With another sweltering day promised in the UK, here is a rather wonderful tone poem from the pen of underrated English composer Frank Bridge – one to revel in this Sunday!
Published post no.2,594 – Sunday 13 July 2025
With the hot weather continuing in the UK, here is a delightful few minutes spent in the company of Samuel Barber – his only work for wind quintet:
Published post no.2,572 – Sunday 22 June 2025
by Richard Whitehouse
Members of Klangforum Wien ([Annette Bik and Judith Fliedl (violins), Paul Beckett (viola), Andreas Lindenbaum (cello)]
Long synonymous with the Valley of the Temples, among the glories of Classical civilization, Agrigento is a city of the present and not least with Teatro dell’Efebo – a venue appropriate to a programme such as Symposion, presented by Klangforum Wien as part of Agrigento 2025.
According to Klangforum’s website, ‘‘The Symposion project takes up the theme of cultural intoxication which goes back to antiquity. This ancient social practice has inspired an evening with music of our time, perceived in the slowly changing conditions of collective and relaxed inebriation…’’. The actual programme was highly wide-ranging as to content and aesthetic (a full listing can be accessed via the link below), taking in pieces by European composers from the mid- or later twentieth century and concluding with Terry Riley’s (over?) influential In C.
Before that, however, came a second hearing (following its premiere in Salzburg last January by the Oesterreichisches Ensemble für Neue Musik) of the String Quartet by Jorge E. López. Written during the winter of 2022-23, this piece follows on from his radiophonic composition Im Innersten: János Bolyai stirbt (previously reviewed on Arcana) while drawing on elements from his Fifth Symphony which, completed in 2023 after a five-year gestation, still awaits its first performance. Each of the Quartet’s two movements duly picks up on elements from either of those in the larger work, though this is not a case of reworking or even paraphrasing earlier material but rather the oblique evoking of it in terms of that creative application of Surrealism which has proved a mainstay of López’s compositional ethos throughout the past half century.
The first movement is prefaced by the title ‘‘Wie man wird, was man is’’ (How one becomes, what one is), which the composer feels appropriate for music that pivots constantly and with increasing desperation between rhetorical aggression and a wrenching eloquence – its motivic elements altering constantly though with a tangible sense of evolution as dynamic as it seems unpredictable. Towards its close this process mutates into a more sustained expression which might have become a ‘slow movement’, had it not opted to close in a becalmed ambivalence.
Barely a third of its predecessor’s length, the second movement is prefaced by the title ‘‘Was denach kommt’’ (What then follows) and picks up on a lengthy fugato such as rounds off the corresponding movement of the composer’s Fifth Symphony. Its musical subject is none other than the nursery rhyme Three Blind Mice – source for orchestral works by Joseph Holbrooke and Havergal Brian – which here unfolds erratically while never haphazardly across the four instruments and on to an unequivocal conclusion the more affecting through its very inanity.
This account from the members of Klangforum Wien was as impressive as it was committed, evidently subtler and more sombre than that by OENM in Salzburg but with an undeniable grasp of the oblique yet always vital logic which is a hallmark of López’s music in ensuring its fascination and overall conviction. One hopes more performances will follow (the highly regarded Chaos Quartet of Vienna has expressed interest) and that the composer, who has recently finished his Variations for Orchestra, will embark on a successor before too long.
Published post no.2,545 – Monday 26 May 2025
Matthew Owain Jones
String Quartet no.1 ‘Deletia’ (1993, rev. 2012)
Wind Quintet (2016)
Nielsen arr. Jones
Aladdin, FS89: Nine Pieces for wind quintet, string quartet and piano (1917-19, arr. 2018)
Ensemble MidtVest [Charlotte Norholt (flute), Peter Kirstein (oboe), Tommaso Lonquich (clarinet), Yavor Petkov (bassoon), Neil Page (horn); Matthew Owain Jones, Karolina Weltrowska, Ana Feitosa (violins), Sanna Ripatti (viola), Jonathan Slaatto (cello), Martin Qvist Hansen (piano)]
First Hand Records FHR163 [63’53’’] All world premiere recordings
Producers / Engineers Michael Ponder (String Quartet, Wind Quintet), Morten Mogenson (Aladdin)
Recorded 6 December 2017 (String Quartet), 11 January 2018 (Wind Quintet), 29-31 August 2018 (Aladdin) at Den Jyske Sangskole, Herning, Denmark
Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse
What’s the story?
First Hand Records makes a welcome addition to its contemporary catalogue with this release of music or arrangements by Matthew Owain Jones, all performed by the extended outfit that is Ensemble MidtVest and among whose varied personal the composer himself can be found.
What’s the music like?
Fifty last year, Jones has had a diverse career as a musician as is recounted in his personable booklet notes. Composing has often taken a back seat in his activities, the works here written almost a quarter-century apart, yet there can be no doubting the idiomatic nature of his music.
Composed when barely out of his teens, the First String Quartet is evidently the product of a gifted if unfocussed musical talent. Jones admits as much by appending the subtitle ‘Deletia’ to its revision almost two decades on – the original four movements having been reduced to just two, albeit substantial entities. These duly complement each other in almost all respects – the initial Andante exuding a warmth and fervency that is questioned, without being denied outright, by the ensuing Allegro whose ‘minaccioso’ marking underlines its capricious while sometimes ominous nature. The result is uneven yet engaging – making it a pity that, after a musical co-written with his sister, Jones should have left composing somewhat in abeyance.
