Thomas Pitfield (1903-1999)
Sinfonietta (1946)
Fantasia on an Old Staffordshire Tune (1950)
Lyric Waltz for String Orchestra (1988)
Bucolics: Folk Song Studies (undated)
Concerto Lirico for violin and orchestra (1958)
Epitaph for string orchestra (1981)
Emma McGrath (violin)
Liepaja Symphony Orchestra/Paul Mann
rec. 2025, Great Amber Concert Hall, Liepaja, Latvia
Toccata Classics TOCC0765 [75] 

This is an important release. It builds on the success of the recordings of Thomas Pitfield’s chamber and vocal music that recently appeared on the Divine Art label. It also complements the magnificent 2005 Naxos disc of the piano concertos. With the exception of the Concerto Lirico, these are all premiere recordings.

The splendid Sinfonietta was composed at the behest of Sir John Barbirolli and is a substantial work in five movements. The composer was asked for a symphony, but seems to have felt unequal to the challenge. The informative notes to this CD explain how the composer was bedevilled by a certain lack of confidence throughout his career, something that is difficult for us to understand now when one hears such attractive music. 

The first movement of the Sinfonietta opens with considerable gravitas and we almost expect it to develop into a weighty symphonic statement; however the mood lightens and we are presented with a succession of charming themes, superbly orchestrated. The spiky second movement has shades of Prokofiev and provides a charming contrast. If I had a slight criticism here, it’s that this movement feels a bit short (even for a sinfonietta) and makes the work feel more like a suite. The third movement belongs to the world of Vaughan Williams; it’s truly lovely and contains some of the most appealing ideas in the piece. The fourth movement, a jig, clearly relates back to the first movement and has strongly etched musical ideas. Pitfield throws the main weight of his argument into the Finale, which, at eight minutes long, lasts for almost half of the piece. There are further links to ideas from the first movement, giving the piece a real sense of unity. The Sinfonietta reminds me a little of Howard Ferguson’s marvellous Partita in its orchestral version, especially in the Jig movement.

The Fantasia on an Old Staffordshire Tune dates from 1950. Listeners might expect a piece in the Vaughan Williams idiom, but I feel there is more of a kinship with Herbert Howells’ Three Dances for violin and orchestra. The Cadenza is particularly fine here and is more than just a display episode. This is quite a substantial piece and repeated listening reveals that this work has considerable depth.

The Lyric Waltz showcases Pitfield’s great melodic gift. It is perhaps ironic that this very quality was both a blessing and a curse; it condemned him in the eyes of the 1960s musical establishment, yet might well help his work to endure. (It is curious how many British composers who were regularly commissioned in the 1960s through to the 1990s have dropped off the radar altogether.) 

I really enjoyed Pitfield’s Bucolics: Folk Song Studies. One of the most appealing aspects of the Pitfield style is his sensitive and sometimes unexpected use of harmony; this can be especially heard in the first movement, Comin’ through the Rye. The remaining movements are British Light Music at its very best.

The Epitaph for String Orchestra is quintessentially English and is one of my favourite works on the CD. It has a bewitching melancholy about it that lingers in the mind long after the work has finished. The Epitaph reminds me of some of Lennox Berkeley’s late works, such as his moving and valedictory Fourth Symphony, a work that appeared just three years before Pitfield’s Epitaph. The music of Thomas Pitfield and Lennox Berkeley is cut from a similar cloth; both composers were born in the same year, both were influenced by French as well as English composers and both have a subtle melodic and harmonic sense and a tendency not to play to the gallery.

The gorgeous Concerto Lirico for violin and orchestra is unquestionably the most important work on this disc and a clear masterpiece. Its neglect will seem unaccountable to many, but the British never did have much of a clue which composers were the best ones to support. I firmly believe that we have produced more composers of value than any other country in the twentieth century. Many major figures, like Edmund Rubbra, one of our greatest symphonists, are still unjustly neglected. There are also many interesting British composers from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries languishing in undeserved obscurity. I will not digress by dwelling on our many gifted artists and writers whose work has also shared this fate.

Pitfield’s Concerto Lirico is, as its name suggests, a predominantly melodic piece; it does have a darker second movement, entitled Requiem – in Memoriam Albert Hardie. One aspect of this work is its sense of purpose; it never meanders and moves forward steadily with a strong sense of inevitability. Unity is also achieved by a slightly threatening march idea that appears in the first and last movement. I felt a certain kinship with Rubbra in the finale and listeners who enjoy the latter’s Violin Concerto will also find much to enjoy in this work.

The recorded sound of this CD is close to ideal. It is excellently balanced and has real clarity and presence. The notes by John Turner and Paul Mann are most interesting and give us plenty of detail about the sometimes fraught relationship the composer had with the BBC, with many of his works sadly failing to be selected by their score reading panel. 

This disc goes a long way towards righting these wrongs and is superb in every respect. Emma McGrath makes a first-rate violin soloist in the Concerto Lirico and Fantasia on an Old Staffordshire Tune; she is technically impeccable and I cannot imagine her sensitive interpretations being bettered. The performances by the Liepaja Symphony Orchestra are astonishingly idiomatic – anyone listening might suppose these performances were recorded by a British orchestra. I hope that Paul Mann conducts more orchestral pieces by Thomas Pitfield, as he clearly has an innate understanding of his music.

I hope this disc introduces as many people as possible to this endlessly rewarding composer.

David Jennings

Previous reviews: Jonathan Woolf (June 2025) ~ John France (June 2025)

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