AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE:
Much like Russian nationalism two decades earlier and American nationalism two decades later, English nationalism at the dawn of the 20th Century involved a breaking away from German models and an embrace of native songs, sounds, and dialects. English efforts, though, developed during a difficult transition in Western music. They quickly fell behind modernist whirlwinds, and by the end of World War II they were dismissed as quaint. While Russian and American nationalists are still towering figures in the repertoire, English nationalists remain an afterthought from a busy period, living on only in vocal music, band music, and chamber music.

Nevertheless, some leading British musicians maintain that English nationalism still has a place on contemporary concert programs. On this 2007 release, originally recorded in 1992, clarinetist Michael Collins, pianist Andrew West, and the Lyric Quartet present three early chamber works of Herbert Howells (1892-1983). A favorite pupil of the German trained Charles Stanford at the Royal College of Music in London, Howells was considered the most promising talent of the British generation of composers that came of age during World War I. Like George Butterworth and Gerald Finzi, Howells skillfully balanced traditional form with English pastoralism and folk song; and like Gordon Jacob, he admired English Renaissance and baroque music. His teacher, though, had the greatest influence; no matter the source of his materials, Howells infused his works with warm romantic lyricism.

The program begins with the highly atmospheric Piano Quartet in A minor , Op. 21 (1916), a full-length three-movement work that weaves several English folk melodies into its formal structure and bears a dedication to a specific place in the English countryside. The Phantasy Quartet , Op. 25 (1917) refers to the old Elizabethan single movement instrumental piece with several contrasting sections, but after all the energetic dances it dies away with a solemn Piu Lento. The concluding Rhapsodic Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet, Op. 31 (1919) is another single-movement work that ends with a slow meditation. It is unified not by a grand architectural scheme, but by only two ideas: an energetic motive in the strings and a beautiful melody in the clarinet.

Collins, West, and the Lyric Quartet give thoroughly professional and profoundly moving performances that simmer with romantic angst, succumb completely to moments of intense contemplation, and have lively rhythmic episodes and the occasional tangy dissonance.

The Quartet is a superb team that balances classical formality with folk playing, and West has unrivalled touch and color, especially when he begins the kind of quiet passage that words cannot express. Collins achieves a British timbre that is unusually rich and clear, matching the dark hue of the strings, phrasing with great color and sincerity, and making the fade-out in the closing measures of the Clarinet Quintet poignant and unforgettable.
HANUDEL

MUSICWEB:
These are old friends in two senses. These recordings were first issued by Metier in 1992. With that label now under the wing of The Divine Art – an increasingly perceptive reputation in the land – the disc has been re-released.

As a group of works they have been coupled before. In the mid-1970s Lyrita Recorded Edition LP SRCS 68 had them played by the Richards Piano Quartet (Bernard Roberts (piano), Nona Liddell (violin), Jean Stewart (viola), Bernard Richards (cello)) with Thea King (clarinet). The effect was revelatory. Few of us knew the works before then although the Piano Quartet had been broadcast as part of an ambitious early-1970s BBC Radio 3 series called England’s Green and Pleasant Land. Christopher Palmer’s little Novello book on Howells was also to instil curiosity and later enthusiasm. This music - of or just after the Great War - was the work of a pastoral master who had shaken off the Stanford-Brahmsian dust. When vinyl died to all practical intents and purposes circa 1986 the Lyrita LP disappeared. It later became a prohibitively high value item on the internet. It was reissued only this month (November 2007) as Lyrita SRCD.245. With a playing time of 53.20 there’s very little in it between the two discs in terms of sheer timings.

The Piano Quartet was written in the depths of the Great War. This perhaps accounts for the terrific urgency and even desperation of Howells’ writing in the Allegro Moderato first movement at 4:03. The music is deeply romantic and warmly cocooned, these being qualities favoured and accentuated by the acoustic. Folksong is an integral part of the fabric of this writing and one can easily feel the plangent Lento as predictive of later works by Moeran and even Finzi. The ecstatically complex exuberance of the Allegro molto plays the boundaries between bell-tones, the caress of summer zephyrs and chilly intimations of Housman’s ‘steady drummer’. The other element is folk dance with shades of Grainger and even Stravinsky. It’s all wonderfully handled by the Lyric Quartet players and Andrew West. Individual players eloquently cut through the textures just as the score requires.

The Piano Quartet plays for about half an hour while the other two pieces time out at barely 13 minutes each. The Phantasy String Quartet, like the Rhapsodic Quintet, is in a single movement. It is done with wonderful gravity and speaks of nature spirituality yet without John Ireland’s mystery. It is music caught up in the glories of landscape but then patters along singing a long-lined melody of strolling and sun-dappled confidence. The Rhapsodic Quintet seems a further unbuttoning of classical restraints. While the Phantasy Quartet is a step away from the shreds of formality in the Piano Quartet the Rhapsodic Quintet takes that next step into freedom. The music sweeps along - a spontaneous response to the moment. A haunted but not at all macabre second half rises to a new lyrical density but then fades back to an epilogue of lump-in–the-throat meditative beauty. It’s just a small step away from Zemlinsky’s quartets in similar mood.

The notes are by Paul Spicer who has done so much for Finzi and Howells amongst many others. The monochrome presentation of the booklet and the uncredited line drawing are all attractive and apposite. The only thing that tells against the disc, and then only by a shading, is the rather warmly bathed acoustic. I would have wished for a shade more impact but then I would have had to sacrifice the mystery so lovingly conveyed. I hope to be able to compare the Lyrita disc before too long.
Rob Barnett