New Releases

IRELAND: Sextet for clarinet, French horn and string quartet (first movement)*

(c/w Trio in D for clarinet, cello and piano; Fantasy Sonata for clarinet and piano; The Holy Boy for clarinet and piano)
Robert Plane (clarinet)*, Sophia Rahman (piano), Alice Neary (cello), David Pyatt (French horn)*, Maggini Quartet*
Naxos 8.570550 (CD, Budget)

Including Trio in D for clarinet, cello and piano (edited and reconstructed by Stephen Fox); Fantasy Sonata for clarinet and piano; The Holy Boy for clarinet and piano; Sextet for clarinet, French horn and string quartet.

A composition pupil of Stanford and recognised as an outstanding talent by Parry, John Ireland was inspired as student by the music of Beethoven, Brahms and Elgar, and later by Debussy, Ravel and the early Stravinsky.

This recording features the genial, Brahmsian 1898 Sextet for clarinet, French horn and string quartet, unheard in public until 1960, and a reconstruction by the Canadian clarinettist and clarinet maker Stephen Fox of the Clarinet Trio of 1912-14.

Also included are Robert Plane’s transcription for clarinet and piano of Ireland’s very popular piano prelude The Holy Boy, written on Christmas Day 1913, and one of Ireland’s finest and most beautifully crafted chamber works, the Fantasy Sonata for clarinet and piano (1943).

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BRIDGE: Piano Trio No. 2 (third movement)

(c/w Phantasie Trio in C minor – Piano Trio No. 1; Nine Miniatures for Piano Trio)

Jack Liebeck (violin), Alexander Chaushian (cello), Ashley Wass (piano)

Naxos 8.570792 (CD, Budget)

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Frank Bridge’s reputation as the teacher of his most famous student, Benjamin Britten, has long hindered appreciation of his own impeccably crafted music. Between the early Phantasie Trio (1907) and Miniatures (1908) and the masterful Piano Trio No. 2 (1928-29), Bridge developed from being a pupil of Stanford to becoming a composer whose music – by turns graceful, nocturnal and vigorous -pointed towards the future.

 

BUTTERWORTH: Viola Concerto Op. 82 (second movement)

(c/w Symphony No. 4, Op. 72; Symphony No. 1, Op. 15)

Sarah-Jane Bradley (viola)*, Royal Scottish National Orchestra*, Arthur Butterworth (conductor)*, Halle Orchestra, John Barbirolli (conductor – recorded at the Royal Albert Hall, 29th August 1958)
Dutton CDLX7212 (2CDs, Budget)

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Sensational value in this two-CDs-for-the-price-of-one package. Dutton Epoch presents the composer directing the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in his powerfully Sibelian Fourth Symphony and his dramatic Viola Concerto, the latter with Sarah-Jane Bradley as the commanding soloist. The coupling is an exciting discovery, with the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Sir John Barbirolli at his prime in Butterworth’s coruscating First Symphony from the 1958 Proms, remastered here in pristine digital sound. The package is completed with the composer’s memories of his life and the background to the symphonies.