Tag Archives: Simon Callaghan

On Record – Berkeley Ensemble: Beauty Veil’d (EM Records)

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Berkeley Ensemble [Sophie McQueen, Francesca Barritt (violins), Dan Shilladay (viola), Gemma Wareham (cello)] with Tom Wraith (cello, Dare), Simon Callaghan (piano – Dare, Howell Adagio and Caprice, Matthay)

Dare Phantasy Quintet (1933-4)
Howell Adagio and Caprice (1955); String Quartet in D minor (1933)
Matthay Piano Quartet in C major Op.20 (1882, rev.1905)
McEwan Nugae (1912)

EM Records EMRCD091 [58’13”]
Producer Matthew Bennett Engineer Dave Rowell

Recorded 28-30 August 2024 at St John the Evangelist, Oxford

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

EM Records continues its in-depth exploration of neglected music with these first recordings by proceeding generations of British composers, superbly realized by the Berkeley Ensemble which has made it its mission to revive such works for the enjoyment of present-day listeners.

What’s the music like?

Remembered mainly for miniatures still featuring on Associated Board examinations, Marie Dare (1902-76) wrote several larger chamber works. The (not quite) symmetrical form of her Phantasy Quintet is adeptly handled, and if this piece does not quite maintain the expressive intensity of its initial section, the elaboration of its themes ensures a satisfying overall design. The presence of two cellos yields a burnished eloquence to the musical textures, and interest is sufficiently aroused to make a hearing of her String Quartet in G minor worth considering.

More striking are the two works by Dorothy Howell (1898-1982), the revival of whose music has centred on her orchestral output. Deftly scored for violin and piano, Adagio and Caprice moves between reticence and impulsiveness with a seamless cohesion. If the String Quartet is slightly less well integrated, it is also more questing harmonically with its opening section distilling a keen atmosphere that persists right through to a lively close. A pity Howell never wrote a full-length quartet, but the present pieces deserves their place on recital programmes.

His not uncontroversial reputation as piano pedagogue having overshadowed his legacy as a composer, Tobias Matthay (1958-1945) left a handful of chamber works of which the Piano Quartet prefigures the ‘phantasy’ concept in its single movement of interrelated sections that, between them, outline a formal design whose thematic elements are evolving right up to the resolute close. Worth hearing, but a complete recording of 31 Variations and Derivations on an Original Theme for piano is needed for a fuller reassessment of Matthay’s creative worth.

Ironic that Matthay’s Piano Quartet should have been dedicated to John Blackwood McEwan, whose subsequent condemnation of his teaching led to the former’s departure from the Royal Academy. Subtitled Seven Bagatelles and actually the fifth of his 17 string quartets, Nugae evokes various aspects of that Scottish landscape central to his thinking (notably the Solway Symphony) – its characterful alternation between brooding and animated vignettes making a cohesive sequence whose components would be equally worth hearing as separate encores.

Does it all work?

Pretty much always. There are no overlooked masterpieces here, though the works by Howell and McEwan certainly warrant regular hearings. That these are all premiere recordings makes this release a mandatory purchase for anyone interested in British music of the period and the Berkeley Ensemble, alongside Tom Wraith and Simon Callaghan, do them proud. The sound could hardly be improved on for clarity and definition, while Dan Shilladay’s annotations are informative and not unduly partisan in their making a case for the dissemination of this music.

Is it recommended?

It is indeed. Those who have the Chilingirian Quartet’s three volumes of McEwan’s quartets (Chandos) will welcome acquiring the present piece as a supplement, and one looks forward to further recordings of chamber works by Dare and Howell from these inquiring musicians.

Listen / Buy

You can hear excerpts from the album at the EM Records website, and explore purchase options at the Presto website. Click on the names to read more about the Berkeley Ensemble, Simon Callaghan and Tim Wraith, and composers Marie Dare, Dorothy Howell, Tobias Matthay and John Blackwood McEwan

Published post no.2,801 – Tuesday 17 February 2026

On Record – George Lloyd: The Works for Violin and Piano (Lyrita)

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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.

