Bliss, Davies & Bowen: Violin Sonatas

Albumbeschreibung

This album marked the debut release of the EM label, associated with the English Music Festival and with the so-called Golden Renaissance of English music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This period still contains plenty of obscurities, and violinist Rupert Luck and pianist Matthew Rickard offer three of them here. The Sonata for piano and violin, 11 minutes long, of Arthur Bliss and Violin Sonata in A major of the almost forgotten Henry Walford Davies (remembered if at all for a few marches) are world recording premieres, and the Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 112, of York Bowen is hardly more familiar. British music of this period is not to the taste of every non-British audience, but those attuned to the style will find some low-key charms here in music that, except in Bowen's sonata, never rises above the mezzo-forte dynamic level. The real find may be the Davies sonata, composed in 1893 (curiously, despite extensive notes, the dates for the other two works are not given). It's written under the general influence of Brahms and especially Dvorák, taking shape in its initial movement from a very subtly handled mode mixture in the opening material. The four movements (the slow movement bears the curious title "The Monk and the Warrior") cut distinct profiles and unfold logically through sections in different tempi. The Bliss sonata is a dense, single-movement piece in which a profusion of themes are tightly woven together, and Bowen's work, the most dramatic of the three, reflects his interest in Rachmaninov and the eastern Europeans. Fine control over the muted color scheme is the hallmark of Luck's performances, and he's backed well by EM's engineers, working in the Wyastone Concert Halls in Monmouth. Recommended for fans of English music.
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