An English Pastoral
Chu-Yu Yang (violin)
Eric McElroy (piano)
rec. 2024, St Mark’s Church, Marylebone, London
SOMM Recordings SOMMCD0700 [75]

Another predictably fine release from SOMM; interesting repertoire sensitively performed, well recorded and beautifully presented. The title of the disc is “An English Pastoral” which pretty much says it all. Indeed for listeners for whom the concept of the English Pastoral tradition represents a somewhat pastel-shaded, lie-strewn-the-white-flocks, folk-tinged idyll the programme offered does little to dispel that view. And therein lies both the strength and potential weakness of this collection – the programme and programming.

I am an enduring admirer of this genre of music but I did find 75 minutes of a fairly similar style rather too undifferentiated – despite the passionate advocacy and fine playing of Taiwanese violinist Chu-Yu Yang and his pianist collaborator Eric McElroy. Another issue is that the chosen repertoire – with one shining exception – is all interesting but hardly of the first rank. The disc is book-ended by two works by Ian Venables. My previous encounters have been with examples of his vocal music – his moving Requiem and excellent song cycle Portraits of a mind – both recordings making my “Recordings of the Year” choices in their year of release. So my hopes for these instrumental works were high. The Sonata for Violin and Piano that opens the disc is a reworking of a flute sonata and the performers here publically premiered this version in 2022. As expected this is a beautifully crafted, easily attractive work and one that is very well played here. But somehow I find it just a little inconsequential and lacking the emotional weight and individual musical voice that I found both evident and striking in the two works mentioned above. This is not to say that I did not enjoy listening to the piece and performance but simply it did not ‘grab’ or compel me. Much the same can be said of the 3 Pieces for Violin and Piano Op.11 that complete the disc. The mood here is described in Chu-Yu Yang’s own informative liner variously as having; “a tranquil yet expressive simplicity” or “nostalgic melancholy [and] wistful longing”. That said the closing No.3 Dance is more dynamic and a welcome change from, to be blunt, too much pastoralised milky-musing. Previously I had found Venables’ music to be clearly a continuance of the traditions of Vaughan Williams or Howells or Finzi. Somehow here it feels closer to a less individual recreation of that idiom.

Two of the other works are by composers whose creative fates were shaped by World War I.  I requested this disc in no small part because of the presence of the first recordings of Ivor Gurney’s seven pieces for violin and piano. All seven pieces are given rather typically Edwardian salon-like titles and all were composed when Gurney was in his late teens and a pupil of Herbert Brewer in Gloucester. According to the liner, these works were probably written for domestic consumption and some at least were played by family friends Margaret and Emily Hunt. As such they show compositional competence and fluency but with little or no spark of genius. Sadly for Gurney, the trauma of War would provide that spark, allied to a genuine skill for word-setting which resulted in the precious body of songs that he wrote. Of the seven pieces, the two most impressive are also the longest; In September and Legende.  Both have a simplicity and directness that is rather appealing but the scale – 7:42 and 7:45 respectively – gives Gurney the time to develop and expand the material. Presenting them as a set of seven is useful in terms of being a reference collection but there is a sameness of spirit and style that makes for an unvaried listening experience. All the more so when placed within a programme of generally similar music.

Arthur Bliss is the other composer whose work and development was impacted by exposure to the horrors of War. His Violin Sonata is another early work – probably written at the Front sometime between 1914-16. Listeners familiar with the radical 1920’s compositions that morphed into the more ‘traditional’ but wonderful music of the 30’s will struggle to recognise Bliss’ mature voice. It fits the through-thread of this disc in that it is Bliss’ most explicitly pastoral-sounding work with both the solo part and the more especially the piano writing lacking the angularity and harmonic tartness that came to represent the mature Bliss. I know one other recording from Rupert Luck and Matthew Rickard on an early EM Records release.  Both versions are fine – although no-one would suggest this is anything except a transitional/developmental work. If pushed – I find the Luck/Rickard performance to be more dynamic and muscular and part of a more interesting overall programme. So both the Gurney and Bliss works will be of genuine interest to collectors and admirers of their music but are far from ‘necessary’ additions to the libraries of less dedicated collectors.

I have deliberately left mentioning Gerald Finzi’s Elegy Op.22 until now. This is so clearly the finest, most substantial – not necessarily by time but by musical stature – work on this disc. To the degree that all of the other works are in the shadow of it.  Which again makes me wonder about the logic of the programming. In isolation each of the works played here is of interest but the best recital is one where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The skill evident in the Elegy is the way that Finzi finds a language and mode of expression that transcends the potential soft-centredness of English Pastoralism (the cowpat-ness so beloved of the genre’s nay-sayers) and finds a sinewy strength and emotional depth. Yang seems to acknowledge this in his liner where he sums up both composer and work perfectly; “an outwardly calm and idyllic character juxtaposed with piano writing that brims with harmonic dissonance mirroring an inner turmoil….where music seems to offer solace while grappling with devastation…. Finzi’s music embodies a melancholic longing, a gentle but persistent ache”. Just so – there is a layered complexity to this music (again very well realised here) that makes all of the other works on this disc feel two dimensional in comparison.

So this is that most curious of discs – interesting music very well performed and recorded but one that somehow fails to completely engage or entice by virtue of a degree of similitude and lack of top-drawer compositional quality. One for the completist or unrepentantly curious perhaps.

Nick Barnard

Previous reviews: Jonathan Woolf (March 2025) ~ Ken Talbot (April 2025)

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Contents
Ian Venables (b.1955)
Violin Sonata (2017) transcr. from Flute Sonata (1989)
Gerald Finzi (1901-1956)
Elegy, Op.22 (1940)
Ivor Gurney (1890-1937)
Chanson Triste (1908)
In September (1908)
In August (1909)
Romance (1909)
Legende (1909)
A Folk Tale (1909)
Humoreske (1909)
Arthur Bliss (1891-1975)
Violin Sonata, F.192 (1914-16)
Ian Venables (b.1955)
3 Pieces for Violin and Piano Op.11 (1986)