Harriet Cohen - The Complete Solo Studio Recordings
see end of review for track listing
Harriet Cohen (piano)
Accompaniments as listed below
rec. 1928-1948
APR RECORDINGS 7304 [3 CDs: 77:21 + 76:13 + 78:41]
I will not be the first person to have fallen into the trap of regarding Harriet
Cohen (1895-1967) as being merely a ‘pendant’ of Sir Arnold Bax.
To be fair, I first heard of her through my early ‘study’ of Bax
back in the nineteen-seventies. The received wisdom suggested that for three
decades, she ‘pursued a tempestuous affair with this composer’.
When she suddenly discovered that she was not slated to become Lady Bax on
the death of his wife, she had an ‘accident’ and cut her wrist
whilst carrying a tray of glasses.
Certainly, her colourful personal life has distracted attention away from
her achievements in the ‘recital room’ or recording studio. Stephen
Siek, in the liner notes, suggests that Harriet ‘as a young woman was
beguilingly beautiful, and [that] she rarely hesitated to advance her career
through charm and even seduction.’ He mentions her liaisons ‘real
or imagined’ with ‘men ranging from H.G. Wells to Ramsey MacDonald’.
Another issue that causes the biographer problems is Harriet’s tendency
to fabricate - Siek notes that her autobiography is filled ‘with self-aggrandizing
inaccuracies that must be carefully sifted from the truths that it also contains’.
The ‘gossip’ has partially obscured a pianist who was not only
great but inspired. Her interpretation of Bach would have been sufficient
to have established her reputation for all time. However, as this present
collection of recordings proves, her achievement extends in many directions.
Out of interest, W.S. Meadmore quotes a story in the Gramophone Magazine from
1929: ‘When Busoni met Harriet Cohen he looked at her hands and said:
"These are the smallest and worst, hands I have ever seen. It would be impossible
to play the piano with them. You must give music up." Miss Cohen played to
him. He was astonished. He could hardly credit that such hands could make
such fine music.’
A few highlights of Harriet’s life and achievements may be of interest
to those who have not come across her before. Harriet Pearl Alice Cohen was
born in Brixton, London on 2 December 1895 into a largely musical household.
Her father, Joseph, was an amateur cellist and composer and her mother, Kathleen
Irene, was an accomplished pianist. After piano lessons with her mother, Harriet
attended the Tobias Matthay Pianoforte School. Other pupils at that time included
Myra Hess. In 1908, she gave her first recital - a Chopin Waltz at the Bechstein
Hall! Shortly after this, she won an Ada Lewis Scholarship to the Royal Academy
of Music where she was one of the star pupils. Harriet won ‘a string
of awards’ including the Sterndale Bennett, the Edward Nicholls and
the Hine prizes. She continued her studies with Felix Swinstead and Matthay
himself. Whilst at the Academy she was introduced to Arnold Bax and became
part of the ‘set’ that adored all things Russian in the wake of
Diaghilev’s ballet triumphs in London.
One of Harriet Cohen’s achievements was the ‘discovery’
of the significant vein of keyboard music by Tudor and other ‘early
music’ composers. This included works by Orlando Gibbons, William Byrd
and Henry Purcell. Another important interest was of Spanish music: she gave
the second performance of Manuel de Falla’s Nights in the Gardens
of Spain and subsequently performed it many times.
However, her major achievement must be regarded as her exposition of J.S.
Bach. The German critic Adolph Weissmann stated that ‘… so deeply
has the spirit of the master entered into her that she has few, if any, equals
as a Bach player’ and no less a person than Alfred Einstein insisted
that ‘she is one of those chosen few who stand among the elect.’
The Times obituary writer notes that Harriet played Bach ‘with great
musicianship, precision, buoyancy and an emotional tact which refuses ever
to aim at effects outside a true Bach style.’
Over the years, Harriet gave the first performances of a number of important
works by contemporary British composers. These included the Piano Concerto
by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Bax’s Symphonic Variations. William
Walton’s Sinfonia Concertante was introduced by her to France,
Spain, Germany and Austria. European composers including Ernst Bloch and Bela
Bartók dedicated works to her. The Soviet composers Kabalevsky and
Shostakovich provided her with new pieces: they are represented on these CDs.
Harriet officially retired from public life in 1960. Thereafter she devoted
much of her time to the Harriet Cohen International Music Awards and the writing
of her autobiography A Bundle of Time. She died on 13 November 1967.
It is not my intention to discuss every number on this superb three CD set
- there are 58 tracks each deserving comment and analysis. However, I will
mention a few highlights - at least from my perspective.
