North York Moors Chamber Music Festival

29 Pages·2013·2 MB·English

North York Moors
Chamber Music Festival
‘A Time There Was…’
11-24 August 2013
www.northyorkmoorsfestival.com
North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2013 1
introduction
North York Moors “Among the most impressive of its kind in Britain”

Chamber Music Festival Michael White, The Telegraph 2012
Shortlisted for a Royal Philharmonic Society
Welcome to the fifth North York Moors celebration of our tremendous culture on government grants. As a charitable
Award 2011 Chamber Music Festival – ‘A Time There and heritage. organisation, we can claim Gift Aid, so
Was’ – celebrating the centenary of please consider this option if you do
It is with great pleasure that we welcome
CoNTeNTs Benjamin Britten, his influences and his kindly donate to us. These forms are
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies as well as Paul
colleagues. Last year’s Eastern European available from the ticket desk. I was
Programme 4 Joyce who directed and produced the
flavour was a true tour de force and deeply encouraged and touched by
documentary on Sir Peter and our film
North York Moors 6 an exhilarating marathon for both the the support towards the festival trailer
on the Britten Suites. Sir Peter Maxwell
Visitor Information 7 audience and the musicians, although which we now have as an asset – and
Davies is one of our most celebrated and
fatigue was never in evidence. This year marvellous it is too.
Notes 10 finest composers and with his friend, artist
the mood is considerably more pastoral,
Biographies 31 hence the newly commissioned painting and director Paul they have produced I also encourage everyone to
a riveting film (shown 19th August). Do join the email (or simple mailing) list -
Venues 45 by Carol Tyler of St Mary’s Church,
come and enjoy this extra experience in partly because once I send out an
Lastingham, which captures the spirit of
Acknowledgements 55 the presence of these artists. email announcing extra dates, tickets
the English theme.
tend to sell rapidly and those not on
I would like to, as ever, express my
We are so very fortunate to experience the email list may miss out on the first
continued appreciation for those who
and perform this music within the opportunity to buy them. The book
profound walls of our various local are supporting this festival and it gives in which to add your details will be
churches and priories and we have me tremendous pleasure to see it thrive available at each concert or simply
chosen repertoire appropriate to after all the investment, belief and tireless send us an email:
the spaces. campaigning. It also remains true to its
([email protected])
principles: something I think we all feel
Last year’s theme depicted an element
very strongly about. So here’s to another fortnight of
of the bleak shadows and the troubled
glorious music – from Henry Purcell to
decay of Eastern Europe, so by contrast The aim is to keep ticket prices low so
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. We hope you
this year our resident photographer Frank that we don’t price anyone out: this is
enjoy it as much as we have done
Harrison has used his instinct to capture a festival for everybody, regardless of
preparing the programme.
a more recognisably local and seasonal background or position, so the prices
Jamie Walton
feel which should resonate with us all. We remain unchanged. Your support is vital,
hope you enjoy this presentation and however small, for we no longer rely ArTisTiC DireCTor
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Programme
Week one Week two
Sunday 11th August St Nicholas, PURCELL Overture to The Gordian Knot Unty’d Monday 19th August Sneaton Castle, FILM By PAUL JOyCE: ‘Max’ about Sir Peter Maxwell
3.00pm Guisborough ELGAR Serenade for Strings op 20 3.00pm Whitby Davies. (Introduced by Sir Peter. Q & A after.)
BRIDGE String sextet in E flat*
ROSSINI Duo for cello and double bass in D Monday 19th August St Stephen’s, MOZART String quintet no 1 in B flat K174
SHOSTAKOVICH Two pieces for string octet op 11 7.00pm Fylingdales BRITTEN String quartet no 2 in C op 36*
BRITTEN Simple Symphony op 4 BAX Lyrical Interlude
MAXWELL DAVIES Naxos quartet no 3 op 236
Monday 12th August St oswald’s, DOWLAND Preludium and Lachrimae Pavan
7.00pm Lythe ANON Galliarda
JOHNSON Pavan in C minor and Almain Wednesday 21st August St Mary’s, PURCELL Voluntary for double organ in D minor
DE VISÉE Prelude, Allemande, Sarabande and 7.00pm [repeat of concert Lastingham MOZART Piano quartet no 2 in E flat K493*
on 14th August] BRIDGE Phantasie piano quartet in F sharp minor
Chaconne des Harlequins*
MOZART Quintet in E flat K452 WALTON Piano quartet in D minor
BEETHOVEN Quintet in E flat op 16
Thursday 22nd August Sneaton Castle, FILM By PAUL JOyCE: The Britten cello suites
Wednesday 14th August St Mary’s, PURCELL Voluntary for double organ in D minor 4.00pm Whitby (Jamie Walton)
7.00pm (concert repeated Lastingham MOZART Piano quartet no 2 in E flat K493*
on 21st August] BRIDGE Phantasie piano quartet in F sharp minor
Thursday 22nd August St Hilda’s Priory, VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Piano quintet in C minor*
WALTON Piano quartet in D minor
7.00pm Sneaton Castle, Whitby Supported by the Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust
Friday 16th August St Helen’s and All Saints’, MOZART Oboe quartet in F K370 BRITTEN Gemini Variations op 73
7.00pm Wykeham BRITTEN Phantasy oboe quartet in F minor op 2* ELGAR Piano quintet in A minor op 84
ADÈS Arcadiana op 12
ELGAR String quartet in E minor op 83 Friday 23rd August St Hedda’s, BEETHOVEN Septet in E flat op 20
6.00pm Egton Bridge BRITTEN Lachrymae for viola and strings op 48a*
Saturday 17th August St Martin-on-the-Hill, HANDEL Overture to An Occasional Oratorio
SCHUBERT Octet in F
7.00pm Scarborough MOZART Horn quintet in E flat K407
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS The Lark Ascending*
Saturday 24th August St Hilda’s, STANFORD Fantasia and Toccata in D minor op 57
TIPPETT Preludio al Vespro di Monteverdi
5.00pm West Cliff, Whitby PÄRT Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten
BRITTEN Serenade for tenor, horn and strings op 31
ELGAR Introduction and Allegro op 47*
Sunday 18th August St Hilda’s, PURCELL Chacony in G minor DELIUS Late Swallows
3.00pm Danby MAXWELL DAVIES String trio op 290 WALTON Movements from Façade
MOZART Divertimento in E flat K563 BRITTEN Movements from Soirées Musicales
op 9 and Matinées Musicales op 24
4 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2013 * Interval follows * Interval follows North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2013 5
North York Moors Visitor information
The North York Moors It covers an area of 1,436 km (554 moorland. These two kinds of scenery are ago the cold climate of the Ice Age CAR PARKING GETTING THERE By SATNAV
square miles), and it has a population the result of differences in the underlying ameliorated and temperatures rose The churches in Danby, Lythe and St
Danby Yo21 2NH
is a national park in
of about 25,000. The North York Moors geology and each supports different above a growing point of 5.5˚C. Plant Hilda’s Priory have large car parking
N54:26:51, W0:55:41
North Yorkshire. The became a National Park in 1952, through wildlife communities. There are records of life was gradually re-established and facilities. Those in Lastingham, Fylingdales,
the National Parks and Access to the 12,000 archaeological sites and features animals and humans also returned. Many Guisborough, Egton Bridge and Egton Bridge Yo21 1UX
moors are one of the Countryside Act 1949. in the North York Moors National Park, visitors to the moors are engaged in Wykeham have local village parking. N54:26:13, W0:45:42
largest expanses of The North York Moors National Park of which 700 are scheduled ancient outdoor pursuits, particularly walking; the At St Hilda’s West Cliff and St Martin-on- Fylingdales Yo22 4RN
monuments. Radio carbon dating of parks have a network of rights-of-way the-Hill there are local car parks and
encompasses two main types of N54:26:03, W0:32:21
heather moorland in
pollen grains preserved in the moorland almost 2,300 km (1,400 miles) in length, on-street parking.
landscape: green areas of pasture land
the United Kingdom. and the purple and brown heather peat provides a record of the actual and most of the areas of open moorland Guisborough TS14 6BX
species of plants that existed at various are now open access under the TOILETS N54:32:12, W1:02:56
periods in the past. About 10,000 years Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. St Hilda’s West Cliff and St Hilda’s Priory Lastingham Yo62 6TL
have their own facilities. The churches in
N54:18:16, W0:52:58
St Nicholas’ Church St Oswald’s Church Egton Bridge, Fylingdales, Lastingham,
Guisborough Lythe St Hilda’s Church Guisborough, St Martin-on-the-Hill and Lythe Yo21 3RW
West Cliff
N54:30:25, W0:41:18
St Hilda’s Church WHITBY Wykeham have village facilities. The
Danby SStn Heaildtoan’s C Parisotrley Chapel churches in Danby and Lythe have Scarborough Yo11 2DB
portable toilets. N54:16:30, W0:24:05
St Hedda’s Church
Egton Bridge
Sneaton Castle Yo21 3QN
St Stephen’s Church REFRESHMENTS
Fylingdales N54:28:60, W0:38:31
Refreshments are available for a
suggested donation of £1 for soft drinks West Cliff Yo21 3EG
and £2 for a glass of red or white wine. N54:29:20, W0:37:14
Wykeham Yo13 9QA
N54:14:14, W0:31:17
St Mary’s Church
Lastingham
St Martin-on-the-hill Church
SCARBOROUGH
St Helen and All Saints’ Church
Wykeham
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music began to emerge for this newly- Andante cantabile Andante con moto alla marcia –
Notes
perfected instrument. This anonymous Rondo: allegro non troppo presto
dance-form piece is from a 16th century
This early chamber work dates from 1796, This genial work from 1800 follows
English manuscript, but is a galliard in
while Beethoven was on his only major a period of rapid development in
the Italian style, which had successfully
concert tour as a piano virtuoso; it was Beethoven’s compositional abilities and
All notes by Philip Britton, unless indicated.
migrated north and across the English
when he became ill at the end of the his ground-breaking first set of six string
Channel. © Matthew Wadsworth
tour that the first signs of hearing loss quartets, published as op 18. It is ahead
Composers are listed in alphabetical order by surname. Where several works by the
became apparent. The work is a direct by only a whisker of his Symphony no
same composer will be performed in this year’s Festival, individual works (and their Arnold Bax 1883-1953 homage to Mozart and his quintet K452 1 in C, op 21, which was given its first
from 1784 (which precedes it in today’s performance at the same Burgtheater
linked notes) are also in alphabetical order, by the first key word of the work’s title. LYRICAL INTERLUDE
concert). Beethoven copies Mozart concert in Vienna as the Septet. op 20
In 1908, Bax, not long out of the Royal directly – keyboard plus the same four is for what at the time was an unusual
Academy, produced a long and winds, the same ‘home’ key and same combination of string trio (violin, viola
Thomas Adès b 1971 images associated with ideas of the idyll, Anon elaborate String quintet in G, which number of movements, the first (by far and cello) with clarinet, horn, bassoon
vanishing, vanished or imaginary’. He also followed the Schubert model by having the longest of the three) having a slow and double bass. (Later composers
ARCADIANA oP 12 GALLIARDA
points out that all the odd-numbered two cellos. It was first performed at introduction and the finale in rondo form. using the same forces include Kreutzer,
I Venezia notturna movements are aquatic (a lugubrious In sixteenth and seventeenth century London’s Aeolian Hall in July 1908 and However, overall the virtuoso piano part Berwald and Adolphe Blanc – but none
II Das klinget so herrlich, das gondolier in the first, singing on the water Italy, composers found themselves combined Bax’s love of Irish moods dominates more than in K452. Its first of their septets are played as often
klinget so schön in the third, a ship setting sail in the fifth, immersed in an atmosphere of and themes with modern European performance in Vienna was probably as Beethoven’s.)