It was the positive reception accorded that revision of his quartet which encouraged Jones to return to composition in earnest, and among the first fruits of this resumption was his Wind Quintet. Its substantial single movement falls into four continuous sections such as outline a relatively Classical design (albeit with an intermezzo-like section placed second), and Jones cannily exploits those incremental changes in timbre or texture without recourse to extremes of tempo and mood. The outcome is music demonstrably within the lineage of a genre more extensive than often supposed and, though its content breaks little new ground, this is never less than expertly conceived for the medium and affords a pleasurable listen in its own right.
The locus classicus of wind quintets has to be that written just over a century ago by Nielsen, music by which composer ends this collection. Although its suite is periodically revived, the lavish incidental music (not a ballet, as is referenced several times in the notes, though there is a notable element of dance) for Adam Oehlenschlager’s play Aladdin proved too ambitious even at its Copenhagen premiere. Surprising, perhaps, that the nine numbers included here translate so well into the medium of a mixed decet – preserving the distinctive nature of music from Nielsen’s maturity (it comes mid-way between his Fourth and Fifth Symphonies) and thus making it freely available to practitioners for the very different context of the recital room.
Does it all work?
Pretty much. Much of the attraction of this collection lies in the respect which the members of Ensemble MidtVest have for Jones and his music, thereby making for performances that could scarcely be improved upon in terms of technical refinement or interpretative insight.
Is it recommended?
It is, not least as the sound conveys the immediacy but also delicacy of this music with ideal clarity and perspective. Jones must feel vindicated by the enterprise, as indeed he should, and one looks forward to more releases of both his compositions and arrangements in due course.
Listen & Buy
Click on the names to read more about composers Matthew Owain Jones and Carl Nielsen, and the performers Ensemble MidtVest
Published post no.2,515 – Saturday 26 April 2025
Arnold Cooke
String Quartet no.1 (1933)
String Quartet no.3 (1967)
String Quartet no.5 (1978)
Bridge Quartet [Colin Twigg, Catherine Schofield (violins), Michael Schofield (viola), Lucy Wilding (cello)]
Toccata Classics TOCC0696 [56’05”]
Producer and Engineer Michael Ponder
Recorded 21-22 November 2022, 5-6 March 2023, All Saints’ Church, Thornham
Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse
What’s the story?
Toccata Classics continues its coverage of Arnold Cooke (his organ music is on TOCC0659) with this first volume of his string quartets, performed by The Bridge Quartet and confirming him as a skilful practitioner of a genre such as found favour with many composers of his era.
What’s the music like?
Premiered by the Griller Quartet in March 1935, the First Quartet gained the praise of no less than Havergal Brian and helped to establish Cooke’s wider reputation. Completed a year after his return from study in Berlin, this undeniably shows the influence of Hindemith but offsets it with a lyrical poise as to suggest lessons well learned from an earlier generation of British composers. Although cast in four movements, the opening Lento is a fugue whose emotional austerity never seems unduly severe – with the ensuing Vivace and Allegretto a scherzo then intermezzo of respective impetus and suavity. The final Presto rounds off proceedings with a keen yet never wanton energy that sets the seal on a substantial and approachable work; one which should not have had to wait 84 years until its revival by the present ensemble in 2022.
First given by the English Quartet in May 1968, the Third Quartet is contemporaneous with Cooke’s Third Symphony – whose coupling on Lyrita with a suite from his ballet Jabez and the Devil doubtless introduced many to this composer. Here one senses the presence, rather than influence as such, of Bartók – specifically his Sixth Quartet, the underlying rhythm of whose Marcia informs the initial Allegro of this work, and whose recurrent Mesto theme proves hardly less pervasive in an Andante which none the less emerges as one of Cooke’s most thoughtful and revealing statements. The brief scherzo exudes a driving impetus that carries over into a final Allegro that, in its ongoing vivacity and affirmative close, confirms this as the most likely of these quartets to find its place in the repertoire of the 20th century.
By the time his Fifth Quartet received its premiere in March 1979, Cooke had evidently been eclipsed by a younger generation though there is nothing overtly reactionary about this piece. Unfolding as a single movement, it has three clearly defined sections (as on this recording) -thus, a tense if ambivalent Moderato leads into an Allegro which adeptly elides scherzo and slow movement with no loss of ongoing momentum, then a Presto whose sheer brevity does not preclude allusions to earlier ideas as it steers this compact work to a decisive conclusion.
Does it all work?
Pretty much. Cooke might never have had an overtly distinctive or even personal idiom, but his music has a technical rigour and a feel for communication as makes listening rarely less than pleasurable. It helps when, in the Bridge Quartet, it has exponents so well versed in the lineage of British quartet writing – not least the composer who provided this ensemble’s name – and as attentive to the wealth of contrapuntal invention as to the greater design with each of these pieces. Hopefully other such groups will be encouraged to include them in their recitals.
Is it recommended?
Indeed so. The recording has a focus and perspective which is ideal for such music, and there are succinctly informative annotations by Peter Marchbank. Hopefully the follow-up volume, featuring the Second and Fourth Quartets, will be appearing from this source before too long.
Listen & Buy
For purchase options, you can visit the Toccata Classics website. Click on the names to read more about The Bridge Quartet and composer Arnold Cooke.
Published post no.2,497 – Monday 7 April 2025
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