Listen & Buy

For further information visit the dedicated page for the George Lloyd Signature Series. For more on the composer himself, head to the George Lloyd website

Published post no.2,375 – Wednesday 27 November 2024

On record: Simon Callaghan: The Open Window – Sir George Dyson: Complete Music for Piano (Somm Recordings)

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Simon Callaghan (piano) *Clíodna Shanahan (piano)

Dyson
Concerto Leggiero (1951)*
The Open Window (1919)
Primrose Mount (1928)
Bach’s Birthday (1929)
Untitled Piano Piece (1890)
Six Lyrics (1920)
My Birthday (1924)
Twelve Easy Pieces (1952)
Prelude and Ballet (1925)
Epigrams (1920)
Three Wartime Epigrams (1920)
Four Twilight Preludes (1920)

Somm Recordings SOMMCD0622-2 [101’58”]
Producer Siva Oke
Engineer Paul Arden-Taylor

Recorded 17-18 January 2020 The Menuhin Hall, Stoke d’Abernon, UK

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

As the cover suggests, this double album gives us the complete music for piano of Sir George Dyson, including five world premiere recordings ranging from the first piece the composer wrote at the age of seven to a two-piano version of Concerto Leggero, a substantial three-movement work for piano and orchestra completed in 1951.

Paul Spicer, the composer’s biographer, contributes a wonderful booklet note telling the story of Dyson’s life and highlighting the importance of the house piano, brought by Dyson’s parents to encourage his obvious gift for musical in the midst of an impoverished upbringing. It is rather moving to read of the composer’s progression through these years, the piano by his side at every turn.

What’s the music like?

The album is beautifully programmed, taking the biggest piece first. The Concerto Leggiero has many harmonic sleights and twists and turns, especially through its first movement, to which Simon Callaghan and Clíodna Shanahan are alive. This is in complete contrast to the early Dyson piano pieces, which are little nuggets you might expect to encounter in early piano learning – but which have an emotional substance ensuring they last well beyond that sphere.

The Open Window itself is charming, with a softly undulating Field and Wood the first of its eight short movements. Dyson’s descriptions are often little picture postcards, such as the restless description of Swallows, but they frequently have an emotive core, found most poignantly in the closing Evensong. In the same way this short suite was written for young pianists to develop their prowess, the Six Lyrics offer the same opportunity through their melodic cells.

Dyson’s very first Untitled Piano Piece is also included, the seven-year old composer offering a bold attempt lasting just under a minute. At the other end of the scale the Epigrams are slightly shady but intense pockets of emotion, each one somehow finding the uncertainty of post-First World War Britain. The Four Twilight Preludes are disarmingly simple, too, elusive portraits that hang in the air and on occasion call Debussy’s music for children to mind. These small but meaningful pieces show the composer’s ability to bring emotion from what on the outside appears to be simple material.

Bach’s Birthday, meanwhile, shows the composer’s skill at working tight compositional procedures into his music. He uses fugues here in music of remarkable density and expression.

Does it all work?

Yes – because Simon Callaghan proves a very sympathetic interpreter, and the programming gives exactly the right balance of light and shade. Given with affection, it is a charming set of music that works as a pleasant background but is more substantial when listened to closely. Dyson is a composer who, in these piano pieces, packs a lot of meaning into short duration. The experience becomes even more rewarding when enjoyed with Paul Spicer’s commentary.

Is it recommended?

Yes. The Open Window fills a notable gap in the British piano music archive, and its support from the Sir George Dyson Trust has secured the completion of an important release. It tells us much more about a composer revered primarily for his choral and orchestral music, illustrating the intimacy he could find in his work. It also serves as a timely reminder of the rich tradition of keyboard music on these shores throughout the 20th century.

For further information on this release, visit the Somm Recordings website