Still-sealed 2019 Lyrita CD of four British works for
cello and piano, played by Lionel Handy and Jennifer Hughes. First and
largest is the Cello Sonata in C minor of 1880 by Dame Ethel
Smyth (1858-1944), which I'm terming her Sonata #1 because, while it was
never published, it predates the op.5 Sonata in A minor by five years.
This four-movement piece is quite Germanic in feel, as are most of
Smyth's early works, with more than a little Brahms and also some
Reinecke (not surprising, as he was her teacher). Nearly as large is the
1923 Rhapsody of Rebecca Clarke, a single tetrapartite movement
lasting 25 minutes. It's indeed rhapsodic in form, venturing from one
idea to the next to the next, with an overall aura of sadness, quite
often feeling like Bloch, especially his violin concerto. Dame Elizabeth
Maconchy's 1943 Divertimento is a great example of how music can
be lightweight and intelligent at the same time, with five
mostly-catchy-rhythmed movements that stray from tonality just enough to
keep you guessing, and give it a flavor distinct to the composer. The
other work are the brief Nine Bagatelles by Elisabeth Lutyens
(1906-1983), a committed serialist who kept food on the table with a
side career as a film composer-including movies such as "Doctor Terror's
House of Horrors". These are less Webernian than her orchestral
Bagatelles, and not wholly atonal, but they're definitely the most
advanced work on the disc.
From the Fanfare review:
Lionel Handy and Jennifer Hughes’ last Lyrita disc programmed the cello sonatas of Ireland and Bax and added Delius’ Third Violin Sonata in its cellistic guise. Their latest disc steps further back in time to Ethel Smyth’s 1880 sonata and further forward to take in Lutyens and Maconchy, whose works were written at almost the same time during the War. Smyth’s Sonata in C minor is in her best echt-Brahmsian style, with a strong lyric cantilever and personalisation in the form of a ländler as an Allegretto. To add more zest there’s a delightful folkloric drone in the trio of this movement. The Andante offers a series of variations with plenty of variety, play of faster and slower sections and a sure sense of direction. If the finale is rather School of Leipzig, that’s no bad thing necessarily. Smyth collectors have always been in Troubadisc’s debt for its pioneering releases devoted to Smyth’s music but this new slightly more expansive performance is very much to be preferred. Handy and Hughes are articulate, expressive and playful exponents. Elizabeth Maconchy’s Divertimento was written for the duo of William Pleeth and Margaret Good between 1941-43. The five movements are tremendously witty and off-beat with a Latin dance to start – insinuating and sexy – and a Russian mood in the next movement oscillating between lyricism and expressive heart. The Clock is the title of the central panel and that is the trigger for pizzicato tick-tocking; a droll miniature that strikes nine and then, like a music box, is rewound. The centre of the Divertimento is the fourth part, called Vigil, the longest movement and a beautifully vibrant and prayerful piece. A dapper Masquerade brings to a close yet another in Maconchy’s portfolio of characterful, approachable, and truly delightful works. This brings us to Elisabeth Lutyens. Her Nine Bagatelles of 1942 offers compressed, sparse and aphoristic music-making. The Poco allegro is as catchy as it gets here, and I have to say I found it all rather windswept. Rebecca Clarke’s Rhapsody was written in 1923, the same year Bax and Ireland wrote their Cello Sonatas. Here Lyrita is in competition with itself as Raphael Wallfisch and John York have already recorded this on SRCD.354 (review) in an all-Clarke disc. Once again Lyrita has very helpfully separately tracked the four distinct sections. This performance is lean and intense, its architecture adroitly charted, the interplay between the instruments finely judged. Clarke’s dissonances are respected and the music’s fugitive folkloric episodes wisely presented. There’s very little difference in conception between the two competing Lyrita recordings, though Wallfisch is probably the more expansive tonalist. You’ll have noticed that this disc is an all-female British affair. It’s also finely documented and recorded. The performances are malleable, sympathetic and stylistically assured. I look forward to the next Handy-Hughes release; they are offering things that the Watkins brothers don’t on their Chandos British sonatas series. --Jonathan Woolf
Disc is new and still-sealed.
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