There was a time, and perhaps it hasn’t really passed, when
Dale’s Piano Sonata was only spoken of; one never heard
it. Much the same applies to his late orchestral work, The
Flowing Tide, which was broadcast in 2002. It’s obvious
why the work has seldom been heard in my lifetime – it’s far
too long for most pianists to be interested in it, and it’s
written by a minor English composer, some would say. I can remember
Peter Jacobs played it in the Wigmore Hall in the early 1980s
– with a preview the night before at the British Music Information
Centre – but that’s the only time it’s come my way in performance.
It’s a very assured work, and it comes as a shock to discover
that it was written during Dale’s student days. Dedicated to
his friend York Bowen, it was Bowen who gave the first performance
of the work, and after it won the annual Mark Hambourg Composition
prize, the great man playing only the Variations at the
Queen’s Hall, it was taken up by Myra Hess, Irene Scharrer Benno
Moiseiwitsch, and others, as well as having two piano rolls
made. Later Moura Lympany and Frank Merrick played the work,
but it eventually fell out of the repertoire.
So much for the history of the piece, What about the music itself?
In his excellent booklet notes, Jeremy Dibble writes that the
work is “conceived on an epic scale”, and he’s not wrong. There
are two movements, a large-scale, heroic, Allegro deciso
playing for 13 and a half minutes and a Slow Movement, Scherzo
and Finale, which is a continuous set of eight variations
on an original theme – the theme and first four variations comprise
the slow movement, variations 5, 6 and 7 constitute the scherzo
and the 8th variation is an extended finale playing
for about 11½ minutes. It’s certainly conceived on an epic scale
but, sad to say, it’s not an epic work. There’s much to enjoy
and admire in the piece, big climaxes, good tunes, virtuoso
writing and so on, but it’s far too long for its material. The
second section is more successful than the first: it hangs together
better and is more intelligently constructed. What is interesting
is that there is a lot of Victorian salon fancies, Rachmaninov,
and the Music Hall cheekiness of Lord Berners, but as Berners
hadn’t started writing at this time, and much of Rachmaninov
hadn’t been heard in this country, it’s obvious that Dale was
simply writing in the vernacular of his time. There’s also more
than a passing nod to Chopin. The work is filled with purple
passages, and Dale certainly over-eggs the pudding. But yet,
it’s compelling and well worth hearing. Whether or not you return
to it with any regularity is another matter.
Hurlstone’s Sonata is also a student work, but it’s a
more manageable piece, even though it plays for three quarters
of the duration of the Dale, and Hurlstone must have been a
fine pianist at 18 to be able to play this work. It’s got some
Schumann and Brahms in it but the voice is more individual than
that of Dale.
Mark Bebbington obviously believes in these works and plays
them for all they are worth, taking the difficult writing easily
in his stride. Neither is a major piece, but they add to our
knowledge of both composers – which, in the case of Dale, is
almost nothing. This is an important document and is a must
for everyone interested in English music, not to mention fabulous
pianism. Good recording and excellent notes go to make this
a very appealing disk.
Bob Briggs
see also review by John
France
Mark Bebbington (piano) 
