Mark Peters last made an album to chart his move back to Wigan in 2018. On the rather wonderful and vividly descriptive Innerland he made a windswept musical documentary of his travels, capturing the North of England in all its glory.
Now as he returns to the album format his gaze is cast much further afield – to America. Red SunsetDreams is a form of ‘ambient country’ music, using Peters’ trademark style of slowly shifting panoramas but bringing authentic instruments to the table, using banjo and steel guitar in the creation of these dusty images.
What’s the music like?
Red Sunset Dreams is in keeping with previous Mark Peters albums, but now with added American flavour, giving a real sense of time and place. It is bookended by two magical contributions from Dot Allison. The first is the breathy Switch On The Sky, beautifully matched by the sonic clouds in Peters’ production, the beat slowly making its way across the sky and the unmistakable, friendly patter of the banjo. Now Is The Time is the encouraging mantra with which she ends. Sundowning ends the album in a blaze of light, a wordless contribution this time that is boosted by sensitively placed lap steel guitar.
Peters’ use of instruments is notable. The banjo appears again in Tamaroa, taking a prominent role, while the distinctive tones of pedal steel guitarist BJ Cole hold sway in Silver River. A spacious backdrop for Dusty Road Ramble really sets the scene, the listener able to picture the scenery as it trundles past, while Red Sunset Dreams itself is wide open and spacious, a richly coloured reverie for the listener to fully indulge in.
Does it all work?
It does. Peters has an instinctive pacing in all his work, knowing just how long to make the tracks, when to push on and when to pull back and appreciate the musical scenery. All are wonderfully in place here, with the added bonus of more instruments to create the evocative moments.
Is it recommended?
Absolutely. Red Sunset Dreams is a fine addition to the Mark Peters canon.
Tippett Quartet [John Mills, Jeremy Isaac (violins), Lydia Lowndes-Northcott (viola), Bozidar Vukotic (cello)]
VaughanWilliams String Quartet no.2 in A minor (1942-43) Holsted. Swanston Phantasy Quartet (1916) VaughanWilliams String Quartet no.1 in G minor (1909)
Somm Recordings SOMMCD 0656 Producer Siva Oke Engineer Adaq Khan Recorded 7-8 February 2022, St. Nicholas Parish Church, Thames Ditton
Reviewed by Ben Hogwood
What’s the story?
In case you have missed it, 2022 marks 150 years since the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams. A great deal has been made of his symphonic and choral output, and rightly so, but an added benefit of such an anniversary is the chance to look at other relatively neglected corners of a composer’s work. Chamber music is one such area that is infrequently explored, and there are some fine works ready for reappraisal.
The two published string quartets sit as principal examples. The String Quartet no.1 in G minor was written in Paris, during a period of study with Ravel, and reflects new influences at work in 1909. A great deal of water had past under the bridge by the arrival of the String Quartet no.2 in A minor in 1942-43. Written for the composer’s friend Jean Stewart, who played viola in the Menges Quartet, it gives great deal of prominence to her instrument.
Complementing the quartets is the Phantasy Quartet by Gustav Holst, a close friend and confidante of Vaughan Williams for many years. Their mutual love of folksong is perhaps their strongest musical link, though as the quartet shows Holst had a different way of expressing his sources. Claiming the work was ‘insufficient’, the composer withdrew it some years after its first performance in 1917, though his daughter Imogen saw its worth and published a version for string orchestra. On this recording the Tippett Quartet use an edition made by Roderick Swanston.
What’s the music like?
The Vaughan Williams quartets are a complementary pairing, and although starting with the later work may seem a curious decision it makes good musical sense in the context of this recording.
As described above, the viola takes an assertive lead in the first movement of the String Quartet no.2, pushing the source material forward with silvery tones that nonetheless have a strong autumnal shade. The harmonic writing is shot through with an anxiety reminding us of this work’s position in the Second World War and its proximity to the Sixth Symphony, a powerful yet haunted work. The solemn second movement is deepened further by an almost complete lack of vibrato, while the viola takes charge again in the ghostly third movement, with the other instruments muted. The prayerful finale offers some solace, referring to the reverent calm of the recently completed Fifth Symphony, but the end is still shrouded in uncertainty.
