York Bowen : The Complete Works for Viola & Piano – Lawrence Power & Simon Crawford-Phillips - 2CDs - 2008.

York Bowen : The Complete Works for Viola & Piano – Lawrence Power & Simon Crawford-Phillips - 2CDs - 2008.
Classical CD Of The Week : Sunday Times .
Recording Of The Week : Classical Music Magazine.
Instrumental Disc Of The Mont : Classic fm Magazine.
Recording Of The Month : August 2008 : www.musicweb.

Eac / ape (img + cue) / wav.
Recovery : 3%.
Total rar size : 2CDs / Covers / Full Booklet : 518 MB /6 parts.
Total playing-time : CD01: 61',39" - CD02: 60',55" .
Included : Full Covers, Full Booklet, CDs all in 300 dpi.


"All the pieces show Bowen's love of the instrument's capacity to unfold long-limbed, rhapsodic melodies, though his harmonic world rarely strays beyond that of Brahms; Lawrence Power's richly expressive moulding of them is a rare treat in itself." The Guardian, 27th June 2008 ***


"It is easy to dismiss Bowen's music as conservative, but the two viola sonatas of 1905 and 1906 are clearly inspired by the romantic style of Brahms's late sonatas for clarinet or viola. They are worthy successors, at least when played with the sumptuous tone, passionate conviction and supreme technical address that Powers lavishes on them here. Crawford-Phillips relishes the bravura of York's writing for the piano (the composer's first instrument) in this superbly executed set, unlikely to be equalled very soon." Sunday Times, 6th July 2008 ****


"Following his successful recording of Bowen' Concerto, Lawrence Power turns to this repertoire with similar technical ease, and persuasively idiomatic tempo inflections and portamenti (slides)." BBC Music Magazine, August 2008 *****


"…the performances could hardly more glowing. Bowen's writing for both instruments is more than demanding yet nothing detracts from Lawrence Power's and Simon Crawford-Phillips's enviable fluency and achievement." Gramophone Magazine, September 2008


Reviews :


Reviewed: Gramophone 9/2008, Bryce Morrison


Hyperion hit a jackpot double in this revival of Bowen's well crafted music


Charles Koechlin once claimed that 'the viola would have to be invented for the Adagio from Faure's Second Piano Quartet if it did not already exist'. To an even greater extent its non-existence is inconceivable when you listen to Hyperion's superb two-disc set of York Bowen's complete works for viola and piano, including four first recordings. Inspired by the incomparable Lionel Tertis, his friend and colleague at the Royal Academy of Music, Bowen wrote music for that instrument of such richness and fantasy that its long neglect is one of music's saddest mysteries. True, Bowen's delight in resurrecting the glamour of the past and archaisms too long uncherished, sat uneasily with the engulfing modernism of his age. Bowen, like Medtner, had little wish to move with the times, and yet if his music is endearingly old-fashioned it is also full of surprises and of a harmonic language and idiom peculiarly his own. Only a puritan could fail to respond to Bowen's warmth and exquisite craftsmanship in, for example the Fantasia, two Romances and the two Melodies where his sense of elegy takes on a double meaning: the aftermath of the war and the loss of what he saw as the departure of civilised creativity.


Both CDs are beautifully planned, opening with sizeable sonatas and continuing with shorter works before ending with more large-scale offerings, and the performances could hardly be more glowing. Bowen's writing for both instruments is more than demanding yet nothing detracts from Lawrence Power's and Simon Crawford-Phillips's enviable fluency and achievement. Once again Hyperion has hit the jackpot in a much-needed revival and the sound and balance are exemplary.


Also :


audad.com : Peter Joelson - Published on July 18, 2008


YORK BOWEN: The Complete Works for Viola & Piano = Viola Sonata No 1 in C minor, Op. 18; Romance in D flat major; Fantasia for four violas, Op. 41 No 1 (with Philip Dukes, James Boyd, & Scott Dickinson); Piano Sonata No 14 in C sharp minor 'Moonlight', Op. 27 No 2 (1: Adagio sostenuto) Beethoven arr. Bowen; Phantasy in F major, Op. 54; Viola Sonata No 2 in F major, Op. 22; Romance in A major; Allegro de concert; Melody for the G string, Op. 47; Melody for the C string, Op. 51 No 2 – Rhapsody in G minor – Lawrence Power, viola/ Simon Crawford-Phillips, piano - Hyperion CDA67651/2 (2 CDs), 121:13 total ***** [Distr. by Harmonia mundi]:


York Bowen (1884-1961) was a contemporary of Arnold Bax, Benjamin Dale and Montague Phillips at the Royal Academy of Music at the turn of the 20th century. While interest in Bax’s music has been continuous, only in recent years have Bowen, Dale and Phillips had their music re-examined. Bowen was a very fine pianist, organist, horn and viola player, this last due to the presence of the great Lionel Tertis on the RAM staff.


Tertis was very keen for the viola to be heard as a solo instrument and influenced and encouraged contemporary composers, especially those mentioned above, to add to the repertoire. Hyperion’s issue of Bowen’s music for piano (CDA66838) certainly helped to rekindle interest in this composer, and now we have his complete works for viola and piano on a 2-CD set.


Bowen was so highly thought of in his younger years he was described as “The English Rachmaninov” and was well regarded by Saint-Saens and Sorabji; he wrote for Dennis Brain, Beatrice Harrison (she who performed Elgar’s cello concerto under Elgar), Leon Goossens and Carl Dolmetsch among others, and made the first recording of Beethoven’s fourth piano concerto. His writing remained romantic and fell out of fashion by the 1920s; he didn’t revolutionise his composing in the manner Bridge did with his adventurous piano sonata.


