ARNOLD BAX . FRANK BRIDGE . BENJAMIN BRITTENR

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PAUL COLETTI violaLESLIE HOWARD piano

English Musicfor Viola

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THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT THE VIOLA’s quality of soundwhich conjures up stirring emotions and dark-huedfeelings. It has always been associated with mournful,

elegiac music, and even William Walton’s extrovert concerto, alandmark in the history of the repertoire for the instrument, hasmore than a touch of the reflective about it, especially in thefirst movement. Yet it is this very quality of reflectivenesswhich, more than anything, leads us to associate the instru-ment with that early twentieth-century Englishness, the periodof fin de siècle heart-on-the-sleeve so roundly written off byElizabeth Lutyens in her memorable phrase ‘cowpat music’—a gross generalization which has found sympathy in somequarters but which recordings like the present one do much tocorrect.

The music recorded here covers a wide range and showshow powerful the miniature can become in the hands of skilledand imaginative craftsmen. At the heart of the programme liesthe music of Rebecca Clarke whose music is being redis-covered with an enthusiasm which reflects the quality of herinspiration. That the 1980 ‘new’ Grove Dictionary should writeher off in a sentence is scandalous, and it is hoped that thecurrent revival of interest in her music will lead to a reassess-ment of her work which will help it to be properly recognized.

The most recent composer featured is Benjamin Britten,and his Elegy is a comparatively recent discovery. Not perfor-med until the 1984 Aldeburgh Festival (by Nobuko Imai), it waswritten the day after he left Gresham’s School at the age ofsixteen. He had only been there for two years and had dislikedthe experience. However, once he had actually taken leave ofhis friends and masters, he said ‘I didn’t think I should be sorryto leave’, but found that he missed them all the same. ThisElegy, which he probably wrote to play himself, expresses hisfeelings at that time.

The viola to Vaughan Williams was, of course, as hand toglove. Of all the English voices, RVW’s wonderful ear forsonority caught the viola’s soul and gave it life. A lifelongassociation with the great viola player Lionel Tertis helped hisawareness of the practical problems associated with theinstrument, and also heightened his awareness of its possi-bilities. This Romance is small in scale but large in dramaticeffect. An apparently innocuous, pastoral-style opening leadsto a heady emotional climax before the music subsides backinto the opening theme and a lengthy wind-down to the end.The piece (which is undated) was discovered amongst RVW’seffects after his death and was given its first performance in1962 by Bernard Shore.

PERCY GRAINGER FRANK BRIDGE SIR ARNOLD BAX

Percy Grainger’s fascinatingly original and attractive musichas become well known in recent years and has beenchampioned by many distinguished musicians, not least byBenjamin Britten who made a recording of a fascinating selec-tion of works which betrayed a lively enthusiasm on the part ofthe younger composer. Although Grainger is regarded looselyas a ‘British’ composer, he was actually Australian by birth,came to Europe in his teens, and finally settled in America in1914 (when he was 32). The ‘Englishness’ with which he isassociated has much more to do with the fact that he was anindefatigable collector and arranger of folksongs, many ofwhich were from the British Isles.

The Sussex Mummers’ Christmas Carol is one sucharrangement, originally made for violin or cello and piano butpersonally sanctioned in this version by Grainger. And how wellit sits in the violist’s hands! Grainger’s extraordinary ear forperfect sonorities, his seemingly unerring sense of the right-ness of the placing of notes in a chord, serves him particularlywell in this carol. Two of his great musical heros were FrederickDelius and Edvard Grieg. On this occasion it is Grieg whoreceives the posthumous dedication: ‘Lovingly and reverentlydedicated to the memory of Edvard Grieg’. Grainger wasmeticulous in recording on his scores all the details of

composition, so we learn that this setting was begun in 1905and completed ten years later. The tune was taken down byMiss Lucy Broadwood at Lyne, near Horsham, Sussex, in 1880and ’81 from the singing of Christmas mummers called‘tipteers’ or ‘tipteerers’ during their play of ‘St George, the Turk,and the Seven Champions of Christendom’. The first versegoes as follows:

O mortal man, remember wellWhen Christ our Lord was born;He was crucified betwixt two thievesAnd crownèd with the thorn.

