Malcolm Williamson Organ & Piano No. 3 in E Flat Concertos Vinyl LP Record VG+

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Malcolm Williamson Organ & Piano No. 3 in E Flat Concertos Vinyl LP Record VG+ Record Grade per Goldmine Standard: VG+ MALCOLM WILLIAMSONConcerto for Organ and Orchestra (1961)MALCOLM WILLIAMSON, at the organ of Guildford Cathedral (Rushworth & Dreaper)LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA (leader Rodney Friend) conducted by SIR ADRIAN BOULTPiano Concerto No. 3 in E flat (1962)MALCOLM WILLIAMSON piano with the LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA(leader Rodney Friend) conducted by LEONARD DOMMETTSIDE ONEOrgan Concerto1st Movement:Andante quasi recitativo—Allegro2nd Movement: Largo sostenuto3rd Movement: Cadenza-AllegroSIDE TWOPiano Concerto No. 3 in E flat1st Movement: Allegro (Toccata)2nd Movement: Allegro (Allegretto) (Scherzo)3rd Movement:Motto largo e cantando4th Movement:Ben AllegroExcept for my violin concerto, all my concerto-type workswere written between 1957 and 1962. The first piano con-certo appeared at Cheltenham in 1958 and travelled to theAlbert Hall for the 1959 Proms. The critical censure that itreceived caused me to draw into myself and to write a Sin-fonia Concertante with solo piano, trumpet trio and stringorchestra. This 12-minute work was fully two years in thewriting and the problems of the concerto style were at thefront of my mind during that period. By chance I heard of acompetition in Western Australia at the end of 1960 for aconcerto for piano and strings, and the labour pains of theSinfonia Concertante generated the impulse to write in someeight days a work which won this competition and came tobe my second piano concerto. The next year I had to set asidethe Sinfonia Concertante once again. Sir William Glock hadinvited me to write an organ concerto for the Proms and theAustralian Broadcasting Commission asked for a full-scalepiano concerto, the third. The organ concerto was a labour oflove. It was written in honour of Sir Adrian Boult, who con-ducted the first performance. The first performance of thethird piano concerto was given by John Ogdon with theSydney Symphony Orchestra under Joseph Post, and Idecided to dedicate the work to this astonishing and finepianist. Sir Adrian Boult in Europe and Leonard Dommett inAustralia have guided me as soloist through performancesof both concerti.Concerto for Organ and OrchestraThe three movements of the Organ Concerto use differ-ently constituted orchestral forces. In the first movementonly four violas and two double basses use their bows, therest of the string orchestra playing pizzicato. Brass, harpsand percussion have jagged non-symmetrical utteranceswhich pile up contrapuntally. In the slow movement stringsalone play with the soloist—six violins, four cellos and twobasses form contrasted choirs against a unison line for theremaining strings. The third and last movement, using thefull orchestral forces, gives the woodwind more independentplay.Limitations imposed on a composer can help to liberatehis imagination. The Organ Concerto was in my mind a tokenof admiration to its dedicatee, Sir Adrian Boult, who con-ducted the first performance. The thematic germ consists ofthe notes ACB and the movements are in the keys of A, C andB, if in music at once modal and serial, one can speak of keys.This was one benign limitation. A second was a circum-stance arising from a conversation in a railway carriage withLady Boult. She told me that the Boult household had beenbeset with works in which time signatures changed every barand she implored me when writing the Concerto to imposestrict metric limitations on myself. This I did with the resultthat rhythmic variety was established by the use of crossrhythms, and even more in the creation of phrases which Iknew would be conducted with such rhythmic flexibility thatany lack of startling novelty would be compensated. It islikely after all that when a composer notates a movement inone unchanging time signature, he will do so hoping thatmusical flexibility from the performer will mean that no twobars will be exactly the same length.The first movement opens with a cadenza on the notesACB for the timpani with a supportive bass drum behind itand harps and organ punctuating with tiny motifs. The brassbegin the main allegro section with eruptive clashing chordsand a savage dance has begun. The massive organ is used asanother department of the sound spectrum. The slowmovement is in more traditional sonata form with long stringlines bringing relief from the previous movement's play ofcolours and rhythms. An organ cadenza leads into the lastmovement. My motive in writing a cadenza was less a wishfor the organist to show off than a desire to balance the finalmovement with the first. Every division of the organ is usedhere and the organist can demonstrate some rapid manual-changing and pedal-playing. The final allegro is again explo-sive but in drawing together the materials and the colours ofearlier parts of the Concerto and crowning the summit with along, sustained melody on the notes ACB, it presents anoptimistic and affirmative solution.The first performance was received with enthusiasticabuse by the more conservative elements of the Britishorgan world for being too venturesome, by Baroqueenthusiasts for its use of the romantic organ, and by somecritics for not being sufficiently venturesome. It recovered.Piano Concerto No. 3 in E fiatMy third and largest piano concerto was cast in fourmovements not out of adoration for Brahms (although he is acomposer of whom I am very fond) but because I wished toavoid scherzo-like figurations in the first and last move-ments, making them rather muscular and lyrical, andbecause a substantial slow movement required formal bal-ance if it were not to up-end its neighbours.All the thematic material arises from the idea of the perfectfifth and a selection of the intervallic relationships that can liewithin it, like a five-barred gate at the entrance to a field.The first movement begins with the principal theme inclustrous bell chords on the solo piano being bounced on abed of strings and horns. The theme splinters and reconsti-tutes itself as a lyrical second theme first played by theclarinet, next by the piano and then in fragments across theorchestra. I called the movement Toccata because of thevaried kinds of keyboard touch required by the soloist andbecause of the motoric rhythms which have come to beassociated with the toccata character.The scherzo is in four sections. The first is a flowingmelody that climbs like a vine which never ends but keepswinding, twisting and dividing itself into contrapuntaloffshoots; the second a menacing and relentless dance in10/16 with internal metric syncopations; the third a resump-tion of the first; and the fourth the apotheosis where all theelements meet and are hammered to a brutal climax. Bothmetrically and rhythmically this music is of considerablecompleteness of a Lied shape but the abrupt brass phrasesof writing without destroying the total musical identity.The slow third movement never moves from a basic 3/2time signature. The piano plays a quiet cantilena which isthen taken up by the bass clarinet and cellos. It has thecompleteness of a lied shape but the abrupt brass phrasesshatterthe tranquillity ofthe mood and open the way to moresymphonic development. In an emotional way I wasconcerned with juxtaposing grief and serenity. Thisis epitomised in the cadenza, the only one in the work.Serenity vanquishes grief in the last section which followsthe cadenza.As much as the slow movement is introspective, the finaleis extrovert. Tears have gone, the curtained privacy of theslow movement is shattered with the Caribbean sunlight,and the tonal colours and rhythms of the first movementreturn as the piano engages a more buoyant orchestra in acombative dance.MALCOLM WILLIAMSON LP454

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End Time: 2024-10-28T10:34:02.000Z

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