Some Gems from Punch, 1903 style.

Musical Gossip

Sir CHARLES STANFORD has purchased a motor-bicycle, which he rides with the soft pedal down. Punch March 18 1903

It is announced that Sir HUBERT PARRY has postponed his attempt to swim the Channel until after the Hereford Festival. The eminent composer will be accompanied on his great natatory effort by his trainer Mr. HENRY BIRD, and a tug containing Dr. HANS RICHTER, Mr. J. P. SOUSA, Mr. STEPHEN ADAMS and Herr RICHARD STRAUSS, who will at intervals join Sir HUBERT in the water as pacemakers. Punch September 9 1903

Mr. ELGAR, the famous composer, is a fervent devotee of the Royal and Ancient Game, and has dedicated a new set of Symphonic Variations to TOM MORRIS. The other day, when playing over the Malvern links with Sir CHARLES STANFORD, Mr. ELGAR gave a wonderful exhibition of his power as a driver. Slicing his tee shot at the short hole over the railway, Mr. ELGAR managed to land his ball in a passing motor-car, which was not stopped until it had gone half a mile, thus surpassing all Mr. BLACKWELL'S records. Punch October 21 1903

N.B. Messrs Morris and Blackwell were well-known golfers in the Edwardian era [ed]

Read More

Sir Herbert Brewer & Handel's Messiah

There is a delightful story in Sir Herbert Brewer’s Autobiography Choirs and Cloisters which was published in 1931.

In December of 1927 the Bristol Choral Society gave their annual performance of Messiah at the Colston Hall, Bristol.  Brewer had the idea of inviting the audience to join in with the Hallelujah Chorus. The idea was received by ‘wiser’ heads with some trepidation. However things turned out well:-

“I can only say thank-you. I think it is safe to say nothing has ever been heard like that in this country before.” said Sir Herbert Brewer, greatly moved by what had just occurred, to an audience of over three thousand at Colston Hall, Bristol, on Saturday night.

Sir Herbert has announced previously that he would ask the audience to rise and join in singing the Hallelujah Chorus.

As a result of this the greater portion of the audience brought with them copies of the [qv] Messiah. He asked those who knew the chorus and intended singing to do so with the reference due to so great a work.

With the society’s chorus of 400, a full orchestra and the Colston Hall orchestra – one of the finest in the country – the audience sang in perfect harmony. Sopranos, contraltos, tenors and basses, in all parts of the hall, sang their respective parts. Perfect time was kept, and so impressive was the rendering that many were in tears.

The climax came before the final Hallelujah. There was a silence while Sir Herbert held his baton aloft for a second or two; then the four final chords crashed out with wonderful effect. Sir Herbert Brewer’s daring experiment had been justified. 

Read More

Stanford and German in New York, 1907

I found this excellent review of Charles Villiers Stanford's Irish Symphony in Richard Aldrich, Concert Life in New York 1902–1923.  Little comment needs to be added save to point out that Walter Damrosch was born in Breslau in 1862 and died in New York in 1950. He was a composer of a wide variety of music, however it is in his capacity as conductor of the New York Symphony Orchestra that we are concerned here. Rudolph Ganz (1877-1972) was a Swiss pianist, conductor and composer. He claimed direct descent from Charlemagne. A note on Edward German's; fine Welsh Rhapsody is also included.

Nov. 18 1907 Mr. Damrosch is giving a special character to each of his Sunday afternoon programs played by the New York Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall. Last week he made a Dvorak program. Yesterday he had one that was mentioned as a memorial to Grieg but might better have been called an exposition of "nationalism" in music. Grieg himself was a conspicuous exponent of that idea; his piano concerto that Mr. Rudolph Ganz played suggests the Norwegian coloring more than the Peer Gynt suite, which is devoted to other purposes, the illustration of action upon the stage. With these two compositions were consorted two others, an Irishman, Sir Charles Stanford's Irish Symphony, and a Welshman, Mr. Edward German's Welsh Rhapsody.