The lion’s share (32 tracks) of this recording is given over to the
music of J.S. Bach. There are three main groupings here. Firstly, there is
the important keyboard concerto - No.1 in D minor (BWV1052). This is presented
here in two versions - one dating from 1924 and the other from 1946. Both
are beautifully stated performances; however the later one is naturally clearer
and casts more light on the contrapuntal working out of the piece. Lewis Foreman
has noted that Harriet was ‘celebrated in her day’ for performances
of this work. Once one makes the ‘mental leap’ of hearing this
work on the piano as opposed to the clavier, it can be appreciated as a most
enjoyable execution. I feel that this music is perfectly poised and ultimately
cool in mood.
The ‘pioneering recordings’ of part of Book 1 of Bach’s
The Well-Tempered Clavier are critical to Harriet’s career. Apparently,
Columbia proposed to issue the entire ‘48’ however, the project
never got beyond the first nine. Her playing of these pieces is pretty near
perfect. I accept that there have been many fine interpreters of these works
- my current favourite is Andras Schiff. However, Harriet’s commitment
to these masterpieces of the keyboard art is impeccable and combines a superb
technical approach to the music with a ‘lofty intellectual perception’,
which is outstanding. It is only a pity that the set was never completed.
The last element of the Bach recordings is probably less-popular these days
- the transcriptions. Perhaps the most famous transcriber of Bach’s
music is Busoni; however many other composers turned their hand to this form
of arrangement, including Franz Liszt, Max Reger and Sergei Rachmaninov. Harriet
also contributed to this genre with a number of pieces including the lovely
‘Beloved Jesus, we are here’ (BWV731) and the stately ‘Sanctify
us by thy Goodness’ from Cantata No.22.
It may seem a heresy to many readers when I admit that I am not a huge fan
of Mozart’s and Brahms’ piano music. Naturally, I accept that
they are both masters of the keyboard, and concede that it is just the fact
that I have not got to grips with their music. However, I enjoyed the classical
and ‘unsentimental’ rendering of the Mozart’s C major Sonata
K330. The liner-notes rightly admit to the somewhat ‘erratic’
tempos of the first movement - one might call them ‘eccentric’.
However, the slow movement is beautiful and the concluding rondo is perfectly
paced.
I am convinced that other reviewers will extol the virtues of Cohen’s
Chopin and Brahms recordings. Certainly, I found her interpretation of the
Études attractive, if not revelatory. The Brahms Ballade in D minor
is a ‘big’ work that was inspired by a grisly Scottish ballad
tune, ‘Edward’. This performance is expansive and well-balanced.
The closing bars of pianissimo are in perfect contrast to the macabre earlier
pages. The Intermezzo in B flat minor is a little lighter in mood, but is
still introspective.
I noted above that Cohen took up Falla’s Nights: alas, there
is no recording of this work available. However, this collection includes
three pieces for solo piano from his pen. I have always sworn by Alicia de
Larrocha for my Spanish piano music; however, Cohen’s performances of
‘Andaluza’, ‘The Fisherman’s Tale’ and ‘The
Miller’s Dance’ are beholden to no one. The balance between the
fire, the passion and the sultry heat are all ‘present and correct’.
These performances are amongst the highlights of a set of CDs full of highlights!
Stephen Siek notes that Harriet’s favourite ‘a cappella’
work was William Byrd’s five-voice mass: Elizabethan music certainly
appealed to her as can be heard in the five short pieces from Orlando Gibbons
- ‘Ayre’, ‘Alman’, ‘Toy’, ‘Coranto’
and ‘Mr Sanders his Delight’. I prefer these played on the piano
than on the virginal - irrespective of musicological mores. There is a wistful
and melancholic beauty about these timeless pieces that defies analysis. I
do wish that she had recorded more music from this period. These pieces were
taken from Margaret Glyn’s groundbreaking edition of the composer’s
works, first published in 1922. Harriet also included Ralph Vaughan Williams
heart-breaking Hymn Tune Prelude on [Gibbon’s] Song 13. This
is one of the most moving pieces that RVW composed.
It is naturally good to have everything that Harriet recorded from the pen
of Arnold Bax. The powerful and demanding Paean (Passacaglia) certainly
gives the lie to those critics who suggested that her small hands limited
her technique. She brings a magic to ‘Hill Tune’ and to ‘A
Mountain Mood’, which is quite simply perfect. Harriet underscores both
works’ largely impressionistic nature. The Morning Song (Maytime
in Sussex) which was dedicated to Princess Elizabeth on her 21st
birthday is one of Bax’s lighter pieces. Like many of his late works,
it has been considered as lacking in inspiration. However, for me it is a
delight and manages to portray the idealised landscape, which seemingly inspired
it.
