British Cello Works Volume 3
William Hurlstone (1876-1906)
Cello Sonata in D major (1899)
Felix Swinstead (1880-1959)
Cello Sonata (unknown date)
Doreen Carwithen (1922-2003)
Cello Sonatina, Op.132 (1951)
Nocturne (1943)
Humoresque (1943)
Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
Cello Sonata (1917)
Lionel Handy (cello)
Jennifer Walsh (piano)
rec. 2024, Winchester College, UK
Lyrita SRCD.441 [78]

There are two previous volumes in this series (volume 1, 2) and some overlap with Chandos’ ‘British Works for cello and piano’ sequence of four volumes played by the Watkins Brothers, namely the sonatas by Bax and Ireland.  However, there’s no duplication here and, whilst Lyrita is habitually modest about disc premieres, I can’t find any previous recordings of Doreen Carwithen’s works or Felix Swinstead’s Sonata.

Hurlstone’s Cello Sonata was composed in 1889 when he was 23 for the cellist May Mukle who, years later, recalled it as ‘one of his best works’ which she’d played with the composer many times before his untimely death. It’s a weighty, late Romantic sonata of some stature but the Hurlstone Revival, which threatens to splutter into life every time a work of his is recorded, never does so. It’s best to enjoy its self-evident charms, along with those Brahmsian elements that animate parts of it, without worrying too much about Hurlstone’s place in the scheme of things. It’s cast in four well-ordered and conventional movements. Lionel Handy is a sonorous interpreter and he and Jennifer Walsh have been recorded quite close-up in Winchester College which gives their performance a solidity and emphasis, which contrasts markedly with the performance of Andrew Fuller and Michael Dussek on Dutton back in 1999. Both pairings take similar tempi but for me the Fuller-Dussek team, recorded at a slight remove, brings the sonata’s fanciful, folkloric impulses more wittily to life. The finale in particular, an avuncular and very English song-without-words, is more brightly conveyed by the Dutton pairing.

Felix Swinstead’s Sonata was found among the possessions of friends of his, pianists Vivian Langrish and Ruth Harte. It is conjecturally a late work, composed soon before Swinstead’s death in 1959 and it’s certainly full of old school charm – an amiable, warm-hearted and relatively brief three-movement work cut along conventional lines. The highlight is an easeful and folkloric central Adagio though the elegance of the finale is undeniable. Doreen Carwithen’s Sonatina is even briefer at ten minutes and enshrines a Prokofiev or Walton slow-fast-slow scheme. Its pensive qualities may or may not reflect the time of its composition – 1944 – but they’re well worked through and admirably conveyed in a swelling rise and fall, before the crisp sprightly Allegro second movement bisects the surrounding slow movements. The finale is thoughtful and calm. The two small makeweights were composed the previous year – a brief Nocturne with subtle undertow and a contrastingly playful Humoresque. Carwithen has long since emerged from the shadow of her husband, William Alwyn, thankfully.

The best-known and most often recorded work here is Frank Bridge’s two-movement Cello Sonata of 1917. Its bipartite nature probably reflects two distinct periods of composition, around 1913 and 1917, which accounts for the gaunt, pessimistic nature of much of the slow second movement. Though this is an admired work it’s not easy to put it across either on disc or in recital. The Handy-Walsh team do well – Walsh is a particularly persuasive exponent of the tricky piano part – but the Wallfisch duo on an old Chandos disc find a greater sense of colour. Sometimes the insistent brightness of the recording militates against Handy’s tone which can emerge as rather one-dimensional.                 

Paul Conway’s notes are excellent as ever. On my copy the track listing on the back of the jewel case has mistakenly included Benjamin Britten’s birth and death dates, instead of Bridge’s, as well details of his own Cello Sonata. Fortunately, the booklet has it right.

Jonathan Woolf

We have been informed that the track listing error on the back of the jewel case has now been rectified.

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