ALBION RECORDS ALBCD 065
A well-conceived and finely-executed release of intriguing rarities. Holst’s Invocation, in an idiomatic arrangement by Hannah Roper, showcases the violinist’s arresting line, and the music’s soaring tessitura immediately succeeds in banishing memories of the initial scoring for cello.
Its companion, A Song of the Night, a perfumed evocation seemingly arising from the composer’s study of Indian mysticism and religion, receives its first recording in his own hitherto neglected chamber version. The more familiar Lyric Movement, crafted for the celebrated violist Lionel Tertis and small orchestra, is also transformed, with understanding and subtlety, for violin and piano.
William Hurlstone’s Four English Sketches, dedicated to Stanford, who praised him highly, are cheerful lighter fare, with nothing to frighten his teacher’s horses. Two further miniatures, Revery and Romance, offer slightly longer and more tantalising glimpses of what might have been lost at Hurlstone’s early death.
The works of Ethel Barns (1874–1948) reflect her own considerable instrumental skills. Her modestly-designated Valse Caprice conceals a show-stopping concert study in the vein of Wieniawski or Sarasate, while Lament (originally entitled, perhaps now unacceptably, Hindoo Lament), forms a natural foil to Holst’s investigations. In all these items, Martin Jacoby is a skilled and perceptive accompanist.
A transcription for violin and harp of RVW’s The Lark Ascending is something of a curate’s egg. It is no reflection on the obvious accomplishments of Valeria Clarke to observe that the harp inevitably lacks the sustaining power of bowed strings, especially at such a tempo, but the corresponding lack of warmth is missed. Paradoxically, while Albion’s crystal-clear recording allows us scrutiny, a standpoint at greater remove might have generated more atmosphere.
The Anglo-American Rebecca Clarke, still frequently overlooked, was a composer of genuine substance and creative power, and her scores are perhaps the most absorbing ones here. Midsummer Moon (1924) for violin and piano, belongs to the haunted grove of Shakespeare’s Dream, and conjures at least one phrase that prefigures The Lark Ascending. Roper’s clean and authoritative account brings this enchanted nocturne, teeming with birdsong, vividly to life.
Emma Tring’s vocal colours and dramatic approach make her an excellent advocate for the compelling and imaginative Three Irish Country Songs for voice and violin, although Patricia Wright on an earlier Gamut CD (now a Guild download) found greater languor in the delightfully unresolved cadence of I know where I’m goin’.
The figuration of the third of these arrangements appears to have sparked Vaughan Williams’s setting of The Lawyer; it is a pity there was not room for Clarke’s three English folksong arrangements as well, but the CD is already at capacity at 79’10. The booklet notes and photos maintain Albion’s high standards.
Review by Andrew Plant