Tag Archives: Toccata Classics

On Record – Havergal Brian: Complete Choral Songs, Volume One (Toccata Classics)

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aJoyful Company of Singers; bAscolta / Peter Broadbent; cFinchley Children’s Music Group / Grace Rossiter with dChristine Hankin (flute); eImogen Barford (harp); fGavin Roberts, gJohn Evanson (pianos)

Havergal Brian
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (1903)a
Soul Star (1906)a
Come o’er the sea (1907)a
Lullaby of an Infant Chief (1906)a
Ah! County Guy (1919)cg
Violets (1914)b
Fair Pledges of a Fruitful Tree (1919)cg
Grace for a Child (1914)cg
A Song of Willow (1914)bf
And will he not come again? (1914)bf
Ye spotted snakes (1914)bf
Fear no more the heat of the sun (1919)bf
Under the greenwood tree (1919)bf
Full fathom five (1921)bf
Come away, death (1925)af
The Blossom (1914)cg
The Fly (1914)cg
The Little Boy Lost (1914)cg
The Little Boy Found (1914)cg
Piping down the Valleys Wild (1914)cg
The Chimney Sweeper (1914)bf
The Little Black Boy (1914)bf
Four Choral Songs from Prometheus Unbound (1937-44): From Unremembered Agesa; The Patha; There the Voluptuous Nightingalesade; There those Enchanted Eddiesa
Spring – sound the flute (1914)cg
Summer has come, Little Children (1914)cg
Goodbye to Summer (1914)cg
Blow, Blow thou Winter Wind (1925)a

Toccata Classics TOCC0395 [70’59’’]
English texts included
Producer Michael Ponder
Engineer Adaq Khan
Recorded a11 & 12 December 2021, c12 &13 March 2022 at St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London; b26 November 2022 at St Silas, Kentish Town, London

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Toccata Classics releases this first in a two-volume survey of Havergal Brian’s choral songs, a versatile medium to which he contributed several dozen items and through which he first established his reputation, before effectively abandoning the medium a quarter-century later.

What’s the music like?

Although best known for his 32 symphonies, solo songs and choral songs dominate Brian’s earlier output. The latter have not fared well in recorded terms – two (the first and last here) being included on an LP from the Stoke-on-Trent Bedford Singers in 1982 (SAIN TRF239), who recorded a larger selection three years on for the Altarus label which only found limited release on cassette in 1991 (British Music Society Environs ENV016). This Toccata album is hence a timely redress for some of Brian’s most attractive and immediately appealing music.

The choral songs fall into three categories. The first consists of part-songs written mainly for the many choral societies from the Midlands and North in the earlier 20th century – reflected in a textural intricacy and harmonic richness which, between them, provide as stern a test of intonation as expected given their provenance in the competitions held regularly at this time. Shakespeare is especially prominent, as too is Robert Herrick, with the translucency of those settings from the 1900s in contrast to the astringency of those following the First World War.

The second category consists of songs, mostly for upper voices and often in unison, written for school or youth choirs. Many date from 1914 when Brian, having left Stoke for London after the collapse of his first marriage, was in financial straits yet their swift turnaround does not make them of lesser quality. William Blake is the main author, tackled with an emotional acuity and technical poise matched by few subsequent composers, while the poignant setting of Gerald Cumberland likely derives from a children’s operetta abandoned around this time.

The third category consists of four semi-choruses taken from a vast setting of Percy Shelley’s lyrical drama Prometheus Unbound (or at least the first two acts) Brian wrote largely during the Second World War. Its full score is long missing, but the vocal score gives due indication of its underlying ambition and overall technical difficulty not least for the chorus. That said, the three unaccompanied items confirm such demands as integral to the musical conception, while the fourth (track 25) features contributions from flute and harp of diaphanous elegance.

Does it all work?

Indeed it does, both in the technical sophistication of part-songs featuring Joyful Company of Singers or the disarming naivety of unison-songs with Finchley Children’s Music Group; directed with assurance by Peter Broadbent or Grace Rossiter, with Gavin Roberts and John Evanson equally adept in their very different piano writing. Moreover, the track sequencing affords a pleasurable listen on its own terms through emphasizing the consistency of Brian’s response to texts which, in themselves, amount to an ‘unofficial’ anthology of English verse.

