Alison Teale is the principal cor anglais player with the BBC
Symphony Orchestra and her colleague Elizabeth Burley is an
experienced and well-travelled pianist. Together they make a
good team in works designed originally, or in transcription,
to demonstrate the instrument’s lyricism and agility.
They have had the good idea not to start with Robert Valentine’s
Handelian Sonata, which is second in the track listing. I appreciate
things can be programmed as one chooses, but the avoidance of
the obvious route of ‘Baroque Opener’ is an index of canny judgement,
especially given the moody preferred choice of de Falla. The
evocative terpsichorean charm of the two movements from El
Amor Brujo get things off to a flamenco-drenched, languid
and richly hued start. Messiaen’s Vocalise is richly
lyrical. And I rather admire Teale’s booklet note comment on
Michael Berkeley’s Snake about which she is clearly
ambivalent, having a ‘love-hate relationship’ with it. She admires
its colours though, and I like its coiling but lulling song,
and clever narrative. I know it’s a beautiful piece of music
but it is unusual to find the slow movement of Ravel’s Piano
Concerto in G major here, reduced to two instruments.
Piazzolla’s Nightclub 1960 was originally written for
flute. It’s typical Piazzolla – fast/slow, sex and nostalgia.
Rubbra is made of firmer, finer stuff. I wouldn’t go as far
as Teale, who puts him up there with Elgar and VW, but the Duo
has the long lines and sense of inevitability of utterance so
reflective of his finest music.
Lucchetti’s Rock Song is a breathless whirl that gradually
unwinds to calm stasis after its centrifugal burn. Bozza is
best known for his virtuosic brass writing, and his Divertissement
is a most attractive piece with an especially energetic final
section. Another pillar in the programme, offering ballast to
what might otherwise appear to be scattershot, is Hindemith’s
1941 Sonata, a perfectly proportioned piece that manages to
be both evocative and uneasy; and it’s very well played. Of
course, there’s The Swan. Less obviously there is also
the fun and virtuosity of Un pensiero del Ballo in Maschera,
a Verdi paraphrase by Antonio Pasculli. As a closer there’s
David Gordon’s good-time and dramatic Bebop tango.
I reviewed
this in its original incarnation, but in this version it’s been
arranged for Teale’s cor anglais.
This engaging recital has been extremely well recorded. Admirers
of the instrument should find much to reward them.
Jonathan Woolf
See also review
by Rob Barnett
Track list
Michael BERKELEY (b.
1948)
Snake [4:46]
Eugène BOZZA (1905-1991)
Divertissement Op.39 [6:14]
Manuel de FALLA (1876-1946)
El Amor Brujo; Ritual Fire Dance [3:37] and Pantomine [3:33]
David GORDON (b.1965)
Bebop tango [4:16]
Paul HINDEMITH (1895-1963)
Sonata for Cor anglais and piano (1941) [11:10]
Alessandro LUCCHETTI (b.1958)
Rock song No. 3 (1986) [5:26]
Olivier MESSIAEN (1908-1992)
Vocalise etude (1935) [4:47]
Antonio PASCULLI (1842-1921)
Amelia: un pensiero del Ballo in Maschera [6:13]
Astor PIAZZOLLA (1921-1992)
Histoire du Tango: Nightclub 1960 [5:34]
Maurice RAVEL (1875-1937)
Piano Concerto in G major: Adagio assai [6:25]
Edmund RUBBRA (1901-1986)
Duo for Cor Anglais and Piano op.156 [4:32]
Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921)
Le carnaval des animaux: Le Cygne [3:02]
Robert VALENTINE (1680-1735)
Sonata No.10 in C [7:01]
Alison Teale (cor anglais)