Malcolm Williamson Chamber Music Vol 1 (Release date first quarter 2025 tbc)

Antony Gray (piano), members of the St Paul’s Sinfonia, Matt Scott Rogers (conductor), selected soloists and ensemble players.

In 2025 Divine Art will release the first volume in a series featuring the chamber music of Sir Malcolm Williamson, 50 years since the composer’s appointment as Master of The Queen’s Music in 1975.

Here is your chance to decide for yourselves whether Malcolm Williamson (1931-2003) has been unjustly neglected. (We think so!) From being someone at the heart of the British musical establishment, including being Master of the Queen’s Music on the recommendation of Benjamin Britten, despite his somewhat anti-establishment views and behaviour, the last thirty years or so have seen an almost complete absence of Williamson from the concert platform and the recording studio, with very few exceptions.

One problem, perhaps more so historically than would be the case today, is that Williamson is almost impossible to pin down stylistically. He could write tuneful children’s operas, bouncy religious music and grand operas with tuneful arias and habaneras, and at the same time serial music of sometimes great dissonance and complexity (which, however, never lacked a lyrical element). This stylistic diversity was too much for some in the establishment, who liked to know what they were dealing with. Williamson responded to these people with characteristic glee and wit!

All these stylistic means of expression are represented on the present disc. From the ascetic beauty of ‘Pietà’, a twenty-minute Adagio, to the boisterous, and frankly hysterical finale of the uniquely scored Concerto for Wind Quintet and two pianos-eight hands, it’s all here. There’s some extraordinary writing for six trumpets, including a bass, with two pianos and percussion, the score of which was discovered in 2023. There is an early clarinet trio, also rediscovered in 2023, having also been previously rediscovered then re-lost in 1990 (there’s a story there!) and finally a quintet for piano and wind, the only piece on the disc to have previously been commercially recorded.

The performers include regular Divine Artist, pianist Antony Gray (also the producer), members of the St Paul’s Sinfonia and a selected group of skilled instrumentalists.

Williamson is, in fact, a major composer of the twentieth century. His operas and seven symphonies should be programmed regularly, along with the rest of his considerable output, and we hope the present recording will go some way to furthering that goal.

Album details:

• Label: Divine Art
• Catalogue number: DDX 21220
• Title: Malcolm Williamson Chamber Music, Volume 1
• Works:
  • Concerto for Two Pianos (8 Hands) and Wind Quintet
  • Pas de Quatre for Wind Quartet and Piano
  • Pietà, for mezzo-soprano, oboe, bassoon and piano
  • Trio for clarinet, cello and piano
  • Study/Piece for solo horn
  • 3 Vocalises for clarinet and piano
  • Gallery for 6 trumpets, 2 pianos and percussion
• Artists:
  • Antony Gray (piano)
  • Sally Lundgren (mezzo-soprano)
  • Sarah O’Flynn (flute)
  • Melanie Ragge (oboe)
  • Neyire Ashworth (clarinet)
  • Meyrick Alexander (bassoon)
  • Roger Montgomery (horn)
  • Joely Koos (cello)
  • Joe Howson, Iain Clarke & Hamish Brown (pianos)
  • Members of St Paul’s Sinfonia:
  • Simon Tong (Trumpet in D)
  • David Carnac (bass trumpet)
  • Laura Garwin (trumpet)
  • Richard Knights (trumpet)
  • Thomas Hewitt (trumpet)
  • Samuel Ewins (trumpet)
  • Jon French (percussion)
  • Matt Scott Rogers (conductor)

Recorded in January and February 2024 in London. For release in the first quarter of 2025.