Rutland Boughton (1878-1960)
Of Delights and Passions
Trio for violin, violoncello, and piano (1948)
Sonata in D major for violin and piano (1921)
Sonata for violoncello and piano (1948)
Celtic Prelude (The Land of Heart’s Desire) for violin, violoncello, and piano (1917)
Winter Sun for violin and piano (1933)
English Piano Trio
rec. 2022, SJE Arts, Oxford, England
EM Records EMRCD081 [67]
This cross-section of Rutland Boughton’s chamber music ranges from the early Celtic Prelude to the piano trio from after Second World War. I am grateful to the author of the liner notes: they helped prepare this review. Also helpful was Michael Hurd’s 1993 volume Rutland Boughton and the Glastonbury Festivals.
Rutland Boughton was born in Aylesbury on 23 January 1878. Twenty-two years later he entered the Royal College of Music to study with Stanford and Walford Davies. Academic rigour did not agree with him, so he left after year to pursue his own interests. Under the auspices of Granville Bantock, he taught at the Midland Institute. In the early years of the 20th century, Boughton developed a desire to found a “British Bayreuth” at Glastonbury. The idea was to promulgate the legends of King Arthur. He wrote a series of Arthurian operas / music dramas. The festival ran for a number of years, but the proposed theatre was never built.
Boughton’s biggest success was his opera The Immortal Hour based on the doings of nature spirits and fairies. His left-wing political views (he was a member of the Communist Party) may have led to the lack of financial interest in his project. Aside from opera, he composed much orchestral and concertante music, chamber works and several cantatas. Most of his oeuvre remains unheard in our day.
Jeremy Dibble in The Oxford Companion to Music has succinctly summed up Boughton’s musical aesthetic: his “style ranges from the genuinely symphonic (as in the Third Symphony of 1937) to the naively simple […] underpinned by a conservative harmonic vocabulary symptomatic of his socialist realism.” Boughton died on 25 January 1960.
It is hard to believe that the Trio for violin, violoncello and piano was not performed until the present ensemble played it in March 2019 at a lunchtime recital in Aylesbury. Two balanced movements are played without a break. The Allegretto sostenuto packs many moods into its progress. There are nods to the English pastoral school, and moments that are angry, tempestuous but eventually triumphant. The movement ends in peace. The bouncy scherzo which is “extrovert and slightly comical”. Boughton runs with four themes, not quite contrasting but always rewarding. The Trio concludes with an uplifting coda Piu allegro, which seals the optimistic conclusion to this remarkable work.
There is no doubt that Boughton’s Sonata in D major for violin and piano is “an impressive and virtuoso work, structured on a grand scale”. It was written in Glastonbury and dedicated to the violinist Désirée Ames. The Sonata can be construed as a love letter to Boughton’s third partner Kathleen Davis. Each movement is prefaced by a quotation from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Also Sprach Zarathustra. It remains to be seen if the book’s consideration of the Übermensch, the death of God, the will to power and eternal recurrence, is a suitable source for a romantic offering. I looked up the quotations in Michael Hurd’s biography. I am not sure I understand Boughton’s drift. Perhaps it is the translation of Nietzsche’s text that is difficult.
Hurd wonders if the Sonata does not live up to the promise of its thematic material. He gives an example of the beautiful slow movement “dissipating its strength in a trivial folk-dance ending”. It does seem to be a characteristic of the entire work: bold material petering out. Yet, it caused me no problems, and made an interesting change to the “big finish”. In fact, it mirrors the composer’s quixotic mind. Stylistically, the Sonata nods to Brahms and Franck rather than anything more modern.
Whether one agrees with a contemporary reviewer in the Daily Telegraph (8 February 1922) that “the music [flows] from the words which the composer has taken as his motto”, it cannot be denied that it is “a work of vigour and vision”. Violinist Jane Faulkner told me that Boughton writes well for the violin and shows great understanding of its possibilities and strengths. She considers this virtuosic sonata appealing and very enriching to perform. Certainly, she has created a convincing and substantial account of this imaginative work. One hopes it will remain in her repertoire for many years.
The Sonata for violoncello and piano, another late composition, is dedicated to Kathleen Davis. She was an accomplished singer, composer and cellist. The liner notes do not say if the Sonata was performed in her lifetime. It is suggested that it “may have been more difficult than she could play”. The work was premiered in 2010 at a recital in Hitchin.
The general mood of the piece is introspective, especially in the long Poco adagio. Yet here and there bursts of passion explode through the typically dark progress. There is even a hint of Celtic wistfulness. The opening movement has two contrasting themes, one declamatory and one playful. The development section, full of rhythmic variety, leads to a Largamente climax, with the spirited tune now transformed. The finale is a jig with a thoughtful middle section, which recalls the Adagio. This is a splendid sonata, full of life, variety and technical wizardry. Incredibly, such a striking work has remained in the shadows for three quarters of a century. Cellist Pál Banda and pianist Timothy Ravenscroft give a stunning performance.
The Celtic Prelude was composed whilst Boughton was on active service with the Cambridgeshire Regiment. It was originally part of incidental music from W. B. Yeats’s’ play The Land of Heart’s Desire. It is through-written with various contrasting sections including a folk dance and a “tender and dreamy” moment. It makes use of modal tunes and gentle harmonies. Michael Hurd suggested that it was “pleasant rather than powerful”. This delightful miniature does create the mood of the Celtic Twilight.
Sadly, Boughton’s proposed Celtic Sonata never came to fruition. It would have been dedicated to The Sonata Players. He did, however, write the short Winter Sun for them. It was premiered by the dedicatees on 4 February 1934. The liner notes explain that it was based on Boughton’s 1932 orchestral piece of the same title. It “can be considered as a meditation on the tragic story of Elaine, the Lily Maid of Astolat”. As all enthusiasts of Arthuriana will recall, Lancelot deserted the Lady of Shalott after she had nursed him back to health. Winter Sun is not programmatic but it is a deeply felt musing which packs a wide variety of emotions into its four minutes. The opening and closing sections are frosty music.
I was impressed by the English Piano Trio’s performances. The recording is outstanding. Like in all EM Records, the liner notes are faultless. There is a brief introduction to the composer by Ian R. Boughton, the composer’s grandson. Members of the English Piano Trio supply the detailed and informative programme notes. There is a resume of the ensemble.
There is nothing difficult in these five works: but challenge is not the be-all and end-all of a listener’s pleasure. Rutland Boughton gives us enjoyable and inspiring music that is characterised by melodic interest, well-devised formal structures and satisfying harmonies.
John France
Previous review: Jonathan Woolf (May 2023)
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