Tommy Reilly gave up a promising career as a violinist
to instead attempt to convince the world that the harmonica could
successfully join the class of once-deprecated instruments that
integrated themselves into the classical tradition (saxophone, anyone?).
The three pieces on this out of print 1990 Chandos CD are among the
many that Reilly has had written for him: Gordon Jacob's Light British Divertimento for Harmonica and String Quartet, and James Moody's Francophone Quintet for Harmonica and String Quartet and even-more-so Suite dans le style francais.
The harmonica is of course restricted in the types of chords it can
make, which means these composers have tended to concentrate on the
quite virtuosic runs of which Reilly is capable, and also on the timbre
of the instrument - most unique in slow movements.
From the Fanfare review:
This Chandos CD is a reissue of performances of Jacob's Divertimento and Moody's quintet that appeared originally on the mid-1970s Argo LP titled The Silver Sound of the Harmonica. To that, Chandos has added a rather novel work for harmonica and harp, released for the first time. The late Gordon Jacob wrote four works for harmonica, all for the Canadian-born Tommy Reilly, who has been premiering harmonica works since 1951. The Divertimento (1956) is a suite of eight short movements contrasting a march with a romance, an elegy with a jig, and so on. (Music critic Malcolm MacDonald once said of the Divertimento that he could not “imagine how [writing more suitable music for the medium] could be done.“) James Moody (b. 1907) has been a piano accompanist for Reilly for over thirty years and is supposed to have written more works for the harmonica than any other composer. His Suite dans le style français for harmonica and harp (1979) is the first work for such a combination. For sixteen minutes its fluid motion and neo-Impressionistic style define the French quality of the title; the timbres of the instruments are remarkably ingratiating. Even more substantial is Moody's twenty-four-minute quintet (1972), which develops congenial interplay with a bit more musical substance and variety of texture and expressiveness than either of the other two works on this CD. The harmonica in classical music may be an acquired taste, but once accepted, its sound can work effectively, as shown in the recorded harmonica works of composers such as Jacob, Moody, Arnold, Benjamin, Milhaud, Vaughan Williams, Tcherepnin, Villa-Lobos, and Gnattali. Add to that the effortless virtuosity of Tommy Reilly, and here is a CD that deserves more than a specialist's approval. The analog sound is updated quite well. --Stephen Ellis
Disc, booklet, and case are in mint condition.
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