No.190
Modern: Tonal

Born in London,1951, Cecilia McDowall has won many awards and been eight times short-listed for the British Composer Awards.
In 2014 she won the British Composer Award for Choral Music. Much of McDowall�s choral music is performed worldwide, as well as her
orchestral music. Recent important commissions include one for the BBC Singers, Westminster Cathedral Choir, London Mozart Players
and a joint commission from the City of London Sinfonia and the Scott Polar Research Institute to celebrate the life of the British Antarctic
explorer, Captain Scott in Seventy Degrees Below Zero. Three Latin Motets were recorded by the renowned American choir,
Phoenix Chorale; this Chandos recording, Spotless Rose, won a Grammy award and was nominated for Best Classical Album.
New commissions for 2016 include works for the BBC Singers, Choir of King�s, Cambridge and a new song cycle for Roderick Williams,
amongst others. Earlier this year the BBC Singers premiered When time is broke, three Shakespeare settings. Oxford University Press
has signed McDowall as an 'Oxford' composer and she is currently 'composer-in-residence' at Dulwich College, London.
In 2013 she received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from the University of Portsmouth.



Music Composed by Cecilia McDowall
Played by the Orchestra Nova of London
With Rachel Nicholls (soprano) & Katherine Allen (mezzo-soprano)
And the City of Canterbury Chamber Choir
Conducted by George Vass

"One of the first things to strike one about this disc is the quality of the recording (the producer was Michael Ponder;
venues are either St. Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead, London, or St. Clement�s Church, Sandwich, Kent). The acoustic of
St. Jude-on-the-Hill suits the Stravinskian trumpet fanfares, a kind of toned-down Agon that opens the 2008 Laudate
perfectly. The work is scored for mezzo-soprano, mixed chorus, and chamber orchestra and is a setting of Psalm 112.
McDowall�s clear talent for memorable, haunting lines becomes clear with the entrance of the young mezzo soloist
Katherine Allen. The overlapping trumpet fanfares punctuate the lyrical sections. A pastoral oboe sings the opening
of the central movement, �Excelsus super omnes gentes Dominum,� before Allen takes center stage. The movement
is a plane of stillness, the oboe returning to interact with the solo voice. The finale, �Suscitans a terra inopem,�
is more jaunty. Again, those trumpets act as a marker, this time within an overall feel of joy and optimism.

Two unaccompanied choral works follow. The first is an anthem, I have done what is mine to do, written to celebrate
the 25th anniversary of the ordination of the Reverend Canon Dr. Peter Sills (vice dean of Ely) in 2006. The mood here
is restrained. The City of Canterbury Chamber Choir sings magnificently. Control and balance are in perfect harmony.
The Christmassy element of the carol, Now may we singen (2007), is immediately evident. The text is a 15th-century
English carol.

The clear voice of Stravinsky surfaces again in the first of the Radnor Songs (2005, revised 2009). The texts are by the
poet Simon Mundy. Originally for voice and piano, the piece has been orchestrated especially for this recording.
The angular vocal line of �The Buzzard� is expertly negotiated by soprano Rachel Nicholls, who uses tremendous
purity of tone to render the fourth movement, �Flat Out,� most memorably. Nicholls seems to have no problem with
wide leaps in general (as the penultimate song �Radnor (New)� goes on to prove). The poems evoke the history and
beauty of the Welsh Border Marches.

McDowall�s Canterbury Mass was shortlisted for the Making Music category of the 2008 British Composer Awards.
It is a Missa brevis that was first performed in Canterbury in 2007. The highly melismatic Kyrie precedes the bright
chords that open the Gloria. Here, dancing rhythms around Laudamus te invoke a real sense of play. All credit to the
sopranos for negotiating McDowall�s lines here. The hushed Agnus Dei is a touching way to close the piece. Finally,
Five Seasons (2006), subtitled �a cantata to celebrate the organic landscape.� McDowall and the poet Christie Dickason
visited a number of farms in the spring of 2006 and, liaising with farmers, settled upon a form that tracks the four
seasons and adds a centrally placed movement, �Grace before meat (Introit)�The Darkening (Dies irae).� The work
opens with �Shimmer,� a musical account of the opening out into spring, firmly placed in the English choral tradition.
The third movement must have been a challenge to the composer, to set a Dies irae without the usual massive forces.
McDowall darkens the textures very effectively here, her treatment of rhythm and a few obsessive accompanimental
figures adding to the disturbing nature of the music. The two parts of this third movement are separately tracked.
The oboe has featured fairly prominently so far, but is replaced by a mellower cor anglais for �Sheep in the Mist,�
the autumn section of the work. In its stark stasis, this is the most evocative, beautiful movement of Five Seasons.
The finale is the most interesting concept: �Dance for the Feast of Everything that Grows� takes its title from a
Nepali festival based on respect for every living thing. It is a time where the Nepalese kill nothing, pick nothing,
harvest nothing. The work ends with a Scottish �Balancing Dance.� Indeed, the Scottish folk tradition informs
many elements of this movement."
Fanfare





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No.191
Late Romantic, Modern: Tonal

A collection of works for viola and piano, associated with the name of one
of the few famous violists of the 20th century, Lionel Tertis. Roger Chase plays
on Tertis's own Montagnana viola.



Music by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Arnold Bax & Arthur Bliss
And York Bowen & Edmund Rubbra
Played by Roger Chase (viola) & Michiko Otaka (piano)

"Born in London, Roger Chase,violist studied at the Royal College of Music with Bernard Shore and in Canada with Steven
Staryk, also working for a short time with the legendary Lionel Tertis, whose famed Montagnana viola he now plays.

He made his debut with the English Chamber Orchestra in 1979, and in 1987 appeared as a soloist at a Promenade Concert
at The Royal Albert Hall in London. He has since played as a soloist or chamber musician in major cities throughout the
UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, the Middle East, India, most of Eastern and all of Western Europe, and Scandinavia.

