Volume 25 Issue 4 - December 2019 / January 2020

more edge to the brash and boastful Stones. Starkey’s cello is warm
and lyrical throughout and Ippolito’s accompaniment balanced and
tasteful. Although Braun’s diction is clear, I wish the texts had been
included, along with some information about the composer and poet,
their fame notwithstanding. The disc concludes with Previn’s Vocalise
written for, and first recorded by, Sylvia McNair and Yo-Yo Ma with the
composer at the piano in 1995. It makes a beautiful conclusion to this
all-too-brief, 22-minute tribute.
Concert note: Kira Braun is featured in the Salvation Army’s
Christmas Gala at Roy Thomson Hall on December 14.
One disc I’ll certainly not be able to do
justice in this limited space is guitarist
Daniel Lippel’s double CD Mirrored Spaces
(FCR239 NewFocusRecordings.com). I
would normally be daunted by the prospect
of two and a half hours of solo guitar music,
but to my delight Lippel has produced such
a diverse program that I didn’t notice the
time passing. First and foremost, let me state
that although he is a truly accomplished classical guitarist, from the
dozen composers represented here, there are very few offerings that
would be at home on a traditional Spanish guitar recital. Even in
pieces such as Lippel’s own Reflected with its quasi-Renaissance feel,
our equilibrium is thrown off-kilter by rapid microtonal passages. A
number of the pieces involve electronics, live or otherwise. One that
particularly struck me was Christopher Bailey’s Arc of Infinity in
which I found myself wondering “What if?” the subtle electronic part
was transcribed for live cimbalom – how different would that piece
be? At any rate, it is extremely effective. While most of the recital is
played on a traditional nylon string acoustic guitar, a number of tracks
employ an electric instrument, from the gentle harmonics of Sidney
Corbett’s Detroit Rain Song Graffiti, to the distortion, feedback and
note bending of Lippel’s concluding Scaffold (live). Interspersed
throughout the two discs are the nine movements of Kyle Bartlett’s
Aphorisms, all using a traditional Spanish guitar, but utilizing a
number of extended techniques. If you think you already know what a
guitar sounds like, or think that a double CD would be a bit “much of
a muchness,” I urge you to check out this remarkable disc.
Last month I wrote about Rebecca Clarke’s
Viola Sonata, and the controversy it caused
at the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge-sponsored
competition where the judges considered
that such a beautiful piece “could not have
been written” by a woman. This month
Clarke has reappeared on my desk with
another work that also was a runner-up in
that Berkshire Festival of Chamber Music
Competition, the Trio from 1921. Her Voice
features the Neave Trio playing works by Clarke, Amy Marcy Cheney
Beach (1867-1944) and Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) (Chandos CHAN
20139 naxosdirect.com/). Although Clarke (1886-1979) was a generation
younger than Beach, her trio was written 17 years before that
of her older colleague. Beach’s Trio, Op.150 was a mature work,
written in late-Romantic style while showing the influence of French
Impressionism. French composer Farrenc on the other hand, whose
Trio No.1 Op.33 dates from 1843, writes in a much more Germanic
fashion, honouring the genre’s origins with Haydn, and more specifically
the music of Beethoven. As a matter of fact, as an amateur who
has enjoying playing Beethoven trios, I feel that Farrenc’s is a welcome
contribution to the repertoire and I’m glad that it has come to light.
Kudos to the Neave Trio for continuing to bring lesser-known works
to life in sparkling fashion.
Two more composers previously unknown to me appear on the
next disc, Piano Concertos by Dora Bright and Ruth Gipps (Somm
Recordings SOMMCD 273 somm-recordings.com/). Both English,
Bright lived from 1862-1951 and Gipps from 1921-1999. Bright
was an accomplished and celebrated pianist of whom Liszt said
“Mademoiselle, vous jouez a merveille!”
and who was described by George Bernard
Shaw as “a thorough musician.” In 1888
she became that first woman awarded the
Lucas Medal for Composition, and, after
leaving the Academy of Music in London,
established herself as a double threat,
performing her own Concerto in A Minor at
the Crystal Palace in 1891. That impressive
work is featured in its first recording on this disc with Samantha Ward
as soloist.
Gipps was also a stellar pianist, celebrated as a child prodigy both as
performer and composer. A hand injury thwarted her performing
career, but she then focused on composition and added conducting to
her portfolio, becoming the first notable British woman in the field
and founding several orchestras. She went on to produce five
symphonies and several significant concerted works. Her Piano
Concerto in G Minor dates from immediately after the Second World
War and Ambarvalia, Op.70 is from 1988. Both are performed with
conviction by Murray McLachlan. The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
Orchestra’s nuanced performances on this important disc are directed
by Charles Peebles.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) was
another child prodigy. Born in Vienna, his
ballet Der Schneemann (The Snowman)
caused a sensation when he was just 11, and
his Second Piano Sonata, written at 13, was
played throughout Europe by Artur
Schnabel. At 21 his opera Der Tote Stadt (The
Dead City) was produced in Hamburg and
Cologne. Korngold composed a wealth of
concert music and six operas, but is best known for the Hollywood
film scores he wrote following an invitation to America from director
Max Reinhardt in 1934. He stayed in Hollywood for the duration of
WWII, and never returned to his homeland. Although his film scores
were a huge success, revolutionizing the field along with Max Steiner
and Alfred Newman, his later concert music was dismissed by the
critics and cognoscenti of the time who were by then focused on the
post-war avant-garde doctrines of Boulez and Stockhausen. The
Symphony Op.40, was begun in 1947 while on vacation in Canada
and completed in 1952. With its lush orchestration, rich melodic
content and cinematic scope, the symphony was rejected by the
cultural powers that were, and was not revived until the 1970s when
Korngold’s star began to rise again. Korngold: Symphony in F Sharp;
Theme and Variations; Straussiana is a new recording on the Chandos
label featuring Sinfonia of London under John Wilson (CHSA 5220
naxosdirect.com/). It is a stunning realization of the symphony, but
unfortunately I find the companion pieces – one written for school
orchestra and the other a pastiche – to be just too much fluff. But the
symphony is well worth the price of admission.
The final disc is a little strange in that it
no longer exists as such. Daisy DeBolt –
Ride Into the Sunset was a limited edition
archival collection produced by George
Koller for a memorial tribute to DeBolt
at Hugh’s Room back in 2011. Although
perhaps best known as half of the iconic
Canadian acid-folk duo Fraser & DeBolt,
active in the late 1960s and early 1970s,
DeBolt’s career continued as a solo artist active on the concert stage,
composing for the National Film Board and participating in various
theatrical productions throughout her lifetime. The recordings
included in this compilation date from as early as 1971 – a track with
Allan Fraser, presumably an outtake from their first album – right
up to four tracks from 2008 co-written with Koller. There’s a 1975
DeBolt composition which she later choreographed for Ballet Ys, and
eight tracks from the 1989 cassette-only release Dreams Cost Money.
This latter features a number of familiar names including Robert
80 | December 2019 – January 2020 thewholenote.com