The String Quartet no.1 is often talked about in the same breath as Ravel, but Debussy and Borodin are notable influences here. After a tautly argued first movement, the Scherzo is particularly successful, its motif recurring with just the right degree of playfulness. The third movement Romance is lovingly rendered, while the finale has a great deal of positive energy, Vaughan Williams showing great agility in his writing for four instruments that often sound like a small string orchestra.
Holst’s Phantasy Quartet is beautifully judged, celebrating its folk sources but also throwing context of light and shade that reflect another time of uncertainty during the First World War. The work has more than a little in common with the celebrated St Paul’s Suite for string orchestra, moving between energetic tunes and more thoughtful episodes, where a shadow passes over the face of the music.
Does it all work?
It does. These are fine performances from the Tippett Quartet, who understand the emotional and often anxious pull of the second quartet. Its urgency is compelling, and the harmonic tensions are finely judged here. Meanwhile the compositional promise of the first quartet is clearly shown, with its rich melodic content and the vigorous exchanges of the outer movements, which are extremely well played. The Holst is affectionately given, the quartet revelling in the folk melodies but also the composer’s imaginative harmonies. Swanston’s version works extremely well.
Is it recommended?
Enthusiastically. There are already some fine recordings of the Vaughan Williams string quartets, but the Tippett Quartet join the very best with performances of spirit and deep feeling. The Holst is the ideal complement, and with excellent booklet notes (Robert Matthew-Walker) and a cover picture to match (Simon Palmer) this is one of the finest releases so far in the Vaughan Williams 150 celebrations.
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You can listen to clips from the recordings and explore purchase options at the Somm Recordings website
Alexander Tcherepnin Arabesque Op.11/5 (1921)a; Violin Sonata in F major Op.14 (1921)b; Romance WoO7a (1922)a; Élégie Op.43 (1927)a Ivan Tcherepnin Cadenzas in Transition (1963)c; Pensamiento (1996)d Nikolai Tcherepnin Poème lyrique Op.9 (1900)a; Andante and Finale Op. posth (1943)a
Live performances on c9 February 1997, d3 January 2002, aApril 18/19, 2019, b27 July 2021
Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse
What’s the story?
Toccata Classics’s Next imprint continues its enterprising schedule with a release of chamber music by three generations of the Tcherepnin musical dynasty, thereby illustrating the stylistic differences between them while also a degree of continuity across almost a century of music.
What’s the music like?
Nikolai Tcherepnin (1872-1945) may best be remembered as teacher (not least of Prokofiev) and conductor (including the first season of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes), but he left a sizable output across the broad range of genres. Cannily representative of either end of his creativity, Poème Lyrique exudes a demonstrably fin-de-siècle Romanticism in its emotional flights of fancy within an already heightened expressive context, while Andante and Finale finds the aging composer looking back with affection – just a little tinged with regret – to an era four decades passed. If the former piece admits of impressionist elements, the latter looks to the full-blooded manner of Russia’s ‘silver age’ in its bracing energy and ultimate extroversion.
Alexander Tcherepnin (1899-1977) left a representative body of chamber music, not least for violin and piano – the brief Romance evincing a wistful lyrism that becomes darker and more ambiguous in the Élégie, having found its more capricious outlet in the Arabesque (fifth in a set of five). Much the most substantial of these works, the Violin Sonata comes after the First Piano Concerto and before three sets of songs to Sergei Gorodetzky (as recorded on Toccata TOCC0537). Its three concise movements proceed from an Allegro moderato whose agitation is redolent of Prokofiev, via a Larghetto whose pensive initial bars for piano build to a climax of real eloquence, to a Vivace whose capering dialogue makes its way to an affirmative close.
Ivan Tcherepnin (1943-98) may have left a less tangible legacy than his predecessors, owing largely to his activities earlier being focussed on electronic and installation media. Not that the brief Pensamiento is other than alluring with its interplay between flute and piano, which are joined by clarinet for Cadenzas in Transition. Written while the composer was still in his teens, this ranges freely across textures and moods without ever arriving at a destination – a trajectory which is most likely embodied in its title. Certainly, the contributions of Sue-Ellen Hershman-Tcherepnin and Ian Greitzer, alongside that of Donald Berman, make the strongest case for a piece that is disconcertingly formless or teasingly improvisatory according to taste.
