Shine and Shade: English 20th Century
Recorder Music
Norman FULTON (1909-1980)
Scottish Suite (1954) [13:38]
Edmund RUBBRA (1901-1986)
Meditazione Sopra Coeurs Désolés (1949) [5.38]
York BOWEN (1884-1961)
Sonata Op. 121 (1946) [13:17]
Lennox BERKELEY (1903-1989)
Sonatina (1939) [9:32]
Edward GREGSON (b.1945)
Three Matisse Impressions (1993) [9:36]
Stephen DODGSON (b.1924)
Shine and Shade (1975) [9.32]
Donald SWANN (1923-1994)
Rhapsody from Within (1982) [8:27]
Piers Adams (recorder)
Julian Rhodes (piano)
rec. October 1993, St. Peter’s Church, Bexhill-on-Sea
RED PRIEST RPO10 [69:47]
This is the latest in reissues on the Red Priest label. It was recorded two
decades ago and originally released on Upbeat Recordings. It also features
the original keyboard player in Red Priest, the tragically short-lived Julian
Rhodes (1964-2001).
As well as his interest in baroque music, recorder player Piers Adams has
explored twentieth-century repertoire, and indeed beyond. Here he concentrates
with Rhodes on British recorder music - with the exception of the Lennox Berkeley,
which was written in 1939 - from the second half of the twentieth century.
Norman Fulton wrote his Scottish Suite for Carl Dolmetsch in 1954.There
is some picture postcard piquancy here, not least little crunchy harmonies,
that keep things alive. Oscillation between fast and slow sections, and high
lying registrations, provide opportunities for both technical and expressive
variety. Romantic rolled piano chords heighten the warmth, whilst Fulton ensures
we go home happy with a very jolly Reel.
Rubbra could do zip as well; in his Second Violin Sonata he almost gets frisky.
But there’s no friskiness in the spiritually elevated Meditazione Sopra
Coeurs Désolés, a richly unfolding series of variations composed in 1949.
One sonata in the repertoire of nearly all British recorder players is York
Bowen’s Op.121 of 1946. This is because of its especially fresh character,
its communicative and uncomplicated romanticism, its well characterised three
movements and its air of frolicsome agility, none of which qualities relies
on showiness to make its point.
Berkeley’s terse Sonata essays an altogether different feeling. Here, characteristically
French-sounding fluidity is accompanied by a restless tension, which reaches
a forlorn, almost drained peak in the slow movement. The finale is Poulenc-like
and brief. Edward Gregson’s1993 Matisse Impressions offer vivid opportunities
for the players: musing, reflective cadential qualities in the first and stabbing
piano writing in the third in particular. Stephen Dodgson wrote Shine
and Shade, which gives its name to this disc, in 1975 and his craftsmanship
is never in doubt, nor indeed is the stylistically apt material. Donald Swann’s
1982 Rhapsody from Within was written for Dolmetsch to play with
his long-time colleague Joseph Saxby. It’s a delightful, light and uncomplicated
affair, lyrical, filmic in the central panel, and with a peppy 1930s feel
in the finale.
It ends a winning recital, performed with brio and technical assurance and
captured in good sound. It’s certainly a recital worthy of restoration.
Jonathan Woolf
A winning recital, performed with brio and technical assurance and captured
in good sound.
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