Category Archives: On record

On Record – Chu-Yu Yang & Eric McElroy – An English Pastoral (Somm Recordings)

Posted on by
Reply

Venables (arr. composer) Violin Sonata Op.23a (1989 arr. 2018)
Finzi Elegy Op.22 (1940)
Gurney ed. Venables Eight Pieces (1908-09)
Bliss Violin Sonata B12 (c1914)
Venables Three Pieces Op.11 (1986)

Chu-Yu Yang (violin), Eric McElroy (piano)

Somm Recordings SOMMCD0700 [75’45”]
Producer Siva Oke Engineer Adaq Khan

Recorded 13-14 April 2024 at St Mary’s Church, St Marylebone, London

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Although the Taiwanese violinist Chu-Yu Yang and the American pianist Eric McElroy have found success independently, their appearances as a duo have firmly established them before the public across a wide repertoire, not least the music which is featured on this new release.

What’s the music like?

The title of this album might be thought to speak for itself, yet An English Pastoral amounts to more than an exercise in wanton nostalgia. Alongside early if not wholly uncharacteristic music by Ivor Gurney and Arthur Bliss – contemporaries whose outlooks were transformed through war service – it takes in one of Gerald Finzi’s most affectingly realized instrumental pieces and works by Ian Venables whose 70th birthday is just weeks away at time of writing. A programme, moreover, as cohesive in recorded terms as it would be heard as a live recital.

The centrepiece here is a sequence of pieces by the teenage Gurney such as demonstrates no mean assurance in this testing medium. Hence the Elgarian wistfulness of Chanson Triste or respectively poetic and bittersweet evocations as are In September and In August. A winsome Romance is the most elegantly proportioned of these eight pieces, with the elaborate Legende more discursive in its (over-) ambition. The poignant A Folk Tale and an engaging Humoreske have a succinctness to confirm that, with Gurney as with most composers, less is often more.

The players seem as emotionally attuned to this music as they are when mining the expressive subtleties of Finzi’s Elegy which, composed barely a year into the Second World War, offsets its yielding nostalgia with passages of simmering anxiety. Nor do they disappoint in the single movement that was all Bliss completed – if, indeed, he ever envisaged any successors – of his wartime Violin Sonata; its cautious if never inhibited handling of ‘phantasy’ form implying a transition from his earlier Pastoralism to the innovation of those pieces which came afterward.

Venables proves no less adept combining violin and piano, not least when adapting what was previously his Flute Sonata as to emphasize the pensive raptness of the first movement or its alternately playful and plaintive successor. Witness, moreover, the astutely judged trajectory of his Three Pieces as it moves from the blithe lyricism of its initial Pastorale, through the unforced eloquence of its central Romance, to the incisive energy of its final Dance – thus making for a sequence that could have been a ‘sonatina’ had the composer designated it thus.

Does it all work?

Pretty much always. Nothing here sounds less than idiomatic in terms of being conceived for this medium, a tribute to the skill of these players in realizing the intentions of the composers in question. For those listeners who still (rightly) attach importance to such things, the layout is viable but it might have been improved by interpolating the Gurney pieces – most of which are what might be termed ‘medium slow’ – across the release as a whole rather than grouping them all together at its centre, but this is relatively less of a consideration in streaming terms.

Is it recommended?

Indeed it is. The recorded ambience could hardly be bettered in terms of this medium, while Yang contributes detailed and informative annotations. Hopefully he and McElroy will have a chance to record further such collections, whether or not in the ‘English Pastoral’ tradition.

Listen / Buy

You can read more about this release and explore purchase options at the Somm Recordings website

Published post no.2,578 – Saturday 28 June 2025

On Record – Duncan Honeybourne: Thomas Pitfield Piano Music (Heritage Records)

Posted on by
Reply

Thomas Pitfield
Toccata (1953)
Solemn Pavane in F minor (1940)
Circle Suite (1938)
Capriccio (1932)
Diversions on a Russian Air (1959)
Novelette no.1 in F major (1953)
Bagatelles – no.1 in E flat major (1950); no.2 in C major (1952); no.3 in F major (c1995)
Impromptu on a Tyrolean Tune (1957)
Two Russian Tunes (1948)
Sonatina no.2 (c1990)
Five Short Pieces (1932)
Prelude, Minuet and Reel (1932)
Little Nocturne (c1985)
Humoresque (1957)
Homage to Percy Grainger (1978)
Cameo and Variant (1993)

Duncan Honeybourne

Heritage Records HTGCD132 [68’40”]
Producer / Engineer Paul Arden-Taylor

Recorded 7-8 September 2024 at Wyastone Concert Hall, Wyastone Leys, Monmouth

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Heritage continues its coverage of Thomas Pitfield (1903-99), following a reissued volume of chamber music (HTGCD210)) with this well-rounded and representative overview of his piano output, performed with his customary flair and conviction by Duncan Honeybourne.

