Output details

English Recorder Works. CD Recording of works for recorder and piano. Jill Kemp (recorder); Aleksander Szram (piano).

This CD is the first recording of two works by Malcolm Arnold, and the most accurate recording of works by York Bowen, Lennox Berkeley and Edmund Rubbra (all commissioned by Arnold Dolmetsch) benefiting from the study of manuscripts held at the Dolmetsch Collection and correspondence identified by Andrew Mayes. Several markings missing from printed editions were incorporated into these performances, making this an important document in terms of historically-informed performance. This recording was inspired by the Dolmetsch Centenary in 2011, which prompted a re-examination of the existing performance practice around these works and their discography, which subsequently revealed the need for a new authoratitive recording that rigorously examined available source material. This research was presented at the Arnold Dolmetsch Conference, held at Birmingham Conservatoire in October 2011. This studio recording locates itself in relation to other recordings of the repertoire by Piers Adams/ Julian Rhodes, Colin Savage/Alayne Hall, Ross Winters/Andrew Ball. The new edition of Andrew Mayes’ book, “Carl Dolmetsch and the Recorder Repertoire of the 20th Century”, identifies this CD as the recommended recording of the featured works. My role in this project was to jointly research the archival sources with Jill Kemp, to rehearse/perform/record the repertoire as pianist, and subsequently help edit the recording. Archival research revealed a number of wrong notes in the printed editions of the Lennox Berkeley Sonatina and York Bowen Sonata op.121. Correspondence between Rubbra and Dolmetsch drew attention to metronome mark indications by Rubbra in the Meditazioni Sopra ‘Couers Désolés’, op.67 that had hitherto been dismissed by recording artists. Correspondence with Michala Petri, the dedicatee of the Malcolm Arnold Fantasy for Recorder and String Quartet, elucidated inconsistencies in the facsimile score. This information has led to new and original interpretations of the featured works.