III Auf dem Wasser zu singen the river of oblivion in the last). The piece
seemingly limitless experimentation and trends in composition. In 1914 he sent one in April 1797, with the composer The Septet has a self-confidence
IV Et… (tango mortale) also includes direct references to earlier
freedom. Echoing the development of the manuscript to Germany in the at the keyboard, including the famous untinged by anger, defiance or
V L’Embarquement music: ‘Das klinget so herrlich, das klinget
‘chiaroscuro’ in the visual arts, musicians hope of a performance there, but oboist Friedrich Ramm from Munich, for introspection – all qualities that
VI O Albion so schön’ is an aria by Monostatos and
were split into two groups: exponents when the First World War broke out the whom Mozart had written the oboe characterise the works of Beethoven’s
VII Lethe his slaves from Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’,
of melodic instruments such as the composer thought it must have been quartet K370 (also to be heard in the middle and later period. So much so,
Adès studied at Cambridge with and ‘Auf dem Wasser zu singen’ is a song violin, cornetto or recorder, with their lost. It did reappear in 1919; in 1922, Festival). Like its Mozart companion, that Beethoven came to hate the
Alexander Goehr and Robin Holloway: his by Schubert, reminiscent of a barcarolle. virtuosic and dramatic expressive after completing the Sonata for viola Beethoven’s keyboard part is played Septet’s continued popularity among
early works showed the brilliant promise The title of the central ‘mortal’ tango powers, and those who practised the and piano, Bax re-scored the quintet’s today on a fortepiano, appropriate for critics and public, who found his later
of a naturally gifted and imaginative is a much abbreviated version of the newly established art of basso continuo. second, slow movement for a quintet the work’s period. To help the published works ‘difficult’. It is true that it has
composer, fulfilled in a wide range of Latin title of two famous paintings by one of the instruments belonging to following Mozart’s line-up instead, which score find a wider market, Beethoven a divertimento or serenade feeling
chamber, orchestral and operatic works Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), ‘Et in Arcadia this latter group was the chitarrone, replaced an extra cello with an extra soon transcribed the work for piano and structure, with – as expected – a
viola. It was published separately in
performed round the world. Arcadiana ego’ (literally ‘I too am in Arcadia’, but or theorbo. Its bass-rich sonority was quartet, keeping the same key and movement containing a theme and
1923 as today’s Lyrical Interlude and
dates from 1994, commissioned by the really ‘Even in Arcadia, death is also exploited by composers such as Giulio opus number. variations (the fourth movement, using a
dedicated to Vaughan Williams.
Endellion Quartet with funds from the present’). one of these paintings shows Caccini (1551-1618) and Tarquinio Merula popular tune from the Rhineland).
SEPTET IN E FLAT oP 20
Holst Foundation. It comprises seven an idealised pastoral scene with country (?1594-1665) in the accompaniment But it also has far more substance than
short movements for string quartet (only folk in Roman garb around an austere of song. Remembering that at this time Ludwig van Beethoven Adagio – allegro con brio most works called divertimento or
the central tango lasts more than three tomb which has the same Latin phrase instrumental construction and playing 1770-1827 Adagio cantabile serenade; and the writing is more subtle
minutes). Adès himself says that their inscribed on it. This in part explains the title technique were developing hand- Tempo di menuetto and inventive, in particular the use –
evocative but elusive titles ‘evoke of the whole work. in-hand with musical composition, it QUINTET IN E FLAT oP 16 Tema con variazoni: andante rare in chamber music at this time –
comes as no surprise to find that solo Grave – allegro ma non troppo Scherzo: allegro molto e vivace of a ‘symphonic’ slow introduction to
10 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2013 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2013 11
both first and last movements. As Peter title, including this Piano quartet of and Pears were stunned by the range Budd’, Britten wrote a set of ‘Reflections’ PHANTASY oBoE QUARTET IN Dirge: alla marcia grave (anon,
Holman points out: ‘… the relationship 1910, which in line with Cobbett’s rules of musical skills of a pair of twelve-year- for viola and piano on themes by the F MINoR oP 2 15th century)
between strings and winds is more has a very clear arch-shaped single- old twins, Gábor and Zoltán Jeney, sons celebrated Elizabethan composer of Hymn: presto e leggiero (Jonson)
As its early opus number suggests, this is
flexible and varied than before. There movement structure. This became of the flautist of the opera orchestra. In lute-songs and solos John Dowland – Sonnet: adagio (Keats)
a work from Britten’s late teens, during
is antiphonal writing between the two characteristic of much of Bridge’s 1965 Britten completed, and dedicated whose music features elsewhere in this Epilogue: andante
his time at the Royal College of Music.
