British Violin Sonatas, Vol. 1 / Little, Lane

Notes and Editorial Reviews

FERGUSON Violin Sonata No. 2. BRITTEN Suite for Violin and Piano. WALTON Violin Sonata. Two Pieces for Violin and Piano • Tasmin Little (vn); Piers Lane (pn) • CHANDOS 10770 (61:39)

Here we have the first in a series of British works for violin and piano. Presumably all will feature the excellent team of violinist Tasmin Little and pianist Piers Lane. They are a team in the true sense Read more of the word: Lane well known for his sensitive work in chamber music (he curates and performs in an annual chamber music festival in Townsville, Northern Australia), and Little highly regarded for her performances of British music. Full marks to them for not calling themselves the Little Lane Duo. The series gets off to a fine start with this diverse program of rarely heard and stylistically contrasting works.

The Suite for Violin and Piano op. 6 is among Britten’s earliest pieces (post-juvenilia), when the composer was consciously following continental trends. Its five movements include stylistic pastiches such as a march, a moto perpetuo, and a concluding waltz. Two years later Britten would revisit these forms with even more assurance in his Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge for string orchestra. The piano part in these short pieces is brilliant (as in the composer’s Piano Concerto, another early work), and very French in places; the ghost of Debussy is present in the rippling arpeggios accompanying quiet sections of the finale. In the 1930s Britten’s music was regarded as superficial—playfulness being a quality that sat uneasily with English composers—but the main attribute of this music is its focus. Britten knew what he wanted to say and employed the most precise means with which to say it. This never changed throughout his career, although his aims obviously did. Little brings an equal precision and poise to her playing of the gentle Lullaby that forms the fourth movement, and both musicians revel in the high spirits and punchy accents required elsewhere. Theirs is a performance that makes you wonder why the work is not played more frequently.

Walton’s days as an enfant terrible were over by the time of his Violin Sonata, which came a decade after the highly successful Violin Concerto of 1937. It is in two movements: the first, rhapsodic and lyrical; the second, a theme and variations—a form the composer increasingly turned to in his late music. Each variation in this movement is in a key a semitone higher than its predecessor. In both movements the writing is fulsome, certainly in comparison to Britten’s spare textures, with the violin part displaying yearning lines and wide intervallic leaps that recall the earlier concerto. The piano was not Walton’s instrument and he wrote little for it, yet its colors are effectively exploited in the variations, notably in the Fifth Variation ( Allegretto con moto ) where the keyboard plays in octaves in its high register against the violin’s pizzicato.

On a Chandos recording of Walton’s Violin Concerto the companion piece is an orchestral version of this Sonata, arranged by Christopher Palmer. Palmer’s recreation of the composer’s orchestral style is perfect, but Walton knew best: it is clearly music conceived for two instruments. Little and Lane’s performance leaves no doubt of that. They also unerringly tap the vein of nostalgia in the first of the Two Pieces, titled Canzonetta , and are suitably frisky in the concluding “Scherzetto.”

The disc opens with a major work by the rarely played Irish composer, Howard Ferguson (1908–1999). It was composed in 1946, as Walton was working slowly on his own Sonata. Ferguson was even more meticulous; he later abandoned composition altogether, so out of touch did he feel with the Modernist wave of the 1950s and 60s. His Sonata No. 2 has a traditional three-movement structure, but again within that there is a tendency to rhapsodize. It takes a few hearings to recognize the economy of means that Ferguson uses as a basis for his emotionally charged music.The underlying tone is one of anxiety and sorrow—even anger in the tougher third movement—no doubt due to the work’s wartime provenance. Both musicians are securely on the composer’s wavelength.

I cannot praise Lane and Little highly enough. They face tough competition in the Walton: Daniel Hope and pianist Simon Mulligan recorded it, coupled with the sonata by Elgar, in 2001; Fanfare ’s Robert Maxham wrote that Hope’s “lyricism in the Walton has a strong, perhaps ironic, pungency.” The young Nigel Kennedy also recorded the piece, and there are older performances available by Aaron Rosand and Yehudi Menuhin. Competition is scarce in the other works. Lydia Mordkovitch taped Ferguson’s two violin sonatas for Chandos in the mid-1990s. I have not heard that disc but I tend to prefer Little to Mordkovitch in other repertoire (such as the Walton Concerto).