Of this music Stanford's is the most interesting and a welcome addition to program lists that are apt to become stereotyped. It still retains its freshness and spirit—not that it is very old in years, but music is the least immortal of artistic productions, and some modern symphonies have wrinkled with age in fifteen years. It is not great music nor wholly original in style, but it is charming, of sustained interest and made with much dexterity and skill in the manipulation of its material. The skill it shows would be challenged most easily, perhaps, upon the point that Sir Charles does not always quite know when to stop and that at least the first three movements are extended considerably beyond the point where his material yields him profitable results. That material consists of Irish folk-songs and themes strongly influenced by their spirit, both melodically and in the ancient "model" harmonies that are implied as their basis. Irish music affords an ample variety of mood for a composer so familiar with them as Stanford to work in, and it has been truly said that he has done more with this material in an artistic form than any one else. The tendency to prolixity is shown in his lingering fondness for the tender second theme of his first movement, which he can hardly let go, and again in the brilliant jiglike scherzo—very taking till it is prolonged to the point of monotony. The third has a rhapsodic character, as of an Irish lament; the harp of Erin is heard, there are flutings of plaintive fantasy, and the song, Lament of the sons of Usnach appears in it. In the last movement he also employs actual folk tunes, Remember the glories of Brian the Brave and Let Erin remember the days of old. These are skillfully used as real thematic material for symphonic development, not as in a potpourri of national airs, and in this the composer has shown a fine skill and a truly musical feeling. He writes skillfully, often charmingly, for orchestra.

Mr. German, who came from England to produce his new operetta, Tom Jones, conducted his Welsh Rhapsody. Mr. German also speaks with native authority when he is concerned with the Welsh national utterance. His rhapsody is a less highly organized development of national tunes than Stanford's symphony; his treatment is more obvious. He has founded the four sections of his work on five tunes, of which the last is the well-known March of the men of Harlech. There is good work in it and some stirring passages; and it is a composition well worth hearing. Mr. German conducted it with firmness and skill. Mr. Ganz's playing of Grieg's concerto was strong and virile rather than deeply poetical; it was emotionally rather self-contained. There was beauty in the slow movement and a clear incisiveness in the first. This composition does more honor to Grieg's memory than the inevitable Peer Gynt suite, which had been played from the same stage on the two preceding days by the Philharmonic Society.

Richard Aldrich, Concert Life in New York 1902–1923, ed. by Harold Johnson (Freeport, New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1941), 193–194.

Read More

20th Century English Recorder Works

Lennox BERKELEY (1903-1989) Sonatina Op.13 (1939)

Malcolm ARNOLD (1921-2006) Sonatina Op.41 (1953)

Gordon JACOB (1895-1984) Suite for Recorder and String Quartet (1957)

Malcolm ARNOLD Solitaire (1956)

York BOWEN (1884-1961) Sonata Op.121 (1946)

Edmund RUBBRA (1901-1986) Meditation sopra Coeur’s Desoles (1949)

Malcolm ARNOLD Fantasy for Recorder & String Quartet, Op.140 (1990)

Jill Kemp (recorder)  Aleksander Szram (piano) Brodowski Quartet

Music Media MMC103

Whenever reviewing a CD of recorder music, I have to hold my hand up and admit that it is not one of my favourite instruments. That said, I can make the mental jump from an edgy suspicion of the recorder to an appreciation of the music and its interpretation. One reviewer of Jill Kemp’s performances has suggested that her ‘playing is a universe away from any nasty memories you may have of learning this instrument at school.’  This is certainly true of the interpretation of all the works on this present CD. The technique is truly impressive. And this also applies to the pianist, Aleksander Szram who makes a major contribution to the success of this disc. Yet, I have to admit that most of these works would work just as well for flute rather than recorder. However, I appreciate that this is a view that all recorder enthusiasts would oppose.

The fine Sonatina Op. 13 by Lennox Berkeley epitomises a work that successfully (for me) balances the piano and the recorder. This neo-baroque or classical work owes nothing to English pastoralism or neo-romantic traditions. However, it is full of humour (sometimes black) and allure, if a little unapproachable on first hearing. The keynote mood is of restless energy with angular melodies and sharp harmonies. There are some relaxed moments, especially in the ‘second subject’ of the opening ‘moderato.’ The central ‘adagio’ is dark and introverted. The finale has all the hallmarks of French wit and brings this work to a sparkling conclusion. I have noted the ‘nods’ to a ‘hornpipe’ before.

I always feel that Arnold’s Sonatina, Op.41 has some rather out of tune passages. I have not looked at the score, however it never seems ‘quite right’ to my ear. The work is in typical Arnoldian mood with a number of delicious moments.  The opening ‘cantilena’ has an especially interesting tune. The middle movement ‘chaconne’ is gloomy; however the final ‘rondo’ restores the sense of fun.