Other verses are on the ‘God bless the master of this house’theme. Grainger’s dark, Bourneville-chocolate harmonies areperfectly matched with the colour of the viola in this lovelysetting.

The Arrival Platform Humlet is another characteristic‘Graingerism’. Composed in the same period as the SussexMummers’ Christmas Carol it is scored for any of thefollowing: solo viola, a group of violas, an oboe, cor anglais,bassoon, or a group of these instruments—or, further, by asolo voice or unison chorus. Grainger himself put it like this:‘Originally conceived for middle-fiddle single, or massedmiddle-fiddles, or double-reed single, or massed double-

3RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS BENJAMIN BRITTEN REBECCA CLARKE

reeds, or as a humlet for a single voice or chorus of voices.’This, then, gives the clue to the extraordinary title. Graingergoes on to describe what he means: ‘Awaiting the arrival of abelated train bringing one’s sweetheart from foreign parts:great fun! The sort of thing one hums to oneself as an accom-paniment to one’s tramping feet as one happily, excitedly,paces up and down the arrival platform.’ This ‘humlet’, or littlehum, was apparently written in Liverpool Street and VictoriaStations, London, in 1908.

1908 was also the year in which Frank Bridge’s two piecesPensiero and Allegro appassionato were first published in a‘Viola Library’ series edited by Lionel Tertis. Bridge, of course,was himself a fine viola player, and his early fame was as aperformer, not as a composer. Rebecca Clarke said of him: ‘Hewas one of the finest viola players I’ve ever heard. He couldhave made a career as a fine conductor but couldn’t standorchestral musicians. He was without doubt the most talentedmusician I’ve ever met.’ Bridge was a founder member of theEnglish String Quartet with whom he played until 1915, and hewas widely admired as a sensitive and skilled performer. It issurprising, therefore, that his enthusiasm for the least-sungmember of the string family should not have found its outletreflected in compositional output. The two pieces recordedhere are the only pieces he wrote for the instrument. Which isa pity given the obvious sympathy he shows for itscharacteristic sound world.

Pensiero and Allegro appassionato make a perfectlybalanced pair of pieces, with the first being elegiac in moodand the second more outgoing. Both show Bridge’s mastery oftechnique and his real feeling for both piano- and string-writing which saw such a flowering in the magnificent cellosonata. Although the Allegro appassionato is very short andconcise, it displays Bridge’s flair for the dramatic, and bothpieces show his heightening awareness of the power ofchromatic harmony which was to become such a feature of hislater style exemplified by his piano sonata.

Bax’s Legend for viola and piano is clearly influenced by

his fascination with Celtic folklore. Many of his works show hisdeep involvement with the myths and legends of this periodin our history which created such an impressionable aura.Orchestral works such as Tintagel and The Garden of Fandreflect this in Bax’s output, as others do in a variety of worksby Ireland, Howells and Moeran for instance.

The Legend has a thick, gloomy atmosphere, particularly atthe start. The whole work is ideally scored for the viola and,once again, the instrument is in its element in this ratherelegiac mode. Bax wrote the piece in 1928 between the thirdand fourth symphonies, when he was in his mid-forties.

Rebecca Clarke is one of those rather misty figures inBritish music to whom the cognoscenti will pay lip service as aname which is recognized but who is completely unknown tothe general public, even though they are now being presentedwith more recordings of British music from the first half of thecentury than could ever have been dreamed of twenty yearsago. That some of Clarke’s music is now finding its way onto disc will help the music-loving public to discover forthemselves the riches, albeit miniature, contained in heroutput.

