A British take on Bohemian composition

I have written on the London String Quartet before for my website www.jolyon.com [admittedly not updated for a year or more because its a complete faff and much easier to post on a blog] I can't think I have ever seen this Dvořák Quartet re-issued so thought it needed an outing.

London String Quartet

John Pennington (first violin) Thomas W. Petre  (second violin)

Harry Waldo Warner (viola) Charles Warwick Evans, (cello)

Dvořák: Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96, S. 116

Allegro ma non troppo

Lento

Molto vivace

Finale: Vivace ma non troppo

Columbia L2092-2094 

[WAX3124-1; WAX3125-1; WAX3126-1

WAX3127-1; WAX3128-1; WAX3128-2]

Recorded: Monday 21^st November 1927

Link (FLAC files, 73 MB)

The leader of the London String Quartet was originally Albert Sammons then James Levy and by 1928for  this recording it was John Pennington. Pennington was born in Bournemouth in 1902 and by 11 was playing in Sir Dan Godfrey's symphony concerts - probably just as illegal then as now. He became a member of the LSO, Covent Garden Opera Orchestra, leader of he first Wireless Orchestra during 1923-24 and concert master of the San Francisco orchestra from 1934 when the Quartet was disbanded for a time. I have not been able to find a photograph of the line up at the time the recording was made. The viola player Harry Waldo Warner had to retire in 1929 due to ill heath so I have instead included a photograph with his wife at the foot of this post.

An excellent article by Tully Potter can be found in Autumn 2010 issue of Classical Recordings Quarterly [Very well worth subscribing to by the way] He calls the performance 'so-so' I shall drop him a line on this as he may not have heard the performance in goodish sound - there are a few pitch problems in the set too that have been corrected here.

The London String Quartet.
Top to bottom: Warwick Evans, cello; John Pennington, first violin;
William Primrose, viola; Thomas Petre, second violin.

The Gramophone contains the following review for June 1928  'This is as fine a performance as one expects it to be with this excellent ensemble. The recording, though faultless, is slightly on the thin side, a fact which makes me wonder all the more whether it was a very happy idea of Dvořák's to use these tunes as material for a romantic string quartet which - small wonder - has a good deal more to do with the land of the Czechs than with U.S.A. I honestly feel that the fruitiness of the negro-idioms is far more suitable in shows like "The Black Birds " and others than in the little string quartet, however well written it is.'

'Discus' in The Musical Times for June 1928 has a brisk review and  liked the performance 'Chamber Music recordings have a popular addition in Dvořák s 'Nigger' Quartet, played by the London String Quartet, who give a sensitive performance of this beautiful quartet.'

The unfortunate appellation of the 'N' word was quite universal at this period, as can be seen from the label illustrated above. This thankfully starts to die out by the 1940s when the more acceptable 'American' was substituted. Neither is correct as Dvořák never gave any title to the work.

Probably the performance was thought to sound too British without enough Bohemian vitality and edge in it, but having listened to it a few times I think it has a spirit all of its own. The set was issued by Columbia in May 1928 and withdrawn  probably around January 1933 when Columbia replaced it with a performance given by the Lener String Quartet.

The Columbia Supplement for May 1928 seems slightly unsure of the recording quality as they explain in their blurb that 'The ensemble is so perfect that the four  play like one instrument. The fact that the beautiful viola playing of Mr Waldo Warner stands out a little above the rest is entirely due to the prominent place that Dvořák gave this instrument. it does not stand out a moment longer than it should and thus shows the perfect artistry of the quartet. The recording is very rich, and the string tone is perfectly reproduced.'

I quite like old W.W. Corbett's description of the piece in his Cyclopedia of Chamber Music OUP 1929 'Dvořák spent eight months in the chaos of metropolitan life in a society and nation quite strange to him, in journalistic world both sensational and polemical, amid vociferous praise and celebrations given in his honour; then suddenly he found himself in the strangely quiet beauty of the the heart of America, surrounded by a circle of Czech agriculturalist, worthy farmers, lusty peasants, cheery priests, and kindly old wives, who listened with tears in their eyes to the old church music of their native Bohemian villages which the musician played for the them on the organ at mass. here then, is the origin of the fundamental mood which inspired this charming, quickly written (in three days) [sometime between 8-23 June 1893] but detailed work, touches the places with painful yearning, yet with smiling, idyllic sentiment prevailing throughout.'

Rose & Harry Waldo Warner

Going completely off at a tangent the Rose in the photograph was born Rose Amy Pettigrew and was to  marry Harry in 1896. Daughter of a cork cutter, and one of 13 children she became, from an early age, a model who sat for Rudolph Onslow Ford, William Holman Hunt, Frederic Leighton, John Everett Millais, Edward Poynter, Val Prinsep, John Singer Sargent, Walter Sickert,  Philip Wilson Steer and James McNeill Whistler.

Centenary of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor II

The Chamber music of Samuel Coleridge Taylor is not often played or even performed however being the  the centenary of his death is a good excuse to upload another of his works.

Coleridge-Taylor:  Sonata in D Minor Op. 28

Albert Sammons, violin & William Murdoch, piano

Columbia L 1396 & L 1397 

[75860-1, 75861-1, 75862-1, 75863-1]

Recorded May 1917

Score 

3 Flac files in a .rar file, HERE at Mediafire. [about 46Mb]

There is a paucity of information on this work but I have garnered together the contemporary accounts. The first performance took place in 1898.