Roger Chase has been a member of many ensembles including the Nash Ensemble, the London Sinfonietta, the Esterhazy
Baryton Trio, the Quartet of London, Hausmusik of London, and the London Chamber Orchestra. He has been invited to play
as principal violist with every major British orchestra and many others in North America and Europe, including the Berlin
Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Chase has performed and taught at numerous festivals in the USA (Tuscon Festival, Weekend
of Chamber Music in the Catskills and the Colorado College Summer Music Festival), in Japan, in Italy (Casalmaggiore
International Festival), France (Festival Consonances in St. Nazaire) and the Netherlands (Schiermonnikoog International
Festival of Chamber Music).

Roger Chase has recorded for EMI, CRD, Hyperion, Cala, Virgin, and Floating Earth Records, demonstrating his diverse
interests by playing with a folk group on an amplified viola, as a soloist on an authentic instrument, and as an exponent
of the avant-garde.

Mr. Chase has taught at the Royal College of Music, the Guildhall School, the Royal Northern College of Music,
and Oberlin College."





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No.192
Modern: Neo-Classical

Arnold Atkinson Cooke was born at Gomersal, Yorkshire on the 4th November 1906 as the second son of Reginald Cooke
who worked in the family owned carpet manufacturing business in nearby Liversedge. As a child of seven or eight he began playing
the piano and was educated initially at Streete Preparatory School, Westgate-on-Sea and later on at Repton School, where in 1921
he took up the cello and was first taught composition. On leaving Repton he entered Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge in 1925
to read History. After gaining his BA degree, he switched to the music course. He was president of the Music Society there between
1927-28. In 1929, with his BA in Music he left for Berlin to study composition and piano at the Berlin Academy for Music, where
he was a student under Hindemith. After three years he returned to Cambridge to begin his professional career with a short stint
as the musical director of the Festival Theatre. A more lasting position became available at the Royal Manchester College of Music
as professor of composition, harmony and counterpoint in 1933. The lure of London, being the most eminent centre for music,
was too much and he moved there in 1938. The war intervened and he saw service with the navy as a liaison officer but this didn't
prevent him from composing. After leaving the navy at the end of the war he spent some time at the family home in Ben Rhydding,
Yorkshire before returning to London in 1946, where a year later he took up a professorship at the Trinity College of Music teaching
harmony, counterpoint, orchestration and composition where he stayed until his retirement in 1978. He took his doctorate at
Cambridge University in 1948. At his Five Oak Green home in Kent he continued to compose late into his life as well as becoming
president of the Tonbridge Music Club.



Music Composed by Arnold Cooke
Played by Raphael Terroni (piano) & Jonathan Jaggard (horn)
And Patrick Williams (flute) & Lorraine Schulman (clarinet)
And Warren Zielinski (violin) & Morgan Goff (viola)
With Melanie Lodge (soprano) & Justin Pearson (cello)

"The two piano sonatas bookend this disc. The Piano Sonata No. 1, written in 1938 and only published in 2005, includes nods
to Hindemith in its propulsive first movement. The dark harmonic shadings of the extended (8:18) slow movement only serve
to highlight the radiance of the English pastoral harmonies at the movement�s heart. Raphael Terroni is a most persuasive
advocate, particularly in the passages of sweet lyricism. His strong fingers negotiate the tricky passagework of the busy finale
with expertise while honoring the passages of delightful wit. The Second Sonata dates from 1965 and begins with a quasi-
Handelian slow introduction, marked by its dignity and gravitas. In contrast, the scurrying Allegro molto (so superbly, and
lightly, delivered here by Terroni) celebrates counterpoint, predominantly two-part. The highlight of the sonata is the
profound central Andante sostenuto, in which Cooke explores a twilit realm. The finale�s robust constitution balances
these explorations.

The Three Songs of Innocence (1957) is scored for soprano, clarinet, and piano. The Blake poems are set with clear and
fluent assurance by Cooke. What a pity the texts for this (and for Nocturnes ) are not replicated in the booklet. The clarinet�s
piping adds a real layer to the settings. Lorraine Schulman is a superb clarinetist. Perhaps Melanie Lodge�s voice is a little
too lacking in body, but it is fresh and she brings real atmosphere to the beautiful second song, �The Shepherd.� The Nocturnes
were composed in the previous year, 1956. Here, horn joins the voice and piano in settings of Shelley (�The Moon�), First
World War poet Isaac Rosenberg (�Returning, We Hear the Larks�), D. H. Lawrence (�River Roses�), Tennyson (�The Owl�),
and John Davidson (�The Boat Song�). All poems take night as their starting point. The pulsating accompaniment for
�The Moon� is most evocative, a true contrast to the march that is �Returning, We Hear the Larks.� The use of hand
stopping is most effective here. Cooke�s imagination throughout is most impressive, not least in the haunting setting
of �River Roses� or in the shadowy scherzo that is �The Owl� (the horn imitates the owl�s hoots as voice and piano agilely
deliver their patter). Jaggard�s delivery of the languid opening theme of the final movement, �The Boat Song,� is simply
beautiful. (We really should hear more of Jonathan Jaggard. Good horn soloists are in short supply.)

Amazingly, the Rondo is a world premiere recording (along with the Songs of Innocence and the Nocturnes ). It is a
tremendous piece, short (3:03) and breezy, its angular, fourth-based theme just taking the edge off any perceived
brightness. Jaggard (great nephew of Sir John Barbirolli, apparently) plays extremely well, clearly highlighting the
references to the instrument�s hunting fanfare origins.

Finally, the Flute Quartet of 1936, a fairly substantial work of some 18 minutes� duration and the earliest work we
hear here. MacDonald points out, correctly, that the opening Lento is more reminiscent of perfumed French Impressionism
than British pastoralism or, for that matter, Cooke�s mentor, Hindemith. Patrick Williams is a fine flutist, his demeanor
seemingly perfect for Cooke�s warm, genial mode of expression. The middle movement, Lento, is a set of imaginatively
conceived variations that includes a memorable flute cadenza, winningly delivered here. The finale explores the flute�s
inherently deft nature. The coda is wonderfully witty."
Fanfare





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No.193
Late Romantic

Born on the same day as pioneering cellist Pablo Casals, Lionel Tertis (1876-1975) was an equally significant figure in promoting the
viola as a solo instrument, greatly augmenting its repertoire (which was virtually non-existent) with countless arrangements and transcriptions,
and developing a projected sound that could compete with that of the violin. His mission was, of course, extremely successful and others�
performers and composers�have since continued and extended his work, providing the viola with a genuine solo repertory of its own.
Apart from performing and teaching, after retiring in 1937 he developed the �Tertis model� of viola, designed to give the rich tonal qualities
of the very large instrument (171/8 inches) he played himself, but with a more manageable size of 16� inches.