groups, ‘orchestral’ passages with the music. As Thomas Kemp suggests: ‘He to them, this set of variations. Its theme Festival. ‘Lachrymae’ (literally ‘tears’) is
wind supporting the strings with held developed the idea that you could is one of the Epigrams (1954) by Zoltán shorthand for The Lachrymae Pavan, It follows hard on the heels of his op 1, In March 1943, recovering at home
chords, florid wind solos and duets have something of a cyclical form in Kodály, one of Hungary’s greatest a slow dance for lute or theorbo solo the Sinfonietta for chamber orchestra. in Snape after being in hospital with
accompanied by the strings, and one movement’ – which this piano composers and an inspired collector whose tune Dowland also used – It was broadcast in August 1933, soon measles, Britten wrote disingenuously to
concerto-like passages for solo violin quartet illustrates. and preserver of its folk-music. perhaps writing the words himself – for after completion (‘Mr Britten is the most his long-standing American supporter
(written for the virtuoso player Ignaz the song ‘Flow, my tears’ in his Second interesting new arrival since Walton’ said and friend Elizabeth Mayer: ‘I’ve
Schuppanzigh) accompanied by the STRING SEXTET IN E FLAT H107 The score has two subtitles: ‘Twelve Booke of Songes or Ayres (1600). It was the BBC’s Victor Hely-Hutchinson) and practically completed a new work (6
Variations and Fugue on an Epigram of
rest of the ensemble’. The Septet was Allegro moderato one of the favorite improvisational performed in London three months later, Nocturnes) for Peter and a lovely young
Kodály’ and ‘A Quartet for Two Players’.
overtly the model for the Schubert octet Andante con moto – themes of the sixteenth and seventeenth then at the 1934 ISCM Festival in Florence. horn player Dennis Brain, & Strings… It is
Since the twins both played the piano,
D803, featured in the second half of allegro giusto – tempo I centuries, and its gradually descending Britten reported from Italy: ‘Goossens not important stuff, but quite pleasant, I
Gábor also playing the violin and Zoltán
this concert. Allegro ben moderato opening line of melody opens Britten’s & the Grillers really play my Phant. very think’. Critical opinion rates the Serenade
the flute, Britten used twelve variations
Arriving at the Royal College of Music in order to exploit every possible work, the tune recurring midway through. beautifully & it’s quite well received’. – the first large-scale work with orchestra
Frank Bridge 1879-1941 in 1896, Bridge had been a successful combination of these instruments The ten variations which are the heart This was the Griller Quartet and the which Britten wrote for Pears, and a
violin, and then viola, student – as well (including piano four hands), stating of the work are on the Dowland song work’s dedicatee, the doyen of English return to English-language vocal writing
PHANTASIE PIANo QUARTET IN
as conductor. The College awarded the theme at the start and closing with ‘If My Complaints Could Passions Move’ oboists, Leon Goossens. Eric Roseberry – as rather better than pleasant: a
F SHARP MINoR H94
him a scholarship to allow him to stay a fugue. The twins (‘most engaging from the First Booke of Songes or Ayres points out that the single movement is masterpiece of both music and word-
In the early years of the twentieth on for composition classes with Charles little chaps’, Britten called them) then (1597). Reversing the normal practice, the constructed in an arch form: ‘remarkably setting, as well as an inspired selection
century Walter Willson Cobbett (1847- Villiers Stanford. once he left the came to Aldeburgh to give the work’s theme, together with Dowland’s original for its time in pre-war England, its intricate of six (originally seven) poems about the
1937), businessman, amateur violinist College, he made a living as a violinist in first performance in the Festival and to harmonization, gradually emerges, as if structure suggests that the brilliant young night (by extension, about death). The
and devotee of chamber music, was several orchestras, played viola in three record it for Decca (the LP also included by magic, only at the end of the work. composer… had already absorbed work’s dedicatee, Eddie Sackville-West,
eager to revive the English fantasia different string quartets and continued Psalm 150 and Friday Afternoons). Now, Lachrymae was originally written for the the idea of sonata-cycle compression helped choose and organise the texts.
tradition that had its roots in renaissance to compose. In 1906 he started work on almost fifty years later, that recording is star viola-player William Primrose as op contained in Schoenberg’s First
this String sextet, but abandoned it until 48 (‘to reward him for coming to the Chamber Symphony’. The work is framed It was first performed at the Wigmore
and early baroque music – a great no longer available and the work is only
1912. Paul Hindmarsh calls it ‘the most Festival’, Britten said). by a march introduction – an idea Britten Hall on 15 october 1943, with Pears’
source of inspiration for Britten, Bridge’s rarely heard, even at Aldeburgh. Gábor
richly textured of all his early romantic reused in Alla Marcia for string quartet distinctive tenor voice and Brain’s
composition pupil from 1928 onwards. is these days a freelance violinist and In 1976, the last year of the composer’s
chamber works’. It was first performed the same year and then again in Les magical horn playing and an ad hoc
Cobbett preferred the term Phantasy or member of the Hungarian Trio in Cape life, he revisited the work, apparently at
in what is now the Wigmore Hall in Illuminations (1939) – and by a postlude. orchestra under Walter Goehr (‘we had
Phantasie – and via annual competitions Town, South Africa, having played for the suggestion of the British violist, Cecil
for single-movement works encouraged June 1913. the Cape Town Symphony orchestra Aronowitz (1916-1978), who had a long a lovely show, with wonderful enthusiasm
SERENADE FoR TENoR,
new chamber works with this title from for many years; Zoltán is a professional association with Britten and Aldeburgh, and lovely notices’, Britten reported).
