Nicholas Maw: Spring Music; Voices of Memory; Sonata for Solo Violin

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

If you aren’t stirred by the panache of his half-hour sonata of solo Violin (1997) I’d suggest a visit to the doctor. Harriet Mackenzie is a most fearless and eloquent executant of this wonderfully... — BBC Music Magazine, June 2020, 3 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 7th Feb 2020
Catalogue No: SRCD385
Label: Lyrita
Length: 72 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

May 2020

Editor's Choice

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

British Music - up to 25% off

Special offer ends: 08/05/2024

Maw, N: Spring Music

Work length14:35

$4.00

$5.20

BBC National Orchestra of Wales
William Boughton

I. Allegro brillante

Track length2:50

$1.00

$1.30

II. Moderato con moto, sempre grazioso

Track length5:03

$1.00

$1.30

III. A tempo

Track length3:08

$1.00

$1.30

IV. Comodo e sempre grazioso

Track length3:34

$1.00

$1.30

Maw, N: Variations for Orchestra 'Voices of Memory'

Work length26:55

$11.00

$14.30

BBC National Orchestra of Wales
William Boughton

Theme. Grave e sostenuto

Track length1:10

$1.00

$1.30

Var. 1, Poco piu mosso

Track length0:54

$1.00

$1.30

Var. 2, Poco movimento

Track length2:18

$1.00

$1.30

Var. 3, Allegro vivo

Track length2:00

$1.00

$1.30

Var. 4, Molto tranquillo

Track length2:56

$1.00

$1.30

Var. 5, Allegro vigoroso

Track length1:01

$1.00

$1.30

Var. 6, Andante molto sostenuto

Track length4:27

$1.00

$1.30

Var. 7, Vivace assai

Track length2:01

$1.00

$1.30

Var. 8, Solenne, tempo giusto

Track length3:18

$1.00

$1.30

Var. 9, Movimentato e misterioso

Track length2:00

$1.00

$1.30

Var. 10, Finale. Molto moderato

Track length4:50

$1.00

$1.30

Maw, N: Solo Violin Sonata

Work length31:05

$7.00

$9.05

Harriet Mackenzie (violin)

I. Scena

Track length8:57

$2.00

$2.60

II. March-Burlesque

Track length5:13

$1.00

$1.30

III. Tombeau

Track length10:02

$3.00

$3.85

IV. Flight

Track length6:53

$1.00

$1.30

About
Reviews
Explore

About

Maw's most fervent desire was to communicate directly with his audiences and produce material which performers would enjoy playing and Spring Music, written with the express purpose of diverting and entertaining an audience, finds the composer at his most uninhibited and freely expressive. Fresh, colourful and vibrant, this score has the exotic, open-hearted spirit of a curtain-raiser by William Walton or Alan Rawsthorne. In its final, slimmed-down version, it rapidly became one of Maw's favourite pieces among his own output and he once described the long-breathed cello-led melody as 'one of the best tunes I think I ve actually ever written '. In 1995 Maw was commissioned by the BBC to write a work commemorating the 300th anniversary that year of the death of Purcell. Maw soon came to the conclusion that he wanted to round off his tribute piece with an example of a chaconne, a form in which Purcell was pre-eminent. The theme which Maw chose to embellish is derived from the first of his Life Studies for 15 solo strings. Taking his lead from Tchaikovsky, Maw decided that the main title should reflect precisely the reference vocabulary of the piece and so the piece became known for a while as Romantic Variations. Later still the title was altered to its definitive form of Voices of Memory: Variations for Orchestra. Described by Andrew Burn as 'a major contribution to the genre', the Sonata for Solo Violin was requested by Jorja Fleezanis, to whom the work is dedicated. In Maw's Sonata for Solo Violin, the constraints of writing for a single stringed instrument in a four-movement, large-scale work are deftly surmounted by the composer's gift for melodic lines and rhythmic invention. Each movement has a vivid sense of colour, formal logic and onward momentum so that the writing, however demanding it may be, never suggests an arid study or a shallow technical exercise.

Reviews

June 2020

If you aren’t stirred by the panache of his half-hour sonata of solo Violin (1997) I’d suggest a visit to the doctor. Harriet Mackenzie is a most fearless and eloquent executant of this wonderfully expressive array of contrasting textures, colours and violin techniques, fully worth placing alongside the 20th century masterworks of Ysaÿe and Bartók. On the orchestral front, the variation set Voices of Memory (1995) offers another of Maw’s impressively deft juggling displays within a large-span structure, well serviced by William Boughton and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

May 2020

This is a terrific disc...Voices of Memory (1995) is one of the hidden gems in Maw’s output...The sheer brilliance of the compositional ingenuity (on a theme from his own Life Studies rather than Purcell) and acuity of orchestration should place it in every British orchestra’s repertoire, as this coruscating performance under William Boughton trumpets loud and clear…Harriet Mackenzie has the measure of [the solo sonata], which nods towards Baroque models but is never pastiche.

24th May 2020

The 15-minute Spring Music is a vivid recreation of the Waltonian concert-overture. The orchestral Voices of Memory is compared by the booklet-note writer to Elgar’s Enigma Variations, which is rather generous. Solo Violin Sonata is, at 30 minutes, typically Maw-ish.

4th July 2020

In his lifetime, Maw was somewhat out of step in adopting an unfashionably direct, lyrical style. Returning to his music now, it’s easier to hear – and accept – him as part of a neo-romantic British tradition, with robust, modernist barbs. Worth listening.

Offer,Nicholas Maw: Spring Music; Voices of Memory; Sonata for Solo Violin

CD

Downloads

Contents

Download queue