Is it recommended?

Very much so, not least given the excellent sound with John Pickard contributing a typically authoritative booklet note. Maybe he might yet be persuaded to oversee a re-orchestration of Prometheus Unbound? In the meantime, the second volume of this survey is keenly awaited.

Listen / Buy

You can hear excerpts from the album and explore purchase options at the Toccata Classics website. Click on the artist names for more on Grace Rossiter, Peter Broadbent, Finchley Children’s Music Group and Joyful Company of Singers. Meanwhile click on the name for the Havergal Brian Society

Published post no.2,762 – Friday 9 January 2026

On Record – Naresh Sohal: Complete Piano Music (Konstantinos Destounis) (Toccata Classics)

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Naresh Sohal
A Mirage (1974)
Chakra (1979)
Prayer (2006)
Tsunami (2007)
Piano Trio (1988)

Konstantinos Destounis (piano); Cristina Anghelescu (violin), Adrian Mantu (cello), Mark Troop (piano) (Piano Trio)

Toccata Classics TOCC0689 [56’30”]
Producers and Engineers Konstantinos Destounis and Bobby Blazoudakis, Peter Waygood (Piano Trio)

Recorded 18 January 2022 at Dmitris Mitropoulos Hall, Athens; 1-3 June 2001 at Gateway Studio, Kingston-upon-Thames

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Toccata Classics issues the first of a likely series devoted to chamber and instrumental music by Naresh Sohal, featuring all those acknowledged pieces for solo piano along with his Piano Trio, on a release that also continues the posthumous rehabilitation of this significant figure.

What’s the music like?

Although he composed sparingly for the medium, the piano pieces Sohal did write afford an overview of how his music evolved across three decades. Primarily this involved an active as well as frequently confrontational exploration of more radical tendencies in post-war music, resulting in a distinctive while personal synthesis which the composer duly refined and made more pliable with what came after. Those later pieces are not necessarily simpler technically or expressively, yet they convey their essential concerns with greater clarity and immediacy.

At the time of A Mirage, Sohal was still preoccupied with aspects of a European avant-garde he encountered on arrival in the UK some 12 years earlier. Hence the influence of Xenakis in its tendency toward registral extremes and stratified figuration which coalesce more through gestural force than motivic logic. This is already changing in Chakra, which likewise unfolds as an arch but now with a tangible sense of resolution at its apex – though little prepares one for the sudden upsurge at its close after a definite subsiding of tension across the latter stages.

Moving on almost 30 years and Prayer demonstrates a more methodical amalgam of formal means towards expressive ends, though there is nothing at all reactionary about the outcome – whether in the unforced eloquence of its initial Adagio or the fluid interplay of its ensuing Allegretto as it pursues an increasingly intricate and eventful course. A piece titled Tsunami might lead one to expect a headlong discourse, but Sohal’s study is far more controlled and understated by evoking this natural phenomenon in all its awesome and destructive majesty.

Although it comes nearer chronologically to the former group of pieces, the Piano Trio might well be the latest work here as regards overall elaboration. Thus, its three continuous if well-defined sections outline an active process of thesis, antithesis then synthesis which is audible at every stage, though here the evolution is one of a constantly increasing velocity towards a violent or even tragic denouement. Immersed in Indian philosophy as he was, Sohal was only too aware of those darker and negatory forces which are to be found at all levels of existence.

Does it all work?

Yes, in that Sohal’s is a powerful and flexible musical idiom that predicates communication of emotion over theoretical consistency. A quality always to the fore in these accounts of the piano pieces – Konstantinos Destounis searching out their imaginative reserves without ever falling short of their frequently considerable technical demands. Neither is there any lack of insight or commitment in that of the Piano Trio which, in terms of compactness and overall immediacy, is an ideal way into this composer’s language at its most characteristic or potent.

Is it recommended?

Indeed. The sound accorded Destounis is almost ideal in its clarity and definition, though the Piano Trio is rendered at a slightly oblique perspective. Informative notes on life and music, and good news that a follow-up release of Sohal’s string quartets should soon be available..