The two sonatas presented here are substantial works and deserve to stand alongside Elgar’s and Delius’ violin sonatas. Bowen was a mere 20 years old when he wrote the first, and the second followed very soon afterwards in 1906. Both were received very well indeed, Tertis describing the first as “vivacious and light-hearted”, the second making even more virtuoso demands on the viola player. The piano parts, too, are beautifully written, and are very far from being mere accompaniments.


The collection includes the first movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata with viola obbligato, possibly a student piece, and completed by Lawrence Power. The single movement works range from short salon pieces to the quite substantial Phantasy and Rhapsody which end each CD. Of great interest is the piece written for an ensemble of violas, the Fantasia for Four Violas; composed in 1907 It was first performed by Tertis and his pupils, including Eric Coates playing second viola. The sound is quite delicious, the piece quite delightful. Benjamin Dale, Bowen’s friend and contemporary, and an internee at the Ruhleben, Berlin with Edgar Bainton and Ernest MacMillan for the whole of the First World War, also wrote for viola ensemble, an Introduction and Andante for six violas. Not included in this collection are two pieces, the Fantasia for viola and organ, and Poem for viola, harp and organ, which it is hoped will appear at some stage soon.


Lawrence Power, surely one of the finest viola players of today, and Simon Crawford-Phillips play magnificently and as one in this excellent survey of Bowen’s works for viola and piano. Hyperion’s recording, made at Potton Hall, is outstanding, and the set is recommended without reservation.


And :


www.classicalsource.com : Chris Caspell


While British music of the first half of the twentieth-century was dominated by the likes of Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst, there is a wealth of excellent music that sprung from lesser-known composers. Londoner York Bowen (1884-1961) was a student-contemporary of Arnold Bax at the Royal College of Music and notable as a pianist and violist as well as a composer. He studied composition with Frederick Corder, whose reflective compositional idiom is evident in his pupil's melodic style. The viola sonatas that open each of Hyperion's discs were completed within a year of each other, in 1905 and 1906, while Bowen was still a student. From the outset the formal influences of Brahms and Beethoven are not far from the composer's mind; a strict sonata structure forms the basis of the First Sonata's opening movement. The excellent booklet note of Lewis Foreman refers to Bowen as a "fresh breeze blowing through British music", an understandable comment even if the music is firmly seated in the Romantic tradition. Music for multiples of the same instrument is not all that common and is often written for a particular group of musicians available at given time. The violist Lionel Tertis, for whom Bowen was a regular accompanist, championed music for his instrument, including viola ensembles. Later Bowen did too, believing the viola's tonal quality to be superior to that of the violin. Fantasia for four violas was composed for Tertis and his pupils in 1907. Here Philip Dukes, James Boyd and Scott Dickinson join Lawrence Power in this delightful 10-minute piece that is more Impressionistic than the broadly contemporaneous sonatas. In this recording the players are clear and distinctly placed for a clean and uncluttered rendition of a luscious and beautiful work alone worth buying the discs for. The other works are much in the same vein, each delightful, and showing Bowen to be a composer with an individual voice. An interesting curio of is Bowen's viola 'accompaniment' to the first movement of Beethoven's 'Moonlight' Sonata. Bowen wrote the first 57 bars as an exercise for his teacher who encouraged pupils to write such 'accompaniments'. Lawrence Power has completed it in a similar manner. The only piece here that dates from Bowen's later years is the Rhapsody in G minor (1955). It was written for Maurice Loban, one of a succession of sonatas for the various instruments written by Bowen in the 1940s and 1950s. It is in one continuous movement and is stylistically more advanced than his earlier music, though still very much in a diatonic style. The duo of Lawrence Power and Simon Crawford-Phillips make light work of Bowen's not-insubstantial piano and viola writing (Bowen was an accomplished pianist and made the first-ever recording of Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto). The players are closely balanced so that every nuance of their performances is audible, including breathing! The latter shouldn't cause a problem and adds to the intimacy. All in all, this excellent production brings to life a particular output of a composer who, worthily, is generating more and more interest.


See Further : Here


More infos about York Bowen : Here


More infos about Lawrence Power : Here


More infos About Simon Crawford-Phillips : Here


More about this album and to listen to samples : Here


Tracklist :
CD: 2-2 : York Bowen: The Complete Worls for Viola & Piano - Lawrence Power, Simon Crawford-Phillips - 2008.


01. Viola Sonata No1 In C minor, Op. 18 - 1. Allegro Moderato [0:10:24.61]
02. 2. Poco Lento E Cantabile [0:07:31.09]
03. 3. Finale: Presto - Allegro Molto [0:07:55.68]
04. Romance In D Flat major* [0:06:32.25]
05. Fantasia For 4 Violas, Op. 41/1 [0:09:47.41]
06. (Beethoven) Piano Sonata In C Sharp Minor, Op. 27/2, 'Moonlight' - 1. Adagio Sostenuto* [0:05:46.31]
07. Phantasy In F, Op. 54 [0:13:39.15]


*first recordings



Tracklist :


CD: 2-2 : Lawrence Power, Simon Crawford-Phillips - York Bowen: The Complete Works for Viola & Piano - 2008.


01. Viola Sonata No.2 In F major Op. 22 - 1. Allegro Assai [0:10:35.21]
02. 2. Grave - Allegro - Tempo I - Tranquillo [0:08:45.06]
03. 3. Finale: Allegro Giocoso [0:06:25.59]
04. Romance In A major* [0:05:58.04]
05. Allegro De Concert in D minor* [0:07:57.58]
06. Melody For The G String, Op. 47 in G flat major [0:03:55.28]
07. Melody For The C String, Op. 51/2 in F major [0:03:50.51]
08. Rhapsody In G Minor [0:13:25.69]

*first recordings


Happy Listening!