Scott - Piano Trios nos.1 & 2, Cornish Boat Song, Clarinet Quintet, Clarinet Trio
Plane; Cooper; Adams; Gould Piano Trio
Chandos CHAN10575

Release date January 2010

Released this month on Chandos is a disc of chamber music by Liverpool-born composer Cyril Scott. Four of the five works presented here are premiere recordings and it was the truly refreshing nature of this music that first caught my attention. Piano Trio no.1 dates from 1920 and is the earliest work of the five. It is evident from the first few bars that Scott’s writing is quietly unique. Though conventional in form, the trio’s sound world is diverse, the expansive textures of the first movement giving way to the busier bustle of the second, and the atmospheric Andante Sostenuto opening of the third subtly captured by the superb Gould Trio. The Trio from 1955 for clarinet, cello and piano follows this. Its second movement is extraordinarily spacious yet retains an assured intensity which is developed in the third and final movement. The Clarinet Quintet, a one-movement work, dates from 1951 and was almost certainly inspired by the playing of French clarinettist Gervase de Peyer who gave the first performance of it that year (though the work was later revised). From its gutsy and rather dramatic introduction the scene is set for a rather mysterious musical journey. Constant shifts in metre and a generous helping of rubato bring us from Grave, maestoso e poco rubato to a conclusive Giubilante via a cornucopia of interwoven textures and melodic ideas. Plane is a player of exceptional finesse with an uncanny ability to blend his sound with that of the strings, and at times it hard to discern the clarinet from the rest of the ensemble. Piano Trio no. 2 was published in 1951 and is also a single movement work and similar in nature to the Clarinet Quintet. Cornish Boat Song, a quirky folk-like miniature for violin, cello and piano concludes this altogether aurally up-lifting and inspiring disc.

Reviewed by Dawn Cooke