Encores for Mr Scotts
Patrick Savage (violin)
Martin Cousin (piano)
rec. 2026, Menuhin Hall, Cobham, UK
Quartz QTZ2177 [62]
Donald Scotts, for whom this album is named, was Patrick Savage’s violin teacher for 12 years and was clearly a charismatic and excellent teacher. Scotts was a distinguished player, associate concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony, first violin of the Melbourne String Quartet, and something of a trailblazer in his recording of E.J. Moeran’s Violin Sonata, with pianist John Talbot, and the string quartet – it’s on Chandos. In 2023, shortly before Scotts’ death, Savage visited and performed for him. You can see this on YouTube. Scotts then gave him his own student fiddle and bow and a box of his sheet music. It’s from this music that Savage has constructed this loving programme.
The selection is evocative of a time when soloists offered the public examples of their virtuosity and charm and includes a number of rarities alongside somewhat more familiar fare. I won’t go through the entire recital but would prefer to draw attention to salient performance and expressive features that will give you an indication of the approach taken by Savage and by the fine pianist Martin Cousin.
Savage doesn’t adopt a bull-in-a-china-shop approach to faster pieces. He retains clarity in contrasting ‘B’ sections, letting notes count and not allowing them to be swept up in a welter of passagework. As an example, I’d suggest a listen to the ‘B’ section of Kreisler’s Variations on a theme of Corelli where the notes are precise and true and not gabbled, however excitingly, as can sometimes be the case. He also takes a relaxed view of the Falla-Kreisler Danse Espagnole, incrementally building to the climax. Raff’s Cavatina was once a popular piece, whether on disc or recital stage or tea shop. Savage plays with requisite warmth but doesn’t over-vibrate.
Such discretion is typical of the recital as a whole. He rides the crest of Váša Příhoda’s arrangement of the Rosenkavalier waltzes and is resiliently rhythmic in Kreisler’s Tempo di minuetto, and contrasts the deft, terpsichorean Poldini Dancing Doll with the vigorous Novacek Perpetuum Mobile. Australian composer Alfred Hill is a valuable name for a recital of this kind. His Zephyrs is a warmly textured genre piece that sits well alongside Englishman Gerald Walenn’s brief Humoresque. Walenn’s cello-playing brother, Herbert, had a bigger career but Gerald moved to Australia in 1917 where he established a string quartet, the violist of which was none other than Alfred Hill. Savage knows how to phrase with a generosity that doesn’t tip over into the gauche – the Glazunov-Kreisler Sérénade espagnole is a fine example of refined tonal responses allied to good taste.
I’ve not come across Lorenzo Camilieri’s Romanza before or indeed Valse staccato by Jean Henri Ravina but they are both attractive morsels. So is that saucy Ragtime effusion, Two Minutes Jazz by Karel Jan Zoubek which I last encountered in Biddulph’s disc devoted to the scintillating historic recordings of Réné Benedetti. Finally, there is Moeran’s Mantle of Blue, sorrowful but consoling and, given Scotts’ devotion to Morean’s music, an appropriate end to the recital.
The recording venue is Menuhin Hall, Cobham and is well balanced. Cousin plays, as noted, with dedication and assurance, and Savage with a refined, occasionally small-scaled warmth.
Jonathan Woolf
Buying this recording via the link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free
Contents
Franz Ries: La Capricciosa
Manuel de Falla: La vida breve: Danse espagnole (arr. by Fritz Kreisler)
Joachim Raff: Cavatina for violin & piano (or orchestra), Op. 85 No. 3
Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59, TrV 227: Der Rosenkavalier Waltzer (arr. by Váša Příhoda)
Fritz Kreisler: Tempo di minuetto in the Style of Pugnani
Alfred Hill: Zephyrs
Kreisler: Variations on a Theme by Corelli (in the style of Tartini)
Manuel de Falla: 7 Canciones populares españolas: No. 4, Jota (arr. by Paul Kochanski)
Ede Poldini: Marionettes: No. 2, La poupée valsante (arr. by Fritz Kreisler)
Ottakar Novácek: 8 Concert Caprices, Op. 5: No. 4, Perpetuum mobile
Fritz Kreisler: 3 Old Viennese Dances: No. 2, Liebesleid
Gerald Walenn: Humoresque
Heinz Provost: Intermezzo “Souvenir de Vienne”
Alexander Glazunov: 2 Pieces for Cello & Orchestra, Op. 20: No. 2, Sérénade espagnole (arr. by Fritz Kreisler)
Lorenzo Camilieri: Romanza
Jean Henri Ravina: 25 Études mignonnes, Op. 60: No. 3, Valse staccato (arr. by Josef Piastro-Borissof)
Cécile Chaminade: Sérénade espagnole, Op. 150 (arr. by Fritz Kreisler)
Karel Jan Zoubek: Two Minutes Jazz
Ernest Moeran: Mantle of Blue
