Lunchtime Concert, St Peter’s Church, Nottingham, Saturday 26 February 2022.

Katharine Dryden (mezzo-soprano) with Andrew Chadwick (viola) and David Machell (piano, baritone, composer).

 

Nightclub 1960: Astor Piazzolla

As a precocious, talented and ambitious youth, Piazzolla (1921-1992) left his native Argentina and crossed the Atlantic to seek teaching from the most influential composition teacher of the age, Nadia Boulanger. Her advice was that, rather than stay in Paris to write ersatz European music, he should return home and write outstanding Argentinian music. He took this advice. Piazolla is now synonymous with Tango, the unique national style, which he took by the scruff of the neck and transformed into a serious contemporary art form, blending folk elements with intoxicating jazz, wild counterpoint and ever more challengingly dissonant harmonies. His love of this constantly evolving style is reflected in his suite Histoire du Tango. Nightclub 1960 conjures the unique blend of dangerous emotions and frustrated energy that epitomises the night-world of post-war Buenos Aires.

 

David’s arrangement is set for viola instead of the customary violin.

 

Sleep: Peter Warlock (set for alto, viola and piano by Andrew)

Philip Heseltine, the doughty music critic (1894-1930), author of a biography of his friend Delius, champion of Elizabethan and other Early Music, had another life, indeed two other lives, both lived under the name Peter Warlock; that of a serious occultist with an often scandalous lifestyle, (his 1924 portrait is decidedly Mephistophelian), and finally that of a greatly respected composer of songs in an original and distinctive style.

 

The song is a masterpiece. On the surface, it is an Elizabethan lute song that, melodically, could well have come from the pen of John Dowland. John Fletcher, its Jacobean poet, writes: “Come, sleep, and with thy sweet deceiving, lock me in delight awhile. Let some pleasing dreams beguile all my fancies, that from thence there may steal an influence, all my powers of care bereaving…” 

 

Underneath, however, melting ambiguous harmonies (notably consecutive diminished fifths), hinting at a twilight world more akin to revolutionaries Schoenberg and Berg than to the romantics, undermine the consciousness, as the singer yields, helplessly, to slumber. The final few bars are highly ambiguous.

 

1922 is often spoken of as the beginning of modernist thought, with the publication of Ulysses and The Waste Land in that year. To them, we must add Warlock’s miniature gem, in this its anniversary year. 

 

Bill: from Showboat: Kern and Hammerstein

It is a shock to realise that the Kern/Hammerstein musical Showboat premièred in 1927. Its themes of racial prejudice seem as topical as ever. No such shadows plague the song Bill, however, for its portrait of unconditional love is equally evergreen. I used to dream that I would discover the perfect lover some day. I I knew I’d recognize him if he came round my way. I used to fancy then he’d be one of the god-like men, with a giant brain and a noble hand, like the heroes bold in the books I’ve read…but along came Bill, an ordinary guy, he hasn’t got a thing that I can brag about, and yet to be on his knee, so comfy and roomy, feels natural to me. I can’t explain, it’s surely not his brain that makes me thrill. I love him, because he’s…I don’t know…because he’s just my Bill.

 

Hudson River Valley: Fall: David Machell (first performance)

David writes: On a family visit to New York State (2016), I was taken to the Hudson River, this vast course of water flowing from the Adirondacks to New York City harbour. At times it is deeper than the ocean into which it flows. It is breathtakingly wide, framed majestically by the surrounding hills. Hudson River Valley: Fall is a snapshot of my visit - the more imposing for the spectacular yellow-gold hues of Autumn - the Fall - for which the area is justly famed. There are two main melodies which alternate, one full of calm, the second restlessly shifting, like the unfathomable currents of this mighty river.

 

 

 

 

Domine Deus, Rex Coelestis: David Machell

The text is from the Gloria, the music adapted for Mezzo-soprano and Baritone from David’s commission for the Nottingham Bach Society. The feeling behind the words is that of a child safe in the arms of a loving parent. Warmth, comfort, healing - a suitable companion piece for the Brahms songs later in the programme.

 

“Autumn” Sonata for Viola and Piano: David Machell (first performance in Nottingham)

David writes: I have long wanted to write for the viola of Andrew Chadwick. My own career as string player was snuffed out at the age of thirteen, when I was sacked for repeatedly playing so far out of tune as to inflict unacceptable levels of pain. I have nevertheless retained a fascination, tinged with an indisputable inferiority complex, for string writing. “Autumn” Sonata: “mists and mellow fruitfulness” evolved (remotely) over lockdown, with Andrew patiently converting my wilder notions into something idiomatic and playable.

 

The piece is structured around John Keats’ Ode to Autumn, and is straightforwardly pictorial, indeed televisual. In this recital we will hear the closing sections: Drows’d by the fume of poppies, Barrèd clouds bloom the soft-dying day, In wailful choir the small gnats mourn, As the light wind lives and dies, And now with treble soft the redbreast, Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.

 

Jag elsker dig: Edvard Grieg

Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg’s concert tours of the UK were always sold out, especially recitals with his singer wife Nina, to whom he was reputedly devoted, and for whom he set Jag elsker dig (I love you). The simple devotion of the song has ensured its immortality. You have become the thought of my thoughts. You are my first delight. I love you more than anything here on earth. I love you now. I love you for all eternity.

 

Hungarian Dance No.1: Johannes Brahms

The viola is pitched five notes below its brasher sibling the violin, and so this arrangement, by violist Watson Forbes, swaps the original G minor for a lower key, a more soulful D minor. Brahms is reputed to have made more income from his 21 Hungarian Dances than the rest of his combined output, and it is not difficult to see why, as their authentic flavour and musical richness ensure their universal appeal. They have been transcribed for every imaginable combination of instruments.

 

Two Songs Op. 61: Johannes Brahms

Brahms, the man, had a profound gift for friendship, which often expressed itself through music. His Two Songs for Alto, Viola and Piano, published in 1884, were a gift to his friends Joseph Joachim (the most celebrated violinist of his day) and his wife, the talented alto Amalie. Johannes Brahms, the composer, had a gift for imparting a sense of consolation and healing. In this he is astonishingly relevant to our contemporary yearning for mental health and well-being.

 

The first song, Gestillte Sehnsucht (Longing - can it ever be soothed?) What are the winds and the birds whispering? They are singing the world to slumber. Can their whispering soothe my restless longing? Not till my very life comes to an end. The second song, Geistliches Wiegenlied, is a tender lullaby, the text a re-working of a poem by the Spanish Baroque Poet Lope de Vega. The Blessed Virgin pleads with the angels to silence the trees lest they waken her child. The second stanza describes the angry winds disturbing the palm trees, the third reflects on the suffering of the world that the child will take on his shoulders, the fourth threatens cold, but each verse resolves on the motto “es schlummert mein Kind” (My child sleeps on). Brahms uses as a framing device the Medieval carol “Josef lieber, Josef mein”, giving him the opportunity to mention his violinist friend by name, in these, two of the most profoundly consoling works in the classical repertoire.

 

Programme note © David Machell

 

For bookings contact katharine.dryden@hotmail.co.uk or davidmachell@gmail.com