English Music for Viola: Rebecca Clarke, Britten & Vaughan Williams
2/16/2024, 12 Tracks, 1:06:50
Featuring
Paul Coletti
Leslie Howard
Benjamin Britten
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Rebecca Clarke
Percy Grainger
Sir Arnold Bax
Frank Bridge
Did you know?
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Critical Reception
Rebecca Clarke's Viola Sonata, entered under a male pseudonym, impressed the judges of the Coolidge Competition so much that they demanded to know the composer's identity, leading to her overnight fame.
Historical Context
The viola's sound quality, often associated with mournful and elegiac music, is linked to an early 20th-century English aesthetic known as 'fin de siècle heart-on-the-sleeve'.
Composer Biography
Rebecca Clarke, a composer whose music is being rediscovered, was initially removed from the Royal Academy of Music after receiving a marriage proposal from her harmony professor.
Performer Biography
Paul Coletti, the violist on this album, was described by Sir Yehudi Menuhin as 'an outstanding violist with a most beautiful tone, and a first-rate musician!' when Coletti was a teenager.
Performer Biography
Leslie Howard, the pianist on this album, has recorded the complete solo piano music of Franz Liszt on 95 CDs, which is the largest project ever undertaken by a solo pianist.
Composer Biography
Rebecca Clarke was Sir Charles Villiers Stanford's first female pupil at the Royal College of Music, and he persuaded her to take up the viola.
Composition History
Rebecca Clarke's early works like Morpheus and Lullabies were often published under the pseudonym 'Anthony Trent' because women composers were regarded with suspicion at the time.
