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Madeleine Mitchell - Violin Songs Edward ELGAR (1857-1934)
Chanson de Matin Op.15 No.2 (1899) [3:07]
Chanson de Nuit Op.15 No.1 (1897) [3:30]
Salut d' Amour Op 12 (1888) [3:08] Alban BERG (1885-1935)
Die Nachtigall (1907) transcribed Madeleine Mitchell [2:12] Frank BRIDGE (1879-1941)
Mélodie (1911) [3:44]
Morceau Caracteristque (1907-08) [6:55]
Amaryllis (1905) [2:18]
Romanze (1904) [4:28]
Spring Song (1912) [2:20]
Moto Perpetuo (1900) [1:46]
Berceuse (1901) [2:46] Maurice RAVEL (1875-1937)
Berceuse sur le Nom de Fauré (1922) [2:42] Sergei PROKOFIEV (1893-1953)
Cinq Mélodies op.35b (1920 transcribed 1925) [12:56] Jules MASSENET (1842-1912)
Méditation from Thaïs (1894) [4:47] Lili BOULANGER (1893-1918)
Nocturne (1911) [2:56] Aaron COPLAND (1900-1990)
Nocturne (1926) [5:20] Francis POULENC (1899-1963)
Violon (1939 - transcribed Madeleine Mitchell) [2:04] Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Ave Maria D 839 (1825) arranged by Johannes Palatschko
[5:32] Richard STRAUSS (1864-1949)
Morgen Op.27 No.4 (1894 orchestrated 1897) [4:16] *
Madeleine
Mitchell (violin)
Andrew Ball (piano)
Elizabeth Watts (soprano) *
rec. Potton Hall, Suffolk, May 2007 DIVINE
ART DDA25063 [76:50]
It’s
good to see Madeleine Mitchell back in the recording studios
with increasing frequency – first the recent Alwyn-Naxos
chamber disc (8.570340 - see review) and now a solo recital
from her for Divine Art. As she writes in her notes these
song-like
melodies
are mainly,
though not exclusively, Anglo-French; Copland’s piece was
written in Paris.
Admirers
of Frank Bridge will note the contents with interest; interest
will then turn to outright enthusiasm for there’s a world
premiere recording here of the Morceau Caracteristque,
long believed lost, but which resurfaced in 2006 in the May
Harrison collection at the Royal College of Music in London.
Harrison had first performed it with Hamilton Harty at the
Bechstein Hall, as the Wigmore was then known. As Mitchell
notes this is an altogether more virtuosic vehicle than the
other six Bridge morceaux collected on this disc. She characterises
it as a dramatic ballad more than a character or salon piece
with a Wieniawski-like coda. That’s fair enough I think though
I’d add that there is a fair amount of Iberian dash about
it that probably derives from Sarasate. It was written around
1907 or 1908 and it would be good to find out (if possible)
exactly when, as Sarasate died in 1908. The rest of the Bridge
selection is charmingly done. The Melodie is most
sympathetically played – alternately lyric and bold – whilst
the Romanze is precisely that. I went back to Henri
Temianka’s 1937 Parlophone 78 of the Moto perpetuo to
see what that wizard made of it. Crikey. He got through it
in a rocketing 1:11 making it sound like a first cousin of
Rimsky’s bumblebee. Mitchell is much more sedate and takes
1:46. I might as well admit I rather miss Temianka’s naughty,
almost daemonic velocity – it makes it a real showcase.
Mitchell
makes some emotive finger position changes in Salut d’amour,
which is expressive without become treacly and unfolds her
own arrangement of Berg’s song Die Nachtigall with
chaste intimacy. Her Prokofiev is less sculpted and projected
than, say, Tretiakov whose Russian take is hotter blooded
and whose pizzicati ring out and are more cutting and jagged
in the Lento (No.2). There’s more obvious colour and
personality and a bigger and showier bow arm as well. But
Mitchell’s more intimate playing brings its own rewards if
you shun more strutting and masculine traversals of the Cinq
Mélodies.
Mitchell
and Ball refuse to make a meal out of the Massenet and programme
the Poulenc (originally a song) and the Ravel well together.
The Schubert is something of a Massenet reprise in this performance – similarly
refined and unostentatious. A small novelty is the arrangement
by Johannes Palatschko where the figuration toward the end
adds some variety. Finally there’s the Strauss where the
duo is joined by soprano Elizabeth Watts for a refined piece
of work.
Collectors
will know that a number of the competing Bridge performances
are played in their viola arrangements – the Louise Williams/David
Owen Norris ASV for instance - which makes this violin selection
of the seven all the more welcome.
Throughout
Andrew Ball, with whom Mitchell has played as a duo for so
many years, proves a subtle colourist. The Potton Hall recording
is warm and naturally balanced and I like the booklet, which
has some imaginative photographic touches.
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