Tertis also made a number or arrangements of works originally intended for the violin or the cello, most famously Edward Elgar's
Cello Concerto. On this album, he did the same for violin and cello sonatas by Frederick Delius and John Ireland.



Music by Frederick Delius & John Ireland
Arranged for Viola by Lionel Tertis
Played by Roger Chase (viola) & Michiko Otaki (piano)





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No.194
Late Romantic

A collection of rarely played chamber works by Frank Bridge, Benjamin Britten's first teacher.
The album features both early and late pieces, including an unfinished Violin Sonata completed
by Paul Hindmarsh in 1996.



Music Composed by Frank Bridge
Played by the London Bridge Ensemble

"The disc has been assembled with a practised eye to variety and to listening to the disc all through. Michael Ponder's
engineering brings the listener front-seat close to the players. The blood-rushing triumphant romance of the Piano Quintet
is magnificently put across by London Bridge Ensemble. Much of it was written in the 1900s but having reached a
creative impasse he let it fall aside and only finished it in 1912 when according to Paul Hindmarsh a major rewrite was
done as well as adding a finale. The work has a towering sense of cohesion. Bridge remonstrates with the listener in
the outer movements rather as if he were emulating the stormiest passions of Thuille or Bax in their Piano Quintets.
The Adagio has some of the elusive harmonic tang of the later Bridge and the lyricism of early Faur�. After such torrid
emotions and tumultuous striving the Three Sketches are charming, shapely and familiar miniatures with a hint of what
we later associate with the manner of Mayerl, Chopin and Godowsky. Daniel Tong turns these little lovelies with real
sensitivity.

The Phantasie in F minor for string quartet is in three movements or they are so tracked here. It won second prize in
Cobbett's 1906 competition. The whole thing is over in ten minutes. The middle episode is a touch sentimental but the
outer sections are passionate if nowhere near the conflict and turbulence of the Piano Quintet.

The Pensiero and Allegro Appassionato are for piano and Bridge's own instrument, the viola. It is another one of his
small company of affecting Faur�-style miniatures. He wrote similar format works for cello and violin. The Pensiero is
sombre and intense. For contrast we have the Allegro Appassionato which is from the same world as the outward flanks
of the Piano Quintet.

Paul Hindmarsh - a lifelong advocate and good friend to Bridge's music - completed the Violin Sonata in 1996 from
the original materials dating from 1904. It's in two movements and the style here is closer to the Piano Quintet with
some superbly tender music and playing. In the first movement Benjamin Nabarro's voluptuous caramel tone and
sense of the fragility of this bloom is all-conquering. Many thanks to Mr Hindmarsh for rescuing this music and doing
it with such sensitivity. I do not underestimate the dedication required."
Musicweb





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Superlative, many thanks

Herϟlichen Ϧαnҡ!

No.195
Modern: Tonal

This twofer concludes Dutton Epoch's survey of Stephen Dodgson's string quartets.



Music Composed by Stephen Dodgson
Played by The Tippett Quartet
With Robert Stallman (flute) & John Bradbury (clarinet)
And Julia O'Riordan (viola) & Caroline Dale (cello)

"In a long and distinguished career, Stephen Dodgson (b.1924) has produced works in almost every form. An acute ear
and sharp sense for instrumental sonorities have drawn him particularly to chamber music. His nine acknowledged string
quartets (four more were withdrawn) are among the most important written by a modern English composer, and range
from works of an almost Bart�kian intensity to pieces in which his light touch and sometimes mischievous wit show in
music owing much to early English music and a love of the dance. His most recent quartet, the Ninth, is a fine example
of how serious things can be said in a light-hearted manner. It also shows how outstanding craftsmanship is used by a true
composer in the service of music and not for display, to aid and not confuse the listener. His love of virtuosity is, characteristically,
shown in the dazzlingly effective music he writes for instrumentalists whose skill and character he admires, as with the
Flute Quintet. In the Clarinet Quintet, another virtuoso work, the soloist is also asked to be by turns �bright and skittish�
as well as �sweet and songful� and �subdued and meditative�. Contrast is a typical ingredient of Dodgson�s music, as when
the finale of his richly textured Sextet ends with a dance over the formality of a subtle chaconne."





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No.196
Modern: Impressionism, Neo-Classical

The long-lived French composer Florent Schmitt (1870-1958) created many of his most impressive and influential works
in the first two decades of the twentieth century, equally gorgeous in their piano versions (four hands or two pianos) as for the
orchestra. Pianists Leslie De'Ath and Anya Alexeyev have recorded a ripe selection for this 2-CD set, all but two of which are world
premiere recordings in these versions. Here the decadent sound world of La trag�die de Salom�, influential on Stravinsky and
Diaghilev, is the most familiar but the charm and colour of the ballet music Le petit elfe Ferme-l'oeil' (The Little Fairy Sleepy-
eyes'), a touching evocation of childhood, has a charm all its own. These and various other pieces complete a most enjoyable
traversal of Schmitt's piano music, presented here in immaculate, heartfelt performances.



Music Composed by Florent Schmitt
Played by Leslie De'ath (piano) & Anya Alexeyev (piano)
With Kimberly Barber (mezzo-soprano) & James Mason (oboe)

"Meantime this attractive two-disc recital for two pianos emerges courtesy of long-time Schmitt champion Leslie De'ath
whose Dutton series of the Scott piano music has a special niche in the catalogue. The fourteen character miniatures that
make up Le petit elfe ferme l'oeil are given a spirited outing. They move with ease between skilled jaunty light salon material
to pages of elusive strangeness as in the case of D'allure decid�e with its awkward hiccupping dissonances reminiscent of
the music of Raymond Loucheur recently encountered in the Forgotten Records catalogue (FR374). This Hopfrog oddity takes
us onto the same magically and slightly Russian-nationalistic limb as Ravel's M�re l'oye and pushes the listener out towards
the world of Stravinsky's Rite and Petrushka. De'ath, in his fine and full notes, refers to the linkage with Ravel's L�enfant et
les sortil�ges. Exotic nationalist dances such as Le parapluie chinois recall the oriental impressionism of James Friskin�s still
unrecorded oriental piano suites and Holbrooke's second piano concerto L�Orient. In the same vein we then hear the five
movements of La Trag�die de Salom� which muses gloomily and then erotically. It then makes links with Rimsky�s exultant
Antar. The great melody is tellingly tolled out by these two artists. The possessed battering barbarity of Danse des Eclairs
and Danse de l'effroi is suitably ruthless and spikily assaulting. James Mason's oboe makes an admirably atmospheric
contribution in Les enchantements sur la mer and mezzo Kimberley Barber�s vocalise in Chanson de la Nourrice is lovely.