She was born in 1886 into the heart of the generationwhich spawned the flowering of the ‘English Musical Renais-sance’, as it has come to be known. Initially a student at theRoyal Academy of Music in London, she was removed at theage of seventeen by her parents when she received a proposalof marriage from Percy Miles, her harmony professor! She thentransferred to the Royal College of Music and becameStanford’s first female pupil. Despite the horror stories ofsome of Stanford’s other pupils who found him difficult andtemperamental, Clarke thoroughly enjoyed her lessons withthis famous guru. She was awarded a composition scholarshipin her second year to continue her studies with him, and, mostsignificantly, it was Stanford who persuaded her to take up theviola, saying, ‘You are right in the middle of the sounds and cantell how it’s all done’. When she left the College in 1910 shehad some lessons with Lionel Tertis and earned her living as a

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viola-player in orchestras and ensembles in and aroundLondon.

Her first major success as a composer came during arecital at Carnegie Hall in New York in 1918 when she gave thefirst performance of Morpheus, which was immediatelyacclaimed by the critics. Women composers were almostunknown at this time, and those who were making their waywere regarded with great suspicion. The manuscript of thispiece was therefore signed with the pseudonym ‘AnthonyTrent’. Morpheus, son of Hypnos, was the Greek god of dreams.Clarke’s music is entirely apt, with its almost French impres-sionism (she was deeply influenced by Debussy), its wistfuland romantic aura and perfectly matched solo and accompa-niment. She wrote a whole series of Lullabies between 1909and 1918, and the subject-matter of Morpheus therefore putsit into the same catagory. The Lullaby recorded here is thefirst, dated 1909, and is amongst the earliest of her instru-mental works. The gentle, abstract idea of the rocking orsinging of a child to sleep obviously appealed strongly to herromantic nature and her particular mode of expression inmusic.

Easily Clarke’s most impressive and well-known work isthe Sonata for Viola and Piano written in 1918/19. This wasentered for the Coolidge Competition that year, again underthe pseudonym ‘Anthony Trent’. The prize was generous forthe time at $1,000, and 73 entries were registered. The sixmembers of the jury came to a point where they wereundecided between two works. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (thefounder and benefactor of the competition) gave her castingvote to Ernest Bloch’s Suite for Viola. However, the jury was soimpressed by ‘Anthony Trent’s’ work that they demanded toknow the identity of the composer. Miss Coolidge said toRebecca Clarke afterwards: ‘You should have seen their faceswhen they saw it was by a woman!’

Overnight Clarke became a cause célèbre, both in Englandand America. Several performances of the work were given andit was published by Chester in 1921. Elizabeth Sprague

Coolidge was so impressed by the Viola Sonata that she com-missioned a Rhapsody for cello and piano from Clarke whichwas performed in 1923 at the Berkshire (Massachusetts)Festival by May Mukle and Myra Hess.

The Viola Sonata is in three movements and is headed bya quotation from Alfred de Musset’s poem La Nuit de Mai:

Poète, prends ton luth ; le vin de la jeunesseFermente cette nuit dans les veines de Dieu.

The first and third movements are big-boned pieces with aclear thematic link between them, and the second is a brilliantbut delicate scherzo in compound time. The language has thatambiguous quality mentioned earlier, where Debussy andRavel (particularly of the Piano Trio) mix with the Englishnessrepresented by modality and the flexibility of melody inspiredby folksong. It is very much of its period, and the fantasy-likecharacter of the outer movements places it firmly in the styleof music favoured by English composers of the time, especiallyas encouraged by the Cobbett Competitions. (These stipulatedthe composition of a single-movement piece with a variety ofmoods suggestive of larger forms in the spirit of the ‘fantasy’which was common in England in the sixteenth and seven-teenth centuries.)

In 1939 Rebecca Clarke visited America, and was therewhen war was declared. She was denied a return visa and thusforced to stay in the USA. She worked as a nanny to a familyin Connecticut for a while, but visiting New York in 1944 shemet James Friskin with whom she had been a student at theRoyal College of Music and who was now teaching at theJuilliard School. They were both unmarried and in their latefifties and decided to marry, which put the seal on Clarke’sdecision as to whether or not to return to England. Sheremained in New York until her death in 1979.

