Hamilton HARTY(1879 – 1941)
Piano Quintet in F, Op.12 (1904) [32:43]
String Quartet No. 2 in a minor, Op.5 (1902) [26:24]
String Quartet No. 1 in F, Op.1 (1900) [23:45]
Goldner String Quartet (Dene Olding, Dimity Hall (violin); Irina Morozova
(viola); Julian Smiles (cello)); Piers Lane (piano)
rec. Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, 23–25 June 2011. DDD.
2 CDs for the price of one
HYPERION CDA67927 [59:10 + 23:45]
Hamilton Harty’s music was one of the first beneficiaries from the business
model evolved by [then] smaller record companies to focus their release schedules
on repertoire neglected by the big international labels. Hence – this is from
memory! – amongst the very first discs Chandos recorded were in Ulster of
Harty’s orchestral works. They proved to be stunning in every respect – artistically
and technically and, as the saying goes, the rest is history. The only flaw
in this model is the importance of primacy. So, with the exception of a couple
of discs from Naxos – with their model of recording just about everything
ever written! – record companies have pretty much ignored Harty’s instantly
appealing and attractive music ever since. All of which makes this issue from
Hyperion especially welcome. As so often with Hyperion this is an exemplary
release in their best tradition with excellent playing supported by a truthful
engineering and high production values promoting unfamiliar music of real
worth and interest. One assumes this was originally intended as a single disc
release but once the playing time crept up towards the eighty three minute
mark Hyperion took the pragmatic and correct choice to release this as a ‘two-for-one’
double-disc set.
What is it about British composers and playing the viola! Everyone from Frank
Bridge to Eric Coates seem to have been fine exponents but high up that list
are two who ultimately made their names primarily as conductors; Hamilton
Harty and Eugene Goossens. Sadly, Harty did not live long enough to leave
us a recorded legacy of sufficient technical quality or quantity to be able
to fully assess his lasting worth but his reputation is as an interpreter
of the highest standing. As a composer the regret is that his catalogue of
works tails right away once his conducting career blossomed. The late and
exceptionally beautiful Children of Lir shows what might have developed
had time permitted. In that regard Eugene Goossens does have to be regarded
as the more significant composer with a wider range of music written in a
more complex style. However, the three early – indeed almost student – works
recorded here reveal Harty to be a consummate craftsman from a young age and
one who understands the instruments he is writing for from the inside. More
over he is blessed with the ability to write a good tune and produce music
of easy appeal. My only query with the Hyperion presentation is their decision
to present the much in reverse chronological order. Although written over
a brief four year span there is a clear progression in technical competence
and range of expression from the Op.1 F major quartet of 1900 to the big bravura
Piano Quintet of 1904. Pairing the quartets on the first disc and allowing
the Quintet to stand alone on the second would have made better sense to my
mind. All three works were written for – and won prizes in – competitions.
No doubt for a young composer both the exposure gained and money won was of
particular use. The two quartets were written for the Dublin Feis Ceoil of
1900 & 1902 respectively so elements of ‘Irishness’ are not altogether
surprising.
The Piano Quintet was written for a competition organised by the great patron
of the Arts Ada Lewis-Hill. Harty’s composition was placed first from over
forty entrants gaining him the first prize of 50 guineas – which equates to
over £15,000 at today’s values according to www.measuringworth.com
. Interestingly Harty seems to be straining at the ‘chamber’ music form much
more here than in the quartets. Everything from the scale of the work and
its musical material to the handling of the instruments implies more of a
symphonic utterance. Pianist Piers Lane is well-known to British collectors
and this is his fifth collaboration with his fellow Australians The Goldner
String Quartet for Hyperion. Drama is the defining word for much of the quintet.
It’s a big bold and Romantic work with very much a capital R. Dvorak seems
to provide the emotional model and indeed the melodic contours most often.