One of the pleasures (for me) of the entire set of discs is the highly charged,
romantic and very overblown - but gorgeous Cornish Rhapsody from the
Gainsborough picture Love Story starring Margaret Lockwood. This performance
was used on the film soundtrack.
The liner-notes by Stephen Siek are excellent and constitute a major essay
on Harriet Cohen’s recording career. It certainly bears careful study
both before and after hearing the music. It would have been nice to have had
dates for Messrs. Gibbons, Bax, Bath et al: they were given for many
of the other composers. There are some excellent photographs of Harriet of
both the studio and the ‘snap’ variety. The CDs themselves are
crammed full of music. I guess that they only just managed to fit in all this
music on the three CDs. They are superb value for money - the three discs
are available for around £19.
I have never been a great enthusiast of ‘historical recordings’.
For one thing, I never know quite what to expect from the sound quality. Listeners
are so used to a pristine reproduction of sound and regard clicks or hiss
askance. The present three CDs certainly have some hiss. Could it have been
removed? I guess not. However, I was impressed by the general sound, the pitch
seems to be ‘perfect’ and there is little evidence of where the
78 rpm records would have needed to be ‘turned over’.
Yet to possess these three discs I am prepared to forgo my usual reticence
about listening to historical recordings. In fact, I would go as far to say
that I would give an arm and a leg to hear these tracks - complete with a
bit of surface noise.
The reader may well divine that I am still half-in-love with Harriet some
40 years after first discovering her: that may well be true. However, I would
challenge any person to listen to her performance of Debussy’s Clair
de Lune and not be impressed, challenged and moved.
John France
A set of CDs full of highlights.
Track listing
CD1
J. S. BACH (1685-1750)
Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D minor BWV1052
Orchestra/Sir Henry Wood (1924) [24.16]
J. S. BACH
The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I: Preludes and Fugues Nos. 1-9 BWV846 - BWV854
(1928) [47.36]
BACH/RUMMEL
Mortify us by thy grace, from Cantata No. 22 (1928) [2.41]
BACH/COHEN
Beloved Jesus, we are here BWV731 (1928) [2.37]
CD 2
J. S. BACH
Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D minor BWV1052 Philharmonia Orchestra/Walter Susskind
(1946) [24.14]
J. S. BACH
Prelude and Fugue No. 4 BWV849 from WTC Book 1 (1947) [7.39].
BACH/COHEN
Sanctify us by thy goodness [2.39]
Beloved Jesus, we are here BWV731 [2.41]
Up! Arouse thee! from Cantata No. 155 [4.03] (1935)
BACH/PETRI
Fantasia (Praeludium) in C minor BWV921 (1935) [3.21]
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
Piano Sonata No. 10 in C major K330 (1932) [15.32]
Frederic CHOPIN (1810-1849)
Nocturne Op 15 No. 1 (5.00)
Trois Nouvelles Études Nos. 1 and 3 (1943) [4.12]
Étude Op 25 No. 7 (1928) [5.50]
CD 3
Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Ballade in D minor Op. 10 No. 1 [4.24]
Intermezzo in B flat major Op. 76 No. 4 [2.30] (1930)
Claude DEBUSSY (1862-1918)
Clair de lune, from the Suite bergamasque [4.26]
La cathédrale engloutie, No. 10 from Préludes Book I [4.52]
(1948)
Manuel DE FALLA (1876-1846)
Andaluza, No. 4 from Pièces espagnoles [4.18]
The Fisherman’s Tale, from El Amor Brujo [2.12]
The Miller’s Dance, from The Three-Cornered Hat [2.19] (1943)
Dmitri KABALEVSKY (1904-1987)
Sonatina in C major Op. 13 No. 1 (1943) [6.44]
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)
Prelude in E flat minor Op. 34 No. 14 (1943) [2.33]
Orlando GIBBONS (1583-1625)
Ayre - Alman - Toy - Coranto - Mr Sanders His Delight (1947) [4.19]
GIBBONS/Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958)
Hymn Tune Prelude on Song 13 (1947) [4.20]
Arnold BAX (1883-1953)
Paean (1938) [3.47]
A Hill Tune (1942) [4.53]
A Mountain Mood - Theme and Variations (1942) [4.42]
Morning Song (Maytime in Sussex) Orchestra/Dr Malcolm Sargent (1947)
[8.25]
‘The Oliver Theme’ from the film Oliver Twist Philharmonia
Orchestra/Muir Mathieson (1948) [7.46]
Hubert BATH (1883-1945)
Cornish Rhapsody from the film Love Story
London Symphony Orchestra/Hubert Bath (1944) [6.11]
Dates given are when piece was recorded.