CD 2 opens with a German travelogue or set of postcards with eight cities portrayed in waltz form. These are lighter than
the material on CD 1 but by no means inconsequential. Heidelberg is pretty determined and serious. Koblenz is closer to
the Straussian waltz - more carefree. L�beck is deliciously light on the aural palate. Werder is affectionate and even
Brahmsian. Vienne is a grave waltz with flashing lightning and rumbling thunder-strikes. Dresden is urbane: quite the man
about town and much the same can be said of Nuremberg where Schmitt saunters confidently along with twirling malacca
cane. Munich is yet more decorative.

From another world comes the masterful J'entends dans le lointain from 1917-1929. It's one of Schmitt's most oblique
and troubled pieces - with deep waters profoundly stirred. It�s effect is rather like that of the troublous realm established
in Bax's Winter Waters and The Devil that tempted St Anthony - the latter also for two pianos. The Poe-inspired Etude pour
Le Palais Hant� has a derivation from the Mallarm� translation of Poe�s words. There is a romantically-charged theme that
strives for primacy above the stormy and struggle. After this we are returned to the lighter illustrative world of the Reflets
d'Allemagne with the Godowsky-style indulgences of the Trois rapsodies.

Refreshing stuff adding with �clat to the diversely populated world of Florent Schmitt."
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No.197
Modern: Neo-Romantic

Conductor-composer Ronald Corp couples two supremely engaging choral works of our time, pairing his own cantata
And all the Trumpets Sounded (of 1989) with Michael Hurd's appealing choral symphony The Shepherd's Calendar (of 1975).
The baritone soloist in And all the Trumpets Sounded is Mark Stone, in The Shepherd's Calendar, Roderick Williams.
And all the Trumpets Sounded was written as a companion piece to Vaughan Williams's Dona Nobis Pacem, setting Whitman and
First World War poets interspersed with the words of the Requiem Mass and focusing on war, the dead and the trumpets of the last judgement
framed by the Dies Irae. This is virile and intensely moving music. Hurd's choral symphony The Shepherd's Calendar sets words
by John Clare for chorus with baritone solo. The movements follow the year from January to May (the scherzo), ending in the fourth movement
with the time span from September, Hurd's engaging choral writing and evocative orchestration perfectly attuned to a poetic vision of the circling
year. Here the soloist is Roderick Williams, supremely eloquent in the third movement with a poignant soaring baritone solo O Love is So
Deceiving!' the unfamiliar but immediately attractive music causing a sensation in the control room during recording, so telling is Hurd's setting.



Music by Ronald Corp & Michael Hurd
Played by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
With Mark Stone (baritone) & Roderick Williams (baritone)
And with The London Chorus & The London Children's Choir
Conducted by Ronald Corp

"Written in 1989, And All The Trumpets Sounded is a powerful cantata that reflects on judgement and war in a way both
humane and moving. Ronald Corp takes texts by Edward Thomas, Rupert Brooke, C.H. Sorley and Wilfred Owen, all four poets
killed during the First World War, and adds a long setting of Walt Whitman�s Vigil Strange, interspersing them with the Dies irae,
Tuba mirum, Rex tremendae, Lacrimosa and Pie Jesu. Corp acknowledges that the work was intended as a companion for
Vaughan Williams� Dona nobis pacem and he also cites Britten�s War Requiem and its exploration of the �pity of war�. Instead,
however, Corp�s cantata is suffused with an ultimate pessimism, and a realisation �contrary to my conscious belief� that war
endures and that there is no end of it.

The terse unyielding Dies irae activates a work of powerful emotion. There are however lovely moments. One of the most
beautiful is surely Corp�s setting of Brooke�s The Dead (Blow out, you bugles) - turbulent, passionate and expressive. There
are strong hints of Finzi in the word setting of Sorley�s Such, such is death. Just as Owen�s Asleep (Under his helmet) suggests
some reprieve, back comes the Dies irae onslaught - pessimistic, remorseless, and pitiless.

Michael Hurd�s The Shepherd�s Calendar (1975) charts a very different course and sets John Clare�s 1827 poem, though it also
includes as part of the literary fabric - most movingly - the poem O love is so deceiving! This Choral Symphony, which is itself,
in effect, a cantata, moves through the months with deft orchestration, pictorial wit, pastoral charm and, in places, a refulgent
Finzian quality. It�s a delightful work, though one not wholly untroubled by doubt and loss, with a giocoso spirit of freedom and
adept word setting, fresh scene depiction and a lovely melancholy that all prove captivating. Its heart is the setting of Clare�s
poem, a compressed Largo that manages, by virtue of the deftest of means - wind pointing, string gauze - to imbue the text
with a genuine poignancy. The Harvest verve of the final movement proves culminatory and affecting in equal measure.
Not the least of Hurd�s gifts, as demonstrated here, is the practical but attentive choral writing which ensures both clarity
and warmth. So, too, one appreciates his refined attention to rhythm and metre.