By no means is this a revolutionary work and indeed by that yardstick it verges
on the reactionary. If you consider that even within the relatively regressive
British musical scene the piano quintets of both Bridge and Bax are far more
questing and less than a decade away in the case of the Bridge in its final
form you realise the Harty is breaking no moulds. The central pair of movements
are more individual – the scherzo has an amiable Salon Intermezzo spirit which
is a wise move after the storm and stress of the opening Allegro. The Goldners
play very well throughout and Lane’s technical brilliance is a given. I have
two passing thoughts; in the Quintet especially Harty employs a lot of doubling
of lines in an attempt to give the musical a more orchestral impact but it
does make intonation the very devil. The Goldners do as well as any quartet
could and the failing is Harty’s relative inexperience but there are the occasional
tuning ‘wobbles’. Also, I do feel that the strings could enjoy playing more
often in a truly quiet fashion. The opening of the third movement Lento is
a passage of beautiful repose and one I would have liked repeated more often
elsewhere. The climax of the same movement reaches a climax of heroic rhetoric
but I did have just a smidgeon of a feeling that the gestures were grandiose
but ultimately somewhat generic. But you have to keep reminding yourself that
this is an early work and by that touchstone if no other this is
as impressive as it is enjoyable. The balance between the piano and the quartet
is very well achieved by the production team especially given how thick and
heavy the writing is for much of the time and if you want an idea of just
how well the work is played the dramatic final pages are a prime example –
bravura writing dispatched with aplomb by all.
The fact that Harty chose to set the piano in juxtaposition to the quartet
as a conscious choice becomes clear as soon as one hears the earlier 2nd
Quartet. From the very first bars the way he works out his material makes
it clear that there will be more contrapuntal writing within the ensemble
with the problematic doublings of melodic lines far less in evidence. The
engineering balance brings the quartet a step closer in the sound picture
– again I wonder if the use of the quieter, more floated dynamics would have
been beneficial [1st movement 2nd subject is case in
point]. The extra ‘working out’ makes the for greater interest across the
parts but at the expense of the sheer dramatic impact of the quintet. The
second movement scherzo has a rum-ti-tum amiability reminiscent of Edward
German and the slow movement with its wide-arching theme aspires towards an
Elgarian nobility. The Goldners are very good at building the intensity of
this latter movement and its mood suits the style of their playing especially
well. The finale is the section of the quartet which is most overtly Irish
with a lilting ballad feel – it’s a little bit twee but very attractive all
the same.
If the shade of Dvorak is the benevolent influence on the two works on the
first disc then its Mendelssohn whose influence is most keenly felt in the
Op.1 F major Quartet. The second movement scherzo – and an unexpected scherzo
episode in the third movement Andante Pastorale are a quirkily fascinating
fusion of Mendelssohnian fairy music with a distinctly Irish twist. Again
the sheer confidence and the fluency of the writing cannot fail to impress.
The regret if regret there be is that these works were not followed by any
others of a more strikingly individual character. Harty’s Irish Symphony also
won a prize at the 1904 Dublin festival and in that unashamedly pictorial
work he was happy to wear his Irish heart on his sleeve to the benefit of
the music’s spirit and spontaneity. Perhaps he felt the ideal of the abstract
string quartet required something more formal. In doing so I feel some of
his musical personality has been suppressed in the name of Art.
As so often in the past one is indebted to Hyperion for their promotion of
the rare and obscure and once again their instinct has been proved true with
music of easy if not lingering appeal. The quality of the performance is matched
by the engineering and production which is in turn match by the disc’s presentation.
In this case the liner is provided by Harty scholar Professor Jeremy Dibble
who is the author of the forthcoming first full length study of Harty’s life
and works; Hamilton Harty; His Life and Musical World. His note is
full of insight and interest and makes one look forward to reading the full-length
work. With this release an important gap in the repertoire of this composer
has been filled – a disc guaranteed to please admirers of the genre in general
and Harty in particular.
Nick Barnard
A disc guaranteed to please admirers of chamber music and of Harty in particular.
see also review by Brian Wilson