HoRN AND STRINGS oP 31
Bax, Goossens, Vaughan Williams, Ireland Benjamin Britten flautist based in Germany. including via the Melos Ensemble. Britten The two key performances were quickly
and others, even a very young Britten rescored the piece for solo viola and Prologue: andante captured in a 1944 Decca recording, the
1913-1976
LACHRYMAE FoR VIoLA
(see the entry on Britten’s Phantasy oboe strings (minus first violins, not to swamp the Pastoral: lento (Charles Cotton) composer conducting the strings of the
GEMINI VARIATIoNS oP 73 AND STRINGS oP 48A
quartet below). Bridge himself wrote soloist), of which Aronowitz then gave the Nocturne: maestoso (Tennyson) Boyd Neel orchestra: it has never been
several pieces with the Phantasie on a visit to Budapest in 1964, Britten In 1950, in parallel with composing ‘Billy first performance six months after Britten’s Elegy: andante appassionato (Blake) out of the catalogue since.
death. This is the version played today.
12 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2013 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2013 13
The settings of the poems are framed by This meeting in turn led to Britten starting Ben could work on the score, which String quartet no 3 op 94 (1975), his last- Frederick Delius to and fro from the caves of the studios
an introduction and postlude, in which to study with Bridge four years later, in the end produced another five but-one completed work. The Quartet no at Grez-sur-Loing’ [Delius’s home near
1862-1934
the horn plays using only its natural before arriving at the Royal College movements. The resulting double 2 therefore comes from the same period Fontainebleau]. In its original string
harmonics (no valves); this introduces the of Music in 1930. The symphony was bill was choreographed by as ‘Peter Grimes’; it is also in effect the LATE SWALLoWS quartet form it has the tempo indication
edgy and unstable world of night and choreographed by Walter Gore and Balanchine and first performed as companion piece to his song-cycle The ‘slowly and wistfully’.
The third movement from Delius’s String
then finally says farewell to the visions performed by Ballet Rambert in 1944. Divertimento in Rio de Janeiro. In Holy Sonnets of John Donne op 35. The
quartet (originally written in 1916, but he
which have been conjured up. The today’s concert, three pieces from song-cycle and quartet had their first
John Dowland 1563-1626
climax of the work is the last poem, the MoVEMENTS FRoM SoIRéES each suite will be played. public performances at the Wigmore Hall added a scherzo in 1917) has the ‘Late
Keats sonnet: as John Bridcut says in his MUSICALES oP 9 AND on successive days; by this time, Britten Swallows’ title; much later, it was arranged PRELUDIUM
‘Essential Britten’: ‘This is music of taste, MATINéES MUSICALES oP 24 STRING QUARTET No 2 was already at work on ‘The Rape of for larger string forces by the composer’s LACHRIMAE PAVAN
IN C oP 36 amanuensis, Scarborough-born Eric
smell, touch and sight, as well as sound, March Bolero Lucretia’, confirming that opera would in Dowland was one of England’s greatest
Fenby (1906-1997) and in this form is
which in its perfect marriage with Keats’s Tarantella Waltz Allegro calmo, senza rigore future dominate his composing life. composers and lutenists, as well as a
sometimes known as Sonata for Strings. In
words stirs the very depths of the spirit’. Nocturne March Vivace The first movement (marked ‘a calm ground-breaking innovator. It was he
1928 Fenby volunteered to assist Delius,
Chacony: sostenuto
SIMPLE SYMPHoNY oP 4 A year after the Simple Symphony, allegro without strictness’) opens with already blind and partly paralysed, with who effectively created the English lute-
Britten was living in lodgings in London Britten wrote many pieces for string a long melodic theme in octaves over his composing work. He lived and worked song, imaginatively drawing together
Boisterous Bourrée and became a member of the quartet in the 1930s, but his first a drone (two sustained notes played (unpaid) in the home of the composer elements from the broadside ballad,
Playful Pizzicato GPo Film Unit in Blackheath under numbered string quartets both came together, suggesting a C major chord) and his wife in France through to Delius’s dance music, consort song and madrigal.
Sentimental Sarabande master documentary film-maker John from wartime commissions: String quartet on the viola – Britten’s own instrument. death, then publishing a memoir of this He is famous for his passionate and
Frolicsome Finale Grierson. WH Auden was to join Britten no 2 from Mary Behrend (1883-1977), This may also be a specific homage to time and becoming an authority on the almost obsessive melancholy which is
Britten re-used themes from juvenile there: their famous collaboration on whom Pears and Britten had met in Purcell, in whose ‘Fantazia upon one Note composer and advocate for his music. never far away in his music, with sleep
works (two per movement) in this Night Mail (1936) was one of the 1937. She was a strong supporter of the a5’ of 1680 (Z745) a tenor viol sustains Fenby’s account of the time with Delius and death being sought as a release
energetic and tuneful work for strings, results. For a film by Lotte Reiniger English opera Group and the Aldeburgh middle C for the whole piece: ‘[Purcell] was the springboard for Ken Russell’s 1968 from earthly woes. Although clearly also
which he completed at the family home about the Post office Savings Bank, Festival, with her husband John; in the running a race with one foot encased black-and-white film ‘Song of Summer’ for an affectation of the time, it was one
in Lowestoft over the winter of 1933-1934, Britten was asked to orchestrate 1940s and 1950s their son George helped in stone’, as Laurence Dreyfus puts it. the BBC series ‘omnibus’, with Christopher which drew an acutely personal response
not long after his Phantasy oboe quartet. some short Rossini piano pieces: out at The Red House, Pears’ and Britten’s Britten’s first movement is in sonata form, Gable as Fenby, Max Adrian as Delius in Dowland. Prolific, he produced over
To his then publishers, oUP, unsure about he hunted the music down and had home, sometimes acting as chauffeur but has three related themes developed and Maureen Pryor as his wife Jelka. After a hundred solo pieces, in addition to
his overall alliterative title, he responded: when they went on tour. The new quartet separately and then exuberantly Delius’s death, Fenby then joined the four books of songs and ayres. The solo
the score ready in ten days. In 1936
‘I have searched the dictionary in vain & was a key part of the celebrations in combined, with a very abbreviated music publishers Boosey & Hawkes and pieces can be divided into three main
Boosey & Hawkes published his revised
I can find nothing [else] suitable. After all November 1945 for the two hundred recapitulation at the end. The brief after the Second World War founded categories: fantasies, dance movements
version of five movements as the suite
– no one can pretend that the material and fiftieth anniversary of Purcell’s and energetic scherzo comes second; the music department of the North (pavans and galliards) and ballad tunes.
