Siân Philipps violin
Per Rundberg piano
CLAUDIO CC6035-2
The composers chosen by Siân Philipps for this CD explore what it means to be ‘an outsider on the margins’. She writes, ‘Most of the composers on this disc either experienced this or helped others who had’.
She refers in particular to Egon Wellesz (1885 – 1974). He had to flee Vienna at the time of the Anschluss when he moved to Oxford. Unfortunately, the British Government then interned him as an enemy alien on the Isle of Man, causing him to have a serious breakdown.
Vaughan Williams was important in fighting for his release. Today Wellesz is regarded as an Austrian/British composer. His Sonata for Violin Solo Op. 72 is the fifth item and possibly the best on the disc. Siân Philipps, playing with multiple stopping, is magnificent.
She also carries the day with her performance of The Lark Ascending with Per Lundberg playing the orchestral part with supreme delicacy on piano.
The title of the CD comes from De L’ombre À La Clarté in seven very short but deliciously tuneful movements for violin and piano by the Breton Nationalist composer Paul Ladmirault (1877 – 1944) a pupil of Gabriel Fauré.
The Sonata for Violin and Piano by Grace Williams (1906 – 1977) has a rhythmically exciting opening movement, a spacious Andante and a sizzling finale Allegro scherzando. She studied with Vaughan Williams.
John Hawkins (b. 1949) is an English composer not to be confused with a Canadian composer of the same name. His splendidly dynamic and tuneful piece, Looking Back deals with the fatal mistake made by Orpheus when he looked back at Eurydice thus losing her for a second time.
A second shorter piece by Vaughan Williams, Romance has an open-air sense of freedom not dissimilar to The Lark Ascending.
The final piece in the programme is the Praeludium and Allegro by Sally Beamish (b. 1956) a gentler approach to the piece of the same name by Kreisler.
Without exception all the works on this disc are deliciously tuneful and played with joyous élan by the two performers.
Review by Alan Cooper