Further Reading
9th February 2022
David talks to the piano duo about their recent album, including a transcription of Vaughan Williams's London Symphony and Maconchy's Preludio, Fugato e Finale
Following in the footsteps of Albion's recent Walton and Vaughan Williams disc, here are three more world premiere recordings from Lynn Arnold and Charles Matthews this time including an unusual arrangement for piano and organ. The heart of the album is Archibald Jacob's 1924 arrangement of the 1920 version of Ralph Vaughan Williams's 'London Symphony'. This is a work that uniquely conveys the atmosphere of a city now changed almost beyond resemblance; and yet the work, like all great music, is beyond both time and place. The piano duet recording reveals details that sometimes pass us by in the orchestral score. Elizabeth Maconchy was both a pupil and friend of Vaughan Williams. Her unpublished 'Preludio, Fugato e Finale' was written in 1967 for Richard Rodney Bennett and Susan Bradshaw, who performed it in the Wigmore Hall in 1968, eliciting praise from the great critic Felix Aprahamian. Charles Matthews writes that 'In her later life Maconchy used a complex but beautiful language, dissonant yet somehow always sounding right'. Finzi's 'Eclogue', developed from a surviving movement of an unfinished piano concerto, is popular today. Lynn and Charles pioneered this arrangement in Holy Trinity church, Stratford-on-Avon but we had to go to Rugby School to find someone willing for their Steinway to be tuned up to blend with the organ (and returned to concert pitch afterwards)! Lynn Arnold is well known for her collaborative musicianship and for her commitment to advocating and performing British music. An alumna of Cambridge University where she held a celebrated Instrumental Award, Lynn won much recognition in various competitions during her subsequent study at the Royal Academy of Music, not least the prestigious Sir Henry Richardson Award from the Musicians Benevolent Fund. She has recently recorded various English masterpieces, including a collaboration with the Tippett Quartet for a series of albums for Dutton Epoch. Lynn is on the staff of the Royal Academy of Music and has coached chamber music at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Charles Matthews studied at the Royal College of Music, London, and was an organ scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge. Charles has won numerous awards, perhaps most notably first prize in the 1999 Franz Liszt Organ Interpretation Competition in Budapest. Schott Music has published a collection of his compositions for flute and piano. His most recent solo recording is of Francis Routh's cycle The Well-Tempered Pianist. Other recent recordings include partnerships with Julia Hwang, violin, Tony Alcock, double-bass, and the Choir of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon. He works extensively with young people, acts as piano accompanist and organ tutor at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, helps to direct Shipston Junior Band and also works as a coach on the annual Curso Internacional Matisse in El Escorial and Segovia, Spain. Lynn and Charles have performed as a duet across England for some years. They have explored and performed much of the core repertoire for this ensemble in terms of both original compositions and transcriptions. A mutual passion for English music features significantly in their choice of repertoire.
