American Record Guide
As the title indicates, these British and American chamber pieces are rarities. The album is dedicated to John McCabe, Alan Rawsthorne’s biographer and promoter, with first recordings of works by McCabe’s fellow composers, all ably performed by the soloists and ensembles. Most are on the light side, though David Ellis’s ‘Mount Street Blues’ has a lyrical melancholy, and Rawsthorne’s String Quartet in B minor has a somber fugue. Rawsthorne’s newly dis-covered Chamber Cantata, skillfully sung by Clare Wilkinson, is also rather austere.
Halsey Stevens’s Sonatina Piacevole, Vaughan Williams’s Willow Whistle, and Karel Janovicky’s Little Linden Pipe all have an earthy peasant quality. People who believe that the Broadway show Cats is an insult to felines everywhere should sample Rawsthorne’s Practical Cats for reciter and piano, which sets TS Eliot’s marvelous cat poems (Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats) as they should be set, with subtlety and dry wit. ‘Gus the Theatre Cat’ and ‘the Naming of Cats’ are particular delights here. Mark Rowlinson recites them all with loving drollery, and Peter Lawson handles the varying piano styles with panache. Who can resist Constant Lambert’s statement: “With one or two noteworthy exceptions, I know of no composer or executant who has not been devoted to the feline world.” As the excellent notes point out, it’s too bad Lambert did not live to hear this delightful work.
These are not all older pieces. Donald Waxman’s tender Serenade and Caprice is from 2016. Waxman knew many of these composers, as he was music editor of the New York publisher Galaxy Music, which serviced a number of them. It must be dismaying for him to see how many of these terrific mid-century composers have fallen into neglect. Maybe this album will be a step toward restoration.
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