic moves at a very slow pace but maintains its poise, while the magical Dorothea’s Bed has wordless voices transmitting an icy beauty. A higher register piano twinkles in the fog of Phantom Brickworks IV, while Llyn Peris reflects the dappled light of a winter sky, the sun near the horizon.
Tegid’s Court rocks gently like a Berceuse, leading into the immensely calming, spoken word Brograve. Spider Bridge once again makes evocative use of the piano’s higher register, a distinctive feather in Bibio’s cap.
Does it all work?
It does. Bibio has mastered the art of making more from less, and these pieces are ideally weighted.
Is it recommended?
Phantom Brickworks II is strongly recommended, another feather in the cap of an artist whose versatility continues to be most impressive. Having charmed us with pastoral electronica, Bibio now has real durability as a long-form ambient artist.
For fans of… Harold Budd, Loscil, Luke Abbott, Jon Hopkins
Piatti Quartet [Michael Trainor and Emily Holland (violins), Miguel Sobrinha (viola), Jessie Ann Richardson (cello)]
RTF Classical / Nimbus Alliance NI 6452 [55’57”] Producer and Engineer Raphaël Mouterde
Recorded 14 December 2023 at All Saints’, East Finchley, London (String Quartet no.2), 25 April 2024 (String Quartet no.3), 20 June 2024 (String Quartet no.4), St Silas, Kentish Town, London
Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse
What’s the story?
Joseph Phibbs builds upon a growing discography with this release of his latter three string quartets, played by the Piatti Quartet that has already recorded his First Quartet, in what is a notable addition to the RTF Classical label administered by the Richard Thomas Foundation.
What’s the music like?
Having reached his half-century earlier this year, Phibbs can look back on a substantial output such as covers all the major genres. Two shorter works – Agea (2007) and Quartettino (2012) – precede his designated First Quartet (2014), a varied and assured five-movement sequence that was written for and premiered then recorded by the Piatti Quartet as part of its collection Albion Refracted (Champs Hill Records CHRCD145). The ensemble’s collaboration with this composer here continues with a volume that further consolidates his standing in the medium.
Written for and dedicated to the Navarra Quartet, the Second Quartet opens with what Phibbs designates a nocturne – albeit a Presto and with scurrying figuration that persists through to a brief passage of repose. It is countered with a scherzo both edgy and volatile, followed by an Interlude whose Chitarra designation indicates the pizzicato strumming that brings a climax of some velocity. Its subsiding into relative stasis presages a final Lento whose lyrical violin theme evolves toward a culmination which is the more conclusive through its sheer fervency.
Written for the Belcea Quartet and dedicated to the memory of composer Steven Stucky, the Third Quartet starts with a sizable movement whose inward introduction and coda frame an Allegro varied and unpredictable in its content but given focus by an eloquent theme prior to its eventual climax. Next is a fugal Presto – a coursing scherzo to complement the capricious intermezzo of a Corrente and, in between, a freely evolving Notturno whose pensiveness manner finds resolution through a finale of an introspection dispelled by its animated coda. Written for the Piatti Quartet and dedicated to the philanthropist Richard Thomas, the Fourth Quartet is again cast in five movements. Here, however, the trajectory seems overtly fluid as this heads from the impetuous Film Sequence, via an atmospheric Notturno then a gently elegiac Cantilena and an incisive Burlesque, to the final Passacaglia. Much the longest movement, this is centred on an extended soliloquy for cello which does not so much refer to earlier ideas as draw the ensemble into a cohesive texture sustained through to the rapt close.
Does it all work?
Pretty much always. Phibbs is a resourceful while often imaginative writer for string quartet, his music demonstrably in the lineage of 20th-century totems such as Bartók or Shostakovich (with a nod toward Britten), without being beholden to these or any other precedents. It helps when the Piatti Quartet, whose own discography features notable releases of Mark-Anthony Turnage (Delphian DCD34254) and Ina Boyle (Rubicon RCD1098), sounds so well attuned to his idiom and has evidently prepared each one of these works with unfailing commitment.
Is it recommended?
Very much so. Sound has the requisite clarity and definition if a little lacking in warmth, and Phibbs contributes informative notes. Readers should investigate further releases on the RTF Classical imprint, which is building into a valuable anthology of contemporary British music.
George Lloyd Lament, Air and Dance (1975) Violin Sonata (1978) Seven Extracts from ‘The Serf’ (1938, arr. 1974)
Tasmin Little (violin), Martin Roscoe (piano); Ruth Rogers (violin), Simon Callaghan (piano) (Extracts from The Serf)
Lyrita SRCD.424 [two discs, 60’33” and 28’16”] Producers George Lloyd, Adrian Farmer (The Serf) Engineers Tony Faulkner, Adrian Farmer (The Serf)
Recorded 7-8 September 1989 at St Martin’s, East Woodhay; 10 June at Concert Hall, Wyastone Leys, Monmouth (The Serf)
Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse
What’s the story?