The two baritone soloists, Mark Stone in the Corp and Roderick Williams in the Hurd, are both excellent interpreters of song,
and they respond to the texts with imagination and insight. Praise, too, for the choral and orchestral forces, and Corp�s direction.
These contrasting works, both warlike and pastoral are heard here in premiere recordings. They make for abrupt but affecting
programming."
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No.198
Late Romantic

When the general opinion was that Wagner had already made a tolerably good opera out of the Tristan and Isolde legend, it might have
seemed to rash to try to write another. Rutland Boughton (1878-1960), basking in his greatest success as the composer of The Immortal
Hour, evidently thought not. In 1922, inspired by a reading of Thomas Hardy�s "The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall", he promptly
obtained the author�s blessing to turn the play into an opera and, little more than a year later, The Queen of Cornwall was ready for its
premiere at the Glastonbury Festival. The work received generally good reviews, enough at least to justify a couple of subsequent productions
in the UK and BBC broadcasts in 1935 and 1950, but, like most other English operas of its period, it had disappeared from the stage by the
middle of the 20th century.

It is probably no accident that the work The Queen of Cornwall most resembles is Elgar�s The Dream of Gerontius. This is not so
much because of the part played by the choir, a sort of Greek chorus intermittently commenting on events, as the very specific tone of the music.
Just as Elgar wrote Gerontius after absorbing Parsifal, so Boughton seems to have set to work on The Queen of Cornwall after
coming hot-foot from a performance of Die Walk�re. The result is a translation of Wagnerian music-drama to English soil, where
minstrels strum their simple songs against a landscape of warmly romantic leitmotifs with a distinctly Teutonic hue.



Music Composed by Rutland Boughton
Played by the New London Orchestra
With The London Chorus
Conducted by Ronald Corp

"We are apt to forget that after 216 consecutive performances of The Immortal Hour in 1922 and 1923, Rutland Boughton
was hailed as the most significant British operatic composer of his generation. His vision of a cycle of Arthurian music dramas
took form at a series of Glastonbury Festivals beginning in 1914 with the first performance of The Immortal Hour as its
centrepiece. Boughton�s cycle was not completed until 1945, by which time the Glastonbury Festivals were a memory,
shrouded in a mixture of scandal and political notoriety. Nevertheless, he remained loyal to his operatic convictions and,
besides the cycle, wrote a number of other operas, some them on Arthurian themes.

The Queen of Cornwall dates from 1924, by which time Boughton had moved on to a full and productive assimilation of
Wagner�s instrumental conception of opera and flexible vocal declamation. His understanding of the process, clothed in
gorgeous orchestration, also enabled him to incorporate his set pieces (using additional Hardy poems) without disrupting
the continuum of the two acts; nor does his original extensive and fertile use of the chorus as a Greek-style choral narrator
or as accompaniment to the soloists seem stilted.

Heather Shipp as the conflicted Queen Iseult brings her music alive, especially in Act 1, with her long, intense monologue
and �aria� (�I dream that the dearest I ever knew�), as does Sir Tristram, sung by Jacques Imbrailo. Their duet �Yes, Love,
true is it sadness suits me best� is a poignant gem but perhaps most heart-rending is Iseult of Brittany�s lament �Indulge
no more� sung splendidly here by Joan Rodgers. This operatic music of the 1920s may have its roots in the late 19th century
but when it is performed with such fervour and control as it is here (for which Ronald Corp should be applauded), the
�anachronism� matters not a jot. For me this opera was quite a revelation and it makes one wonder what other treasures
of Boughton await rediscovery."
Gramophone





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No.199
Late Romantic

Excerpts from Sir Donald Tovey's only opera, The Bride of Dionysus.



Music Composed by Sir Donald Tovey
Played by the Ulster Orchestra
With Sally Silver (soprano) & Yvonne Fontane (mezzo-soprano)
And Robert Johnston (tenor) & Michael Bundy (baritone)
And the Belfast Philharmonic Choir
Conducted by George Vass

"Long after their deaths composers like Tovey benefit from advocates � the angels who bring about the renaissance of their
otherwise lost music. For Tovey that angel has been Peter Shore. Without his advocacy � his commitment of time and expense
and powers of persuasion � Tovey�s music would hardly have struggled free from the dust. Now we have Tovey�s Symphony and
his Cello Concerto (the one derided by Constant Lambert) recorded in new recordings from Martin Anderson�s Toccata and from
Symposium in historical and technologically flawed acetates from the 1930s. His Piano Concerto shares a Hyperion CD with the
Mackenzie Concerto. There are quite a few chamber works and the two piano trios can be heard on Toccata (review; review).
I trust that someone will pick up the other chamber works including the two string quartets. The score for the violin sonata
seems to have disappeared from sight � unless you know better.

The Prelude rises through smooth and serene foothills to assertive heroic heights. This is an ascent also experienced in the
orchestral opening to Act 2 Part 2. It�s a triumphant blend of majestic tributaries from Wagner and Brahms Fourth Symphony.
The ticking-chugging-buzzing energy of this score is remarkable. As illustration try the start of the Act 2 Part 2. The heroic voices
of Robert Johnston and Michael Bundy place them securely in the helden realms of Franz Schmidt�s Johannes in The Book of
the Seven Seals. Sally Silver and Yvonne Fontane have silvery pure voices, strong on clarity of diction yet imbued with humanity
and with the ability to act with the voice. Sally Silver is also the ideal soprano for the RVW operas. There is the same high
nobility in this opera as in that work � again Act 2 Part 2 makes the case. The mastery of the brass benches and their roaring
aureate tone make you think of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. It also for me reminded me of the exalted brass writing
in Bruno Walter�s First symphony (CPO 777 163-2). Tovey time after time shows his mastery of pacing and timing of ideas
and orchestration. While I have mentioned Brahms and Wagner there are also some deftly euphoric pages (tr. 6) that point
towards the operatic Korngold. It�s not all perfervid passion; Act 3, Part 2, Scene 6 is deliciously serene. The long Act 3 Scene 9
and finale rings out with something approaching religious fervour constantly lit by the blow-torch of white hot passions.
There are times when Tovey�s writing looks across the heights to the more possessed pages of Delius�s A Mass of Life. That
he could sustain such invention across such a mammoth score is a matter of wonder.

The Ulster Orchestra do not sell short the majesty and mystery of this score and attain and hold that level throughout
approaching eighty minutes. The Belfast Philharmonic Choir are simply magnificent in grandeur of tone and in the most
immaculately accurate unanimity of singing as can be heard for example near the start of tr. 9 where the Dionysian
atmosphere communicates in the most lustrous tone."
Musicweb





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This album concludes my survey of Dutton Epoch's chamber and vocal works.

