Divine
Art 27806 - Violin Concertos - Coates, Moeran
MP3
price
Colin
Sauer - BBC Northern Orchestra - Groves
Campoli - BBC Symphony Orchestra - Boult
Recorded 1951 and 1954
Transcribed from original BBC radio broadcast transmissions
Remastered by Andrew Rose & released in 2006 as Divine Art CD
27806
Duration
59'44"
COMES WITH ORIGINAL SLEEVENOTES & PRINTABLE COVERS
Play
sample:
These
two recordings are both fascinating and incredibly valuable documents
of British musical life, and (to the best of our knowledge), neither has
been heard again in public since their original broadcasts on BBC radio
in the early 1950's.
Indeed,
the Violin Concerto by Douglas Coates, written in 1934, is so rare that
this appears to be the only record of it in existance, from the only performance
it has ever had. The composer had applied to the BBC for a performance,
which was finally agreed to by the advisory panel in 1945 and took place
some six years later.
In
his sleevenotes, Lewis Foreman explains why this Concerto remains such
a rarity:
Anyone
would feel insecure when facing a BBC orchestra for the first time
with their first extended orchestral work, still unheard. We can
only imagine what they put the nervous composer through at the rehearsal
to make his moment of triumph turn to dross in the space of three
hours. Did he really destroy it? Certainly the music can no longer
be found. However, whatever happened to the score, Coates had the
present recording made off air. As we can now hear, when we are
no longer worried that it may be an unfortunate ‘legacy of
the past’ as Johnstone called it, we find it is in fact a charming
lyrical score with two gorgeous romantic themes. Thanks to the committed
playing of the soloist, Colin Sauer, whose achievements and career
are also perhaps undervalued, it is surely well worth our remembrance.
We are
indeed lucky that Coates not only made the recording, but preserved
it long after any other trace of the piece had been destroyed. We are
eternally grateful to his family for making the acetate 78rpm discs
available for this release.
Moeran e-book
Now available as a downloadable PDF e-book, Geoffrey Self's 1986 book, 'The Music of E. J Moeran', is the definitive work on this wonderful composer. more...
The second
composer on this CD, E. J. Moeran, is certainly a little more established
in the British musical canon, but rarely has he had the benefit of such
a performance as this, just four short years after his death.
The Violin
Concerto, which received its first 'official' recording in 1979 (Georgiadis,
Lyrita) is here put through its paces - most definitely not the other
way round - by Campoli, who seems determined to wring out every ounce
of brilliance, charm, pathos and virtuousity from Moeran's score. The
composer himself had learned the violin as a boy, and was an accomplished
writer for the instrument, and this beautiful concerto, evoking the
landscapes, people and life of the south west of Ireland, completed
in 1942, remains one of the highlights of his output.
The restoration
of the Moeran concerto provided one of the greatest challenges I've
ever faced - originally taped off-air, the original recording would
not have sounded rougher had someone unspooled the tape onto the floor
and jumped up and down on it whilst wearing magnetic boots! Riddled
with treble dropouts, I really wondered whether it would be possible
to rescue at all, but after many, many hours of careful work I was able
to present to Stephen Sutton at Divine Art a remastering he described
thus 'You have done absolute wonders, with the Moeran tape especially
- not exactly cutting-edge sound but quite amazing given the source
material'.
REVIEW
OF THIS CD by Andrew Achenbach - The
Gramophone, July 2006
It
continues to baffle me why performances and recordings of
Moeran’s gorgeous Violin Concerto are so thin on the
ground. This is only the fourth version of this entrancingly
tuneful and touching creation to have come my way, and while
it was exciting to encounter Albert Sammons’s 1946 broadcast
the Sir Adrian Boult and the BBC SO, I had no idea the same
distinguished orchestral partnership had performed the work
with Alfredo Campoli at the Royal Festival Hall. Don’t
let the crumbly sound put you off: the music-making is of
exemplary commitment, songful rapture and sizzling passion
(a high old time is had in the Bacchic central rondo). Campoli
plays with virtuosity and golden tone, and Boult’s typically
watchful accompaniment fits him like a glove. Buried treasure
indeed.
Douglas
Coates (1898-1974) was a new name to me. Born in Yorkshire
and self-taught, his compositions include a substantial body
of choral music, works for organ, piano, military and brass
band, and a handful of orchestral offerings. His approachable
(if not terribly distinctive) Violin Concerto in D dates from
1934 and this 1951 broadcast appears to have been its only
performance. A fine one it is, too, even though it seems conductor
Charles Groves was particularly critical of the work’s
curious proportions, the 15-and-a-half minute opening movement
tending to dwarf the two remaining movements (neither exceeds
five minutes).
It’s
sad to learn that the composer found the whole experience
traumatic. He promptly branded the concerto “a failure”
and may well have destroyed the manuscript (it has never been
located). The sound here (taken from a set of acetate 78’s)
is more palatable that in the Moeran, but in both instances
restorer Andrew Rose has worked wonders with what was evidently
some intractable source material. Detailed notes complement
what is a brave and instructive coupling.
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