Listen & Buy

For purchase options, you can visit the Toccata Classics website. Click on the names to read more about pianist Konstantinos Destounis and composer Naresh Sohal.

Published post no.2,500 – Thursday 10 April 2025

On Record – William Wordsworth: Complete Piano Music (Christopher Guild) (Toccata Classics)

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William Wordsworth
Piano Sonata in D minor Op.13 (1938-9)
Three Pieces (1932-4)
Cheesecombe Suite Op.27 (1945)
Ballade Op.41 (1949)
Eight Pieces (all publ. 1952)
Valediction Op.82 (1967)

Christopher Guild (piano)

Toccata Classics TOCC0697 [81’08”]
Producer and Engineer Adaq Khan

Recorded 13 April, 29 May 2022 at Old Granary Studios, Beccles, 2 April 2023, Wyastone Hall, Monmouthshire (Three Pieces)

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Toccata Classics intersperses its continuing survey of William Wordsworth’s orchestral music with a release devoted to that for solo piano, including several works not otherwise recorded and all ably performed by Christopher Guild, who already features prominently on this label.

What’s the music like?

Although not a large part of his catalogue, piano music features prominently in Wordsworth’s earlier output – notably a Piano Sonata that ranks among the finest of the inter-war period. Its first movement is introduced by a Maestoso whose baleful tone informs the impetuous while expressively volatile Allegro. The central Largamente probes more equivocal and ambivalent emotion before leading into the final Allegro, its declamatory and martial character offset by the plangent recall of earlier material prior to a denouement of surging and inexorable power.

His status as conscientious objector found Wordsworth engaged in farm-work in wartime, the experience duly being commemorated in his Cheesecombe Suite whose pensive Prelude and dextrous Fughetta frame a quizzical Scherzo then a Nocturne of affecting pathos. Written for Clifford Curzon, Ballade is a methodical study in contrasts which makes an ideal encore; as, too, might Valediction – though here the emotions run deeper and more obliquely, as befits this inward memorial to a lifelong friend from comparatively late in its composer’s creativity.

This release rounds out our knowledge of Wordsworth’s piano music with two collections not previously recorded. Among his earliest surviving works, the Three Pieces comprise a taciturn Prelude, fleeting Scherzo then soulful Rhapsody which between them find the composer trying out whole-tone figuration with resourcefulness but also a self-consciousness that might have decided him against publishing. Published by Alfred Lengnick as part of its five-volume educational series Five by Ten, the eight miniatures wear their didactic intention lightly; only one of these exceeding two minutes, yet all evince a technical skill that is never facile along with a pertinent sense of evocation that should commend them to amateurs and professionals alike. Here, as often elsewhere, Wordsworth proves a ‘less is more’ composer of distinction.

Does it all work?

Very much so and Christopher Guild, with admirable surveys of Ronald Stevenson (Toccata) and Bernard Van Dieren (Piano Classics) to his credit, is a natural interpreter of often elusive yet always rewarding music. His charged and often impetuous take on the Sonata has more in common with the pioneering account by Margaret Kitchin (Lyrita) than the overtly rhetorical one by Richard Deering (Heritage). Similarly, his approach to the Cheesecombe Suite and the Ballade draws out their depths if occasionally at the expense of their expressive immediacy. Interestingly, Valediction is played from a copy by Stevenson that alters aspects of keyboard layout or pedalling if not the notes themselves; resulting in a greater emotional ambivalence and textural intricacy which Wordsworth, had he heard it, would most likely have endorsed.

Is it recommended?

Indeed, not least when the sound of both Steinway D’s are so faithfully conveyed and Guild’s annotations are so perceptive. Those who have the Deering release should consider acquiring this one also, while those new to this music need not hesitate in making this their first choice.

Listen & Buy

For purchase options, you can visit the Toccata Classics website. Click on the names to read more about pianist Christopher Guild and composer William Wordsworth.