This album concludes my survey of Dutton Epoch's chamber and vocal works.

And what a survey it was! Thanks a lot for these shares.

we treasured it for the winter
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No.200
Late Romantic

Born into a working-class family, George Dyson became one of the most important musicians and composers of his day.
The previously unknown Choral Symphony was written as an examination work while Dyson was studying at Oxford, and
it was only recently discovered at the Bodleian Library. Dyson relishes his dramatic chosen text from Psalm 107 on the
expulsion from and homecoming of the Jews to Israel, a narrative that inspires trademark features that would make his
later works so attractive. Its seascape finale links neatly with St Paul�s Voyage to Melita, another vivid text
from which Technicolor musical images are conjured.



Music Composed by Sir George Dyson
Played by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
With Elizabeth Watts (soprano) & Caitlin Hulcup (mezzo-soprano)
And Joshua Ellicott (tenor) & Roderick Williams (baritone)
And The Bach Choir
Conducted by David Hill

"Hidden away for almost a hundred years in Oxford�s Bodleian Library, George Dyson�s recently discovered
Choral Symphony here receives its first recording. Extended in length�almost forty-five minutes�its four
movements are conventional with a quasi-scherzo placed second and an elegiac Largo following. Scored for
four solo singers, large mixed chorus and a modest sized orchestra, its lineage comes from Elgar and Stanford,
with the text taken from the biblical Psalm 107 relating to the expulsion and homecoming of the Jews. Born in
1883 in Halifax, a northern English industrial town, his parents were not wealthy�father a was a blacksmith�
so it was by winning scholarships that the young man went to study at London�s Royal College of Music. Thirty
five years later, and now Sir George Dyson, he was to return there as its famous Director. The Symphony had
been composed as his examination test piece, a very bold venture, his skill in writing for such large forces
obviously impressing the appropriate people who awarded him his Doctor of Music appellation. The big and
highly charged finale sets the scene for the seascape, St. Paul�s Voyage to Melita, the story told in chapter
27 of the biblical Acts of the Apostles. It was one of pure drama in a ship wrecked in stormy seas, and shows
how Dyson had musically matured by the 1930�s when he added this masterpiece to British choral music.
The tenor, Joshua Ellicott, makes a fervent St. Paul, with the soprano, Elizabeth Watts; mezzo Caitlin Hulcup,
and baritone, Roderick Williams, joining him in the Symphony. The Bach Choir are superb, and conductor,
David Hill, obtains a wide diversity of orchestral sounds from the Bournemouth Symphony. Today�s sound
quality heard at its very best and absolutely indispensable for any Anglophile."
David�s Review Corner





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No.201
Modern: Tonal

World premiere recordings by the renowned composer Aaron Jay Kernis, performed by the stunning soprano
Talise Trevigne with the Albany Symphony conducted by David Alan Miller, make this
one of 2017's most distinctive releases. Winner of the 2002 Grawemeyer Award, the 1998 Pulitzer Prize, and the
2011 Nemmers Award, Aaron Jay Kernis is one of America's most performed and honored composers. His music appears
on concert programs worldwide and he has been commissioned by America's preeminent performing organizations
and artists. Vocal music and singing have been profoundly important to Kernis and breath, lyricism and line
have held primacy for him as a composer. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the three song cycles on this
recording that span 20 years of his writing.



Music Composed by Aaron J. Kernis
Played by the Albany Symphony Orchestra
With Talise Trevigne (soprano) & Aaron Jay Kernis (piano)
Conducted by David Alan Miller

"Talise Trevigne is a singer recognized for the "sheer beauty of her voice" and "exquisite stage presence." As one critic
recently stated, "No wonder Talise Trevigne is THE BUZZ of the opera world. She has it all: a glorious voice, matchless
acting ability, and beauty that takes your breath away!"

She has been universally and enthusiastically praised for her d�buts as Violetta, Mim�, Juliette and Gilda, and critics have
deemed her Lucia as "perfect Bel Canto singing", "mesmerizing" and "ravishing." In a dazzling performance she starred
as Violetta with Birmingham Opera Company and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in Graham Vick's spectacular
La Traviata which won Britain's coveted 2008 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award. Most recently, she opened the
Emerging Stars Concert Series at Santa Barbara's historic Granada Theatre in a sublime recital with the great Warren
Jones. She will appear as featured guest artist in New York City Opera's Gala Reopening at the David H. Koch Theater
on Nov 5, 2009. In Feb 2010 she reprises her meltingly beautiful Gilda with Tulsa Opera in her company d�but.
She d�buts at San Diego Opera with her first Mica�la in May 2011.

A champion of new music, she made her Australian opera d�but as "The Beloved" in the world premiere of Liza Lim's
The Navigator. She reprised this demanding role at Moscow's Chekhov International Arts Festival (June 2009) and sings
it at Paris' Bastille on December 8, 2009. She originated the title role in the world premiere of Judith Weir's Armida,
a film which won glowing reviews when internationally televised. She starred in the world premiere of Errollyn Wallen's
The Silent Twins with London's Almeida Opera, and will create the role of "Pip" in the world premiere of Jake Heggie's
Moby-Dick with Dallas Opera in her company d�but (April-May 2010) and with San Diego Opera (February 2012)."



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No.202
Modern: Neo-Classical

Bohuslav Martinů and Jan Nov�k shared similar fates - both of them left their country and wandered
around the world. The two composers also had a relationship as a teacher and pupil. Nov�k referred to his studies
with Martinů in New York in 1947 as having had a major impact on his development as a music creator and human.
Martinů's influence is palpable in Nov�k's Philharmonic Dances (Choreae Philharmonicae, 1956), three symphonic
fantasies that provide wide scope for showcasing the virtuosity of both the soloists and the groups of instruments.
The present recording of the work (the very first made in a studio) helps us to pay off our great debt to Nov�k,
an artist who gave preference to being a "free exile" against having to breathe the oppressive air in his homeland,
reigned over by a dictatorial regime. The album's centrepiece is a new account of Martinů's Bouquet of Flowers,
a landmark recording of which was made in 1955 by Karel Ančerl, conducting the Czech Philharmonic. The composer never
got to hear the piece performed in public yet he had the chance to listen to the gramophone record sent to him at his
friend's house at Sch�nenberg, where he had found a temporary home. Some 60 years later, the Bouquet of Flowers has
now been let blossom in its entire beauty by Tom�š Netopil, one of the most distinguished contemporary Czech conductors.
Drawing upon traditional Moravian songs as the major and irreplaceable source of inspiration, one that had a marked influence
on his singular musical idiom, Martinů solely based his Bouquet of Flowers on folk ballads - and the performers
have duly approached it with the loving care and tenderness of seasoned gardeners.



