Peter Mallinson: Brief Encounters

The Strad Issue: November 2024

Description: A selection box of miniatures, many of them delightful

Musicians: Peter Mallinson (viola) Lynn Arnold (piano)

Works: Music by Beach, Borisovsky, Boulanger, Clarke, Dalrymple, Dubuque, Europe, Forsyth, Fox, Friskin, Gipps, Glyde, Herbert, Howell, Kaprálová, Mayerl, Miles, Mortensen, Simpson, Squire, Warren, Wiggins and Zemlinsky

Catalogue number: MERIDIAN CDE8467782 (2 CDs) 

BRIEF ENCOUNTERS

Casting their nets over the last century, Peter Mallinson and Lynn Arnold have trawled the depths of the seas to unearth composers who were largely neglected, or unfortunately had all-too-brief lives. The two CDs also feature early works by influential figures, such as Nadia Boulanger and Alexander Zemlinsky. These composers tend to stand out in this company, as their invention is more individual and sophisticated. Boulanger’s ‘Improvisation’, for example, is sensual, its melodies creating a perfumed piquancy, and her ‘Danse espagnole’ has tremendous exuberance and vitality.

Of the other items here, I found Vitezslava Kaprálová’s acerbic pair of Ritournelles the stand-out work. She was a student of Boulanger and Martinů, and had developed a highly personal and strong style, cut tragically short by her death at just 25. There are some foot-tapping movements as well, to balance the more reflective works, chief among these being Kai Mortensen’s virtuosic The Laughing Viola and James Reese Europe’s Castle House Rag, both skilfully arranged for viola and piano.

In contrast, Rebecca Clarke’s I’ll Bid my Heart be Still offers pleasant folk-like lyrical fare which matches a number of other overtly pastoral and pleasantly lyrical if somewhat undistinctive works such as Purcell Warren’s Five Short Pieces, and Muriel Herbert’s ‘To Daffodils’. These are offset by a few showstoppers, such as the ubiquitous chestnut ‘Rustic Dance’ by W.H. Squire, and Alexandre Dubuque’s Tarantella. These diverse compositions are sensitively played, with a good range of expression and feeling for the varying idioms from both artists, and the recording is vivid and warm.

JOANNE TALBOT