Published post no.2,500 – Thursday 10 April 2025

On Record – Arnold Cooke: Complete String Quartets, Volume One (The Bridge Quartet) (Toccata Classics)

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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

On Record – Myaskovsky: Vocal Works Vol. 2 (Ilya Kuzmin, Dzambolat Dulaev & Olga Solovieva) (Toccata Classics)

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Myaskovsky
Six Poems of Alexander Blok Op. 20 (1920)
At the Decline of Day: Three Sketches to Words by Fyodor Tyutchev Op.21 (1922)
Three Sketches Op.45 (1938)
From the Lyric Poetry of Stepan Shchipachyov Op. 52 (1940) Songs of Many Years Op.87 (1901-1936, rev. 1950) – nos.1, 6, 7 & 10
Two Songs of Polar Explorers (1939)

Ilya Kuzmin (baritone, Op.20, Op.45), Dzambolat Dulaev (baritone, all other songs), Olga Solovieva (piano)

Toccata Classics TOCC0667 [62’44”] Russian (Cyrillic) texts and English translations included
Producer and Engineer Ilya Dontsov

Recorded 2018-2022

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Toccata Classics continues its estimable coverage of the songs by Nikolay Myaskovsky with a second volume devoted to those for baritone which, in term of its performances, sound and annotations, is no less successful as a demonstration of the composer’s prowess in this genre.

What’s the music like?

Myaskovsky composed some 120 songs, with roughly half written early in his career before the symphony was central to his thinking. The first two collections here emerged between his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, a traumatic time personally and culturally with civil war having engulfed the Soviet Union. Hence that darkly fatalistic aura which pervades the Six Poems of Alexander Blok, its texts drawn from this poet’s early maturity at the tune of the 20th century and framed by two of Myaskovsky’s finest songs: the bittersweet A full moon has risen over the meadow and the speculative In the silent night. Written soon afterwards, At the Decline of Day features three ‘sketches’ after Fyodor Tyutchev whose brevity only accentuates their expressive acuity – notably the central setting ‘Your friendly voice prompts no living spark’.

Over a decade on and Three Sketches finds Myaskovsky tackling poetry with whose Socialist Realism he could have had little empathy, though his setting of Lev Kvitko’s A Conversation evinces a wistful poise hardly warranted by the text. This quality is more gainfully employed in From the Lyric Poetry of Stepan Shchipachyov, not least for the way the composer invests often wantonly propagandist texts with that sense of imaginative wonder that may have been their desired intention all along – as is evident from such as Mount Elbrus and the Aeroplane. Although published as Myaskovsky’s last opus, Songs of Many Years collates 15 songs which had been written often many years before. Of the four heard here, Thus yearns the soul finds the 20-year-old setting Aleksey Koľtsov’s text with due awareness of its aspirational ardency, while the baleful Sonnet of Michelangelo makes pertinent comparison with Shostakovich’s version 65 years on. The first two from Four Songs of Polar Explorers offer a distinctive take on the ‘mass song’, of which the rousing Song of the Polar Sailors audibly fulfils its remit.

Does it all work?

Yes, providing one accepts that Myaskovsky was not a composer of songs given to extremes of emotion or flights of fancy in those texts he chose to set. Such a tendency to introspection could easily have been over-emphasized through allotting this selection solely to the baritone register, and it is a tribute to Ilya Kuzmin and Dzambolat Dulaev that any risk of expressive uniformity is wholly avoided – the former as unforced in his eloquence as the latter renders his often more impersonal settings with a light and flexible touch. Both singers here benefit from Olga Solovieva’s perceptive accompaniment, confirming her once again as a pianist of no little finesse. The texts and translations for all of these 28 songs have been included, and though some may regret the absence of transliterations, they can mostly be accessed online.

Is it recommended?

Very much so, and not least as Patrick Zuk’s booklet note sets the scene so thoroughly yet evocatively. Warmly recommended and, with just over a third of Myaskovsky’s songs now recorded, this is hopefully a series that Toccata will be able to see through to its completion.

Listen & Buy

For purchase options, you can visit the Toccata Classics website. For information on the performers, click on the names to read more about Ilya Kuzmin, Dzambolat Dulaev and Olga Solovieva – and composer Nikolay Myaskovsky

Published post no.2,493 – Thursday 3 April 2025