Lennox in Paris
Lennox BERKELEY (1903-1989)
Sonatina for violin and piano, Op 17 (1942) [12:57]
Sonata No 1 for violin and piano (1931) [17:40]
Elegy and Toccata for violin and piano, Op 33, parts 2-3 (1950) [5:20]
Lili BOULANGER (1893-1918)
D’un Matin du Printemps (1911-1918) [5:10]
Nocturne (1911) [2:45]
Cortège (1914) [1:50]
Francis POULENC (1899-1963)
Sonata for violin and piano, FP 119 (1943) [20:40]
Mouvements perpétuels, FP 14 (transcr. Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987)) (1918/?) [4:42]
Presto in B-flat major, FP 70 (transcr. Jascha Heifetz) (1934/?) [2:18]
Emmanuel Bach (violin), Jenny Stern (piano)
rec. 9-11 April 2021, Turner Simms Concert Hall, University of Southampton, UK
WILLOWHAYNE RECORDS WHR070 [73:31]
In the autumn of 1926, Lennox Berkeley moved to Paris to study with the redoubtable Nadia Boulanger. He met there virtually everybody who was anybody in Parisian musical circles, among them Igor Stravinsky, members of Les Six and Albert Roussel, and he had lessons with Maurice Ravel. He returned to England in 1932. This disc “is designed both to pay homage to Lennox and to acknowledge the pivotal role played by Paris in his life and development as a composer. It combines music by Berkeley with his Parisian near-contemporary Francis Poulenc, and Lili Boulanger, the younger sister of Nadia.”
The recital begins with the sonatina for violin and piano, Op 17. It dates from 1942, shortly after Berkeley had returned from a “working holiday” in Gloucestershire with his friend Benjamin Britten. It was dedicated to Gladys Bryans, an elderly admirer of Lennox’s music, who made her house in Gloucestershire available as a quiet space for him to create in. The opening movement is in sonata form, with two relaxed and melodic themes. All the drama is presented in the development section. The Lento is big music in a small package. A brooding melody is whipped up into a “boiling passion” in the middle section, before falling back into its ghostly mood. The finale has a well-wrought theme, followed by five variations which are complex, sometimes intense, and feature several mood swings. Like many works with the title Sonatina, this piece introduces material deeper and more difficult than the title suggests. It is certainly no teaching piece for the tyro.
Lennox Berkeley’s three-movement Sonata No 1 remained unpublished until 2015. This seems unbelievable for such a confident and accomplished piece, and the LB webpage lists only one other recording (Lennox Berkeley: Complete Music for violin and piano, and solo violin, by violinist Edwin Paling and pianist Arabella Teniswood-Harvey on Move, MD 3361, issued in 2012). The Sonata was written when Berkeley was in Paris, during his time with Nadia Boulanger. The café culture of Paris infuses this essay. Berkeley uses “basslines, syncopations, and rhythms drawing on jazz”, but this is not a jazzy work such as Milhaud’s Le Boeuf sur le Toit or Gershwin’s American in Paris. Berkeley took those constructive elements to create a personal and refined take on music that was in the air at the time. The Sonata was premiered on 4 May 1932 by Yvonne Astruc and Madeleine Grovlez, for the Société Musicale Indépendante at the École Normale. It deserves further hearings and reintroduction into the concert hall.
The Elegy and Toccata, Op 33 for violin and piano – the second and third in a set of three – were written for the violinist Frederick Grinke. The Elegy balances contemplation with passion. It is a lovely moody number. The Toccata is a warhorse, demanding the fleetest of fingering to maintain the momentum of this restless and fast-paced tour-de-force. For some reason, Emmanuel Bach chose not to include the first in the set, the Theme and Variations for solo violin; there may just have been enough room for it.
There are here three short pieces by Lili Boulanger. The Nocturne is nostalgic and thoughtful, with definite hat tips to Debussy, and Cortège is dancelike, rather than a funeral procession. D’un Matin du Printemps is Boulanger’s masterpiece. Janus-like, it looks backwards to Debussy and forward to Les Six. This version dates from 1917, so it was one of her last projects. The work was conceived in several guises simultaneously. Editions exist for flute and piano, string trio and full orchestra. It is a perfect evocation of spring, full of delight, bursting nature and innocence. There is just the occasional hint of something more sinister, hardly surprising since it comes from the height of the Great War.
Francis Poulenc’s Violin Sonata, FP 119 is a wartime work from 1943, dedicated to the memory of the great Iberian poet Federico García Lorca, who was murdered by the nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War. The music balances agitated passion with nostalgia and tenderness. Generally serious, it lacks the joie de vivre so common in much of Poulenc’s output. As expected, the slow movement Intermezzo: Très lent et calme is the heart of the sonata. The score is marked with a quotation from Lorca, “the guitar makes dreams weep” – this suggests the concept of another, better world. Here melody predominates. The mood is sleepy, with an Iberian sultriness. In the finale Presto tragico, the music is often violent, driven by powerful rhythms but finally ending with a tragic, slow coda. This splendid effort belies Poulenc’s stated dislike of the solo violin. He felt that this sonata was an “utter failure”. What did he know?! The liner notes do not say that it was heavily revised in 1949, before publication.
The last three pieces are Jascha Heifetz’s arrangements of Poulenc’s piano music. The booklet gives no dates for the originals or the transcriptions. Poulenc once remarked that his 1918 Mouvements perpétuels, FP 14 were “ultra-easy", and “compared them to a brisk stroll by the Seine”. I am not so sure that they are for Grade 4. I assume that Heifetz only transcribed two of the three numbers – the short Très modéré is not included. The opening Assez modéré is urbane and suggests the thought of a Boulevardier, whilst the Alerte has many time-signature changes, march-like harmonies and an exuberant melody. It ends inconclusively. Both Mouvements are effective in their violin and piano arrangement.
The helter-skelter Presto in B-flat major, FP 70 was originally composed for Vladimir Horowitz. The liner notes suggest that it is an impression of a fairground.
I found both the recording and violin playing a little on the bright side, sometimes harder-edged than it needs to be. But both soloists are clearly dedicated to this project, and the excellent playing contributes a great deal to the recital’s success.
Emmanuel Bach’s liner notes make a good introduction to this music. After a brief overview of Berkeley’s residence in Paris, succinct notes for each work follow. I wish that the author had included the Opus and FP numbers in the track listings where appropriate. There are the usual biographical notes about the performers. The eminently readable texts come in English, French and German. One snag: the very thick booklet is jammed into the clips in the jewel case, so my copy is already the worse for wear;
a free booklet download is available on the website using this link: https://willowhaynerecordsltd.blob.core.windows.net/willowhaynerecords/WHR070/WHR070Booklet.pdf.
This is an interesting album, full of good things. I am not sure that the Heifetz transcriptions were essential to this project, and all but two of the pieces recorded here were written before or after Lennox Berkeley’s stay in Paris. Even so, all the music is worthy and deserves to be in the repertoire.
John France