The Musical Times January 1899 issue, under the heading British Chamber Concerts, has the following notice:-  'The fifth season of this  praiseworthy and  patriotic enterprise was concluded on the 14th [December 1898],  at  the Queens (Small) Hall  … The concert on the 14th ult. was opened by a meritorious interpretation,  by Messrs. Ernest Fowles, Jasper Sutcliffe, Leonard Fowles, and Paul Ludwig, of Gerard F. Cobb's Pianoforte Quartet in E (Op. 34), and was made specially distinctive by the first performance of a Sonata in D minor (Op. 28) for pianoforte and violin, by Mr. Coleridge-Taylor. This work fully maintains the reputation which this gifted young composer has so early acquired. The music seems to have much to express, and the three movements, severally headed  allegro ma non tanto,  "Lament" Larghetto, and Allegro vivo con fuoco,  the last terminating with a mourful section entitled Alla  moresco, tell a tale that appears to range over the whole scale of sentiment. The "Lament" is  really beautiful and seems to  "give sorrow words." The work was sympathetically interpreted  by Mr. Ernest Fowles and Mr. Jasper Sutcliffe, and should be heard again at an  early date.

Alas this appears to be the works only performance during Coleridge-Taylor's lifetime. The work was revived during the First World War again The Musical Times of April 1916 reports on the performance:-  'The All British Concerts run by Mr. de Lara have maintained activity in a good cause. A Sonata in D minor for pianoforte and violin by Coleridge-Taylor was played on [March 23 1916]. It had rested for seventeen years, and deserved revival.’ I also hope to return someday to Isidore de Lara (1858-1935) and his All British Concerts of 1916-1919  held in the main at London Steinway Hall but must press on!

Albert Sammons

William Murdoch

The same periodical  in May of the following year recorded the next performance also :- 'A large audience was attracted on April 14 [1917], to hear Mr. Albert Sammons and Mr. William Murdoch perform three Sonatas for violin and pianoforte. The first was the charming Beethoven Sonata in F, Op. 34. The second item was a quasi novelty. It was a MS. Sonata in D minor by the late S. Coleridge Taylor, which, it appears, was composed before 1898, because in that year it was produced by Mr. Ernest Fowles. It is a melodious and generally attractive work which, now that it has been revived by such a fine performance as it received on this occasion, will be heard again and again. The third Sonata was that by John Ireland, which not long ago was awarded a prize.… .'

Additional  information on the sonata and the above performances can be found in W.W. Cobbett's Cyclopaedia of Chamber Music OUP, 1930, Vol. II p. 490:-  'The chamber music of Coleridge Taylor was nearly all composed while still a pupil of Stanford at the R.C.M., where he gained an open scholarship for composition in 1893. Previous to this year he devoted himself principally to the study of the violin, and his knowledge of this instrument was of the greatest service to him in the writing of concerted music. Whilst most of the students of his period were modelling their chamber works upon those of Brahms, Coleridge Taylor, almost alone amongst contemporary English composers, was strongly influenced by the music of Dvorak. There was, indeed, a close affinity in his style with that of the famous bohemian. A colourist rather than a draughtsman in music, Coleridge Taylor's melodic invention was always rhythmic and fluent, and there was often a peculiarly attractive glow in his harmonic schemes. His chamber music, while exhibiting admirable ease and decision, is more remarkable for fluency and warmth of feeling than for depth of thought or serious expression. The Sonata for piano and violin, edited by Albert Sammons, was published during the war by permission of Mr Ernest Fowles (who possessed the MS.), and produced at one of the de Lara concerts, played by Harriet Cohen and Winifred Small. W.W. Cobbett, who handed various donations to composers whose works were played at these concerts, awarded the prize in this particular instance to Coleridge Taylor's widow – perhaps a unique circumstance. The composer is not heard quite at his best in this work, which is more in the nature of a light suite than a sonata; nevertheless, his strong individuality is felt throughout, and it has considerable charm.'

The only review I have located so far of the recording is again from The Musical Times (my bedtime reading)  in the February 1921 issue by 'Discus':- ‘Coleridge-Taylor's Sonata in D minor for violin and pianoforte, played by Sammons and Murdoch, is a very successful reproduction on two d.-s. records. As usual in this type of record the violin comes oft best, but the balance is well up to the average, and with two such players, the tuneful work is made the most of.'


The recording was made in  May 1917, however the issue was delayed until January & February 1921. Why it took four years to issue may have been due to the major fire in May 1918 at Columbia's factory at Brendon Valley. The issue of new titles did not begin to be issued again until November 1918 and throughout 1919 records were issued as soon as they became available, irrespective of original catalogue number. The Sonata on L1396 & L1397 was therefore not processed until november 1920 and issued over the two months of January  & February 1921. The recording was substituted in August 1923 by the another performance of the Sonata with Arthur Catterall and William Murdoch, (Sammons having gone over to Æolian Vocalion by this time) this lasted until deletion in April 1927. In the early 1920s quite a number of Columbia records were replaced with better recordings however in this case I strongly suspect that the recording speed was a major reason for substitution. Although the labels state 'Speed 80' the first side starts at 85 and then as the performance progresses the speed gradually has to rise to 94 at the close to stay in pitch, thus it starts off a semi-tone down and ends two full tones down! 

You will be glad to hear I have managed to sort this problem out on the transfer. Only one other recording has been made since these early attempts on the Dutton label

Cartoon inscribed by members of the Beecham Orchestra in 1911
among them the then leader Albert Sammons.