St Paul’s Sinfonia
The New London Chamber Ensemble
Matt Scott Rogers conductor
DIVINE ART DDX 21120
Pianist Antony Gray has assembled a fascinating and enticing issue, generously filled with rarities spanning Williamson’s career. All are impeccably delivered and well worth exploring.
The light-hearted Music for Solo Horn, written when the composer was 16, is basically an extended series of warm-up exercises, cheerful and highly approachable.
Of three Vocalises, played exquisitely by clarinettist Neyire Ashworth, with Antony Gray, two were originally for voice and piano. The third is Williamson’s own adaptation of December from his 1995 Prom commission A Year of Birds. The challenging Trio for clarinet, cello and piano, was first heard at Aldeburgh in 1957 (not 1958, as erroneously stated in the booklet), by clarinettist Harrison Birtwistle, with John Dow and Cornelius Cardew. Despite encouraging notices, it sank immediately and remained unpublished until the Williamson archive became accessible on the death of his partner, Simon Campion, in 2023.
The Concerto for wind quintet and two pianos (eight hands) was commissioned in 1966 for Alan Rawsthorne’s 60th birthday concert at Wigmore Hall, for a stellar line-up of Richard Rodney Bennett, Peter Maxwell Davies, Thea Musgrave and Williamson himself. This is a spiky, virtuosic score, not immediately celebratory at all, although the listener is eventually granted a riotous and hysterical finale, dispatched here with breathtaking panache.
An alternative opening is included as a separate piece. Pas de Quatre (1969) for four wind instruments and piano is also serially influenced, with arching melodies and moments of transcendence. Central to the disc is the extended Pieta (1973), comprising five hushed meditations by Pär Lagerkvist on the Crucifixion, filtered through memories of World War II (not unlike Edith Sitwell’s Still falls the rain). Set in Swedish, for mezzo, oboe, bassoon and piano, this is a measured and powerful score of unremitting Mahlerian intensity, finely sung by Sally Lundgren.
The real curiosities are eight bombastic miniatures from c.1966, all including the tag Gallery, and designated variously as Opening, Concluding, Trailer, and so forth. Each is well under a minute in length – some last mere seconds – for the exotic combination of six trumpets (including D, and bass trumpet), two pianos and percussion. They were probably designed as incidental music for TV, although no show entitled Gallery has been traced.
My own theory is that they were intended for the Gallery section, or other segments, of the iconic BBC1 feature, Vision On (1964–76). This was initially designed for deaf children who responded well to vibrations, which would explain Williamson’s scoring. Some readers will have fond memories of the restful sequence showcasing children’s work, backed by Wayne Hill’s haunting theme, Left Bank Two. Were the producers perhaps considering alternatives?
Review by Andrew Plant