What’s the music like?

The programme launches in fine style with a Toccata whose sheer rhythmic incisiveness and unforced joie de vivre makes it an ideal encore, and to which the pensive understatement of Solemn Pavan affords pertinent contrast. Written as homages to (and likely evocations of) a close-knit group of musical colleagues, The Circle Suite draws on Baroque dance forms in characterful and always personable terms; while the Capriccio underlines that, throughout his composing, Pitfield allied a deft pianistic technique to a highly appealing musical voice.

Centred on a Russian folksong ‘The Blacksmith’, no doubt conveyed to the composer by his Russian wife, Diversions on a Russian Air packs a diverse range of variants into its modest duration, while the Novelette (at 4’36’’ the longest single item here) unfolds as a rumination audibly in the English ‘pastoral’ tradition. Although they were not written concurrently, the Three Bagatelles amount to an effective sequence – their respectively nonchalant, capering then genial demeanours evoking more than a touch of early 20th century French influence.

The Central European-ness of Impromptu on a Tyrolean Tune makes it surprising this lively tune was encountered in a collection housed at a stately home in Chesire, while Two Russian Tunes comprise a playful ‘Nursery Song’ and plaintive ‘Cossack Cradle Song’. Actually, the third of three such works, the Second Sonatina separates its lively Allegro and rumbustious Finale with a ‘Threnody’ as finds the composer at his most confiding, whereas the engaging Five Short Pieces are pithy miniatures whose pedagogical function is anything but didactic.

Prelude, Minuet and Reel was Pitfield’s earliest success and has (rightly) retained a degree of popularity through its melodic insouciance and rhythmic verve. From among the remaining four pieces, Little Nocturne is most likely an intimate reflection from its composer’s old age, while Humoresque contrasts its expected levity with a surprisingly plangent middle section. Homage to Percy Grainger is a ‘take off’ idiomatic and engaging, while the alternate poise then suavity of Cameo and Variant rounds off this collection in the most disarming fashion.

Does it all work?

It does, accepting those formal and expressive limits within which Pitfield operated. For all that his performers comprised a significant roster of pianists (among them John Ogdon and John McCabe), this is music written for the composer’s pleasure and it eschews profundity without thereby lacking in depth. That he was invited to record this selection by the Pitfield Trust and researched the manuscripts at Manchester’s RNCM says much for Honeybourne’s dedication to the Pitfield cause, reinforced with playing of unfailing perception and finesse.

Is it recommended?

It is and not least as these pieces, few of them previously recorded, offer much of interest to performers and listeners alike. John Turner contributes extensive notes while Honeybourne adds his own observations, enhancing a release that warrants the warmest recommendation.

Listen / Buy

You can read more about this release and explore purchase options at the Heritage Records website

Published post no.2,577 – Friday 27 June 2025

On Record – English Symphony Orchestra / Kenneth Woods: Elgar Festival Live – Symphony no.1 & In The South (ESO Records)

Posted on by
2

Elgar
Symphony no.1 in A flat major Op.55 (1907-08)
In the South (Alassio) Op.50 (1903-04)

English Symphony Orchestra / Kenneth Woods

ESO Records ESO2501 (80’10″]
Producer and Engineer Tim Burton

Live performances at Worcester Cathedral on 4 June 2022 (In The South) and 3 June 2023 (Symphony)

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

There could hardly been a more fitting release to launch the English Symphony Orchestra’s own label than these performances drawn from past editions of the Elgar Festival, with both of them a reminder of the ESO’s formidable prowess over the range of symphonic writing.

What are the performances like?

The First Symphony may not have the usual number of strings to complement its triple wind, but due to the resonance of Worcester Cathedral this is not evident as regards internal balance. Not least in an opening movement whose motto-theme is never indulgent, setting the tone for an Allegro where expressive variety goes hand in hand with formal focus. Especially fine is a hushed transition into the reprise, then a coda that distils the equivocal mood as this subsides into ruminative calm. Woods is mindful to invest scherzo and trio with consistency of pulse, so if the former feels reined in on return, the latter has an ideal poise and wistfulness. Nor is the transition other than indicative of the Adagio’s profundity, Woods negotiating its soulful main theme and wistful episodes with unerring rightness through to the ineffable closing bars.

