Leora Cohen violin
Duncan Honeybourne piano
PRIMA FACIE HERITAGE PFCD231
Jessy Reason, always known professionally by her initials, was evidently a devoted and gifted writer; yet apart from one song premièred at Wigmore Hall in 1924, no performances outside the family circle have been traced during her lifetime.
In the latter part of her career, she studied privately with Goossens, but otherwise appears to have been entirely self-taught, which makes the extent of her more-than-competent scores quite remarkable. Immediately forgotten at her death, their survival is largely due to Alan Poulton, who salvaged some seventy manuscripts from a Leicester bookshop in 1992, and is now the leading expert on Reason.
His A Life’s Work in Two Suitcases (Brio 2023) is a brief introduction, largely comprising an absorbing and well-researched history of her family: useful to place matters in context, but rather belying the subtitle. The most valuable part is the catalogue of works (many quite substantial) and it is to be hoped that this will prompt further investigations.
On the strength of this CD, Reason was skilled and assured, with a particular penchant for through-composed rhapsodies: full-bodied, occasionally a little dense, and all rather similar, so that the distinction between movements or even whole works is blurred. Five Landscapes for piano (1917) brought Janacek to mind, but again their differentiation is not great.
The affekt of visual imagery coupled with lengthy and poetic titles was clearly important to the composer: Asterisks (three pieces for piano, music suggested by an unfinished poem of Rupert Brooke) is typical. The excellent Duncan Honeybourne, playing a somewhat plangent 1922 Bösendorfer, is a fine advocate. He is joined by Leora Cohen in the Three Poems for violin and piano, which bear equally perfumed titles after lines by Fiona Macleod.
In short, this CD is well worth exploring, and could hardly be fuller at 78:13, although the recording is unfortunately rather close, which does not help the tone of the accomplished violinist, and occasionally highlights extraneous noises. It is to be hoped that a second CD is planned, perhaps of the two string quartets, together with what looks to be a Warlockian reverie, Lute Players’ Dreams, for the same medium.
Housewife Superstar? Well, perhaps. If Reason’s fortunes are to rise, this is a promising start.
Review by Andrew Plant