Tag Archives: Jaime Martín

On Record – Geneva Lewis, Clare Hammond, BBC National Orchestra of Wales – Grace Williams: Violin Concerto, Elegy, Sinfonia Concertante (Lyrita)

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Geneva Lewis (violin, Violin Concerto), Clare Hammond (piano, Sinfonia Concertante), BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Jaime Martin (Violin Concerto), Ryan Bancroft (Elegy), Jac van Steen (Sinfonia Concertante)

Grace Williams
Violin Concerto (1949-50)
Elegy (1936, rev. 1940)
Sinfonia Concertante (1941)

Lyrita SRCD447 [59’09”]
Producer Mike Sims Engineers Andrew Smilie, Simon Smith (Violin Concerto)

Broadcast performances at Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff on 12 February 2022 (Elegy) and 22 September 2022 (Sinfonia Concertante); live performance from Royal Albert Hall, London on 8 August 2023 (Violin Concerto)

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Lyrita continues its exploration of Grace Williams with this enticing collection of orchestral works dating from before, during and after the Second World War. All the pieces feature the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, which has championed this composer over nine decades.

What’s the music like?

Earliest here is the Elegy for strings that, evidently overhauled and re-scored after several hearings, falls within an extensive lineage of such miniatures (in length but not expressive scope) by British composers. Scored for muted violins and violas, the initial idea evinces a ruminative austerity such as persists to the main climax; after which, a heartfelt passage for solo strings presages the more conciliatory mood setting in near its end. Ryan Bancroft has the measure of a piece whose emotional depth is out of all proportion to its modest duration.

Although conceived prior to the above, Williams did not commence work on what became her Sinfonia Concertante until the turn of the next decade. With its compact dimensions and intensive integration of piano and orchestra, its title (actually suggested by pianist Michael Mullinar) is well chosen. If the opening Allegro never quite finds the right balance between its impulsive and yielding main themes, the central slow movement is Williams at her most characteristic with its unfolding as terraces of mounting intensity toward a powerful climax which subsides into pensive resignation; the final Alla Marcia duly maintaining its impetus through to a forceful if never hectoring close. Clare Hammond is at her inquiring best in an account as finds Jac van Steen handling some passing issues of balance with real adeptness.

For its part, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales is no less attuned to the very different ethos of the Violin Concerto, which it premiered with soloist Granville Jones almost 75 years back. New Zealand-born Geneva Lewis proves to be a sympathetic advocate – even if the opening Liricamenta surely requires a more purposeful sense of direction for its enfolding inwardness not to risk inertia. Not that her unforced manner and tonal elegance are other than appropriate, as is even more evident in the central Andante with its impressionist eddying of phrases and fastidious timbral shading. Following on attacca, the final Allegro sees the work’s only swift music in which Lewis’s deftness gains from her assured co-ordination with Jaime Martin. Its cadenza is incisively despatched, and the coda more satisfying for its teasing unexpectedness.

Does it all work?

Almost always. The Violin Concerto is a work with which its composer never seems to have been wholly satisfied, but such reservations as there are centre less on its actual content than on the difficulty – at least in its opening movement – of controlling overall momentum such that the music coheres overall. Lewis is by no means unsuccessful, though comparison with earlier performances that are available online suggests other soloists may have gone further in this respect. A reminder, moreover, that Williams’s music does not necessarily ‘play itself’.

Is it recommended?

Indeed. The Cardiff broadcasts benefit from the superb acoustic of Hoddinott Hall, while the Proms account of the Violin Concerto has far more immediacy than ‘on the night’. Typically informed and informative notes by Paul Conway round out what is a mandatory acquisition.

Listen / Buy

You can hear excerpts from the album and explore purchase options at the Lyrita website and the Presto Music website, and click on the names for more information on violinist Geneva Lewis, pianist Clare Hammond, conductors Jaime Martin, Ryan Bancroft and Jac van Steen, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and composer Grace Williams

Published post no.2,808 – Tuesday 24 February 2026

BBC Proms 2023 – Geneva Lewis, BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Jaime Martín – Pejačević, Grace Williams & Holst

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Prom 32 – Geneva Lewis (violin), BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Jaime Martín

Pejačević Overture in D minor Op.49 (1919) [Proms premiere]
Williams Violin Concerto (1950) [Proms premiere]
Holst The Planets Op.32 (1914-17)

Royal Albert Hall, London
Tuesday 8 August 2023

by Richard Whitehouse photos by Chris Christodoulou / BBC

Although this evening’s Prom did not quite conform to that ‘overture – concerto – symphony’ format it came quite close, with its first half bringing to the attention of a near-capacity house two representative pieces by women composers who most definitely warrant greater exposure.

The centenary of Dora Pejačević’s death has duly consolidated what was already a burgeoning reputation curtailed by her untimely demise at only 37. Written two years after her impressive Symphony, which Sakari Oramo has performed and recorded (and will revive at these concerts on August 14th) to great acclaim, the Overture is a curtain-raiser as succinct as it is eventful – ably contrasting its respectively impetuous and equable main ideas in a tensile development, then on to a coda which rounds off this immensely appealing piece with decisive affirmation.

With Jaime Martín an animated podium presence, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales gave it a rousing rendition then was no less finely attuned to the very different ethos of the Violin Concerto by Grace Williams, which it premiered (as the BBC Welsh Orchestra) 73 years ago. There have been few performances since but, on the basis of that tonight, New Zealand-born Geneva Lewis is an eloquent advocate – even if the initial Liricamente arguably needed more purposeful sense of direction for its pensive and often searching inwardness not to risk inertia.

Not that Lewis’ unforced manner or tonal elegance were other than appropriate in this music, as was demonstrated even more directly in the central Andante with its impressionist eddying of melodic phrases and fastidious timbral shading. Following without pause, the final Allegro brought the work’s only fast music in which Lewis’s deftness and articulation gained through her assured coordination with BBCNOW. The cadenza was incisively despatched, while the ensuing coda brought the work to a close the more satisfying for its teasing unexpectedness.

There cannot have been many Proms season this past half-century when Holst’s The Planets has not been played, and it would be good to have welcomed this account more consistently. As it was, the performance took time to recover from a Mars whose stolid tread and lack of textural clarity made for a less than gripping traversal. Venus was better, for all that Martín’s fluctuations of pulse undercut its essential raptness, and though Mercury started off with the requisite humour, some effortful playing in its latter stages left the music feeling earthbound.

This was less of an issue in Jupiter, whose outer sections had all the right verve and energy, even if the trio’s indelible tune verged on the blousy. Pacing its stark opening bars effectively, Martín rather rushed the baleful climax of Saturn, though the radiance of what followed was nothing if not eloquent and bought the best out of BBCNOW. Uranus was almost as fine in this respect, and if the central processional sounded affable rather than sardonic, the sudden emptiness of its closing stages prepared well enough for the otherworldliness of Neptune.

If Martín might have obtained even more hushed and inward playing in this final movement, a sensuous contribution from the London Symphony Chorus enhanced the music-making. An enjoyable reading, albeit one where the whole was less than the sum of its individual planets.

For more on the 2023 BBC Proms, visit the festival’s website at the BBC. You can also click on the link to listen to Dora Pejačević’s Cello Sonata, performed by Laura van der Heijden and Jâms Coleman as part of their Proms at Dewsbury concert on 6 August.

Meanwhile click on the names for more information on artists Geneva Lewis, Jaime Martín and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales – and for information on the composers Dora Pejačević, Grace Williams and Holst