Does it all work?
Almost always. It has been said that the Tcherepnin’s tended to be reactive in their musical idioms instead of setting the pace for others, but that would be to overlook the distinctiveness of Alexander’s output in particular – a legacy such as deserves to reclaim at least some of the standing it enjoyed in the mid-20th century. Those of Nikolai and especially Ivan can only be reassessed when more of their larger pieces are available. Neither performances nor recording leave anything to be desired, as is equally true of David Witten’s comprehensive booklet notes.
Is it recommended?
Yes, and hopefully Toccata will be issuing more from this source. Nikolai’s later ballets and symphonic poems, or Ivan’s Grawemeyer Award-winning Double Concerto would be a good place to start – while not forgetting the latter’s sons, Stefan and Sergei, are also composers.
incantati [Emma Murphy (soprano/alto/tenor recorders, voice flute); Rachel Scott (viola d’amore); Asako Morikawa (viola da gamba)]
J. S. Bach Inventions, BWV772-86 (selection): no.1 in C; no.2 in C minor; No.4 in D minor; No.7 in E minor; no.8 in F; no.10 in G; No.11 in G minor; No.13 in A minor; No.15 in B minor. Sinfonias, BWV787-801 (selection): no.1 in C; no.4 in D minor; no.8 in F; no.9 in F minor; no.11 in G minor; no.13 in A minor Chorale-Preludes: Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend BWV655; Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten BWV691; Allein Gott in der Höh sei Her BWV716 Trio Sonata no.3 in D minor BWV527 Trio Sonata no.6 in G major BWV530/2 Aria in G major (from Goldberg Variations BWV988)
First Hand Records FHR122 [59’48”]
Producer Tom Hammond Engineer John Croft
Recorded 19-21 May 2021 at Church of the Ascension, Plumstead, London
Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse
What’s the story?
The trio incantati performs a miscellany of pieces by Bach, including selections from the two-part Inventions and the three-part Sinfonias, excerpts from the trio sonatas and several chorale preludes in what is a diverting hour-long recital by three complementary Baroque instruments.
What’s the music like?
Both the Inventions and Sinfonias stem from Bach’s period in service to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen during 1717-23. Both sets comprise 15 pieces that ascend in chromatic order (from C major to B minor) and they explore a range of formal and contrapuntal possibilities. While the Inventions are often canonic and the Sinfonias are mainly fugal, there are various instances where Bach allows his melodic inspiration full rein. Conceived as teaching pieces they may have been – most notably for his eldest son, the talented though quixotic Wilhelm Freidemann – but there is never any feeling that these cannot be appreciated as music for its own sake. Perhaps the ideal way to enjoy them is to play them, but few of those who do will find themselves able to match the discipline and insight conveyed by the present musicians.
Also included here are three chorale-preludes which can be found in either of the Notebooks for Anna Magdalena Bach that the composer assembled from a variety of sources (including music by other composers) while at Cöthen and later at Leipzig. Although these may be less intricately textured than the two- and three-part pieces, their focus on elaborating the melodic line against a spare if pertinent harmonic accompaniment brings its own rewards. Otherwise, the trio sonatas are drawn from the set of six Bach likewise assembled in Leipzig and which also derive from pedagogic material written with Wilhelm Friedmann in mind. The third of these pieces is included here complete – its three movements being ruminative, eloquent and vivacious. The Aria on which Bach based his Goldberg Variations makes for a limpid envoi.
Does it all work?
It does. For all its economy and restraint, this music is never easy to perform and record such that the delicate interplay can be savoured in real-time – but incantati and Chiaro Audio have done just that. It helps when the pieces played have been judiciously chosen to underline the variety that Bach draws from his textures and in relatively diverse contexts. Put another way -none of this music is unfamiliar even to non-specialists, but hearing it played thus ensures it is not predictable. Ivan Moody’s succinctly informative notes are an additional enhancement.