Lyrita’s eminently worthwhile Signature Edition devoted to the reissue of Albany recordings of George Lloyd (1913-1998) continues with this volume of his output for violin and piano, here re-released with the addition of music that has been specially recorded for the occasion.
What’s the music like?
Those who have been following this series (or who have those original issues) will know that Lloyd often devoted himself to a specific medium at certain times in his life, and so it proved with this particular duo. Despite having studied the violin with no less than Albert Sammons, he wrote nothing centred on this instrument until his First Violin Concerto of 1970. Between then and its successor (both on SRCD.2421-22) seven years later, he also essayed two major works for violin and piano that reflect the ambition of his symphonies from previous decades.
Although not designated such, Lament, Air and Dance is hardly less of a sonata than the piece which followed. Not least its Lament whose spacious if methodical unfolding on the lines of a chaconne, albeit that in G minor by Vitali rather than the more expected one in D minor by Bach, exhibits formal cohesion to balance its emotional immediacy. The relatively brief Air provides an oasis of lyrical calm, then the Dance makes for a more than viable balance with its bravura writing and a rhythmic verve that fairly dominates those impetuous closing bars.
Seemingly begun the following year but only finished in 1978 (the composer’s website and present booklet note diverge on this), the Violin Sonata is cast on almost the same scale, but its three sections unfold without pause. The notion of a one-movement conception is further reinforced by its initial Largamente’s two main themes – respectively rhythmic and melodic – that evolve through the central Moderato’s brief while delectably whimsical course, to their elaboration and eventual fusion in a Finale which builds to a decisive and impassioned close.
Before either of these works, Lloyd had effectively ‘tried out’ this medium by extracting then arranging seven pieces from his second opera The Serf – which, one senses, he considered his greatest achievement such that the aborted BBC production and recording in 1990 must have been a sore disappointment. Those familiar with the first of his two orchestral suites arranged as late as 1997 (SRCD.2417-18) will recognize some of this music, but the present sequence appeal taken as an overall entity or as individual items which almost all make ideal encores.
Does it all work?
Yes, not least for the fact that Lloyd’s music is idiomatically conceived for whatever medium with which he chose to work. Both main works benefit from the commitment of Tasmin Little and Martin Roscoe in teasing expressive nuances out of music that, not for the first time with this composer, is subtler and more ambivalent than often supposed. Nor are Ruth Rogers and Simon Callaghan found wanting in those extracts from The Serf, recorded just a few months ago and welcome enhancement of what was already a desirable release in the Albany series.
Is it recommended?
Indeed, given the excellence of playing, recording and Paul Conway’s customarily thorough annotations. This series of George Lloyd reissues awaits his operas Iernin and John Socman for completion, though if it could run to a new recording of The Serf then so much the better.
BBC Singers (What Man Is He?, Festival Anthem), BBC Concert Orchestra / Alice Farnham
Imogen Holst Persephone (1929) Variations on ‘Lorth to Depart’ (1962) What Man is He? (c1940) Allegro Assai (1927) On Westhall Hill (1935) Suite for String Orchestra (1943) Festival Anthem (1946)
NMC Recordings NMCD280 [75’01”] English texts included Producer Colin Matthews Engineers Marvin Ware, Robert Winter, Callum Lawrence Recorded 27-29 January 2024 at Maida Vale Studio One, London
Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse
What’s the story?
As its executive producer Colin Matthews notes in his introduction, NMC would likely not exist had it not been for Imogen Holst (1907-84) setting up the Holst Foundation prior to her death – so making this release of her larger-scale works the more appropriate, and welcome.
What’s the music like?
The present anthology affords what seems a plausible overview of its composer’s output. The earliest piece here is Allegro Assai, evidently planned as the opening movement of a suite for strings that progressed no further, but which proves characterful and assured on its own terms. Such potential feels well on the way to being realized in Persephone, an overture (albeit more akin to a tone poem) given in rehearsal by Malcolm Sargent, with the influence of Ravel (and indirectly of Vaughan Williams) balanced by the dextrous handling of motifs across a formal evolution such as relates the myth in immediate and individual terms. That this went unheard until the present recording was likely as much a loss to the musical public as to Holst herself.
Underlining its composer’s skill in writing for amateurs, On Westhall Hill is an atmospheric piece the more appealing through its brevity and modesty of scoring. Deriving its text from the Book of Wisdom, What Man Is He? traverses a range of emotions from the sombre, via the introspective, to the affirmative in a setting as searching as it is fervent. Most impressive, however, is the Suite for String Orchestra composed for a ‘portrait’ concert at Wigmore Hall. The four movements unfold from a diaphanous Prelude, via a fluid and astringent Fugue then an Intermezzo whose ruminative warmth hints at qualities rather more fatalistic, to a Jig which convincingly rounds off the whole work with its mounting energy and resolve.