A few months ago I reviewed Gordon Jacob’s Suite for Recorder and String Quartet in its incarnation for recorder and string orchestra.  There are seven short movements to this attractive work which was commissioned by Arnold Dolmetsch in 1957.  I felt that a fuller description of the Suite should have been given in the liner notes.  The work begins with a pastoral ‘prelude’ that does indeed suggest the English landscape. This is followed by a lively ‘English Dance’ that is both exciting and obviously technically difficulty. The ‘Lament’ is not Scottish in mood: to my ear the sultry feel of this piece did not quite come off. It is the longest movement in this work. After this there is an exciting ‘Burlesca alla Rumba’ which moves the work away from the English landscape to ‘points south.’  The ‘Pavane’ is another fine example of English pastoral: the mood is one of sadness and reflection. However the hardness of the recorder tends to distract from the introverted feel to this music. The penultimate movement is a rather eccentric ‘Introduction and Cadenza’ which continues the temper of the ‘Pavane’ – looking back to a lost time and place.  The final ‘Tarantella’ is another change of location: this time to sunny Italy. I believe that Jacob called for the use of the rarely used ‘soprano’ recorder here. It is a fine conclusion to an excellent work.

I was initially confused by Solitaire. To my mind this Arnold title is a ballet suite concocted from the two sets of English Dances with the addition of a short ‘Polka’ and the beautiful ‘Sarabande.’  However, the liner notes explain that this piece has nothing to do with the ballet: it was apparently composed for a Players’ tobacco advert and was subsequently arranged as a whistling tune for John Amis.  It was then presented for flute and piano and after an intervention by John Turner was approved for recorder and piano.  Solitaireis an attractive little miniature that deserves to be better known.

The Sonata Op.121 by York Bowen is a major contribution to the recorder repertoire. However, it is this piece more than any other on this disc that bolsters my contention that many works for recorder would be better heard played on the flute.  I noted in an earlier review that my concern here was largely stylistic – the counterpoint of the ‘old-world’ sound of the recorder against the passionate, romantic piano accompaniment. However, Jill Kemp’s performance modifies this view – she has given a fine account that evens out (to a large extent) this stylistic disparity.  The present work was commissioned by Arnold Dolmetsch and was composed during 1946: it was first heard at the Wigmore Hall two years later.  The Sonata has three well-balanced movements: a cool ‘moderato e semplice,’ a meditative ‘andante tranquillo’ and a passionate ‘allegro giocoso.’ The last movement makes use of a descant recorder.

I find Edmund Rubbra’s Meditazioni sopra ‘Coeurs Désolés’ is a work that has grown on me since first hearing it a year or so ago.  It is founded on a chanson by Josquin de Prés and unfolds as a set of cleverly constructed variations. It has been considered by Edgar Hunt to be one of the recorder repertoire’s masterpieces.

The final work on this disc is the Fantasy for recorder and string quartet, Op.140 by Malcolm Arnold. It was commissioned for Michala Petri in honour of the Carnegie Hall’s Centennial Season. It was duly given its premiere at the Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall on 15 March 1991.  The Fantasy has five movements, which are a little unbalanced. The technical requirements are impressive, with a requirement for four different sizes of instrument. The composer calls for a wide range of playing styles, including flutter-tonguing, fast double-tonguing, ‘double stopping’ and glissandi.  Although there are some genuine Arnold fingerprints, I find that the overall impact is disappointing. The second movement is a well written scherzo that sounds exceedingly complex.  The waltz is attractive, but dark. The final ‘rondo’ is the nearest to what we once expected from Arnold’s pen. However, I felt that the ethos of the Fantasy was effect for effect’s sake. This is not a work that appeals to me; on the other hand I can understand why audiences and cognoscenti will be suitably impressed by this music.

I was extremely disappointed by the liner notes and the general presentation of information on this CD. I do not expect to have to look up dates of composers or pieces when getting my head around a CD. At home, I am surrounded by a raft of biographies, works catalogues and musical histories in my study, but many potential listeners will not be quite as obsessive about British music as I am. It is not fair to make people search the ‘net to contextualise these pieces.  Apart from these deficiencies, there is a deal of useful information presented in these notes.

This CD will appeal to all recorder enthusiasts: however lovers of English music will also enjoy these typically engaging works by some of the finest 20^thcentury British composers. Certainly the excellent performances presented here do all the works an indispensible service.