Soirées Musicales.
is not simple, & technically it certainly is death. This in part explains why Britten, and the final slow movement, marked Riding Training College (its present-day owing to his conversion to Catholicism in
not difficult’. The symphony is dedicated Its companion piece, Matinées sharing the older composer’s fondness ‘sustained’ and longer than both other successor seems to be the School of Arts the 1580s, Dowland was denied a court
to Audrey Alston (Mrs Lincolne Sutton), musicales, also Rossini-based, came for the chaconne, used this form for the movements put together, offers twenty- and New Media at the Scarborough appointment until 1612, considerably
Britten’s childhood viola teacher: she at the request of Lincoln Kirstein and quartet’s final movement – also copying one variants above an unchanging Campus of the University of Hull), finally later than many of his contemporaries.
had been a fellow-student and friend the American Ballet Company. It was Purcell’s ‘Englished’ spelling of the word. ground bass, with cadenzas for cello, becoming Professor of Harmony at the The Lachrimae Pavan is one of the
of Frank Bridge at the Royal College at composed in 1941 while Britten and Thirty years later, in the year before he viola and first violin. The work ends with Royal Academy of Music in London. starting-points Britten used for his
the turn of the previous century and Pears were driving across the USA to died, he used the international version twenty-three C major chords: ‘music Fenby described this piece as ‘a beautiful reworking of Dowland for viola and strings
introduced the very young Britten to California in an ancient Ford V8; they of the same form – the passacaglia – for of exceptional confidence’, as Colin autumnal soliloquy in sound conjured – see the entry on ‘Lachrimae’ under
Bridge at a concert in Norwich in 1924. stopped early each evening so that the final, valedictory, movement of his Matthews calls it. up from thoughts of the swallows darting Britten above. © Matthew Wadsworth
14 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2013 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2013 15
edward elgar 1857-1934 virtuoso character for all performers. and their timing close to the end of the SERENADE FoR STRINGS IN its cellist asked Elgar for a string quartet. George Frideric Handel
The composer conducted the first First World War may also explain the late E MINoR oP 20 It took nearly two decades for the right
INTRoDUCTIoN AND 1685-1759
performance at an all-Elgar concert at romantic mood of regretful acceptance moment to arrive: the composer having
Allegro piacevole
ALLEGRo oP 47
the Queen’s Hall in London on 8 March which seems to be dominant. Elgar his tonsils removed and convalescing out oVERTURE To AN oCCASIoNAL
Larghetto
Concertgoers of mature years may 1905 – to a cool critical reception, himself acknowledged that his new Allegretto of London in a rented house deep in the oRAToRIo HWV62
find that this lyrical and deeply English though it is now firmly established as music was conservative in idiom – ‘it woods at Fittleworth in West Sussex.
This oddly named oratorio comes from
piece for strings irresistibly conjures up one of Elgar’s finest and most involving does not carry us any further, but it is full The Serenade for strings may be a Very quickly – after a thirty-year gap –
1746 and was written to stiffen the moral
a black-and-white moving image: a works. Its massed strings, its rootedness of golden sounds and I like it’. As Diana reworking of a suite Elgar had written he completed three new chamber works,
fibre of the nation when King George
boy in Victorian clothes, wearing a sailor in rural landscape and its re-imagining McVeagh puts it: ‘[it is] as if Schoenberg, some years earlier; if so, apart from the the String quartet having its first public
II had gone home to Germany and
cap, gallops on a white horse across a of the baroque concerto grosso may Stravinsky and Holst did not exist’. ‘Wand of Youth’ suites, it is the earliest performance – with the Piano quintet – Bonnie Prince Charlie was advancing
field, with a flock of sheep behind and have influenced Vaughan Williams in his of his compositions to survive. It was at the Wigmore Hall in 1919. The Brodsky
south. It comprises more than forty
the Malvern Hills in the distance. If so, it Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis of Although the Piano quintet shares dedicated to the philosopher WH Quartet were, as expected, the quartet’s
movements for four soloists, choir and
will be the opening sequence from the 1910. Many recordings have coupled the the String quartet’s three-movement Whinfield (also the author of a version of dedicatees, but they had all retired by
orchestra in three sections, with a libretto
1962 drama documentary ‘Elgar: Portrait two works – notably Barbirolli conducting structure, it is in fact longer and more the Rubaiyat of omar Khayyam) and first the time the work was ready, so an ad
by Newburgh Hamilton ‘after’ Milton
of a Composer’ – the first of many such the Sinfonia of London and the Allegri ambitious, in part because both its outer performed in public in Antwerp in 1896. hoc string quartet led by Albert Sammons
and Spenser. Handel wrote it in haste,
films directed by Ken Russell (1927- Quartet for HMV in 1963, which was the movements start with slower introductory As the Elgar Society website comments: stepped in.
