The Grinke Legacy Boyd Neel Orchestra, Boyd Neel (conductor), Frederick Grinke (violinist), Arthur Benjamin and Michael Mullinar (pianists)
ALBCD 061
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Frederick Grinke was a Canadian violinist and teacher active from the 1930s to the 80s. He was a friend of Vaughan Williams’s and the dedicatee of the Violin Sonata, on which he collaborated with the composer, offering suggestions and recommendations for the violin part. This disc opens with the Concerto Accademico, with Grinke as the soloist, and the Boyd Neel Orchestra conducted by Boyd Neel. Grinke has a clean and economical style of playing and delivery, with a good focus to his sound, while Boyd Neel’s interpretation is highly elegant, resulting in a poise that one doesn’t often find in recordings or performances of this work —there is nothing overblown or histrionic about this rendition. The second movement in particular is an object lesson in bow control: the proportions and speeds are carefully calculated to the end, and the resultant impression is a seamless cantabile contoured exactly to the requirements of the music.
A recording of The Lark Ascending with the same performers follows. One immediately notes the bomb-proof intonation on the sometimes difficult high notes in the violin; I also like the way that Grinke leans into the notes. Equally notable is the relative (for the time) lack of portamento in the violin part —everything here is clear and clean. The complete lack of ego from the soloist is remarkable, in contrast to some big-name violinists, and the orchestral playing is quite beautiful. Eventide from the Two Hymn-Tune Preludes features Grinke as the leader of the Boyd Neel Orchestra (hence the work’s inclusion on the disc), before his muscular account of Arthur Benjamin’s Violin Sonatina, with the composer at the piano.
The disc is completed by a recording of Vaughan Williams’s Violin Sonata in A minor, with Michael Mullinar as the pianist. If any performance is definitive, this is it, featuring as it does the artist for whom it was written and who helped to shape the piece. This recording is therefore a historical document for this reason, but also because it pre-dates the revisions by Roy Douglas that some violinists consider suspect, given the cursory nature of Douglas’s examination (as evidenced by surviving correspondence). In any case, here we have a superb performance with a great sense of flexibility, but nevertheless driven by the music’s argument, demonstrating that the piece works perfectly without the revisions.
Grinke was a totally selfless and generous person, and this comes across in these recordings. With excellent performances from Grinke as well as the orchestra and conductor Boyd Neel, this is an unmissable disc and an incredibly important historical document. Now I need to go and buy another copy of it, because my very discerning violinist husband has stolen it from me!
Serenade to Music BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Henry Wood, and the sixteen soloists chosen for the first performance
ALBCD059
This fascinating and original disc presents the sixteen singers chosen by Vaughan Williams and Sir Henry Wood to take part in Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music, written to celebrate Wood’s fifty years as a conductor. All the singers were chosen for the beauty of their voices, their skill and musicality, and also for their associations and friendships with Wood. Here, then, are sixteen tracks, each showcasing one of the singers and with composers ranging from Bach and Puccini through Parry and Elgar to Warlock and Bantock. It is really intriguing to hear the voices of these singers at the top of their professions. The recordings presented here range from 1926 to 1948 (most of them dating from the last years of the twenties through to the thirties). Some are extracts from longer works (such as those by Mascagni, Leoncavallo and Gounod), while others are complete English solo songs. All the singers bring great character and depth to their performances, and the excellent and informative booklet notes on each performer and piece greatly enhance the whole experience. As a bonus track there is Butterworth’s Is My Team Ploughing sung by Keith Faulkner, who was on Vaughan Williams’s original list of singers for Serenade but was unable to take part, being abroad at the time of the performance. However, this demonstrates what a loss he was from the Serenade, since he was clearly one of the very finest singers at the time. Crucially, the disc also includes a remastered version of the recording of Serenade which took place the year after the concert, with the same sixteen singers. This is a very moving and radiant performance, and alone worth the price of the disc. The photograph of all sixteen singers with Vaughan Williams and Wood that adorns the front cover is a nice touch.
CHANDOS
Tippett A Child of Our Time BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus, Sir Andrew Davis
CHSA 5341
Sir Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time – his oratorio of “man’s inhumanity to man,” with its glorious quotations of African-American spirituals and its avoidance of religious dogma – is here given a recording of great sincerity, passion, and integrity. Sir Andrew Davis conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Symphony Chorus, with Pumeza Matshikiza the soprano soloist, Dame Sarah Connolly the mezzo-soprano, Joshua Stewart the tenor and Ashley Riches in the bass-baritone role. All the performers communicate a tremendous sense of conviction and commitment, making for a fine recording of this important work.--Em Marshall-Luck