Read More

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) Soliloquy & Prayer from Gloriana.

Gloriana Op.53 was completed by Benjamin Britten during 1952 and the early part of the following year. This was the composer’s eighth opera.  It was commissioned by Covent Garden as a part of the celebrations for the coronation of the present Queen, Elizabeth II and was dedicated to her ‘by gracious permission.’ The libretto was devised by the Anglo-African poet and novelist William Plomer (1903-1973) and is based on the ‘Bloomsbury Group’ author Lytton Strachey’s Elizabeth and Essex which had been published in 1928. Britten has remarked that he and Plomer were most inspired by the relationship between ‘the two protagonists’ and the strong supporting roles of Cecil and Walter Raleigh.

Her Majesty attended the first performance at Covent Garden on 8^th June 1953, six days after the coronation.  Unfortunately, the Queen is said to have been unimpressed by the opera. The critical response is still subject to much debate; however there were few positive reviews for this work. The eclectic mix of prose and verse, sung and spoken text, archaic and modern English were seen as part of the problem. However, in a contemporary letter to The Times, Antony Lewis, of the Barber Institute of fine Arts at Birmingham University wrote that ‘...page after page of music of superb richness and invention testifies to ...excellence of the composer’s creative powers...’ He concludes by suggestion that it is ‘exhilarating thee hear a score that unfolds with such masterly confidence...Gloriana is indeed a worthy execution of the royal command.’

The Soliloquy and Prayer follows the scene where Essex has sung two lute songs to divert the queen. However Essex wants permission to sail to Ireland to suppress a rebellion in Tyrone. The Queen refuses and sends him away. The act ends with her praying that she ‘may rule and protect my people in peace’. Elizabeth is torn between love and duty. The queen kneels and prays to God for the strength and the grace to fulfil the high office to which she has been called.

Listen to the Soliloquy and Prayer on YouTube with Leontyne Price. 

Read More

Frank Bridge & Cyril Scott Piano Quintets on BMS Label

Frank BRIDGE(1879-1941) Piano Quintet in D minor, H49a (1904-5: rev.1912) 

Cyril SCOTT (1879-1970) Piano Quintet No.1 (1924)

Raphael Terroni (piano) Bingham String Quartet: Steve Bingham (violin) Mark Messenger (violin) Brenda Stewart (viola) Miriam Lowbury (cello)

British Music Society BMS442CD

The Frank Bridge Piano Quintet H49a is a masterpiece of European chamber music. However, based on the work’s general lack of acceptance amongst chamber music enthusiasts, it could be argued that my view has not yet caught on. I guess that for every one listener who gets to grips with this work, a hundred will tune into the examples by Brahms and Schumann. Yet whatever the relevant performance statistics, this is a fine work that is well-constructed, romantic and moving. It deserves all success.

The liner notes examine the incarnation of this piece (and the Scott) in considerable detail, however it is essential to realise the the present work H49a is in fact a major revision of an earlier work dating back to 1904.  This was not a minor tinker of a “muscular, four-movement work, with a huge piano part, brim full of musical ideas” but a complete restructuring.  For example, the original work’s second and third movements were recast into the long middle movement of the present work.  Frank Bridge introduced a cyclic element by revisiting a number of themes from the first movement into the ‘allegro energico’ which concludes the piece. 

One ‘peg’ to help put this work into context is the fact that there was a personal significance for the composer. He was dealing with the temporary absence of his wife-to-be Ethel Sinclair who was then staying in Australia. So there is found a sense of longing that balances the general romantic optimism of the music.

This Piano Quintet is successful at a number of levels – its complexity, the post romantic soundscape and the sheer technical complexity of the entire score. I wrote in my review of the Hyperion version of this Piano Quintet that it was “fresh, enjoyable, moving and deserving of greater popularity.  It is rapidly becoming a favourite of mine from the considerable catalogue of Frank Bridge’s chamber music”. I have still not changed this view.

I do not wish to get into a discussion about the genesis of the Cyril Scott Piano Quintet. The liner notes advise that it is even more complex than the Frank Bridge work! Apparently the ‘received wisdom’ is ‘far from consistent’ with varying shades of opinion emanating from the pens of Scott’s original biographer, Eaglefield Hull, the  performer, composer and musicologist David Wordsworth and the musicologist Lewis Foreman. Ian Parratt, who knew Scott personally, has also had his view about the gestation of this work.

