More Tovey from Guild

[Alan Howe]

The Tovey renaissance continues. Forthcoming from Guild are his Piano Trio, Op.27, Sonata Eroica for solo violin and Piano Quartet, Op.12:

https://secure.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/pages/product/product.asp?ctlg=MDT&prod=GMCD7352

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Splendid news. But I hope that if Guild romp ahead with the chamber music then this will not jeopardise the prospects for Toccata's promised series of chamber music CDs. The disc announced as 'Volume 1' containing the B minor and C minor Piano Trios was a wonderful disc, and I've been keeping fingers tightly crossed that soon we might have Volume 2....

Toccata was pipped to the post by Dutton with Algernon Ashton, which was unfortunate since the Toccata performances (and recordings and accompanying notes) seemed to me very fine indeed and were in fact recorded first. I'm rather fearful that parallel series of Ashton or Tovey might not thrive in the current market. I hope I'm wrong.

Peter

[Mark Thomas]

This is indeed good news. Tovey may be another composer whose true metier is chamber music. I know that many people praise the Symphony and the Piano and Cello Concertos but I find them worthy but overlong for their material. The String Quartet pieces on the other hand sparkle with invention, even if they could do with a bit less moderato.

[Alan Howe]

I've just got round to buying this CD - and it contains some lovely music, none more so than the rhapsodic slow movement of the Piano Trio, Op.27. It's hard not to conlude that Tovey's best work is to be found in his chamber music...

[semloh]

That's a well picked-up thread, Alan - seven years down the track!

I find Tovey's chamber music especially enjoyable. The String Quartet in G major is indeed a delight, and (to my ears, at least) something of a paean, albeit a reserved one and as you say, Mark, perhaps rather too consistently moderato, to Haydn. I don't know if that would have been a conscious process or if Tovey was just inevitably reflecting his love of the master. If the Piano Trio is as good, then this is another item for the wants list.

[dhibbard]

Was this written before 1918?

[eschiss1]

Well, unless Tovey had a time machine, yes. It was published in 1913.

That took about 3 seconds to find out...

(MusicWeb claims the G major quartet was composed in 1909, so rather substantially earlier than 1913 than 1918, besides.)

Most of his post-1918 music goes along the same general lines, mind, so far as I know. (Eg the almost-an-hour-long cello concerto Op.40 of 1932-33, I gather, though there's only 2 recordings of that, one of them quite recent: 1976 with Casals, 2006 with Neary.) (Note that even his Op.32 symphony is still a pre-1918 work- 1913 (revised in 1923).)

[Alan Howe]

Was this written before 1918?

Was that a serious question?