If the finale has any marginal falling-off of inspiration, it is not apparent here. Sombre if shot through with expectancy, its introduction launches an Allegro whose alternating incisiveness and suavity holds good over an impulsive development, then a transformation of the codetta whose pathos intensifies for an apotheosis where the motto-theme carries all before it. Not that the closing pages are bombastic or grandiloquent in import – rather, they set the seal on a work whose affirmation is made the greater for its having been so purposefully attained.

As for In the South, the main issue is in setting a tempo flexible enough to accommodate this concert overture’s extended sonata design without it becoming episodic. Here a surging main theme, its speculative transition and suave second theme emerge seamlessly – the underlying tension carried into a development whose impulsiveness is maintained across the intervening first episode. Amply evoking the grandeur of ‘empires past’, this is astutely handled such that its implacability eschews bathos. If the second ‘canto populare’ episode is just a little reticent, its expressive raptness – and Carl Hill’s eloquent playing of its indelible viola melody – more than compensates. Nor is there any loss of continuity during the reprise, Woods’s building of momentum near the start of the coda ensuring an irresistible yet never overbearing peroration.

Does it all work?

Almost always. ESO concerts at the Elgar Festival have yielded numerous performances of note, with In the South among the finest yet in vindicating a work that can all too easily fall victim to its seeming indulgencies. Nor is that of the First Symphony far behind in revealing the formal intricacy and expressive variety of music as personal as is any of this composer’s major works. Anyone who may have harboured doubts about either piece is likely to be won over, confirming an empathy as augers well for the Second Symphony at this year’s festival.

Is it recommended?

Absolutely. These readings are far more than mementos of their concerts, this being ‘Volume 1’ suggests that further performances from the Elgar Festival will be made available. Note too the first instalment of a Sibelius cycle is downloadable as the second release on ESO Records.

Listen / Buy

You can read more about this release and explore purchase options at the ESO website Click to read more about the English Symphony Orchestra, conductor Kenneth Woods and the Elgar Festival 2025

Published post no.2,536 – Sunday 18 May 2025

On Record – Hallé / Kahchun Wong: Bruckner: Symphony no.9 (fourth movement revised by Dr. John A. Phillips) (Hallé)

Posted on by
Reply

Bruckner, ed. Kito Sakaya Symphony no.9 in D minor WAB109 (1887-96)
with performing edition of finale by Nicole Samale, John A. Phillips, Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs and Giuseppe Mazzuca (1983-2012) as revised by John A. Phillips (2021-22)

Hallé / Kahchun Wong

Hallé CDHLD7566 [two discs 88’24’’]
Producer Steve Portnoi Engineers Tony Wass, Edward Cittanova

Recorded 26 October 2024 at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

The Hallé furthers its association with principal conductor and artistic advisor Kahchun Wong in this recording of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony, the finale heard in a new edition prepared by John A. Phillips as the ostensible culmination of a process extending back across four decades.

What’s the music like?

Although his introductory note leaves no doubt as to his advocacy for Bruckner Nine, Wong’s approach is not an unqualified success overall. Doubts such as they are centre on the opening two movements, the first of which lacks that sustained inevitability and cumulative intensity necessary to make its extensive span cohere. Aptly contrasted in themselves, its three themes follow on each other without establishing any greater continuity and while the approach to its development yields tangible ominousness, the ensuing climax conveys less than the ultimate terror, though its coda does attain a fearsome majesty. Wong’s take on the second movement succeeds best in its trio’s speculative flights of fancy, which only makes the relative stolidity and emotional disengagement of its Scherzo sections the more surprising and disappointing.

The highlight is undoubtedly the Adagio. Without intervening unduly in its evolution, Wong ensures cohesion over a movement manifestly riven if not outright fractured by the starkness of its thematic contrasts. The journey towards its seismic culmination feels as eventful as it is absorbing and while that climax is less shattering than it can be, the clarity afforded its dense harmonies could not be bettered. Wong is mindful, moreover, not to allow its coda to broaden into an extended postlude but instead to keep this moving in anticipation of what is to follow.

This is hardly the place to go into the whys or wherefores of the ‘SPCM’ edition of the Finale. Given his intensive research into the issues of what is extant and what Bruckner intended for the crowning movement of his grandest symphonic design, Phillips is ideally placed in making his revisions to a completion which renders some striking yet often disparate material from a focussed and convincing perspective. The main alterations are those made to its latter stages, more streamlined and with less overt rhetoric than in the 2011 revision as recorded by Simon Rattle (Warner) though, to this listener at least, the 2008 revision as recorded by Friedemann Layer (Musikalische Akademie) still remains the most convincing in context. Whatever else, Wong conveys the extent of this gripping torso right through to the elation of its apotheosis.

