MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


 REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

 

Buy through MusicWeb for £13.49 postage paid.

Musicweb Purchase button

 


An English Recital
Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872 - 1958)
The Lake in the Mountains (1947) [3:14]
Hymn-Tune Prelude on 'Song 12' by Orlando Gibbons (1928) [3:11]
Suite of Six Short Pieces (published 1921) [11:30]
Gustav HOLST (1874 - 1934)
Two Pieces for Piano (1930/2) [6:02]
Two Northumbrian Folk Tunes (1927) [3:04]
John IRELAND (1879 - 1962)
Sonatina (1927) [9:11]
Arnold BAX (1883 - 1953)
Allegretto quasi andante (1932) [5:38]
Peter WARLOCK (1894 - 1930)
Five Folk-Song Preludes (1918) [10:40]
Ernest John MOERAN (1894 - 1950)
Bank holiday (1925) [2:15]
Benjamin BRITTEN (1913 - 1976)
Night Piece (1963) [6:39]
John JOUBERT (b. 1927)
Dance Suite Op.21 (1958) [8:34]
John McCabe (piano)
rec. St. George the Martyr, Holborn, London, 20 May 1972 and London, 20-22 May 1968 (Britten)
BMS103CDH [70:12]
Experience Classicsonline



All these works but two (Britten's Night Piece and Joubert's Dance Suite Op.21) have been available on a now long-deleted Decca Ace of Diamonds LP (SDD444) of which I still have a cherished and rather worn-out copy. That was a disc that attracted me at the time because of a few “rarities” included in the programme. One of these rarities was Warlock's Five Folk-Song Preludes that caught my imagination because up to that time I only knew the Capriol Suite and a handful of songs. That was a disc that I enjoyed listening to and I am now delighted to be able to review its latest reincarnation.

Vaughan Williams composed relatively little of any real substance for piano, if one excepts his Piano Concerto, but the short pieces heard here are nevertheless quite fine and typical of the composer, the Hymn-Tune Prelude particularly so. The Suite of Six Short Pieces is a delightful set of endearing miniatures that transcends its overtly didactic purposes. The Lake in the Mountains is a short tone-poem based on material from the film 49th Parallel.

Much the same could be said about Holst who, too, wrote very little for piano. The Two Pieces for Piano (Nocturne and Jig) were composed for his daughter Imogen whereas the Two Northumbrian Folk Tunes is a short diptych consisting of a fairly developed arrangement of a folk song - what a fine tune this is! - and a “sparkling, tiny piece” (John McCabe) to round it off.

Although it is rather compact, Ireland's Sonatina somewhat belies its diminutive title, in that the content of it is but a far cry from the often lighter music one has come to expect from such a piece. The music is fairly austere, though I find it typical of its composer, and the work has a whole remains enigmatic. By the way, am I the only one to hear hints of the Piano Concerto in the first movement of the Sonatina?

Bax's Allegretto quasi andante is actually the slow movement of his Fourth Piano Sonata, but stands remarkably well on its own because of its beautiful main theme. By the way, a recording of Bax's Fourth Piano Sonata is available on BMS434-435CD played by Malcolm Binns.

I must admit that I was a bit puzzled when I first came to know Warlock's Five Folk-Songs Preludes because I found this predominantly slow music rather at odds with better-known arrangements. Now, Warlock was something of an outsider casting a severe glance at things that resulted in far from jolly pieces. Just think of his masterly The Curlew or some of his songs such as The Fox. John McCabe, however, rightly suggests that Warlock was probably more aware of “the genuinely tragic motivation behind much folksong” than, say, of its aesthetic. The music is mostly slow and this short cycle culminates in a long Largo maestoso, almost as long as the other movements put together. This is a much neglected though quite impressive work for all its brevity.

Moeran's Bank Holiday with his 'Grainger-esque' vitality is in complete contrast to Warlock's introverted piece. This is a delightful miniature of great fun.

Although he was a brilliant pianist, Britten composed very little for his instruments and some of his works published late in his life or after his death were actually quite early pieces, such as Five Waltzes, so that his Night Piece composed for the 1963 Leeds International Piano Competition is a rare example of a mature work for piano by Britten. Hearing this finely crafted piece, one wished that Britten had composed more for the piano.

As far as I am concerned, it is always nice to hear a work by John Joubert. His Dance Suite Op.21 is new to me, I must say. This short suite alternates three fast dances and two slower ones. The fast movements carry faint echoes of Bartók, and none the worse for that whereas the slower dances still nod towards Britten; but the music is entirely Joubert's own.

This beautifully produced release is a timely tribute to John McCabe on his 70th birthday and a well-deserved homage to his unflagging dedication to British music.

Hubert Culot


 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.