Breaking Waves
Grace Williams (1906-1977)
Sea Sketches (1944)
Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969)
String Quartet No.4 (1951, arr. Marijn van Prooijen)
Johanna Müller-Hermann (1868-1941)
String Quartet in E flat major Op.6 (1908/1910, arr. Ingvar Karkoff)
Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra / Malin Broman
rec. 2024, Musiikikeskus Snellman, Kokkola, Finland; Schauman Hall, Jakobstad, Finland
BIS BIS2702 SACD [62]

Grace Williams’s evergreen Sea Sketches are the only item here that amply justifies this release’s collective title. This wonderful work is yet another splendid example of brilliant and imaginative British music for strings. Williams’s writing for strings is superbly assured, and the five movements make for a nicely varied set of atmospheric seascapes. Unsurprisingly enough, the piece has become a favourite with orchestras and audiences. That said, the music is not necessarily easy to play.

The opening movement, High Wind, and the fourth, Breakers, call for a good deal of stamina, perfect coordination and vigour. They get that in plenty in this recording. The reading is excellent throughout, although I find that the marvellously atmospheric middle movement, Channel Sirens, could have done with more half-light mystery. In any case, listening to the present performance makes one understands why Sea Sketches have become such a favourite – possibly one of Grace Williams’s finest works.

Grażyna Bacewicz’s very fine String Quartet No.4, heard here in Marijn van Prooijen’s expert arrangement for string orchestra, has very little to do with seascapes, waves and the like. The Quartet earned its composer the first prize at the 1951 Liège International Quartet Competition. (That was when Liège was an active cultural place known for the promotion of new music. Incidentally, Bacewicz won another prize in Belgium: her Violin Concerto No.7 of 1965 was awarded a prize in the 1965 Queen Elizabeth Composition Competition.)

The work, from Bacewicz’s so-called Neo-classical period, incorporates some folk-inflected material. An attractive piece, it is full of catchy tunes and restrained emotion when needed. It works remarkably well in the arrangement for strings, which should earn it new admirers. Those who prefer the original can turn to the Silesian Quartet’s superb set on Chandos (review), but the version heard here may increase the work’s popularity.

I admit that I had not heard the name or the music of the Austrian composer Johanna Müller-Hermann. The liner notes say that she was a “central figure in the flourishing cultural life in early 20th-century Vienna”. A quick Internet search confirms that she composed a good deal in many genres. More important, I think, is that she regarded Alexander von Zemlinsky as her foremost teacher. This comes across fairly clearly in her music, though never through blunt imitation: her String Quartet in E flat major shows a strongly personal voice. The music is deployed in the chromatically flavoured idiom heard in Vienna of that period – consider early Schönberg or again von Zemlinsky. Still, it has a remarkable melodic and expressive palette, quite appealing. This arrangement is a wonderful piece that is my major find in this very attractive release.

Everything here is up to the BIS label’s usual best standards. If the coupling appeals, it is self-commending.

Hubert Culot