Music by Bohuslav Martinu & Jan Nov�k
Played by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra
With Katerina Knez�kov� (soprano) & Michaela Kapustov� (contralto)
And Jaroslav Brezina (tenor) & Adam Plachetka (bass)
And the Prague Philharmonic Choir
Conducted by Tom�s Netopil

“Bohuslav Martinů lived in Paris through the 1920s and got swept up in the city’s jazz and avant-
garde scenes. Then in the early 1930s he turned his attention back to his native Moravian folk culture
and wrote earthy, angular music that fused the lot – including his 1937 cantata Bouquet of Flowers.
It’s for children’s chorus, soloists and orchestra and there’s no danger of missing the smell of the soil
in these pungent tunes. However, between the carols and cowherds come moments of impressively
stark modernism, which this account really illuminates. The voices of Kateřina Kněž�kov� and
Michaela Kapustov� are particularly rich together and Tom�š Netopil conducts with a grand
sweep.”
The Guardian





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No.203
Modern: Tonal

With a gift for extravagant color, beautiful melodic style, clear musical form and engaging, soulfully dramatic work, the music of award
winning composer Douglas Knehans (*1957) has gained the attention and warm appreciation of audiences and performers
around the world. Knehans� two-piano work cascade has been performed in Steinway Hall, New York; UIC Recital Hall, Chicago; Tokyo,
Japan; Kiev, Ukraine and recorded for worldwide CD release on Ablaze Records by the virtuoso piano duo The Pridonoff Duo. Knehans�
music is about immediacy, drama, power, playfulness, architecture, harmonic structure, melodic expressiveness and more importantly
depth and dimension. His music is about both love and life and a number of important critics see it that way too.

For him music is nature and natural forms�endlessly varied but centrally unified. It is relationships with people and memory�the way
memory burnishes experiences and encrusts it with a sometimes deeper meaning than the original. People, nature, relationships,
visceral tactility, nuance, yearning, heartbreak, tenuousness, drama, power, weakness, enervation, completion, memory and more.
These are the elements that now play into his music�the elements of life. These elements also take on technical and expressive
meaning in his music through metaphoric pairings with nature and natural forms.



Music Composed by Douglas Knehans
Performed by the CCM Chorale
Conducted by Brett Scott

"I've always admired composers who can write music that sounds modern but feels ancient. The contemporary style and
technique make it seem new, different and fresh, while the general character of the writing allows for an overall outlook that
takes you back through the centuries to the days of early music. A prime example of that on this recording is the Agnus Dei
from his Missa Brevis (2010). The descending four note motif on which the whole piece is based is written in such a way that
can't help but sound like a modern harmonic sequence or progression, but scored the way it is with unison voices hovering
over a long organ pedal note it sounds more like an ancient monastic chant with unusual intervals that evoke imagery from
the mists of time, both religious and secular. And because Douglas Knehans (b. 1957) avoids the trap of using modern day
smoke and mirrors electronic or digital manipulation when composing, most of his choral music comes across as well
rooted and accessible, and always seems to hit an emotional nerve.

The Australian/American label Ablaze Records, whose main focus is on recording new, uncharted and previously unavailable
music, have certainly released something here that should be of great appeal to anyone interested in new choral music."
Classical Music Sentinel





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No.204
Late Romantic

The Bridge Quartet�s new release celebrates the rich variety of the "Phantasy String Quartet", one of the
forms most characteristic of the English Musical Renaissance of the early 20th century, and a genre re-invigorated
by Walter Wilson Cobbett. The disc comprises six �Cobbett� phantasies, based upon the single-movement (but
tripartite) 17th-century Elizabethan viol �Fantasia� model perfected by Henry Purcell, including three sparklingly
carefree contributions from the very first competition in 1905 by William Hurlstone, Frank Bridge and
Joseph Holbrooke. These are virtuoso scores from three confident young composers keen to impress with their
knowledge and sometimes mischievously irreverent attitudes to 19th-century �Romantic� idioms. The remaining
three, by Gustav Holst, Herbert Howells and Eugene Goossens, date from ten years later,
composed during the First World War. Holst�s Phantasy on (Four) English Folk Songs is beautiful and nostalgic;
Howells�s prize-winning entry from 1918 is darkly tinted with an austere modality; and Goossens�s contribution,
dating from 1915, loosens the bonds of 19th-century tonality and challenges the listener with sonorities more
redolent of the 20th century. Most of the works presented here are World Premi�re recordings.



Music by Frank Bridge, Gustav Holst & Eugene Goossens
And by Herbert Howells, Joseph Holbrooke & William Hurlstone
Played by The Bridge String Quartet

"This enterprising disc focuses on quartets written for the competitions held between 1906 and 1919 by amateur violinist
and chamber music proponent Walter Willson Cobbett to revive and develop the �Phantasy�, a genre that soon grew in popularity
as a result. Frank Bridge�s Phantasie Quartet for the inaugural competition is one of the highlights, with a first section that marries
march and scherzo elements, and a freely lyrical slow section � but the Bridge Quartet lacks a degree of both precision and musical
sweep, making this version a clear second-runner to the Maggini Quartet�s rendering for Naxos.

The works by Holst and Howells, for the folk-song Phantasy competition of 1917, are miles apart in quality (Holst later withdrew
his work, while Howells won second place). The Bridge Quartet seems reluctant to enter into the rustic swagger of the former but
sounds more at home in Howells�s rich layering and varied moods. There�s wonder, too, in the performance of Eugene Goossens�s
Phantasy Quartet (1915), which is Ravelian in its malleable harmonies.

