Francis BACHE (1833-1858)
Souvenirs d'Italie, op.19 [40:23]
William WALLACE (1814-1865)
La Gondola - Souvenir de Venise (Nocturne) [4:08]
Ange sě Pur - Romance de "La Favorite", transcribed
[4:33]
Fantasia de Salon sur Motifs de Lucrezia Borgia [4:42]
Sydney SMITH (1839-1859)
I Pifferari - Musette Moderne, op.183 [3:14]
Siesta - Reverie, op.180 [5:52]
Sérénade Vénitienne, op.201 [7:11]
Danse Napolitaine - Morceau de Concert, op.33 [3:48]
William WOLSTENHOLME (1865-1931)
Venice [2:52]
Arthur SOMERVELL (1863-1937)
Tarantella in A minor [1:16]
Maude WHITE (1855-1937)
From the Ionian Sea - Four Sketches [11:04]
Edward GERMAN (1862-1936)
Tarantella [2:49]
Harry FARJEON (1878-1948)
Three Venetian Idylls, op.20 [10:59]
Barcarolle [4:25]
*Two Italian Sketches [4:51]
Frank MERRICK (1886-1981)
Tarantella, op.5 [4:05]
Ernest Markham LEE (1874-1956)
Nights in Venice [10:21]
Eaton FANING (1850-1927)
Sorrento - Danza in modo di Tarantella [4:02]
Henry GEEHL (1881-1961)
The Bay of Naples - Italian Suite [11:01]
Ronald SWAFFIELD (1889-1962)
Rapallo [3:22]
Cyril SCOTT (1879-1970)
Tarantula [1:45]
If prizes were awarded for musical enterprise I am sure that
Christopher Howell and Sheva would be regular winners. Recent
discs that have come my way have included the organ music of
Samuel Wesley and songs by lesser known Italian composers. These
follow discs devoted to Cyril Scott, Harold Craxton and Stanford.
However the present set surely beats them all. I had known of
the many German composers inspired by Italy from Mendelssohn
to Henze but it is a surprise that something similar might apply
to British composers with a fascinating succession of Suites
and individual pieces, including many - arguably too many -
Tarantellas and Barcarolles.
The first “item” is in fact the longest piece here, a Suite
of eight pieces by Francis Edward Bache, a pianist and composer
whose life was cut short by tuberculosis and who left only a
small musical legacy. It includes some excellent chamber music
recorded by Dutton. The influence of Mendelssohn is obvious
and unsurprising in any English composer of that time as is
the more general impact of the generic salon style of the period.
The music is nonetheless varied, inventive and enjoyable, and
for me represents the main discovery in this set. The items
by Wallace are as innocently showy and entertaining as recent
Naxos discs of his piano music have led us to expect. Sydney
Smith is a name that often crops up in Victorian albums of piano
music but who is rarely encountered in performance. Again his
music is essentially simply showy and entertaining.
The music on the second disc comes from a later period and includes
several names better known for their educational pieces or as
performers. It is all idiomatically laid out for the instrument
and pleasant for the listener but I must admit that only occasionally
was the music more than that. For much of the time I kept being
reminded of sitting in one of Betty’s tea shops when one of
their better pianists was on duty - Yorkshire readers will understand
the allusion. The items by Maude Valérie White and Harry Farjeon
are perhaps the most interesting and at worst it is certainly
worthwhile to have the chance to hear music by composers otherwise
unlikely to be more than names to the listener.
The listener’s enjoyment is greatly enhanced by the extensive
and useful notes by Christopher Howell. The set as a whole sheds
useful light on an interesting and previously unexplored corner
of British music. It is hard to imagine what the next project
might be but I certainly look forward to it with considerable
anticipation of pleasure.
John Sheppard
Byzantion has also listened to this disc
In this generous double disc release by independent Italian
label Sheva, the reliable English pianist Christopher Howell
performs a selection of mainly shortish pieces that owe their
creation to artistic inspiration originating in Italy. The CD
title and subtitle are slightly at odds with each other nation-wise,
but most of the featured composers are in fact English, and
those that are not certainly have strong ties with England.
There are no undiscovered masterpieces in Howell's balmy,
tarantella-peppered recital: with one or two exceptions, the
composers of these pieces owe what success they achieved more
to hard work than genius. The majority of items are in any case
under five minutes long - in fact it would not be unjust to
describe many of them as pretty salon pieces. Tempo is usually
slowish to moderately lively, technical level of the writing
well within the reach of a competent amateur. Yet many tunes
turn up that are halfway decent at worst, and memorably evocative
at best, if not necessarily of Italy.
Maude White's From the Ionian Sea, Ronald Swaffield's
Rapallo and all three works by Harry Farjeon (brother of 'Morning
Has Broken' Eleanor) are among the many quite-high-spots
of Howell's light, lithe programme. Of the various Tarantellas,
Frank Merrick's is the most musically interesting. Francis
Bache's Souvenirs d'Italie takes up almost a third
of the total minutes available, a bold if lopsided inclusion
by Howell. Bache was killed by tuberculosis before he reached
25 and his Souvenirs, a suite of eight Italianate character
pieces, are imbued with a youthful spirit not always matched
by originality. Nevertheless, a mellifluous forty minutes'
worth of listening is guaranteed.
Italy-based Howell has already recorded numerous CDs for Sheva,
both as pianist and organist - see this recent review
for further detail. He has even given a recital of his very
own pieces (review).
This latest addition to his discography may not contain the
most inspiring or inspired music, but Howell treats it respectfully
and makes a sympathetic case for many pieces that went down
with the sad demise of amateur piano playing.
Sound quality is pretty good. More importantly, Sheva have discontinued
their bad habit evident on some earlier discs of clipping the
ends of tracks. There are one or two very minor editing joins
that ought not be there, but otherwise these are well-edited
discs. The booklet is a low-cost affair, but Howell's
informative notes run to several pages, albeit only in English,
and not always explaining the Italian connection of some of
the pieces - Sydney Smith's I Pifferari being the most
obvious apparent anomaly.
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at reviews.gramma.co.uk
Christopher Howell (piano)