Written in the wake of the Second World War, Festival Anthem went unheard at this time but could be thought a ‘song of thanksgiving’. Adapted from Psalm 104 (‘Praise the Lord, O my soul’), it seamlessly integrates soloistic with choral passages prior to a calmly fulfilled close. The latest work here, Variations on ‘Loth to Depart’ takes a 17th-century tune as harmonized by Giles Farnaby as basis for five variations – the initial four respectively trenchant, eloquent, wistful and incisive; prior to a relatively extended chaconne as distils a pathos the more acute for its understatement. A string quartet is combined resourcefully with double string orchestra in music which can at least hold its own in the context of a distinctive genre in British music.
Does it all work?
It does indeed. It is all too easy to think of Imogen Holst as one who never fully realized her potential in the face of life-long teaching and administrative commitments, but the range of what is heard amply indicates her creative legacy to be one worth exploring in depth. The recordings, moreover, could hardly be bettered in terms of their overall conviction – Alice Farnham securing a laudable response form the BBC Concert Orchestra and, in the choral pieces, BBC Singers. Hopefully other ensembles, professional or amateur, will follow suit.
Is it recommended?
It is indeed. Sound is unexceptionally fine, with informative notes from Christopher Tinker. Alongside the NMC release of her chamber music for strings (D236), and that on Harmonia Mundi of choral music (HMU907576), this is a fine demonstration of Imogen Holst’s legacy.
Poppy Beddoe (clarinet), Mira Marton, Viviane Plekhotkine (violins), Sinfonia Perdita / Daniel Hogan
Arnold Serenade Op.26 (1950) Taylor Clarinet Concertino Op.63 (2021) Taylor Violin Concertino Op.52 (2016) Arnold Double Violin Concerto Op.77 (1962) Arnold Clarinet Concerto no.2 Op.115 (1974) Taylor Symphony No. 6 Op.62 (2021)
Smith Square Hall, London Friday 22 November 2024
Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse
It was good to see that not a few of those in the audience for Matthew Taylor’s 60th Birthday Concert had been at such events 10, 20 and even 30 years before – deserved recognition, if such were needed, of this composer’s contribution to new music across recent decades.
Malcolm Arnold has been a notable influence on Taylor’s latter-day work, so that hearing his music in this context seemed more than apposite – not least with a sparkling account of Arnold’s airily ambivalent Serenade to set proceedings in motion.
The first half featured two of Taylor’s recent concertante pieces, a genre where he is always at home. As was Poppy Beddoe in the Clarinet Concertino written for her – whether its pensive but not necessarily serene Andante, its unsettling intermezzo, or its genial Allegretto that rounds off a work demonstrably more than the sum of its parts. Mira Marton then took the stage for the Violin Concertino, less unpredictable while always engaging – whether in the not undue deliberation of its opening Hornpipe, the poetic delicacy of its central Aria or the heady syncopation of its energetic Finale. Once again, there could be no mistaking Taylor’s identity with the instrument at hand, nor that judicious marshalling of his ideas into a format the more communicative for its brevity and understatement.
Arnold came into focus with two comparable works either side of the interval. Marton was partnered by Viviane Plekhotkine for the Double Violin Concerto from his more settled years which finds due outlet in the methodical incisiveness of its opening movement and unbridled panache of its finale: the central Andantino yet leaves the most enduring impression, a ‘duet without words’ whose melting pathos never feels overly emotive. This could hardly be said of the Second Clarinet Concerto, a product of Arnold’s troubled Dublin period, though Beddoe found cohesion in its Allegro through the ingenuity of her cadenza, while its ominously unsettled Lento had soloist and conductor in enviable accord, before she threw caution to the wind with a Pre-Goodman Rag finale that enthused her admirers even more second-time around.
Astute in support, Daniel Hogan (above), came into his own with Taylor’s Sixth Symphony that ended this concert. Commissioned by the Malcolm Arnold Trust and dedicated to Arnold’s daughter Katherine, it complements its celebratory and fatalistic predecessors via an affirmation kept in check until the very last. Premiered by Martyn Brabbins then recorded by the composer, this was arguably its finest performance yet – Hogan unfolding the first movement’s introduction as a cumulative arc of intensity, before infusing the main Allegro with an impetus abetted by its translucency of scoring. This is even more apparent in the Andante, its writing for harp and piano just the most arresting aspect of its calmly fugal textures, before the final Vivo evoked an authentic Arnoldian spirit with its capricious humour and its deftly sardonic payoff.
Music that provokes as surely as it pleases is an ability shared by few composers of Taylor’s generation, and Sinfonia Perdita did it proud as the climax of an evening that reaffirmed this composer at its forefront. One looks forward to further symphonies…and future anniversaries.
Arcana.fm 