The best bet would appear to be that the Quintet began life as a piano or string sextet which had been composed around 1904-5. The date of its first performance is also shrouded in mystery.

Henry Haddow, one of the adjudicators of the Carnegie UK Trust’s Publication Scheme which subsequently published the piece, suggested that the Quintet ‘is a queer work. Vaughan Williams, also on the committee, wrote that this work was ‘very long and rhapsodic and has no particular tune.’ However he followed this negative suggestion by noting that ‘it still has power and passion and ought to rank high.’ Yet the final opinion of the committee was that the quintet was ‘strong, vigorous, rugged, and written with obvious mastery of its resources and its medium.’ This judgement concluded bysuggesting that it was ‘a notable addition to our repertory of chamber music.’ 

Many years later, The Timesreviewer of the 2001 Dutton Epoch recording of this quintet suggested that ‘unless the listener is allergic to rhapsodic burblings and music couched in the grand manner without quite the substance to back it up’ this work would cause no pain. It is a view that I disagree with.  I guess it all comes down to the aesthetic judgement as to whether the listener equates rambling with rhapsodic...   However, the final word goes to Edwin Evans writing in Musical America in 1920 – he suggested that [Scott] is more concerned with the adornment of the building than with such things as supports and girders. And, be it said at once, his sense of ornament is exceptionally acute and inventive.’ 

My own take on this is that Scott’s Quintet is an earnest work that deserves attention. The sheer variety of instrumental texture and rhythmic activity far outweighs any formal deficiencies.

This CD, which was recorded back in 1989, acts as a fitting memorial to Raphael (Ray) Terroni who died at the relatively young age of 67 in August 2012. Terroni was a genuine all-round musician. He was a teacher – both private and at the London College of Music, an examiner, a festival director, an administrator and as the liner notes suggest, a ‘crusader for a vast range of music, both known for which he never lost his acquisitive enthusiasm and  (particularly ) unknown repertoire which he explored discerningly and promoted tirelessly.’ Terroni has made a number of innovative recordings including music by Lennox Berkeley, Eugene Goossens, Cyril Scott, Kenneth Leighton, Josef Holbrooke, Arnold Cooke, Arthur Butterworth and Eric Coates.  At least eight CDs of his performance are currently listed in the Arkiv catalogue. He makes an impressive and technically demanding contribution to this present CD.

The Bingham String Quartet plays with imagination and sympathy on both these works. This group is still going strong after 22 years. However the second violinist and the cellist have changed since this recording was made. 

I have no complaints about the excellent liner notes written by Giles Easterbrook.  It is a detailed study of the context, the genesis and the revisions of both works with a strong musical analysis to lead the listener through both these massive, complex works.  He has also set the scene, as it were, by giving a thumbnail sketch of the genre – beginning with Schumann’s ‘pioneering masterpiece’ and developing the trajectory by way of Brahms, Franck, Faure and Bartok. One of my own particular favourites that he mentions in passing is the great Quintet in D minor by Stanford dating from 1886.

As part of my review of this present CD I listened to extracts from the competition. The Bridge is represented by Ashley Wass and the Tippett String Quartet on Naxos, Daniel Tong (Bridge) and Philip Fowke (Scott) and the London Bridge Ensemble on Dutton, Piers Lane and the Goldner String Quartet on Hyperion and finally Michael Dussek with the Bridge Quartet on Somm. Each of these recordings has impressed me over the years. All of them approach both works with technical prowess and an innate sympathy and understanding which reflects the very different sound worlds of these two fine works. I am not going to plump for a favourite, save to say that all of them, to my ear at any rate, are worthy interpretations of these works. The present Terroni/Bingham Quartet is an important addition to the catalogue.

With thanks to MusicWeb International where this review was first published.

Read More

Theodore Holland: Ellingham Marshes for Viola and Orchestra.

