Works for Violin and Piano
Tasmin Little, violin.
John Lenehan, piano.
Chandos 20030
Total Time: 71:27
Recording: ****/****
Performance: ****/****
Tasmin Little’s new release brings us music by three of the great women composers of the 19th Century who were contemporaries. It is an excellent opportunity as well to explore the development of 19th Century music for the violin across a span of fifty years. She is joined in this endeavor by John Lenehan. Music by American composer Amy Beach (1867-1944) frames the music of Clara Schumann (1819-1896) and Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944).
Beach wrote a number of pieces for piano and is most noted for one of the great late-19th Century American Symphonies in 1896 as well as an equally excellent piano concerto. She as a noted concert pianist whose husband essentially required her to give up that career. Fortunately, her music has excellent staying power with much of it incorporating an engaging lyricism which is on display in the final pieces on the disc the Romance, Op. 23 (1893) and the Invocation, Op. 55 (1904). Her Violin Sonata in a, Op. 34 was composed on the heels of her symphony (Gaelic) and performed in 1897 at the Boston Association Hall by the composer and the Boston Symphony’s Concert Master at the time, Franz Kneisel. The work was also performed and programmed by the great Eugene Ysaye (who admittedly was unaware that the work was by a woman as well as an American piece—both things that would be considered negatives in the period). This significant work which plays in just under a half hour, features two outer movements in larger-scale sonata forms with a scherzo and a slow movement separating them. Aside from the excellent singing violin line here, the piano has this fascinating blend of Brahms-like writing with perhaps a touch of the salon. There is a great sense of passion in the way the two come together for the climaxes of the work to add to the dramatic flow. The scherzo has an opportunity for virtuosic display as it bubbles along and an almost folk-like quality with the central section adding a brief repose. The slow movement’s harmonic movement and dark lower piano lines are quite impressive with an approach that is also reminiscent of Brahms but tends to go its own way.
The other larger-scale work on the album also bears the same key and is a four-movement work by Dame Ethel Smyth. Ethel Smyth was the first English woman to enter the Leipzig Conservatory (in 1877!) to study composition. She did not stay long, but did manage to enter into the musical circle of Clara Schumann who continued to encourage her efforts. Her Violin Sonata in a, Op. 7 (c. 1887) was actually heard at the Leipzig Gewandhaus at a public concert. It featured violinist Adolf Brodsky, who late become the leader of the Halle Orchestra. The work bears a dedication to Mendelssohn’s daughter, Lili Wach. The developments of post-1850 harmonic writing are evident in this work which opens with a sonata form first movement. It also has a sense of Brahms in its rhythmic play and exploration of motives. A “false” recapitulation is also a unique application of these directions in music. The second movement scherzo features some of these aspects of rhythm with more ambiguous tonal centers. A more programmatic bent is behind the third movement “Romance” which may be a reference to the popular story of Francesca da Rimini. The work concludes with a sonata-rondo movement.
To separate the two sonatas, Little has programmed the Drei Romances, Op. 22 (1853) by Clara Schumann. Perhaps it is her shadow that hangs most over these works in one sense of another. These three pieces were among her last chamber pieces and were often performed by her and their dedicatee Joseph Joachim (for whom Brahms wrote his violin concerto). The harmony is fairly safe but the writing insures great virtuoso opportunities for the pianist as well as great lyricism for the violin soloist. These works, like many of her pieces eventually fell out of the repertoire, but over the past thirty years or so have begun to reappear.
In January of this year, Tasmin Little announced that she was planning on retiring from the concert stage and heading to explore other pursuits. This album thus becomes equally important as an example of her musicianship at the end of what has been a long and distinguished career. It demonstrates both an attention to technical detail, but also the sort of confidence that the musical text can be explored with out any extra emphasis or unnecessary exaggeration. That makes the Schumann pieces with their interesting harmonic shifts seem so effortless in this performance. The sonatas allow for a sense of energy and vigor in the outer movements while allowing for sensitive lyrical playing to come to the forefront as well. The sound is, of course, stunningly gorgeous and well-balanced and imaged. There should be no hesitation for any of her fans to grab what was obviously a labor of love for her and it is an excellent example of three important musical voices whose work can be seen to be equally strong.
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