and as a result – not for the first time –
2011) for the BBC arts series ‘Monitor’. favoured analogue stereo recording for sections. The opening of the first ‘it has a youthful charm while at the
This work (like the Piano quintet, in three unhesitatingly plundered his own back
Elgar was narrated by Huw Wheldon many years. movement has a piano theme in octaves same time displaying indications of the
movements, but on a smaller scale) catalogue. As Guardian critic Erica Jeal
and produced by Humphrey Burton. It which reflects the plainsong chant ‘Salve skills Elgar developed as he progressed
was later selected by the BFI as one of PIANo QUINTET IN Regina’, but this is against agonised towards musical maturity’. It remains one begins with a complex and wide-ranging points out: ‘references to Exodus gave
the hundred greatest British television A MINoR oP 84 string writing and followed by a complex of the most frequently performed of all first movement, which Andrew Clements him an excuse to lift several numbers
describes as ‘a tangle of stream-of- from ‘Israel in Egypt’, before finishing
programmes and can still be watched Moderato – allegro chromatic passage, which leads to a his works.
consciousness cross-references and with a stirring chorus sung to the music
on DVD. Adagio faster moving dance-like second subject
STRING QUARTET IN sly harmonic shifts, whose quality of of the coronation anthem Zadok the
Andante – allegro with a Spanish feel. The slow middle
The music itself dates from 1905; its E MINoR oP 83 elusiveness sometimes recalls that of Priest’. Its overture, played today on the
movement is sublime and deep; and the
composition was suggested to Elgar The two Elgar chamber works in this Fauré’s only string quartet, completed six organ, is in four sections: an opening slow
finale brings back disturbing echoes of Allegro moderato
by his close friend August Jaeger year’s Festival – this Piano quintet and the years later’. The slower middle movement, introduction, a faster allegro, an adagio
the first movement material. Some think Piacevole (poco moderato)
of the music publishers Novello (he String quartet (discussed below) – come which Lady Elgar described as ‘captured and finally a stirring march heavily
Allegro molto
that there may be an unacknowledged
had already got into Elgar’s music as from close to the end of his most creative sunshine’ – though arguably sunshine reminiscent of the Music for the
‘Nimrod’ in the Enigma Variations): ‘Why phase, between the Enigma Variations programme underlying the whole work, Elgar’s only completed and published interrupted by clouds – has the tempo Royal Fireworks.
not a brilliant quick string scherzo, or in 1899 and the Cello concerto in 1919. derived from a legend that a group of string quartet (there had been many marking ‘agreeably’ and quotes from the
something for those fine strings [of the Three works from this period, composed contorted dead trees near the house abortive earlier attempts) comes from composer’s own Chanson de Matin op robert Johnson
newly formed LSo] only… You might close in time to each other, all share the where Elgar and his wife were living was 1918. It was composed alongside 15 no 2. The final movement has a fiery
c1583-1633
even write a modern Fugue for strings’. same E minor key: the Violin sonata op 82, a group of Spanish monks struck down by the Piano quintet (for more of the opening and a more relaxed second
PAVAN IN C MINoR
Elgar re-used material from a projected the String quartet and the Cello concerto lightning while performing satanic rituals; background, see the entry above on subject, but moves ahead energetically
ALMAIN
Welsh overture, sketched some years op 85; the Piano quintet – still in a minor but no Spanish monks ever lived in that the quintet). After a performance in towards the final bars. As Robert
earlier, and juxtaposed full strings with key, but a different minor key – comes part of West Sussex. Even if this story does Manchester of the Enigma Variations Matthew-Walker suggests, the quartet is Johnson was appointed lutenist to King
a string quartet of soloists; he included from the same period, with the next opus not hit the nail on the head, the quintet under Richter in 1900, Elgar met the ‘valedictory yet forward-looking… the James I, a post previously occupied by
the fugue that Jaeger had suggested number after the string quartet. These does give the feeling of a personal Brodsky Quartet (in tribute, a modern-day work of a major composer at the height his father. Johnson’s patron, the Lord
and used polyphonic writing of a works were also be his last major ones, drama of some sort being played out. British quartet now has the same name); of his powers’. Chamberlain, also supported the
16 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2013 North York Moors Chamber Music Festival 2013 17
foremost theatre company in London, isometric disciplines, based upon the material’s swift descent from upon high, quoted at the close of the second and where they don’t usually venture, I have string trio – employing the divertimento’s
The King’s Men, to which Shakespeare plainsong proper to the celebration of we are prepared for the appearance the Hymn which ends the third. Here, been careful to preserve what I hope conventional multi-movement layout, but
belonged through most of his career; St Cecilia on 22 November, ‘Audi filia of the In Nomine melody in its original in unison with the cello line, I imagine remain audible and meaningful frames in fact the result of sublime and profound
the company performed regularly at the et vide’. However, during the course of form, going back to John Taverner’s a baritone voice, quietly intoning part of reference. The Trio is in one continuous invention, on a level with Mozart’s finest
Globe and Blackfriars theatres. Johnson composition in March and April 2003, early sixteenth century Mass Gloria Tibi of a stanza by Michelangelo [also set movement, with dramatically contrasting string quartets or quintets. It is in fact also
was the last of the great English lutenists; external events affected the composition Trinitas and the organ transcription in the by Shostakovich as part of the Suite on sections. It was difficult to make a suitable his longest work for chamber forces.
his surviving output for solo lute, although process: the invasion of Iraq, to which contemporaneous Mulliner Book which Poems by Michelangelo Buonarrotti, for conclusion: I decided it should end in a
As so often with Mozart’s music, questions
small in quantity, is quite magnificent in ‘Max’ was and remains utterly opposed. uses that section of the Mass setting the bass and piano op 145 (1974)]: spirit of quiet reflection.’