PAUL SPICER © 1994

PAUL COLETTIAs a teenager, Paul Coletti was described by Sir YehudiMenuhin as ‘an outstanding violist with a most beautiful tone,and a first-rate musician!’ After his ‘auspicious’ New Yorkdebut recital The New York Times hailed him for his ‘masteryand impeccable technique’ and proclaimed him a ‘remarkable,elegant, distinct artistic personality’. In San Francisco theExaminer wrote, ‘He reminds me of the great William Primroseat his best’, and in Switzerland Der Bund was moved toremark: ‘It was breathtaking. One could simply not haveimagined a better performance.’

Born in Scotland, Paul Coletti studied at the Royal ScottishAcademy, the Menuhin Music Academy, the Banff Center andthe Juilliard School. His main influences were Alberto Lysy,his teacher and colleague in concerto and chamber musicrecordings, Sándor Végh with whom he collaborated annuallyafter 1979, Donald McInnis and William Lincer. He hasappeared regularly as viola soloist throughout the worldincluding his native Edinburgh, as well as in Tokyo, Geneva,New York, London, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Paris, and also inBerlin playing Bartók’s Viola Concerto with Sir Yehudi Menuhinconducting—a concert televised throughout Europe.

As a chamber musician he has played in many of the world’smajor festivals, performing approximately eighty concerts ayear with such groups as the Menuhin Festival Piano Quartet,and with the chamber societies of Boston, Seattle, Washingtonand Lincoln Center (with whom he has made severalrecordings), also with Bargemusic, Bridgehampton, and at theGrand Canyon and in Hawaii.

Paul Coletti gives annual masterclasses at the LenkSummer Music Academy and the Menuhin Academy inSwitzerland, frequently in Japan, and during the academic yearhe heads the viola department at the Peabody Conservatory inBaltimore. Previously he was Chairman of the string depart-ment at the University of Washington, making him one of theyoungest artists ever to receive such an appointment. Amongother activities by Mr Coletti are work with Claude Bolling andhis Jazz Trio on the Caribbean island of St Barths, and guest-conducting the New Japan Philharmonic in Tokyo in an all-Mozart programme. He is also a composer, with a workrecorded on the Epic Sony label by Typhoon 4.

This is Paul Coletti’s first solo recording and he dedicatesit ‘to the memory of my dad, 1917–1993’.

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PAUL COLETTI LESLIE HOWARD

LESLIE HOWARDLeslie Howard has been described (by The Guardian) as ‘amaster of tradition of pianism in serious danger of dying out’.Born in Australia but resident in London since 1972, Howard isa familiar figure as a soloist and ensemble player at numerousinternational festivals. With a vast repertoire of concertos, hehas played with many of the great orchestras of the world andworked with many distinguished conductors—ClaudioAbbado, Arthur Fiedler, Vernon Handley, Hiroyuki Iwaki, SirCharles Mackerras, Karl Anton Rickenbacker and Fritz Riegeramong them. Howard’s work as a composer encompassesopera, orchestral music, chamber music and songs, and hisfacility in completing unfinished works has resulted in com-missions as diverse as a new realisation of Bach’s MusicalOffering (which he orchestrated and conducted in Finland in1990), and completions of Mozart’s String Quartet movement

K464a, Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No 4 and Tchaikovsky’s PianoSonata in F minor.

Recordings by Leslie Howard include music by Rach-maninov, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Granados, Franck, Grainger,Glazunov and Rubinstein. Most important of all, Leslie hasrecorded nothing less than the complete solo piano musicof Liszt on 95 CDs—the largest project ever undertaken by asolo pianist. Its importance cannot be overemphasized: itencompasses world premiere recordings, including muchmusic still unpublished and works unheard since Liszt’s life-time. Howard has been awarded a Grand Prix du Disque for nofewer than five volumes of the series.

Leslie Howard is the President of the British Liszt Society,and holds numerous international awards for his dedication toLiszt’s music.