Does it all work?

How well this performance succeeds depends on how one judges the necessity of that closing movement and the persuasiveness of Wong’s interpretation as a whole. Pertinent comparison might be made with the Hallé’s previous recording (also on its own label) – Cristian Mandeal drawing a response that, in the first two movements, has a power and intensity in advance of this newcomer. Interesting he should eschew the finale while instilling into those three earlier movements a sense of completion which, whether or not intentionally, is its own justification.

Is it recommended?

It is, whatever the reservations here expressed. This is not the final word on a four-movement Bruckner Nine any more than on Wong’s evolving interpretation though, with realistic sound alongside Phillips’s detailed while informative annotations, it is evidently a mandatory listen.

Listen / Buy

You can read more about this release and explore purchase options at the Hallé website

Published post no.2,518 – Wednesday 30 April 2025

On Record – Soloists, BBC National Chorus and Orchestra of Wales / Adrian Partington – Grace Williams: Missa Cambrensis (Lyrita)

Posted on by
Reply

Grace Williams Missa Cambrensis (1968-71)

April Fredrick (soprano), Angharad Lyddon (mezzo-soprano), Robert Murray (tenor)
Paul Carey Jones (bass), Dr Rowan Williams (narrator); Côr Heol y March, BBC National Chorus and Orchestra of Wales / Adrian Partington

Lyrita SRCD442 [66’41’’] Latin / Welsh text and English translation included
Producer / Engineer Adrian Farmer, Engineer Simon Smith

Recorded 20-21 January 2024 at BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Lyrita continues its coverage of Grace Williams (1906-1977) with her largest concert work, Missa Cambrensis, in a recent studio recording which confirms it as the defining statement from a composer who, almost half a century since her death, is only now receiving her due.

What’s the music like?

As Paul Conway observes in his typically thorough booklet notes, Missa Cambrensis is one among a number of works by Williams that is Welsh only in a titular sense. Premiered at the Llandaff Festival in 1971, it was well received by fellow composers, critics and public alike but not heard again until 2016 in a performance one recalls as originally intended for release on Lyrita and which can be heard via the composer’s dedicated website. Not that the present account is other than successful in conveying the essence of this powerful yet elusive piece.

Many settings of the Mass since Haydn have unfolded a symphonic trajectory, but Williams goes further with the division into five clearly defined movements. The initial Kyrie Eleison not only introduces most of those salient motifs but also establishes that tone, mystical in its undulating equivocation, such as characterizes this work’s long-term expression: the contrast here between choral and soloistic textures duly accentuated by their hieratic and supplicatory quality. This duly sets up an emotional contrast intensified in the Gloria, outwardly the most straightforward part of the work but with a calmly ecstatic response at Laudamus te then an eloquent Dominus Deus that are nothing if not personal, together with an intensely wrought Cum Sancto Spiritu whose culminating Amen’s convey a distinctly ambivalent affirmation.

As most often, the Credo is the most substantial portion but Williams rings the changes by dividing this into halves, a pertinent division coming at Et homo factus est and Crucifíxus étiam pro nobis. In between are interpolated a setting of Saunders Lewis’s Carol Nadolig (A Christmas Carol) for children’s voices with viola, cello and harp of melting pathos, offset by a starkly narrative treatment of the ‘Beatitudes’ prior to a mostly ruminative resumption of the Credo. Pivoting between contemplation and elation, the Sanctus is rounded off by a joyful Hosánna in excélsis which is not to be heard again after the subdued eloquence of the Benedictus. An anguished response to the Agnus Dei feels the more acute, as also a searching Dona Nobis Pacem which brings the work full circle to its contemplative close.

Does it all work?

Yes, and with an understated while readily identifiable personality that surely makes this the most potent setting of the Mass from a Welsh composer. Subliminal influences might not be hard to discern, among them Britten’s War Requiem, but they never detract from Williams’s own idiom. The soloists cannot be faulted in terms of commitment, with Rowan Williams a notably incisive reciter, while Adrian Partington secures a lustrous response from his choral and orchestral forces. Overall, it is hard to imagine the work given with greater conviction.

Is it recommended?

It is indeed, not least in the hope that further live hearings of Missa Cambrensis may prove forthcoming. Good news, moreover, that Lyrita has now acquired the premiere performance of Williams’s only completed opera, The Parlour, which is scheduled for imminent release.

Listen & Buy

You can read more about this release at the Wyastone website

Published post no.2,516 – Monday 28 April 2025