Is it recommended?
Indeed. As recommendable as this release is in musical terms, it also and regrettably serves a commemorative function. Emma Murphy, who died in August from the effects of an auto-immune disorder just before her 50th birthday, was among the leading recorder players of her generation and respected advocate for her instrument whether as performer or teacher. Tom Hammond, who died last December from heart failure at 47, was a musician of many talents – trombonist, conductor (notably those premieres of Matthew Taylor’s Third Symphony and his Flute Concerto) of Sound Collective and Sinfonia Tamesa, teacher (masterclasses on the occupied West Bank in Israel), co-organizer of Hertfordshire Music Festival and producer for Chiaro Audio. This proved to be their final recorded project, and both will be greatly missed.
Bunin Viola Sonata in D minor Op.26 (1955) Glinka (ed. Borisovsky) Viola Sonata in D minor (1825-8) Shebalin Viola Sonata in F minor Op.51/2 (1954) Sokolov Viola Sonata (2006)
Toccata Next TOCN0014 [69’31”]
Producers Basil Vendryes, William David Engineers Bras Smalling, Athena Wilkinson
Recorded 28 September – 1 October 2020 at Mathie Music Salon, Glendale, Colorado
Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse
What’s the story?
Toccata Classics’s Next imprint comes up with an enterprising concept in four viola sonatas extending across 178 years of Russian music, all sympathetically played and recorded while revealing numerous similarities, as well as contrasts, in approach between these composers.
What’s the music like?
Chamber music occupied Mikhail Glinka (1804-57) for barely a decade until the early 1830s, but there are substantial pieces – among them a Viola Sonata whose finale was never written, and slow movement finished in 1932 by Vadim Borisovsky (founder violist of the Beethoven Quartet). The resulting torso is still impressive in its formal ambition and expressive sweep – whether the Allegro moderato with its decidedly serious and often combative tone, then the Larghetto whose halting lyricism yields appealing if restrained eloquence towards the close.
Despite building a sizable catalogue, including 10 symphonies (the second being premiered by Yevgeny Mravinsky), Revol Bunin (1924-76) died without having attained real success at home or abroad. Written for Rudolf Barshai, his Viola Sonata is deceptively understated as to its technical demands and musical substance – a weighty opening Allegro setting up decisive contrast with a central Andantino of greater pathos than its ‘semplice’ marking suggests, then a sombre introduction into another Allegro that maintains unflagging purpose until its ending.
Currently residing in Germany and best known as a pianist of wide-ranging sympathies, Ivan Sokolov (b1960) contributes a Viola Sonata whose relative brevity (barely 12 minutes) feels matched by its circumspection – the pensive opening Allegro leading, via an unaccompanied passage, into an Andante akin to an ‘album-leaf’ in its unaffected poise then an even shorter Allegro which functions as the improvisatory scherzo into a finale revisiting both mood and material of the first movement, now imbued with a fatalism that persists through to the close.
The music of Vissarion Shabalin (1902-63) is showing tentative signs of a return to favour – understandable in the case of his Viola Sonata, central part in a triptych of such pieces also for violin and cello. Written just before that by Bunin, the opening Allegro is less forceful in its rhythmic profile if more accommodating in melodic content, with the central Andante all but permeated by folksong inflections across its reticent course – an aspect shared by the final Allegro with its respectively animated and amiable themes, rounded off by a trenchant close.
Does it all work?
Yes. Not all these works are of equal quality, but the Bunin and Shebalin sonatas should be in the still too limited repertoire for this instrument while also representing these underestimated composers at something near their best. Both works, incidentally, are otherwise unavailable in modern recordings so that Basil Vendryes and William David place listeners in their debt with their perceptive if sometimes overly dogged readings. The sound is a little dry but never to the detriment of this music-making, with Derek Katz’s detailed notes an undoubted enhancement.
Is it recommended?
It is. Those who acquire it will hopefully be encouraged to seek out further music by the latter three composers – Shebalin being adequately represented (though his symphonies and string quartets need to be reissued), Bunin hardly at all and Sokolov with a further Toccata release.
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