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Copyright subsists in all Hyperion recordings and it is illegal to copy them, in whole or in part, for any purpose whatsoever,without permission from the copyright holder, Hyperion Records Ltd, PO Box 25, London SE9 1AX, England. Any unauthorizedcopying or re-recording, broadcasting, or public performance of this or any other Hyperion recording will constitute aninfringement of copyright. Applications for a public performance licence should be sent to Phonographic Performance Ltd,1 Upper James Street, London W1F 9DE

Recorded in St Peter's Church, Petersham, on 21–23 September 1993Recording Engineer TYRGGVI TRYGGVASON

Recording Producer PAUL SPICERFront Design TERRY SHANNON

Executive Producers JOANNA GAMBLE, EDWARD PERRYP Hyperion Records Limited, London, 1994C Hyperion Records Limited, London, 2001(Originally issued on Hyperion CDA66687)

Front illustration: Landscape at Thirsk (c1912) by Augustus JohnLeeds City Art Gallery

If you have enjoyed this recording perhaps you would like a catalogue listing the many others available on the Hyperion and Helios labels. If so, pleasewrite to Hyperion Records Ltd, PO Box 25, London SE9 1AX, England, or email us at info@hyperion-records.co.uk, and we will be pleased to post youone free of charge.

The Hyperion catalogue can also be accessed on the Internet at www.hyperion-records.co.uk

CDH55085

ENGLISH MUSIC FOR VIOLA

BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913–1976)

1 Elegy for solo viola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1[7'09]

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872–1958)

2 Romance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1[5'40]

REBECCA CLARKE (1886–1979)

3 Lullaby No 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1[3'49]

4 Morpheus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1[6'00]

PERCY GRAINGER (1882–1961)

5 The Sussex Mummer’s Christmas Carol . . . . . . . . . . . 1[3'43]

6 Arrival Platform Humlet for solo viola . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1[2'47]

SIR ARNOLD BAX (1883–1953)

7 Legend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1[10'17]

FRANK BRIDGE (1879–1941)

8 Pensiero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1[3'30]

9 Allegro appassionato . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1[2'09]

REBECCA CLARKE (1886–1979)

Viola Sonata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [21'18]bl Impetuoso . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1[7'34]bm Vivace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1[3'18]bn Adagio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [10'24]

PAUL COLETTI violaLESLIE HOWARD piano

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ENGLISH MUSIC FOR VIOLA

1 BENJAMIN BRITTEN Elegy for solo viola [7'09]

2 RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Romance [5'40]

3 REBECCA CLARKE Lullaby No 1 [3'49]

4 REBECCA CLARKE Morpheus [6'00]

5 PERCY GRAINGER The Sussex Mummer’s Christmas Carol 1[3'43]

6 PERCY GRAINGER Arrival Platform Humlet for solo viola [2'47]

7 SIR ARNOLD BAX Legend [10'17]

8 FRANK BRIDGE Pensiero [3'30]

9 FRANK BRIDGE Allegro appassionato [2'09]

bl REBECCA CLARKE Viola Sonata [21'18]

‘A voyage of discovery for both the auditors and the players … a worthy and repertoire-expanding release on all counts’ (Fanfare, USA)

‘Paul Coletti proves an eloquent advocate for music which is little known but offers rewards in abundance … a most stimulating programme which is performed with distinction’(BBC Music Magazine Top 1000 CDs Guide)

PAUL COLETTI violaLESLIE HOWARD piano

MADE IN ENGLAND

CDH55085Duration 66'51

A HYPERION RECORDING

DDD

Recorded on 21–23 September 1993Recording Engineer TYRGGVI TRYGGVASON

Recording Producer PAUL SPICERExecutive Producers JOANNA GAMBLE, EDWARD PERRY

P Hyperion Records Limited, London, 1994C Hyperion Records Limited, London, 2001

(Originally issued on Hyperion CDA66687)Front illustration: Landscape at Thirsk (c1912) by Augustus John

Leeds City Art Gallery

GRAMOPHONE CRITICS’ CHOICE / BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE BEST OF THE YEAR

‘Exemplary performances one and all: a most distinguished recorded debut’ (Gramophone)