Released to coincide
with his 70th birthday, this
disk of, mainly, "recent"
chamber works by Howard Blake is a welcome
reminder that there is so much more
to this interesting composer than Walking
in the Air and a myriad of film
and TV scores.
Whilst a student Blake
formed a violin and piano duo with the
late Miles Baster – it was after a recital
they gave in Edinburgh, which ended
with the Franck Sonata, that Baster
was asked to form the Edinburgh Quartet
(for whom Blake has recently completed
a String Quartet for their 50th
anniversary) – and they worked their
way through the whole of the repertoire
for their instruments. The Violin
Sonata was written at the behest
of Baster but as he left for Scotland
and the new Quartet the work was abandoned
with only a few sketches made. A decade
later Jack Rothstein asked for a Sonata
and the first version of the present
work was written. But what we have here
is a "ferociously" (Blake’s
word) revised version, dedicated to
the memory of Baster. Starting in a
most unprepossessing way the music soon
moves into typical Blakeian rhythmic
and melodic mode, and the movement progresses
in a dance–like manner, with short lyrical
episodes breaking up the forward movement.
Although this music doesn’t sound at
all like Douglas Lilburn’s magnificent
Violin Sonata (1950) it reminded
me of that work because of its sheer
determination of purpose. The slow movement
which follows is distant and withdrawn,
the music moving simply in a melodic
line for the violin accompanied by a
single line in the right hand of the
piano and held chords in the left. An
agitated and passionate middle section,
with wide leaps for the fiddle, disturbs
the calm but the opening section returns,
a little more resigned and melancholic.
The finale is a laconic and gently humorous
piece, after a whirlwind start, which
jumps from idea to idea without resting.
This Violin Sonata is a very
fine achievement and a worthy addition
to the repertoire.
Penillion was
originally written for violin and harp
and exists in several different version
– one for flute and harp is available
on a disk of Blake’s chamber music,
Meridian CDE84553. It’s in eight very
short sections mixing lively and restrained
music. As befits a penillion – a Welsh
composition where an harpist accompanies
him/herself whilst singing – these are
songs without words, but the harmonies
are far more modern than anything you’d
hear in a real penillion. It’s an unpretentious,
delicate piece.
That the Piano Quartet
should be included here is of special
significance for it was with this work
that Blake made the conscious decision
to cut back on his more commercial,
and lucrative (!) film work and turn
to the concert hall. Indeed so much
is it a pivotal work in his catalogue
that he turned down the opportunity
to score Stanley Kubrick’s Barry
Lyndon in favour of writing this
work. The work was written for the performers
playing here, who gave the première,
in the Purcell Room, eight months after
this recording was made. It’s a very
classical work in the mould of Dvořák’s
chamber works (a comment which shocked
Blake when I mentioned it to him, for
he had thought it to be rooted slightly
earlier). No matter. It’s a fine work,
strong themes, a well thought out design,
very gratefully written for the instruments
– Blake fully understand strings (he
says he once played the fiddle badly).
The scherzo, second, movement has a
Mendelssohnian lightness and freshness
about it, but the harmony belies anything
pre–1940! The slow movement may come
as a shock to anyone who knows Blake’s
wonderful Piano Concerto (re–issued
this month: October 2008, Sony 88697376972
review)
for this is the Concerto’s slow movement
in embryo. It’s very touching in this
form, the emotion more restrained, the
gestures smaller but no less moving.
The finale is a country dance.
The Jazz Dances
make a delightful collection of encore
pieces, but they’re not jazz per se,
rather jazzy pieces – in the way that
the Blues in Ravel’s Violin Sonata
is jazzy. It’s hard to believe that
these pieces, which fit perfectly on
to the combination of violin and piano,
were originally written for two pianos!
They are by turns fast and slow, one
a blues, one a boogie, one a kind of
popular song and so on. Like the Five
Pieces, op.84 (1964) by his friend
Malcolm Arnold any one of these miniatures
would make very good encore pieces for
they are most enjoyable and great fun.
This is a very enjoyable
and exciting disk, not least for the
superb Violin Sonata. Madeleine
Mitchell is a committed advocate for
this music and it is to be hoped that
the Sonata, at the very least,
will enter her regular repertoire. The
composer himself is a sympathetic duo
partner, and the sessions brought back,
for him, the memories of his partnership
with Baster and the joy and satisfaction
of playing chamber music together.
Despite the fact that
the recording of the Quartet
dates from 34 years before the recordings
of the other works, the sound is remarkably
consistent and has a lovely, rich, ambiance
and in the duo works there is a real
feel of the concert room. The musicians
are placed a little way from the microphone
so as to put them in perspective with
the acoustic.
Now Naxos has dipped
its toe into the Blake catalogue might
I make a plea for a disk of his music
for string quartet? The public deserves
to hear more of this endlessly fascinating
and very interesting composer.
Bob Briggs
see also
Howard
BLAKE Violin Concerto "The
Leeds"; A Month in the Country;
Sinfonietta for 10 brass instruments
. Christiane Edinger (violin) English
Northern Philharmonia conducted by Paul
Daniel ASV CD DCA 905
Howard
BLAKE (b. 1938) Piano
Concerto, Diversions, Toccata – A Celebration
of the Orchestra, 
Howard Blake (piano), Robert Cohen
(cello) Philharmonia Orchestra/Sir David
Willcocks (Concerto), Howard Blake (Diversions
and Toccata)
rec. 1990, reissue
SONY CLASSICS 88697376972 [68:21] 
Bob
Briggs talks to Howard Blake