Joseph Holbrooke�s sixth-prize winner in 1905 and William Hurlstone�s top entry the same year complete the disc (the latter, along
with the Holst and Goossens, released on disc for the first time). Overall the playing is not of the first rank but fans hungry for
this repertoire will not be disappointed."
Edward Bhesania, Strad Magazine





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No.205
Late Romantic

�Dream Shadows� features the World Premi�re recording of Frederick Septimus Kelly�s �Gallipoli� Sonata
for violin and piano. Kelly was born in 1881 in Australia and first came to the United Kingdom when he began his
schooling at Eton College. Although a notable rower � he won a Gold Medal for Britain in the 1908 London Olympic
Games � he was also a highly gifted composer. His Violin Sonata in G major was written for the violinist
Jelly d�Aranyi and was composed in 1915 in Kelly�s tent at Gallipoli, hence the work�s appellation. Kelly wrote the
Sonata not to express explicitly the horrors of war but rather to articulate his memories of the country in which
he had spent his formative years and which had fostered his intellectual and creative development. In many respects
it represents a farewell to a way of life; but it was also Kelly�s own farewell to d�Aranyi. The composer was
killed on the Somme in 1916 and d�Aranyi later affirmed that, on the night he died, she heard the Sonata being
played as if from a great distance.

This recording of the Gallipoli Sonata is, therefore, not only a fitting tribute to Kelly�s memory,
but is also a commemoration of all those whose gifts and talents have been wasted by war.



Music by Arthur Somervell, Frederick Kelly & Arnold Bax
Played by Rupert Marshall-Luck (violin) & Matthew Rickard (piano)

"The disc opens with an absolute gem. Somervell's Two Conversations about Bach receives - like the Kelly - its premiere recording.
In essence this is one composer's tribute to the genius of another. Somervell has written a pair of extended moderate tempo 2-part
inventions with a 'continuo' accompaniment. These slip between the worlds of Bach instrumental contrapuntal writing and his glorious
arioso music for voice. Very skilfully Somervell has found a way to pay a clear tribute to the earlier master whilst also being of his
own time. The recording is quite close and clinical - detailed and well balanced between the two instruments but not as brilliant as
some that have made use of the Nimbus hall and facilities at Wyastone Leys. My other sorrow is that the budget did not allow for
a second violinist to duet with Marshall-Luck 'live'. Especially since this work is termed a conversation it strikes me as a shame that
this is - by definition - a manufactured performance with one of the two violin parts tracked onto the first. As a consequence there
is no spontaneous interaction between the solo players and an additional minor consequence is - given the imitative and canonic
effects which predominate - there is no tonal variety which the presence of two players on different instruments with slightly
different techniques would automatically produce. That said, such is the charm of the music and its quality that much better
to have it as here than not at all.

Frederick Kelly's Violin Sonata in G is the centre-piece of the programme. It has been given the subtitle Gallipoli where he was
posted in 1915, a year before his death on the Somme. The work was written for the violinist Jelly d'Aranyi with whom Kelly
had given recitals pre-War. Marshall-Luck hears remembrance of times past in the work - others might simply hear music of a
rather conservative stance. Certainly, it is remarkable that any Art of worth could be formed in the environment of total War
but Marshall-Luck quotes Leonard Borwick, a pianist and friend of Kelly, who said; "It is not the discomfort of the trenches that
bears most hardly upon him ... with high explosive and gas shells dropping all around ... what 'gave him no peace' was an ...
overmastering concern that his utterance might not lack one perfecting touch or last fine shade of expression." This says to
me that the drive to write the work is an internal one to create something of beauty and worth - regardless of the immediate
environment. Kelly's Sonata is in the standard three movements with rather extended opening and middle movements over-
balancing the terse, but most interesting, Finale - based on a Ground. Marshall-Luck writes persuasively and passionately about the level
of invention and intent in the music and I can hear what he means but this leaves me relatively unmoved. The musical
influences sound more Germanic than British - certainly no trace of the folksong revival here and perhaps not wholly
surprising given his post-graduate training in Frankfurt.

Praise as ever to Em Records and Rupert Marshall-Luck for their passionate promotion of undervalued British music.
The disc is produced to their consistently high standards including another evocative photograph by Em Marshall-Luck
gracing the cover."
Musicweb





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No.206
Contemporary

Composer, writer, lecturer and broadcaster Anthony Payne (*1936) was born in London and educated at Dulwich College
and Durham University. His extensive list of compositions includes three major commissions for the BBC Proms: The Spirit's Harvest (1985),
Time's Arrow (1990) - recorded by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sir Andrew Davis for NMC - and Visions and Journeys (2002),
which was voted by BBC Radio 3 listeners as the winner of the Audience Award in the 2003 British Composer Awards. He is also well known as
a writer on music, having reviewed for The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, and, currently, for Country Life. He has published
books on Schoenberg, Frank Bridge, and Elgar's Third Symphony, the completion of which in 1997 has brought him worldwide acclaim.
Its premiere at the Royal Festival Hall in 1998 brought a standing ovation. The Symphony has had more than 200 performances, by some of
the world's leading orchestras.

A Day in the Life of a Mayfly reveals the highly individual voice of Anthony Payne's chamber music, from the ethereal textures
and dislocated waltz rhythms of A Day in the Life of a Mayfly to the song-cycle Evening Land.



Music Composed by Anthony Payne
Performed by Jane's Minstrels
With Jane Manning (soprano)
Conducted by Robert Montgomery

"Anthony Payne's music is characterized by his vivid use of instrumental color. Even the most restricted work on this recital
so far as medium, the song cycle 'Evening Land' for voice and piano, makes extensive use of sounds produced within the body
of the piano. The four instrumental compositions for a variety of chamber ensembles offer yet another example of the possibilities
of a post-tonal language used for fairly direct expressive effect. For the most part the form is free with the various emotional
states following as they might in conversation. Particularly impressive are the 'Symphonies of Wind and Rain,' for mixed
chamber ensemble, and 'Evening Land' for clarinet, double bass and string quartet.

Payne's music recalls the vividness of the early music of Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies. Whereas both of the
older composers have moved in more structurally complex directions, Payne has continued to explore the possibilities of an
easily graspable emotional immediacy within a comparatively complex musical language."





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