arise: why was this work composed when
quality. His writing, unlike Dowland’s, is Here is part of the composer’s own words ‘Benedictus qui venit in nomine ‘Mentre che’l danno e la vergogna dura; © Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, from it was, and why does it stand so alone in
not overtly virtuosic, yet the technical analysis of the work: Domini’ – ‘Blessed is he who comes in Non veder, non sentir m’è gran ventura: www.maxopus.com the catalogue of Mozart’s works? There
demands on the player are appreciable, the name of the Lord’. This In Nomine is
‘The first movement’, March, starts with Però non mi destar, deh, parla basso.’ is a partial answer to the first question:
requiring considerable stretches in the quietly distorted and dissonant – ie very
a short exposition (C minor), followed by Wolfgang Amadeus from one of Mozart’s letters from 1790 it
left-hand. Johnson’s tendencies towards much not ‘in the name of the Lord’. ‘While damage and shame persist,
a varied repeat: there is little hint thus seems that the Divertimento was written
lyricism and exotic harmony suggest it is my great fortune to neither see nor Mozart 1756-1791
far of any music suggestive of the title. The third movement, Four Inventions for Michael von Puchberg (1741-1822), a
features of later baroque music in the hear – so please do not disturb me, and
The following development, however, and a Hymn, stands in for a scherzo. DIVERTIMENTo IN E FLAT K563 textile merchant in Vienna and brother
French style. © Matthew Wadsworth speak quietly.’
gradually transforms the material into a It takes up the thread left from the Allegro Freemason (E flat is sometimes treated
military march of a fatuous and splintered first Naxos Quartet in the previous The closing measures of the quartet Adagio as a Masonic key), to whom Mozart
Peter Maxwell Davies
nature, after which there is, in place of movement, borrowing more of the show, however, that it is just impossible to Menuetto (allegretto) – trio had already dedicated two piano
b1934 any expected recapitulation, a brief, slow techniques of Bach’s Inventions, but the neither see, nor hear.’ Andante trios, K542 and K548. Puchberg had
lent generously to Mozart, in response
meditation, then by way of a coda, a character is burlesque, becoming even © Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, from Menuetto (allegretto) – trio I – trio II
NAXoS QUARTET No 3 oP 236
to repeated heartfelt begging letters,
ghost of the march, in a very slow tempo, grotesque towards the end, where the www.maxopus.com Allegro
(In the presence of the composer) drained of all energy, which forms a tonal short Hymn is marked stucchevole – noting on Mozart’s letter about ‘the trio’
This is one of only two works by Mozart
March resolution in the correct key: the bones cloying, nauseating. STRING TRIo oP 290 that the composer had sent twenty-five
In Nomine of the march are now exposed as a strict for string trio (violin, viola and cello); florins. Despite this, it appears that Mozart
Four Inventions and a Hymn mensural canon. The movement dismisses The finale, Fugue, begins with successive ‘Max’ writes that this work from 2008 was the other is K404a from 1782 – a set of repaid little of his debt to Puchberg (or to
instrumental entries in period style, written for the Hebrides Ensemble, and preludes and fugues, most of which any other creditor) while he was still alive;
Fugue this with a brief maestoso.
recalling the typical procedure of dedicated to the memory of Karen Aim, are arrangements of earlier works by JS his widow Constanze then stepped in.
This is the third of the ten string quartets The second movement, a slow In the form. This is soon interrupted and who had died tragically in New Zealand: and WF Bach. Mozart completed the The context for the Divertimento seems
commissioned from ‘Max’ by the record Nomine, does not at first make use of replaced by quicker, more dynamic ‘My starting point was a memory of Divertimento on 27 September 1788, therefore to be Mozart’s mysterious
label Naxos; all were given their first the plainsong common to Renaissance music, suggesting the Italian fuga (flight) accompanying, with my group The so it comes from the year in which Don financial problems in the last years of
performances by the Maggini Quartet In Nomines, but draws heavily on their rather than the form Bach perfected. Fires of London at the 1978 St Magnus Giovanni was first produced in Vienna (it his life and attempts to raise money, in
at the Wigmore Hall, and then recorded. polyphonic techniques, while exploring The movement ends with a return to Festival, her relative, the late Ronny Aim, had opened in Prague the year before). return offering those friends and contacts
The composer has said that his intention further ramifications of the plainsong with the initial slow tempo, with part only the celebrated orkney folk musician, in It closely follows his final symphony, the able to make him loans new works in
was to create a work exploring the magic squares encountered in the first of a cumulative stretto – one has to traditional orkney fiddle music. I have ‘Jupiter’ in C K551, and just precedes return. But why a piece for Puchberg
compositional potentialities of a magic movement. When the music comes to a imagine that the period-style fugue will, alternated quick music, based on the his first ‘Prussian’ string quartet in D K575, should be a string trio, as opposed to any
square of Saturn (3 x 3) within one of Mars resolution on a low G major chord, the meantime, have (silently!) progressed reel, and slow music, based on the slow which begins his final sequence of three other chamber work, is not explained
(5 x 5) within one of Venus (7 x 7) – all violins take up the argument left hanging thus far. This is another mensural canon, air – and, while taking liberties with the quartets. The E flat Divertimento is widely anywhere, nor why Mozart wrote no
this alongside an independent square in the air at the close of the first Naxos recalling the March’s ghost towards the rhythmic articulations, and extending recognised as one of the first, but also other original works for this combination
of the Moon (9 x 9), with the associated Quartet… Now, in the course of this end of the first movement, the In Nomine the traditional harmonies into regions one of the greatest, original works for of instruments.
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