I am surprised that the recent Dutton Epoch (CDLX 7295) recording of Theodore Holland’s Ellingham Marshes for viola and orchestra does not appear to have received any major reviews: even MusicWeb International has not [yet] published anything about this piece.  The only notice I can find is from on the Music Review International webpage. It notes ‘the first recording of Holland’s c.1940 work, a 16-minute exercise in English pastoral impressionism, inspired by the misty, dreamy atmosphere of the Suffolk marshes, punctuated by a central sunny period’

What is known about this music? Any information about this piece derives from Graham Parlett’s excellent programme note in the Dutton Epoch recording of this work. Ellingham Marshes was composed during the first year of the Second World War and was given its first performance at the Henry Wood Promenade Concert at the Queen’s Hall on 15 August 1940. The solo part was given by the violinist/violist Winifred Copperwheat (1905-1977) with Sir Henry Wood conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.  A radio broadcast of the piece was made on 7 April 1941 with the same soloist but with the BBC Orchestra (Section A) under Clarence Raybould.  Interestingly, in spite of the austerity of wartime, a facsimile of the score was published by Hinrichsen Edition in 1941.

The first performance of Ellingham Marshes was part of a rather mixed bag of music. The concert began with Edward Elgar’s orchestration of J.S. Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 537 and then progressed through a variety of seemingly unrelated pieces, including three numbers from Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust, an arrangement by Henry Wood of Handel’s aria ‘Let the bright Seraphim’ from Act 3 of Sampson. The first half concluded with Benno Moiseiwitsch’s performance of Rachmaninov’s Concerto for Piano No.1 in F sharp minor, Op.1

Holland’s work opened the second half of this programme and was followed by an aria from La Boheme, Richard Strauss’ tone poem Don Juan, Rimsky Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol. The final orchestral piece was the overture to Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. However before this there were a number of songs by Ivor Atkins, Hubert Parry, Dvorak and Maude Valerie White. It must have been quite a long evening.

Edwin Evans wrote a brief programme note for the first performance, in conjunction with the composer: - ‘The work is the outcome of a sketching holiday in East Anglia. The composer describes it as an attempt to paint a picture of the dreamy and wistful atmosphere of the Suffolk marshes in their changing moods. It opens with the early morning mists which envelop the river and the marshy landscape. These disperse to reveal a lovely sunny day. But gradually the scene fades back in the misty atmosphere as evening falls. There are three cadenzas for solo viola. Two of them are short, but the third which is muted, is more extended, and leads to the coda, in which the mood of the opening is resumed.’

The Times (August 16 1940) reviewer noted that Mr. Theodore Holland is best known for his role as the chairman of the executive committee of the Royal Philharmonic Society and as a distinguished professor of the Royal Academy of Music. Mention is made of Holland’s work as an amateur water-colour artist which has ‘a wistful charm.’ He suggests that the present work might have been called ‘a musical water-colour of Ellingham Marshes in Suffolk.’ He notes that the piece ‘begins and ends in mist with more than a gleam of sunshine by the way. He concludes by describing the work as ‘thoughtful’ and ‘impressionistic’ which was sympathetically played by Miss Copperwheat...’

Few other newspaper reviews exist for Ellingham Marshes; however, the Western Morning Newsnotes the work’s ‘meditative character’ but seemed disappointed that it had no ‘great depths.’

The most extensive discussion was by William McNaught (1883–1953) in the September 1940 edition of the Musical Times it is worth quoting in full:

'Concerts calling for special notice were rare during the first three weeks, most of the novelties of the season being crowded into September.  The only first performance of the period was Theodore Holland’s Ellingham Marsheson August 15.  Mr. Holland is well known to the Philharmonic audience as one of the councillors of the Society; here he reasserts himself as a composer, for it is not his first appearance in that capacity.  His voice is gentle and persuasive.  This poem for viola and orchestra is a daydream from loneliest Suffolk.  Restful thoughts drift through the score, setting up  an atmosphere that  might have  been  unduly  disturbed by  the presence of overt, sharp-edged themes;  some will think, however, that the composer has been remiss rather than fastidious in avoiding them.  Mr. Holland is more concerned with suggestion than with statement, with the result that the meaning of his music penetrates slowly, and it is only after it has passed that you discover how much it has had to convey. Not all of the work is serene.  There are passages of tension and urgency, but they are not foreign to the air of reverie, and it is to a musical intensity that they rise.  Mr. Holland speaks in refined and sometimes close-wrought musical terms by which we know him for a sensitive, if not very operative, artist.  A fiddler himself, he has written a shapely and finely-articulated viola part.  It was exquisitely played by Miss Winifred Copperwheat.’

I look forward to hearing a greater discussion of this piece in the coming weeks and months. Theodore Holland is currently represented by only two works in the CD catalogues – the present ‘Marshes’ and the fine Suite in D for viola and piano. This latter work is available on Naxos 8572761 and 8572579. 

Read More