Percy SHERWOOD (1866-1939)
Cello Sonata No. 1 op. 10 (1891) [28:29]
Drei Stücke op. 19 (1900?) [11:08] Cello Sonata No. 2 op. 15 (1900)
[26:40]
Funf Kleine Stücke for cello and piano (1886-87) [14:05]
Joseph Spooner (cello); David Owen Norris (piano)
rec. Turner Sims Concert Hall, University of Southampton, 6-8 January 2012.
TOCCATA CLASSICS TOCC 0145 [80:24]
Percy Sherwood was born in Dresden, Germany of English parents and was a pupil
of Felix Draeseke. Sherwood was in London when the Great War began and return
to Germany proved impracticable. When the war ended he opted to stay in England
where he died just short of the second 20th century war with Germany.
His works for cello and piano appear to have been written for the Dutch cellist
Johannes Smith. They are in late-romantic language. Those who enjoy the Rachmaninov
and John Foulds cello sonatas will have no difficulty and much pleasure in
encountering them. They are fluently written and while recalling Rachmaninov
there are Brahmsian moments along the way. Romantic torrents are one thing
but the tranced end of the second movement (Adagio) of the First Sonata with
its moonlit glimmer is unforgettable. The Second Sonata is in much the same
floridly confident idiom. It's all rather suggestive of a late-nineteenth
century Vittorio Giannini (try the recent MSR CD
of his Piano Quintet) or of Nicolas Flagello or, again, Samuel Barber in his
ripest vintage. The finale of Second Sonata is a victorious sunburst of uplands
confidence that pauses for discursive reflection across its ambitious eight-minute
span. The Three Pieces op. 14 are by turns sentimental, jaunty-charming and
stormily Beethovenian - the latter a sonata-finale in its mien. The ear-pleasing
Five Little Pieces are soulful, gawky-grotesque, rounded and serenade-joyous.
Toccata take meticulous pains over their productions. There is nothing here
for those of the critical community who belabour companies for inadequate
or absent documentation. On the contrary, this and the other Toccata discs
stand as exemplars. Martin Anderson would not have it any other way. The booklet
runs to 24 pages in English only and that includes four photographs. It amounts
to an extended encyclopaedia entry for Sherwood. The research done by cellist
Joseph Spooner seems to have been original. I have never seen such an extensive
essay on Sherwood. It's rich in footnotes and the style is fluent and
uncongealed.
The playing is all you might hope for with both Spooner and Owen Norris in
assured and exultant form.
Among his other works is an 1889 Requiem which drew a Mendelssohn
Prize in Berlin. There are also many piano pieces and an 1895 Piano Concerto
as well as an orchestral Serenade (1910). A Second Piano Concerto was completed
1931-34. There is a 1902 Violin Concerto dedicated to Marie Hall and perhaps
three sonatas for the instrument. Of the six string quartets the last was
finished in about 1930. Let’s trust that Toccata will let us hear this music
and that Em Marshall-Luck will include it in forthcoming English Music Festivals.
Two lanky late-romantic cello sonatas make an unmistakably confident first
entry for Anglo-German composer Percy Sherwood.
Rob Barnett
Two lanky late-romantic cello sonatas make an unmistakably confident first
entry for Anglo-German composer Percy Sherwood.
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