An ‘archive’ recording comprising remastered LP and 78 rpm discs is being launched by Albion on 6 September 2024. The album is entitled The Grinke legacy (ALBCD061) after Frederick Grinke, soloist, chamber musician, and teacher.
Grinke (1911–1987) was a favourite of Vaughan Williams and one of only a handful of violinists for whom he composed works. Grinke was a familiar presence on BBC radio and a frequent soloist on orchestral and recital stages throughout the UK as well as in Australia and New Zealand, Europe, the United States, and Canada.
Despite Grinke’s fame and sizeable discography, including many new works, he is primarily remembered today as the highly influential and much-admired teacher of more than a generation of violinists leading the UK’s orchestras and appearing in recital halls as soloists and chamber musicians. It is time to redress the balance.
This album includes all four of Grinke’s recordings of music by Vaughan Williams. Three of these are included in this release with the Boyd Neel ensemble with which Grinke was closely associated. Only the 1939 Concerto Accademico has seen prior commercial digital reissue.
The 1955 recording of the Vaughan Williams Violin Sonata, the work the composer wrote for him, is also included, together with the Violin Sonatina by Arthur Benjamin. The pianist for these is Michael Mullinar (1895-1973). A pupil of both Holst and Vaughan Williams, he became a close friend and colleague of Vaughan Williams, acting as copyist, arranger and playing new works for private audiences. Despite giving a very large number of broadcasts and performances, this recording of the Violin Sonata with Grinke is the only commercial record of his playing.