The version of Britten’s Suite in the newly released Decca Britten box is by LSO violinist Alexander Barantschik, taken from a single EMI disc of Britten’s chamber music from the mid-1990s. Barantschik’s performance also turns up in a recent EMI collection of Britten’s chamber music. Interestingly, his pianist is named as John Alley on the original release, but John Adey on both the reissue boxes. I presume this is a typographical error that neither EMI nor Universal picked up. Barantschik and Alley treat the Suite to a dry Stravinskian attack, making it sound even more starkly modern, and are recorded in a less resonant acoustic that suits their approach, but Little and Lane have great authority and their program is substantial. The new disc is strongly recommended, and promises much in the forthcoming issues from these fine artists.

FANFARE: Phillip Scott
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Works on This Recording

Sonata for Violin and Piano no 2, Op. 10 by Howard Ferguson
Performer: Tasmin Little (Violin), Piers Lane (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1946
Venue: Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk
Length: 16 Minutes 25 Secs.

Suite for Violin and Piano, Op. 6 by Benjamin Britten
Performer: Tasmin Little (Violin), Piers Lane (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1934-1935; England
Venue: Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk
Length: 15 Minutes 13 Secs.

Sonata for Violin & Piano by Sir William Walton
Performer: Tasmin Little (Violin), Piers Lane (Piano)
Period: Modern
Written: 1947-1949
Venue: Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk
Length: 22 Minutes 45 Secs.

Pieces (2) for Violin and Piano by Sir William Walton
Performer: Piers Lane (Piano), Tasmin Little (Violin)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1949-1950; England
Venue: Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk
Length: 5 Minutes 47 Secs.

Sound Samples

Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 10: I. Andante - Poco allegro

Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 10: II. Adagio - Piu mosso - Ancora piu mosso - Tempo I

Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 10: III. Allegro vivo - Poco adagio - Tempo I

Suite for Violin and Piano, Op. 6: I. Introduction: Andante maestoso

Suite for Violin and Piano, Op. 6: II. March: Allegro alla marcia

Suite for Violin and Piano, Op. 6: III. Moto perpetuo: Allegro molto e con fuoco

Suite for Violin and Piano, Op. 6: IV. Lullaby: Lento tranquillo

Suite for Violin and Piano, Op. 6: V. Waltz: Alla valse, vivace e rubato

Violin Sonata: I. Allegro tranquillo

Violin Sonata: II. Variazioni

2 Pieces: No. 1. Canzonetta

2 Pieces: No. 2. Scherzetto

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review:

( 1 Customer Review )

Off to a great start July 26, 2013 By Ralph Graves (Hood, VA) See All My Reviews "Tasmin Little's off to a great start with her survey of British violin sonatas. Volume One features Howard Ferguson's quintessentially British Violin Sonata No. 2, Benjamin Britten's cosmopolitan Suite for Violin and Piano, and three works by William Walton that fall stylistically somewhere between. Tasmin Little plays them all with an expressive yet precise manner, letting the merits of the compositions speak for themselves. Howard Ferguson was a somewhat conservative composer, writing in the English pastoral style after it had passed out of favor. His Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 10 is an elegantly crafted piece of music, sounding akin to Vaughan Williams' early string works. The Suite for Violin and Piano, Op. 6 is an early work by Benjamin Britten. Written two years before his Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge, the suite shares the same sophisticated musical language. The angular melodic leaps, complex harmonies and sometimes frantic energy give the suite an international flavor. William Walton's 1947 Sonata for Violin and Piano begins lyrically, seeming at times to look back to the English pastoral school that Ferguson never left. In the second movement, Walton shows he was quite familiar with atonality and serialism -- even if he didn't fully embrace them. Two short violin pieces by Walton round out the album, each a delightful vignette. While each of the three major works has its own character, they compliment each other with their differences, and make a coherent program with their similarities. The result is a listening experience that is a pleasure from first to last. I look forward to volume two!" Report Abuse

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British Violin Sonatas, Vol. 1 / Little, Lane

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